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A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

Roasted caprese pasta salad.

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roasted caprese pasta salad

Is there anything better than fresh caprese in the summer? The sunshine-filled tomatoes almost melt into the fresh mozzarella, while the basil gives it that distinct summer punch. It’s the quintessential summer dish that is oh so missed during the long winter months.

Look, tomatoes outside of summer can be pretty, um, bland. Roasted up with some olive oil, garlic, oregano, dab of honey, salt & pepper? Well, you’ve got yourself some pretty darn good flavors going on.

Toss the whole tray of roasted tomatoes, juices included, with some fresh pasta, mozzarella, and basil, and what you’re left with is this roasted caprese pasta salad, a very pretty and delicious meal. Huge bonus that can be enjoyed in the dead of winter… or summer!

Roasted Caprese Salad
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Ingredients
  1. 1 pound red and/or yellow grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
  2. 2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
  3. 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  4. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  5. TBS honey
  6. 1/4 cup olive oil
  7. 1 16 ounce package dried rotini pasta
  8. 1/3 cup olive oil
  9. 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  10. 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
  11. 8 ounces small fresh mozzarella balls or cubed fresh mozzarella (cut into smaller chunks if preferred)
  12. 1/2 cup basil, torn
  13. salt & pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Arrange tomato halves, cut sides up, in a foil-lined 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with oregano, garlic, and salt; drizzle with the 1/4 cup olive oil. Roast tomatoes, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown and shriveled. Set aside.
  2. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package directions; drain. In a large bowl whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil, the vinegar, and pepper. Add warm pasta to bowl; toss to coat. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the tomatoes and any drippings from the pan, the mozzarella, and basil to the pasta. Toss while warm to combine. Top with salt & pepper. Serve at room temperature.
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Stunning carrots.

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honey & thyme roasted carrots

Quick! Need a gorgeous side for dinner or a killer addition to a lovely antipasto platter, or just a nice snack to have around?

Well how pretty are these little carrots.  Stunning, really. 

Make sure you grab the tri-colored carrots, if your store offers them. The varying colors are so pretty! Simply chop up and toss with a few tablespoons of olive oil, a heaping tablespoon of honey, some chopped up fresh thyme, and salt and pepper. Roast away for 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

You just made your kitchen so much prettier. And oh how easy it was.

P.S. I ate the leftovers straight from the fridge – so good!

Chopped Thai Salad.

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Chopped Thai Salad

Something pretty spectacular happened the other night.
 
To start, we had Becky, Tyler, and their brand new baby Will over. Yippee! This was awesome for many reasons; most of which is that the three cousins finally got to hang.

photo-1257
 
See? Cuteness overload. Also, oh my goodness L is massive. Holding a newborn completely magnifies that, wow. My baby! 
 
Anyway, secondly, Aunt C joined us, which always makes everything more fun, including baseball in the mud. Oh and did I mention it was 64 degrees?
 
Happy. Dance.
 
That meant a slight nod to summer entertaining, which of course meant chilled sauvignon blanc, the best grilled chicken ever on the grill, skillet potatoes roasting away in the oven, and this over the top chopped thai salad.
 
You guys. It’s pretty. It’s healthy (baby kale! carrots! edamame! red pepper! yellow pepper! etc!). The zippy dressing… it’s just so good. The serving size I made was for 8-12 people, but between 4 of us it was gone. Granted the Glantz crew (including in-laws!) are quite the, um, eaters but still. That’s saying something.
 
And that something is that this salad is perfection.
 
Chopped Thai Salad
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For the dressing
  1. ⅓ cup canola oil
  2. 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  3. 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  4. 2 tablespoons water
  5. 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
  6. 2 tablespoons honey
  7. 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  8. 1 tablespoon ginger paste
  9. a squeeze of lime juice
For the salad
  1. 16 ounces frozen shelled edamame (I actually bought pre cooked edamame from TJ's to save step)
  2. 5-6 cups baby kale, chopped
  3. 3 large carrots, cut into thin sticks
  4. 2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 yellow), cut into thin sticks
  5. 1 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
  6. ¾ cup cashews, roughly chopped (if you can find them, go with Trader Joe's Thai Lime and Chili Cashews!)
Instructions
  1. Blend dressing ingredients together and set aside.
  2. To arrange salad, place baby kale at the bottom of a large bowl. Add ingredients by sections on top (see photo below). I kept the salad this way, separate from the dressing, in the fridge until dinner was ready. Then, I simply tossed it all together and served.
Adapted from Pinch of Yum
Adapted from Pinch of Yum
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

photo-1258

Skillet Parmesan & Rosemary potatoes.

