Soppressata & Peach Salad

When Charlie and I went to The Brisol, we not only had THE monkey bread, but we also had their Soppressata & Peach Salad.  It had my name all over it.  Salty, sweet, savory, tart.  All things I enjoy in life.  I love prosciutto and cantaloupe, but this might be my new fav.  Scratch that.  This is TOTALLY my new fav. 

The peaches are important.  If you can get them at a farmers market, all the better.  They are still in season in Chicago now, but I can't imagine they will be for much longer. SO LOAD UP on your peaches n' soppresata people. 

The salad is fairly easy.  Just fold some presliced soppresata and lay them against the sliced peach wedges.  Spoon a little goat cheese (I used honey goat cheese) randomly on your platter.  Sprinkle with fresh greens like arugula and some marcona almonds for a salty crunch.  Drizzle with a little balsamic glaze and extra virgin olive oil.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm kay.

I went back to the fridge to make myself a little plate while typing this. 

Stay hungry! 

Baby Shower Love & Advice Letters

Here's a great baby shower "game" or idea for a new mom.  When my mother sent out invites to my baby shower back in February, she asked guests to bring a note for me that would be sent after the baby was born.  Many of my sweet guests brought letters to the shower and there was also extra stationery there for some last-minute notes.  My mom stamped and addressed the letters and, in the months following baby Will's birth, popped them in the mail periodically so I was receiving consistent letters of love, advice, and encouragement.

There was a period after Will was born where "leaving the house" meant "walking to the mailbox" and excitedly opening the wonderful letters that came every week or so.  Because new motherhood feels isolating to begin with (long nights, odd hours, crazy hormones) and my house in the sticks made me feel even more isolated, it was so great to open up handwritten words of encouragement that came via snail mail.

Words of advice and anecdotes from experienced moms, memories and jokes from old friends, and even a poem filled up my mailbox until a few weeks ago when I received one last handwritten note from my mom letting me know that we had reached the end.  I've saved all of the sweet notes and can't get over how much of a difference it made to read these kind words during one of the most hectic, tiring, and wonderful times of my life.

Thanks, Mom, for coordinating this and thanks, ladies, for all of your letters!

Super Green Smoothie

After I ate about 19 dough balls on Sunday, I decided I needed a little detox.  I was chatting about kale recipes a few weeks ago with my manager, Ross, and he shared a smoothie he makes with avocado, kale and mango.  I decided to do something similar, minus the avocado.  I LOVE the smoothie with avocado, but this is my favorite way of making it - it's so refreshing. 

Enter kale, mango, and pineapple smoothie.  This is delicious.  If you are craving something that will make you feel healthy from the inside out, this is the way to go.  If your fruit is very ripe, you won't need to sweeten it.  If you do, add a half a teaspoon or so of agave nectar.  A little goes a long way. Seriously - I crave these and can totally tell when I haven't had one in awhile.  

Super Green Smoothie Recipe 

2 Big Handfuls of Raw, Roughly Chopped Kale

1/4 Cup of Fresh Mango

1/4 Cup of Fresh Pineapple 

1/4 Cup of Water 

Handful of Ice 

Blend all of the ingredients together until smooth.  Serve immediately and enjoy.

Stay healthy! :)

Use Up That Zucchini

Jaisa mostly handles the food-related posts around here, but on a homey front, my garden is OUT OF CONTROL.  Squash galore.  I let things grow a little too long.  My zucchini could double as baseball bats.  Here are two that came in with this morning's harvest:

I've been scouring the web for tasty looking zucchini recipes that'll use up these giants without making it feel like we're eating the same dish meal after meal.  Here's a collection of delicious, varied zucchini recipes that'll help you finish off your garden bounty or farmers' market haul.

1) Chocolate Chip Banana Zucchini Bread

via Grey Luster Girl

This recipe from Grey Luster Girl combines my love of banana bread (one day, I'll share my grandmother's delicious recipe) and chocolate chips with my need to get this zucchini off my counter.  I'm planning on baking this up (along with some mushy bananas) sometime this week for a tasty snack to have around the house.

2)  Baked Zucchini Chips

via The Boot

How delicious do these look?  Check out the recipe.  I will definitely be adding the red pepper flakes for a bit of spice!

3) Zucchini Brownies

via Movita Beaucoup

I have to admit, I'm a bit skeptical here.  These look so decadent, but they're made with zucchini.  Jessica Seinfield I am not.  I like my brownies made like brownies.  But the recipe looks legit and the pictures make me want to eat them right up.  I'll need to give it a shot.

4) Goat Cheese & Zucchini Tartlets

These make me wish I were hosting a swanky brunch sometime soon.  Maybe I am.  Can you come over on Sunday?

Anybody else have some zucchini recipes to share?  Any suggestions on what to do with these beasts (besides pick them earlier)??  Let me know and stay hungry!

Savory Dill Monkey Bread

Dude.  This bread.  I can't even. I mean. I don't even know what to say about this.  IT'S SO GOOD. 

Charlie and I went to a restaurant called The Bristol this weekend.  It was absolutely amazing from start to finish but our favorite part, without a doubt, was their ridiculous Savory Dill Monkey Bread.  I hopped online as soon as we got home, and found the EXACT recipe from Food Swoon.  Thanks Food Swoon.  You're my new fav blog. 

Since I don't bake, I wanted to take some major shortcuts but Charlie encouraged me to make it from scratch.  Actually, he baked this entire thing.  I just annoyingly hovered around the kitchen. 

Start by dissolving the yeast in some warm water and sugar.  

