Thinly Sliced Cucumber

Roasted Strawberry and Spinach Salad

amanda — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:13:07 +0000

I’ve eaten this salad 3 times this week…so far. That’s right- 3 times I’ve devoured a great big bowl of spinach smothered in balsamic dressing and topped with flavor-bursting roasted strawberries and crunchy bits of toasted almonds. I just can’t get enough. This was the first (but definitely not the last) time I roasted strawberries. I’ve roasted other fruits in the past. Things like pineapple, peaches, apples, and even lemons, but never strawberries. Let me just say right not that you HAVE to try this. As soon as the first bite hit my mouth I knew I was hooked and my mind began frantically plotting more ways to enjoy these soft and juicy amazing little fruits.
Roasting strawberries is simple. Well, roasting anything is pretty simple but strawberries are especially easy because they only need 10 minutes in the oven to achieve perfection. A drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of sugar, a dash of salt and pepper and in the oven they go.
Ten minutes later and voilà! Roasted strawberries. Soft but not mushy, sweet but not sugary and perfect in combination with a big ol’ pile of tender baby spinach leaves. The best part about this salad? It … Continue reading

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Cookies

amanda — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:20:35 +0000

Rainy days are made for baking cookies… and eating cookies. Or to be exact, eating three cookies in a row plucked straight from the still hot baking tray. What…no, I would never do that! I always wait patiently for the cookies to cool before stuffing them in my mouth. Ha! Yeah right, I mean does anyone wait? Seriously, the person who can resist devouring cookies still warm from the oven is clearly a better person than me. There’s just something about the thrill of burning my fingertips on gooey melted chocolate and the roof of my mouth on piping hot dough that I simply can’t resist. Come on, what’s a few burned fingers when what you get in exchange is mouthful of amazing almond butter cookie mixed with a generous bite of dark chocolate? Clearly the reward far outweighs the sacrifice.These cookies did a fine job of brightening up what was otherwise a dreary rainy day. They also gave me an excuse to try out a new kind of sugar I recently discovered. It’s called Coconut Sugar and is made from the sap which drips from coconut flower blossoms! Pretty cool huh? This is a traditional sweetener that’s … Continue reading

Grilled Cheese with Arugula + Roasted Red Pepper Spread

amanda — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:48:03 +0000

Today I’m celebrating National Grilled Cheese month. Actually, as it turns out I’ve already celebrated it several times this month and I didn’t even know it. That’s because I just found out about this month-long celebration of melted cheese a few days ago. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not one of those food bloggers who’s organized enough to post recipes for each (okay any) of the food holidays, but this was one I couldn’t let pass by. Already this year I’ve missed National Popcorn Day, National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, National Chocolate-Covered Nut Day, and just yesterday National Garlic Day. No, I’m not making these days up. In fact, there is a National Some-Sort-Of-Food Day for every day of the year. Seriously. You would think since every day is a food holiday I could get it together just once to post something relevant. Nope, not happening. Fortunately for me, some food holidays last the entire month. April is also National Florida Tomato month and Soy Foods month…hmmm, think I’ll stick with grilled cheese. It’s unclear who decides these holidays. I wonder who declared February National Fiber Focus month, or June 5th Jelly-Filled Donut Day…and why? I guess … Continue reading

Strawberry Lemon Yogurt Parfait

amanda — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:32:01 +0000

I’m back. Did you miss me? Did you even know I was gone? Okay, so technically I didn’t go anywhere…but it has been quite a while since my last post. I’m making up for it in a big way though. With two recipes in one! A tasty almond coconut granola that you will want to eat by the handful, and a fresh and springy strawberry lemon yogurt parfait.
But before we get lost in a big ole’ serving of granola, yogurt and berries I need to tell you what I’ve been up to that’s caused me to neglect my poor little blog for over two weeks. Since the beginning I have tried to keep this space about food. Sure, sometimes I inject little bits about my life here and there, but in general I figure you don’t want to read about my trip to the eye doctor, or my day at work, or how excited I was when my husband replaced a part of the vacuum cleaner causing it to work like 100 times better. Or maybe you do, I don’t know…but I do know I don’t want to write about those things. I’m here to share with you my … Continue reading

Roast Asparagus + Egg Sandwich {and a Liebster award}

amanda — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:58:00 +0000

Asparagus is practically a requirement of my spring eating and cooking repertoire. Never mind that the only thing around here right now that says spring is the calendar. Remember last week when I bragged about the unusually warm weather and even showed off my stellar grilling skills with this sweet potato and kale grilled pizza? Well…things have changed. The temperature dropped over the weekend and on Sunday night a bit of snow came down, leaving a fine layer of cold white stuff on my freshly raked lawn and budded daffodils. So much for summer-like weather in March. I’m a practical person though so I did what any hardened northerner would do. I turned up the heat and spent the week eating the most spring-ish food I could find- strawberries and asparagus.
My strawberry recipe needs a little refining before I can share it with you (translation: I had a recipe flop), but the roasted asparagus atop scrambled eggs with chives is was just divine! Simple fresh flavors and a super easy preparation have just made this my go to spring meal. There are two components to this sandwich. First the asparagus is roasted with a drizzle of olive oil, … Continue reading

Whole Wheat Peanut Noodles

amanda — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:31:16 +0000

Spring Fever! The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, the grass is greening and I’m feeling the urge to get out and enjoy it. So I did. Yesterday I gleefully went outside and raked my lawn wearing shorts and a tank top! Now I have a beautiful leaf-free lawn and a blister on each hand. Oh the things we put ourselves through for a pretty patch of green in the backyard.

