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A Life From Scratch.

A Life You Adore Around A Table You Love.

Charming crackers.

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southern thumbprints

How darling are these?

The recipe comes from a Southern gent – so, they are sure to please a crowd. Ginger (one of my 3 moms) gave me his (signed!) cookbook, and this would be a standout recipe from it. You’d think making a homemade cracker would be daunting, wouldn’t you?

Not these Southern Thumbprints. Simply mix together, chill, and bake off before your guests arrive. You can top them with anything from strawberry jam (what I used) to apricot (what Ginger likes to use) or spiced jalapeño – what I have visions of using. 

Your guests will fall in love as easy as it is to fall for a southern accent.

Southern Thumbprints
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
30 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
15 min
Total Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 10 ounces blue cheese
  2. 3/4 cup butter, softened
  3. 1 1/2 cups flour
  4. 3 TBS poppy seeds
  5. 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
  6. 1/8 tsp white pepper
  7. 1/8 tsp flaky sea salt
  8. 1/3 cup good jam - your choice of flavor
Instructions
  1. With a mixer, beat cheese and butter on medium speed until fluffy.
  2. Slowly add in your flour, poppy seeds, and salt. Beat until just combined.
  3. Roll into 3/4 inch balls. Cover and chill for 2 hours.
  4. After chilling, arrange on a baking sheet lined with pharchment paper and slowly press a thumbprint into each ball of dough.
  5. They don't have to be perfect, in fact mine were a bit messy but still tasted lovely...!
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, until golden.
  7. After cooling and right before your guests arrive, fill each thumbprint with some jam.
Adapted from James Farmer
Adapted from James Farmer
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/
Eat up,

C

Fancy pants.

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heirloom tomato tart

Anyone else see the word ‘tart’ in a recipe and frantically run the other way or at least quickly flip through the page? Uh yea, that would be me as well. The word tart just holds a whole connotation with fussy, difficult, fancy, and high maintenance. Not words I want to associate myself with.

Until I met this tart. Life changing.

Tina, my neighbor who you met here, posted the most beautiful heirloom tomato tart on her blog a few weeks ago. So beautiful that any tart anxiety I had immediately melted away. I knew I had to make it, soon. 

Plus I’m a sucker for heirloom tomatoes. A huge sucker. I just feel like that needs to be said.

So Labor day weekend rolled around and I emailed Tina to come by to help me. I was ok with attempting one but hey, it’s still a tart. I wanted supervision. The result?

You guys – this could. not. be. easier. I almost felt foolish – like I had to apologize that I made her take time out of her day to babysit my weird anxiety. This dough came together beautifully. It rolled out beautifully. It folded beautifully. Think play dough like ease.

The rest was a piece of cake – beautiful thickly sliced tomatoes, bright herbs, freshly grated gruyere cheese, and bam! You just became one fancy gal. Want to show off at your next get together? Well of course you do. Tina explains it perfectly, right here.

Eat up!
C

Cholay….?!

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image-1A note from C: For those of you who don’t follow me on FB – this is a guest post written by my darling sister, Allie! I hope you enjoy!

Gross.

That was my first thought when J placed the big bowl of green and red in front of me, announcing his creation. It was my birthday dinner last year. The week prior, we had picked our new puppy Hugo up from the breeder. Between buying all the dog supplies, the toys, vet bills, and the pup himself, we weren’t exactly rolling in money at the time. So instead of the lovely dinner at a big fancy restaurant in the city that J had planned originally, I told him to just make me one of his delicious home-made meals.

When he barged through the door of our place – arms laden with Caputo’s bags announcing the evening’s offerings were of the “Mexican/Italian” persuasion – I was skeptical. Latin & Asian fusion, I had heard of. French/Vietnamese? A classic. Mexican/Italian just sounded….heavy. Aggressive, even.

