This one was so good that I knew I had to recreate it at home. Luckily, it isn’t too difficult to figure out the ingredients in a salad. Salad dressings can be a little bit harder. Fortunate for me, someone else had already done the dirty work & posted a copycat of their citrus herb vinegrette. I did change some of the amounts because I found there to be too much sugar & not enough lemon/lime juice the first time around.

This is the perfect salad for the warm summer nights that are approaching. Even the SC gave it two thumbs up & he said he doesn’t usually like to eat salads as an entree.

CopyCat Bonefish Grill Salmon & Asparagus Salad

Ingredients:

For the salad
spring mix
asparagus (cooked al dente)
goat cheese
tomatoes, chopped
salmon (cooked in the oven, or grilled)

For the Citrus Herb Vinegrette
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh parsley, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil t
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together.

Assemble salad & drizzle dressing on top.

Note: dressing can be kept in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Simply set out at room temperature for 20 minutes & stir vigorously before using.

Directions:

confession: I’ve already cleaned the front of it twice. 

This beauty was delivered on Wednesday & we said out with the old…..

& in with the NEW!!

This refrigerator is bad ass! {sorry, mom..there’s just no other way to say it!}

It’s so beautiful it makes me want to go spend a fortune at Whole Paycheck & stock up on beautiful produce to fill these drawers with…

Check out all that freezer storage!

One of my favorite features is the measured fill on the water dispenser. No more guessing how much water you’re drinking, or standing at the fridge pressing your cup against the lever. KitchenAid solved that problem. Simply hit the measured fill button on the beautiful blue led lit screen, select the number of ounces you want & watch as your glass is filled with refreshing & purified water. AMAZING.

The SC & can’t walk into the kitchen without opening it. He even said, “It’s so nice I had to think twice about where to put something in it.” I agree! I usually hate putting away groceries but I had a blast filling this beauty up yesterday

A huge thank you again to KitchenAid!

]]> http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/04/im-in-love/feed/ 7 http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/03/lessons-learned-at-food-blog-forum-orlando/ http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/03/lessons-learned-at-food-blog-forum-orlando/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:59:34 +0000 spoonful http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/?p=602 This past weekend I was in Walt Disney World attending Food Blog Forum. This was a wonderful experience full of meeting fellow food bloggers who I have only communicated with via comments & twitter, & inspiring sessions on everything from photography (yep, took about 20 pages of notes in that one!) to writing bigger & better posts. I learned so much and have a lot of knowledge to vamp up my blog, however these are the ones that will resonate in my mind & heart for awhile.

1. Think fiction, write nonfiction. When I write about my life through my experiences in food, I am writing nonfiction which can often be boring, so instead I should write as if I’m writing fiction (not fabricating details of course, but use a similar style to fiction) That leads me to number two.

2. Tell a story. Who cares if you are making plain ole tomato sauce, every recipe, every restaurant, every food experience is a story from your life. Tell it richly, tell it well.

3. Don’t compare your blog to others. I’m not setting out to write a cookbook or make a bunch of money off this blog. Set you’re own goals. Mine is to chronical my life each spoonful of the way. So even if I only get 1 comment, or 100, I am blogging for me & I will continue to!

Some other things learned along the way….

Disney World is just as magical at age 27 as it is at age 7.

Disney sure does know how to wine & dine us food bloggers

Crossing your fingers & hoping to win the grand prize really does work!

A HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to KitchenAid for donating a beautiful refrigerator for our grand prize drawing!! This beauty is set to arrive next Wednesday & I can hardly wait to fill it with ingredients for future posts

However, I am hoping that two major events this weekend give me the motivation to blog. 1) the arrival of my ipad3! woot woot! When my netbook was stolen in January I decided to hold off on buying a new computer & instead buy an ipad. The SC has a laptop, I have one from work, & honestly 99% of of the time that I’m on the computer I’m simply surfing the web. I’m hoping posting from my ipad will be seamless thanks to my wireless keyboard

2) {and no doubt most important} I am attending Food Blog Forum in WALT DISNEY WORLD this weekend!! I am soo excited to meet so many foodies like me who I’ve gotten to know from the blogging community & of course to be inspired by the seminars. I’m also ridiculously excited for Disney World itself!