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skillet parmesan rosemary potatoes

There are dishes that come along that, man, I just don’t feel like there are words to describe. But I’m going to try here for you.

Melted butter – garlic – parmesan – rosemary – sea salt – skillet – soft – crunchy – browned.

Hear anything you like? I thought so.

These stunning potatoes have a slight nod to Pioneer Woman’s crack potatoes but in my opinion, exceed them. Because you know, butter and all that.

Get these skillet parmesan & rosemary potatoes on your table this week next to some grilled meat because, hey, it’s 50 degrees! Yippee. 

Skillet Parmesan & Rosemary Potatoes
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Ingredients
  1. 6 to 8 baby Yukon Gold potatoes, based on skillet size
  2. 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  3. 4 garlic cloves, minced
  4. 4 tablespoons finely minced herbs (I used simply rosemary)
  5. 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan (optional, but why not?)
  6. Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Very thinly slice potatoes most of the way through. I found slicing a piece off the bottom to give a 'base' was helpful.
  3. Melt butter and mix with rest of ingredients.
  4. Grease your skillet with some of the butter mixture and then give each potato a 'bath' in the butter, making sure to rub some down in the grooves. Be sure to reserve some though, for basting.
  5. Into the oven they go for one hour - baste every 15 minutes or so, if you can.
Adapted from Food 52
Adapted from Food 52
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Heaven.

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classic homemade bread

I’m convinced if you’re going to call yourself a good cook, there are things you should just know how to do. Baking the best chocolate chip cookies in the world is a great start. If you can do that, you’re on the right track. Then there’s a homemade chicken noodle soup, that’s important too. A killer marinara never hurts, and you’ll be everyone’s favorite person in the world if you can assemble a dish like these Grilled Caprese Baguettes in the summer (Pause to day dream with me, for just a moment). 

Yet there was that fickle thing tormenting me in the back of my mind. I’d hear about others doing it; I’d seen it on other blogs. The crusty warm golden perfection that is homemade bread. What was I so afraid of?

This was ridiculous. I can bake. So after a little prompting from my mom, I unearthed a recipe that yields a perfect round warmth of goodness from my very own red dutch oven. As if I needed another reason to madly love that thing more. Now it’s giving me and the boys homemade bread? Swoon.

Is it scary? No. Hard? No, not at all. In fact it was painfully easy. So easy I have a feeling this will be in our weekly repertoire. It’s the perfect thing to make when the temps outside make you want to cry. Slowly rip off a large heavenly chunk, dunk it in a soup, and winter just got a tad bit more tolerable. Oh, and hey – YOU just made homemade bread.

You so rock.

Classic Homemade Bread
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Ingredients
  1. 3 Cups bread Flour
  2. 1 tsp active dry yeast
  3. 1 tsp salt
  4. 1 1/2 Cup warm water (between 105 and 110 degrees)
Instructions
  1. Whisk flour and salt together in a 3-4 quart bowl with a tight lid. Pour dry yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 5 min.
  2. Next, pour water/yeast into flour and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is mixed well. The dough will be quite sticky and shaggy looking, but that's ok. Cover the bowl and set aside for 12 - 18 hours (up to 24).
  3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a cast iron dutch oven with the lid into the oven while preheating and heat the pot/lid for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape the risen dough from the bowl onto a heavily floured surface. Dough will be sticky.
  4. With floured hands, gently shape dough into a round loaf making sure there is enough flour on the surface so dough doesn't stick. Let the dough just sit there until your pot is preheated.
  5. Take the hot pot from the oven and gently place dough into pot. Cover with the lid and return to the oven and bake for 30 min. Remove the lid at that time and return the pot to the oven for another 10 - 15 min. Gently shake the loaf onto a cooling rack and enjoy.
  6. You made homemade bread!
A Life From Scratch. http://a-life-from-scratch.com/
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