I smiled sweetly as he went back into the kitchen to continue cooking and inspected the concoction awaiting me. Hmmmm….avacado….sun-dried tomatoes….basil…..and was that shreds of Parmesan I saw?? I grabbed a chip and dug in. Oh my lord – I’d be lying if I told you I remember any of the other dishes J made that dinner. It was incredible – the combo of avocado and basil is one I would never think to put together but trust me, it works SO well! The sun-dried tomatoes add a bit of texture, and let’s face it – a paper bag would taste good with a handful of Parmesan sprinkled on it 🙂

So be adventurous and switch it up the next time you make your guacamole! You’ll be glad you did. You may even be like me and never go back to the old cilantro/cherry tomato combo again (I swear!). And we all have our sweet little Hugo to thank for it – maybe J deserves some credit too 🙂

I don’t know whether to say Ciao or Ole! Cholay??
PicMonkey Collage7

Italian Guacamole
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Ingredients
  1. 2 avocados
  2. 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
  3. 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
  4. Juice of 1/2 a lime
  5. 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
  6. 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  7. Large handful chopped basil
  8. Salt & pepper
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and make as chunky or smooth as you like. Garnish with more cheese and basil, and enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips!
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

 

~A

Back up wife.

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chicken potstickers
As I mentioned in C’s picks this week, these homemade potstickers originally came from my good friend, Catherine. She whipped them up for a dinner party we had months ago and M hasn’t stopped talking about them since. ‘When are you going to make those potstickers?’ ‘Why haven’t you made those potstickers yet?’ ‘How is Catherine doing?’ (i.e. when is she coming over again to make me those potstickers since you obviously aren’t cutting it).

OK! I got the hint. Pot stickers were on the agenda. I whisked up the homemade dipping sauce during B’s pm nap and got the stuffing ready to go. Once I knew M’s train timing I prepped them (much easier than you think). He finally arrived home after a long day of work, sat at the counter at his usual spot, and began to gobble them up at lighting fast speed. His first comment?

‘Ok, Catherine is off the back up list.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You know, since you hadn’t made me these potstickers, I put Catherine on my back up wife list.’

‘But now that I made them she is off the list?’

‘Yep’ (he says, between bites).

‘I’m confused, isn’t a back up list to use if something were to happen to your spouse?’

‘Well that – but also who can cook these chicken potstickers if your current spouse isn’t. Now, there is no list.’

Huh. So that’s how we are handling this. I’m going to have to rethink my back up plan.

Chicken Pot Stickers
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Ingredients for potstickers
  1. 1 lbs ground chicken
  2. 3 TBS chopped cilantra
  3. 2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced
  4. 3 garlic cloves, minced
  5. 1 tsp salt
  6. 2 TBS soy sauce
  7. 2 TBS sesame oil
  8. 1 raw egg, whisked
  9. pot sticker wrappers
  10. vegetable oil, for cooking
Ingredients for dipping sauce
  1. 3 TBS soy sauce
  2. 1 TBS rice vinegar
  3. 1 TBS chopped cilantro
  4. 1 clove garlic, minced
  5. 1 tsp hot chili oil
Directions for Potstickers
  1. Add all ingredients up through the sesame oil and mix well. Let stand for 15 minutes.
  2. Take roughly 1 tsp of the chicken mixture and place in the middle of the wrapper. Rub a little egg along the edges of the wrapper, fold to close. Seal with a little more egg.
  3. Add a little vegetable oil to a hot pan over medium heat. Fry pot stickers with a lid for 6 minutes, roughly 3 min per side.
  4. Serve hot with the dipping sauce.
Directions for Dipping Sauce
  1. Mix all above together and serve.
A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

 

Eat up!
C

The best summer app.

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marinated mozzarella salad
I have to say, I’ve marinaded a lot of things – but, cheese? Not so much.

This lovely idea was brought to us by my neighbor who writes Shredded Sprout. I followed her recipe to a tee aside from one thing – fresh buffalo mozzarella. It was Memorial Day. I had run to Fresh Market, Heinens (closed), a local Italian restaurant (closed) and finally in a desperate attempt, Jewel. At that point I gave up and bought the freshest (regular) mozzarella I could find.

And you know what?

It worked. Really really well.

So if you are balancing baseball schedules and playdates and nap schedules and just don’t have the time to run around to find a (sometimes) more difficult ingredient it’s ok. I promise. My version was gobbled up! I had to cut myself off after 4 (large) pieces to save room for dinner.

It’s also good to know that this one will only get better as this season goes on. Freshly picked summer tomatoes and if you get lucky that friendly cheese guy at the market might just carry exactly what we’re looking for.

Want the recipe? Of course you do. Head on over here. She walks you through it well.

Eat up!
C

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