After about ten minutes, it looks like this.  All bubbly and what not.


Next, whisk together the salt and bread flour.  (PS - I typed "whisky" three times there).  Oopsies.

Next, using your bread attachment on your stand mixer, add the egg, melted butter, milk and fresh dilly dill.
Yummmm. Let it mix on medium until the dough pulls away completed from the sides.

Knead gently and place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Place it somewhere warm to proof for about 30 mins.  Our microwave is usually warm from the oven being on, so I popped it in there.

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

While the dough is proofing, go ahead and make your dill butta.

Next, roll 1 inch dough balls.  I didn't count how many and we both rolled them, so they were different sizes but it totes doesn't matter.

Dip the dough into the melted dill butter then add the dough ballllzzz into different types of containers.  Ramekins work well, but really you can put them in anything.  Just remember that they will puff up from the second proofing and from baking.

Proof them again for another 20 mins then brush again with the butter and finish with a sprinkle of kosher salt on top. Bake at 375 until golden brown. Ours baked for about 16 mins, but check them at 12 mins or so. Brush them with the remaining butter throughout the baking process, about every 4 mins or so. 

Here is the exact recipe from Food Swoon.  Thanks again for tracking down this amazing Chicago restaurant recipe!!

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons warm water (about 110-115 degrees)
1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 ¼ cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh dill, torn into small pieces
8 tablespoons melted butter (6 tablespoons for the dill butter, 2 tablespoons for brushing during baking)
2 tablespoons fresh dill, torn into small pieces
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

Make the Yeast: Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a small mixing bowl. Set aside for ten minutes at room temperature to allow the yeast to proof. You should see bubbles forming at the surface.

Make the Dough: Whisk the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Attach the dough hook and slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour, followed by the milk, egg, 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 2 tablespoons of dill. Mix on medium speed just until the dough releases from the side of the bowl, then knead dough lightly with your hands. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

Make the Dill Butter: While the bread is rising, stir two tablespoons of dill into six tablespoons of melted butter. Set aside.

Assemble the Monkey Bread: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. After the dough has risen, punch it down and roll into 1-inch balls. (Pandel says his recipe makes 56 dough balls but I have never gotten that many. I get about 40, so I must make mine slightly bigger.)

Roll each ball in the dill butter and place the balls in individual ramekins. I generally use 1-cup ramekins and place about 7-8 in each one. They will rise before baking and again in the oven, so don’t overfill your ramekins.

Allow the monkey bread to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Brush the bread again with the dill butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for approximately 12 minutes, brushing twice throughout the baking with the remaining two tablespoons of melted butter. (Bread should feel very soft and springy when done.)

Stay Hungry! 

Apple Recipes

I don't know what it is, but the second I get the slightest chill in the air, I start to think about apples.  Goodbye s'mores, goodbye BBQs, hello cozy fires and freshly picked apple pies.  I went on a little adventure and found the following drool to the face recipes.  I'll be trying some of these out soon.  HOLLA.

1.  Apple Pie Dip from Mother Thyme.  Looks SO yummy and is such a cool little fall dip. 



2.  Deep Fried Apple Pie Bites.  MMMMMM Kayyyyyy.  Be a little more delicious looking.



3. Caramel Cheesecake Apple Blondies.  I can get behind this.




4. Smoked Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Granny Smith Apple & Dijon Mustard.  DUDE.  You know I had to throw something cheesy in here. I literally can not look at this pic without drooling. Oh my Gouda.



5. Paleo Apple Cinnamon Pancakes.  Just to round out our balanced diet, I thought I'd throw in a delicious looking paleo recipe too.



 Stay hungry!

I Want to Love: NatureBox

I'd been hearing a lot about NatureBox around the blogosphere and decided to give it a try.  It's a subscription based box-a-month all natural snack company and I signed up back in March because I figured it would be perfect for us to always have new snacks on hand with the baby around.  

Six months later, I'm still a subscriber but there are some ups & downs I've experienced since starting.  I do love receiving a box each month with seasonal snacks (you can see that each NatureBox includes a sheet that outlines this month's treats):

Every NatureBox has 5 snacks a month.  Usually there's some sort of cnacker, a fruit or veggie based snack, something sweet, and almost always some granola.  I LOVED this month's chia seed crackers which were crunchy and almost buttery tasting (despite being vegan).

The back of the packages include nutrition facts, obviously (no wonder these tasted so good) and an idea on how to use the snacks (in this case, with hummus or guac).

Here's where the "I want to love NatureBox" comes in.  In each box, there's usually a snack I love and then a few that I don't.  NatureBox has been stating in the "My Account" section for months that I'll have the chance to personalize my box soon.  I check in on this often and I'm still not able to choose my own snacks.

I'm not ready to cancel yet since, like I said, I do usually like some of the snacks.  But unfortunately, I find some really bland.  These "salted caramel pretzel pops" below sound like something that I would LOVE but I found them dry and tasteless.  Definitely not worth the calories or the subscription price.

I do love the frequent granola, though.  Jesse & I eat a lot of granola with greek yogurt and it's nice to have new flavors monthly to try out.  This month's "cranberry macaroon granola" was perfect with fruity Chobani flavors and tasty enough to snack on solo.

So the jury is still out for me & NatureBox.  I'm waiting for them to let me customize some of my own snacks.  While I like the surprise of opening up the box each month, I'd like to make sure a few of my preferred items are in there along with the wildcards.

If you're interested in trying NatureBox, you can get 50% off of your first order here.  Let me know what you think and stay hungry!