I also made my way down to The Farm Store and picked up a gorgeous bag of fresh organic produce. Thanks Jen for bringing this wonderful resource to our community. Can’t wait to see what goodies you have next week.
Feeling inspired by my purchases and the warm weather I decided a cold pasta salad was just what the day called for. A pasta salad that only takes 15 minutes to make and is packed with a little sweet, a little spice and a little salt. What more could you want in life. Peanut noodles can be made using practically any combo of vegetables. Because lets be honest…anything smothered in peanut butter is good…right? The only rule I follow is to use at least one crunchy vegetable to … Continue reading

Sweet Potato, Smoked Mozzarella + Kale Grilled Pizza

amanda — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:12:50 +0000

Things have been kind of wacky around here lately. Wacky as in it’s March 20th and the temperature is supposed to reach 80 degrees today…and tomorrow…and the next day! We’ve been experiencing out of the ordinary weather all winter, but in the last week things suddenly changed from slightly warmer and dryer than average to weather that here in Vermont doesn’t usually happen until June- if we’re lucky. This past Sunday a record was broken in Burlington for the highest temperature ever recorded- 79 degrees. The previous record was 66 degrees. That’s 13 degrees warmer! (yes, I know you can do math but I just had to point out the enormous jump in temps) Chances are that these beautiful summer days in the middle of March won’t last much longer. Next week the temperatures will probably drop back down to normal, and in all likelihood it will snow at least one more time before winter is truly over. For now though, there’s nothing to do but enjoy the gift that we’ve been given. Spending time sitting on the porch, raking the yard, walking the dog in a t-shirt, sleeping with the window open, breaking out my flip flops and of … Continue reading

Honey Sweetened Meyer Lemon Tarts

amanda — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:36:20 +0000

I wish I had a scratch and sniff computer…actually I wish you had a scratch and sniff computer. That way you could be as enchanted by the floral aroma of these wonderful little Meyer lemons as I am. These lemons are so fragrant that even before I zested the peels, sliced them open and squeezed out the juice a honey tinged, fresh lemon scent was wafting around my kitchen. I first used Meyer lemons about a month ago when I made Carrot Muffins with Meyer Lemon Glaze. They were good…in fact they were eat two in a row good. The moist carrot muffins studded with lemon zest and drizzled with a thin honey lemon glaze were perfect for my first experiment with these special, slightly sweet lemons. This time though when I brought home a bag filled with the egg yolk colored little cuties I knew I wanted to make something that really let the lemon flavor shine. I wanted a bust of pure lemon flavor in every bite. I wanted to make a recipe that used LOTS of lemon juice…
and lots of lemon zest. So naturally I turned to lemon curd. Curd is all over the Internet … Continue reading

Poppy Seed Everything Rolls

amanda — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:41:40 +0000

Last week I experienced a sort of bread mania. It all started with our trip to Trader Joe’s and a loaf of their incredible Multi-Grain Seed Bread. I buy this bread every time I go to Trader Joe’s- which unfortunately is not very often because the closest one to where I live is 150 miles away! Come on Trader Joe’s, get with it. Us country folks like good food too. I’m not saying that we don’t have some wonderful local bakeries around here, because we do. Lots of them in fact, but none that make this particular bread. Loaded with poppy seeds and topped with a mixture of various seeds like sunflower and flax, this bread is flavorful, crunchy and very addictive. We consumed the entire loaf in oh, about 2 days and even then I couldn’t stop thinking about the poppy seed laced dough with the crispy topping (maybe it’s good we don’t have a TJs close by). Then a thought popped in my head…I’ll make my own. But I will make it whole wheat instead of multi-grain, and I will form the dough into rolls, and I will tie the rolls into a knot shape, and I will … Continue reading

Peppermint Tea Dark Chocolate Brownies

amanda — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:03:14 +0000

Hmmm…tea or brownies? Tea and brownies? How about tea in brownies! If you love tea and you LOVE brownies (who doesn’t love brownies? ) this recipe is for you. Dense fudgy,dark chocolate laden brownies spiked with an earthy mint flavor reminiscent of your favorite cup of tea. It’s a chocolate and mint lovers dream. This special brownie was inspired by a recipe that I pulled out of a magazine years ago, filed away for future use and promptly forgot about. For ten years. Yup, the date at the bottom of the page says August/September 2002. Wow, I guess I should go through my recipe file more often. The funny part is that when I saved the recipe I didn’t know it had tea in it. I thought it was just your normal mint brownie made with peppermint extract. The main reason I saved it all these years was because of the pretty marbled white chocolate glaze that covered the brownie. It wasn’t until I read through the ingredients and spotted the tea that I realized what a special recipe this was. Despite my initial excitement, in the end I used the tea portion of the recipe and a modified version … Continue reading