find a recipe!

A Life From Scratch.

A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

A work of art.

/ By / 6 Comments

photo-1155

I don’t know about you,  but with November just around the corner I’ve become completely obsessed – it’s holiday time! Yippee! It’s going to get pretty festive around here, I hope that’s OK. Gift guides for everyone in your life, advice on what to wear to those killer holiday parties, and of course what to serve…

Enter this beauty.

If you follow me on Instagram (thank you!), you know I made these a little while back. So. Gorgeous. And festive, right? You can make them even more “holiday” by using all spinach tortellini which, by the way, is the only cooking required with these. Everything else you just spear on. 

I went with cherry tomatoes, garlic stuffed olives, a mix of prosciutto and salami, and of course marinated mozzarella cheese. 

Place on a big platter and right before serving sprinkle with some freshly minced oregano and pour on a drizzle of olive oil. So so merry, all the way.

Cheers!
C

Alone.

/ By / 13 Comments

Grilled Caprese Baguettes

I’m not alone often.

And I like to be alone. Really – I do. I like quiet. I like being able to think and create and dream. It’s a challenge for me to do that when there is a lot of noise, which is quite often. But this is the stage of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world yet given two free hours right before dinner time to be home… alone? To me, there isn’t a greater gift. M came home with the football scuffed boys to perhaps the happiest wife in the world.

I went to my garden and picked tomatoes.

I went to the store and picked up still warm from the oven ciabatta.

I strolled over to my neighbor’s and stole some basil (thanks, Tina!).

I massaged olive oil, freshly cracked pepper, and salt from France (thank you, Catherine!) into thinly sliced pieces of bread, and then rubbed both sides with raw garlic.

I lit the grill in bare feet while sipping on sauvignon blanc.

I slowly sliced the most perfect heirloom tomatoes I could find.

I grilled avocado. So much easier than one would think.

I assembled each baguette like it was a work of art. Different combos to showcase the over the top summer flavors. I kept it simple with just burrata. Went all out with prosciutto and avocado. Stayed traditional with the heirlooms and basil. Each time I created one I decided that was my favorite… until the next one was assembled.

I photographed the platter outside in the most perfect light, without a toddler on my leg.

A whole lot of ‘I’s in a world so often filled with ‘you’s’ lead to perhaps one of the most beautiful summer dinners we’ve ever had. The taste? Well, heaven on earth of course.

Grilled Caprese Baguettes
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Ingredients
  1. 1 loaf crusty sourdough or ciabatta bread, thinly sliced
  2. 2 large ripe, but firm avocados, peeled, pitted + sliced
  3. olive oil (enough to drizzle over bread slices and avocados)
  4. 1 clove garlic
  5. salt and pepper
  6. 8 ounces burrata cheese (or use fresh sliced mozzarella)
  7. 1 bunch fresh basil
  8. 4-6 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
  9. handful of slices of prosciutto
  10. balsamic vinegar, for drizzling
Instructions
  1. Preheat your grill to medium-ish heat or preheat your oven to 400° degrees F.
  2. Place the slices of bread of bread on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil on both sides. Rub each side of bread with the halved garlic clove. Sprinkle the toast with salt and pepper.
  3. Place the avocado slices on a plate and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Place the bread slices and avocados on the grill and grill both for about 2-3 minutes per side or until lightly chard. Remove from the grill.
  5. Cut into the burrata and divide it among the toast. Top the burrata with whatever combos your heart desires. End by drizzling with the balsamic.
Adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Adapted from Half Baked Harvest
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

 

Happy Friday.

/ By / 10 Comments

Homemade Queso Fundido

Let’s end this week with a bang, shall we? I’ve been known to do that around here.

I feel like, at times, a photo is worth 1,000 words and this would be one of those moments. Do I really need to expand on melted gooey cheese, sautéed sausage, and veggies all hanging out in a hot skillet ready to be smeared into a warm tortilla?

I didn’t think so.

Get this homemade queso fundido going in your kitchen – ASAP. Report back, I’d love to hear if it made you as happy as it made us. Happy weekend friends!