Coming soon are some deliciously inspired posts including two new fabulous nashville restaurant finds!

Also, do yourself a favor & make The Pioneer Woman’s pork chops with pineapple fried rice. I made it last week & it was fabulous!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Adapted from Budget Bytes

Ingredients:

(2) 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons italian seasoning
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a large pot, stir and cook on low for an hour stirring every 10 minutes.

]]> http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/02/homemade-tomato-sauce/feed/ 4 http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/01/chocolate-chipotle-shortbread/ http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/2012/01/chocolate-chipotle-shortbread/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:27:22 +0000 spoonful http://www.lifebythespoonful.com/?p=566 Life has been a little ca-ra-zy around here lately. Two weekends ago we spontaneously got a new addition to our family. A rambunctious & loveable lab mix named Jolene!

She has brought us a ton of love & excitement – but MAN are puppies hardwork! I think this is very good practice for a baby I have never had a dog before so I am learning the ropes & trying to train her before she trains me! (haha!)

Then a week later, our house was broken into and many of our possessions were stolen!

candlelight vigil for our stolen tv.

I had just gone to meet some friends for lunch & when returned found our back door open & the house torn apart. It was very scary & an experience I hope we never have to deal with again. Sadly, my computer & both of our cameras were among the stolen items so any future posts will feature pictures from my lovely iphone Luckily, the things we care most about (each other, the pup, sentimental jewelry, etc) were ok. In another year or so Jolene should be big enough to scare off any future intruders!

Last night I got in the baking mood & scoured my Epicurious app (GREAT app!) for some cookies that don’t require eggs (we were all out) &came upon a recipe for Chocolate Chipotle Shortbread. These babies were so easy to whip up and feature my favorite combination of spicy & chocolate! The SC on the other hand doesn’t quite share my love of spicy chocolate & upon biting into his said, “you just had to add cayenne huh?” hehe…more for me! These were very delicious & are even better dipped in hot chocolate or coffee.

Chocolate Chipotle Cookies

Yield: 20 cookies

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon cocoa chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle.
2. Whisk together first six ingredients in a bowl.
3. Beat together butter, sugar & vanilla extract with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy.
4. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until well blended.
5. Scoop into small balls and flatten to about 1/4 inch thick circles. Place on greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.

The appetizer that got the most raves however, was this Cranberry Pistachio cheeseball. I was inspired by a recipe I saw in Real Simple but theirs looked a tad too boring for me. I jazzed mine up with some honey goat cheese from Trader Joe’s {substitute this for regular goat cheese in basically anything & you’re taste buds will thank you!} & also added a mixture of the pistachios & cranberries into the cheeseball itself instead of simply coating the outside with it. Pair this ball of yumminess with Trader Joe’s Raisin Rosemary Crisps & you’ll want to devour the whole thing immediately.

Cranberry Pistachio Cheese Ball

Note: I purposefully made this cheeseball small since there were only 8 of us. Double the amounts to make a full sized ball :)

Ingredients:

1/2 log of honey goat cheese (I find mine cheapest at Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup cream cheese

Directions:

1. Crush the shelled pistachios & cranberries in in the food processor. (reserve a few tablespoons of each before blending)
2. Add to a small bowl with honey goat cheese & cream cheese & mix until creamy & well blended.
3. On a sheet of wax paper spread out the remaining whole pistachios & cranberries. Roll the cheese mixture into a ball and then roll onto the pistachio & cranberries until well covered.
4. Chill for at least one hour & then serve with your favorite crackers. (My favorite pairing are Trader Joe's Raisin Rosemary Crisps).

 And what New Year’s post would be complete without some resolutions thrown in there? Mine include:

1. Being healthy (working out, watching what I eat)

2. Judging & gossiping less.

How about you, did you make any resolutions this year? Or care to share a recipe you tried on NYE?

 The SC’s day of surprise in Philadelphia ended at the famous restaurant Osteria. I have heard many good things about this restaurant & celebrated my 27th birthday at one of the owner’s Mark Vetri’s other restaurants, Amis last summer. Osteria was nominated as best new restaurant in 2008 by the James Beard Foundation, and the chef won the James Beard Foundation Best Mid-Atlantic Chef in 2010.  I was really excited to partake in some amazing Italian food which I hoped would be reminscent of our honeymoon in Rome.