Homemade Queso Fundido
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Ingredients
  1. 1/2 pound Hot Breakfast Sausage Or Chorizo
  2. 1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
  3. 2 whole small Bell Peppers (any Color Combination), Seeded And Finely Diced
  4. 1 pound Monterey Jack, Grated (OR Mozzarella, Or Other Stringy Melting Cheese), Grated
  5. Sprinkle Of Chili Powder
  6. 3 whole Roma Tomatoes, Diced
  7. 1/4 cup Cilantro, Chopped
  8. Tortilla Chips For Serving
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a large skillet, cook and crumble the sausage until brown. Remove from skillet and drain on a paper towel. Pour off any excess fat.
  3. Add onions and bell peppers to the skillet and cook over medium-high heat until the veggies are soft and golden brown, about 7-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  4. To build the skillet, place 1/3 of the cheese in a medium-sized ovenproof skillet. Add half the sausage. Add another third of the cheese, then as much of the veggie mixture as you'd like (you may have a little left over.) Add almost all of the remaining cheese, the rest of the sausage, then whatever cheese you have left. Sprinkle the top very lightly with chili powder.
  5. Into the oven it goes for 5-6 minutes.
  6. Top with the diced tomatoes, sprinkle on the tomatoes, and serve immediately with tortilla chips.
Adapted from Pioneer Woman
Adapted from Pioneer Woman
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

The birds and the bees.

/ By / 1 Comment

zucchini flowers

Ah, the birds and the bees. You think you’ve got it all figured out, right? Until you were asked to pick only ‘male’ zucchini flowers. Let’s back it up here…

Did you know? I’m sharing a plot with my fantastic neighbor, Tina, who writes over at Shredded Sprout. As much as we love to cook and style and entertain, we don’t exactly (read: really) know what we are doing. Enter Sil, our other partner.

It was clear what his purpose was vs. my purpose, i.e. – he knew what to do. Somehow our garden went from being a large plot of dirt to a thriving green machine. The first gift presented to us from the dirt were beautiful zucchini flowers. Being oh so chic and totally current with hip foods (ok, that’s totally in my head), I knew we had to cook something up with these beauties. But wait….!

You can only pick the males.

Huh?

Yes. Only the males. If you pick the females, the zucchini squash literally won’t grow. The female flowers are  – get this – pregnant with the squash. Seriously? Even in the gardening world it’s the woman? #notfair

I’m not exactly sure Tina and/or Sil had total confidence in me in selecting the few rarer males (I don’t blame them), but I promise you all I did it right. The males are on a much longer and slimmer stem – totally showing off. The females are stuck a bit down low and literally have a rotund piece attached to them. Huh, sounds familiar.

Anyway, a quick trip to the garden with the boys, and off to Tina’s to make this killer squash blossoms recipe. Is it something to make on a whim? Is it quick? Easy? No. Not at all, really. But, it just happened to be the exactly perfect thing to make on that particular Sunday in June.

C

P.S. Sil, I heard one made it your way and I hope this, and much more to come, will be worth all the effort you put in.

Weekend gem.

/ By / 5 Comments

marinated buffalo mozzarella and tomato

I leave you for the weekend with this gem of a recipe.

We’ve been talking about the ease (and sometimes dirtiness) of summer, and this could not fit in more with that thought process. While it may look on the fussier side, it could not be easier as it’s more about the prep than anything else. The only actual cooking here is the chopping of the ingredients to marinade the burrata, and even that is minimal. In no time you’ll be out on your patio, smearing the cheese onto a crispy baguette with a chilled glass of rose nearby. 

Because that is exactly what you should be doing this weekend.

The recipe? Marinated Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomato. Shredded Sprout walks you through the beautiful marinade. Make sure to use burrata mozzarella, which has a higher cream content. Slice up a few heriloom tomatoes, lay out the prosciutto, and toast up some baguettes. Sprinkle the whole platter with salt & pepper and you are good to go. 

Happy weekend everyone!
C

Top