We started out by sharing the Polpo pizza which featured octopus, tomato, red chili flakes & smoked mozzerella. The crust was perfectly thin & crispy & was reminscent of my favorite pizza at Nashville’s City House. I’m usually not a huge fan of smoked flavor but the smoked mozzerella was not overpowering & I found myself really enjoying it. Lately I have become a lot more adventurous when it comes to eating meats & I got over the tentacles of the octopus & ended up loving the flavor & texture of the meat. The pizza earned a big thumbs up from both of us!

Moving on we both opted for pasta dishes. For me, the homemade paparadelle ragu with venison caught my eye. When in Rome one of our favorite dishes was paparadelle with lamb so I was hoping for a similiar dish at Osteria. However, I was a little disappointed when there wasn’t any tomato in the sauce. This dish was ok, but not my favorite. It didn’t help matters much that the SC ordered a dish that ended up being almost exactly the same as mine except with different noodles & meat. I was pretty disappointed in this dish. I really think I just ordered the wrong thing though.

We ended our meal with three scoops of house made gelato which unfortunately were devoured so quickly I didn’t get a picture The standout was the cinnamon gelato but they were all amazing. So cream & rich in flavor. Luckily the meal started and ended on a good note so I will forgive the main dish

The SC’s really big christmas present was his iphone but I felt kinda bad because I got myself one, too So I surprised him with a fun day in Philadelphia for just the two of us. We started out at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I hadn’t been since my high school days & was in awe at how huge the place is & what great art they have.

Monet is probably my favorite artist

But Van Gogh isn’t too shabby either

We could have spent all day there & had to rush through a few exhibits to make it out in just under 4 hours! Our stomachs were rumbling & I slyly checked Yelp for a place to grab a bite to eat before our next mystery stop. I choose The Belgian Cafe mainly because of the reviews saying it has  one of the most extensive beer selections in the city.

Note to self: Do not order a $16 bottle of french cider. For one it was wayyyy too big for just me & it was also much too sweet! Tasted like apple juice. However, I mixed it with a few pours of the SC’s stout & it was much better!

I ordered the small pot of Django mussels & ended up with about 30 of them! I’d hate to see what the large pot looks like! They were so delicious though & I ate everyone of those babies up {that is every one that the SC didn’t steal!} I declare them to be the best mussels I have ever eaten. The fact that they were bathing in a broth of bacon, garlic, blue cheese & pears probably helped them earn that title

We were only a few blocks from our next destination & so we walked off our beers & headed towards Eastern State Penetentiary. I’ve heard of this prison where Al Capone stayed & many movies have been filmed at for years but have never been. It was pretty spooky & the history of the place was really interesting to hear.

At halloween every year they give haunted tours…ummm, no thank you!

Al Capone’s cell. He was allowed to bring in his own furniture. He was obviously the Lindsay Lohan of the day

Coming up next….our surprise dinner location!

Our first stop the morning after we arrived was to Wawa for our beloved coffee. Sadly, we only went once but did brew the addictive hazelnut blend every morning in mom’s coffee maker. Nashville seriously needs a Wawa!

My parents had a stocked fridge of goodies for us including this little guy. I drank two within 20 minutes of each other. They are ridiculously good & I became a total sucker for the foil wrapping.

The SC & I were very good to each other this holiday season. He got me things I had been lusting over & a few surprises too but the most exciting thing was a YORKIE puppy!!! We don’t have the little guy/gal yet because he had picked out a toy yorkie & I’d much prefer a normal sized one. So we will be on the hunt for one for the next few weeks. I got him (& me) iphones & also took him on a secret outing on the day after Christmas.  Come back tomorrow to read all about our adventures on that day

I can’t believe it is already 2012. The past year has been the best of my life. I started a new job that I LOVE, we got married, honeymooned in Italy & the SC found his creative niche & started a successful business. We have been so blessed this year & I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds!

What were the top moments from your 2011?