via Piece of Cake
It’s a conundrum, my loves. Short weeks just seem longer. Why is that?
I’m getting by dreaming of this blueberry cornmeal cake from Huckleberry Cafe. Won’t it make the perfect end-of-summer dessert for Saturday’s brunch service?
For Sunday, maybe a classic rice pudding. We’ll tweet pictures this weekend.
What’s getting you through hump day?
xx Sarah
Wishing you all a delightful last sip of summer.
We will be at the beach but working of course. Try not too feel too bad for us.
xo,
us
If you have basil planted in your garden I bet it is going O-F-F off right now.
This is what mine looked like until I gave it a hair cut to make my Evergreen Pesto.
All the traditional fixings- garlic, good parmesan, toasted pine nuts, good olive oil and lots of fresh basil leaves. Not pictured is my secret ingredient…. fresh SPINACH! I add tons of fresh spinach to my pesto and it keeps the basil from turning brown after it gets beat up in a food processor and exposed to earth, wind and fire. Yes even stays green when tossed with hot pasta.
Emerald green summer special sauce. I wish I had a blouse this color.
PS- it freezes beautifully
Evergreen Pesto
makes about 4 cups
Ingredients:
½ cup toasted pine nuts
2 small cloves garlic
2 ½ cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, tightly packed
zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup good quality Olive Oil (use a little more if you like a thinner consistency)
1 cup grated Parmesan
about 15 grinds of pepper
¾ tsp salt
Instructions:
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a pan or in a toaster oven until golden brown. In a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, pulse the toasted pine nuts and garlic until coarsely ground. Add the basil leaves, spinach and lemon juice and zest. Pulse until the leaves are broken down. Turn the machine on and add the olive oil in a slow stream until well incorporated. Add the Parmesan and black pepper and taste for seasoning. Add the salt last in case the Parmesan is salty enough on it’s own.
xo,
Lydia
A few beautiful snaps from our North Carolina beach vacation taken by Anjali…
Looming clouds
BBQ buddies
Seared scallops over green bean-corn-tomato succotash with squished squash eaten on place mats OVER our in progress puzzle
Drew’s Grandmother teaches us how to make fried okra
toss cut okra with cornmeal
crisp it in a pan with vegetable oil and season with salt
dessert!
another dinner eaten over the puzzle (it was a hard one ok)
The little yellow beach cottage
the boys cooked us a dinner
we heart NC
Capt. Kerk and the Mrs.
With longing for next year,
Lydia
Ready for broiling
Roasting peppers seems easy. Until you have half the skin stuck to your fingers like wet paper and the other half still on the pepper, stubbornly refusing to separate. If you’re dealing with that specific frustration, you may have forgotten one important step.
Broiled pasilla peppers
Let’s start at the beginning. To get a good char, you can do one of two things. You can place your peppers on a baking sheet lined with foil, drizzle them with olive oil and place them under the broiler, turning once until brown on all sides. Takes about 15 minutes. You can also drizzle with olive oil and turn directly over a gas flame until all sides are blackened and your peppers look like they do above. However you choose to roast, you’re now ready for the special step.
It comes down to foil. Place your hot, charred peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with foil. If you broiled your peppers, use the same foil that you used to line your baking sheet. Cover tightly and let steam until the peppers cool, at least 30 minutes.
Steaming creates little pockets of air between the burnt skin and pepper flesh. No need to tug or tear to separate skin from sweet, soft pepper.
All you have to do is rip the skin and your peppers will peel easily. I warn you- it’s as addictive as peeling easy-to-peel nail polish.
I’m stuffing these spicy pasilla peppers with grilled corn and pepper jack cheese and serving them with roasted salsa and sour cream. I’ll slice any leftovers for spicing up avocado toast. How will you eat yours?
xx Sarah
Some snaps of what’s making me smile.
Happy Bunny Blue from Trafalgars Square via
Cutest baby bunny ever for the nursery.
An unexpected bird.
Via
A Clare Vivier clutch in the perfect color combo.
Happy thoughts from Roald Dahl via La Femme Epicure.
What caught your eye this week?
xx
via
Given the current shape of my baby body, fall fashion for me will focus on booties and leggings, over-sized chambray shirts and long coats. Which is not a bad thing.
Loeffler Randall Nanette Bootie in black
Gap fitted boyfriend chambray ruffle shirt
classic double-breasted coat
Also, the world’s best no-fade leggings.
What’s on your list?
xx Sarah
Hi Friends,
I’m headed to the outer banks of North Carolina for my annual beach vaca (picture G & T’s, squished squash and cobalt blue hydrangeas) and have loaded up my Kindle with new beach books. I thought I might share what’s on my reading list and what I have recently enjoyed. Sarah and I love hear what you all are reading, book worms unite!
On tap for this week… (a bit ambitious when you factor in G&T’s)
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson
Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
Persuasion by Jane Austen (I have a tradition of rereading one Austen book on my vacations)
Recent Favorites…
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Freedom by Johnathan Franzen
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Any book by Ken Follett (especially Pillars of the Earth)
Any Pat Conroy but Beach Music is my fav (when in Rome…)
What have you been reading this summer?
xo,
Lydia
I’m sad the Olympics is over, I was really inspired by the excitement of the games. Before this Olympic cycle fades into history I would like to give a gold medal to Duchess Catherine for her outfits during the 2 weeks of events in London.
She attended the games almost everyday and ALWAYS wore some variation on red, white and blue to support Great Britian. I read she re-wore the same clothes most days so as not to attract media attention to her outfits and take away from the athletes. Classy.
Let’s be honest, it it hard to make a polo shirt look this good.
via
More details on her outfits here. What do you think of her preppy patriotic look?
xo,
Lydia
One of our beloved chefs is leaving the kitchen to go back to grad school full time to become a registered dietician. We had a little goodbye dinner at Gjelina to celebrate Anjali’s next adventure.
Brunette power in our kitchen.
Anjali’s dessert menu had some edits from a previous diner, we happen to agree that the strawberry & rhubarb crisp was not warm enough nor was the chocolate crust on the banana cream pie chocolaty enough. Have you ever gone to dinner with chefs? It’s like being in art school and having your work critiqued. Or maybe it’s like shoving a fork in your eye, it’s just what we do.
Another thing chefs do at an inspiring dinner, take pictures of what they ate and share it on social media.
Some highlights of our amazing meal: this Croatian wine (we mob with a wine expert)
Young Garbanzo beans with goat cheese
Caponata crostini with burrata (sadly not pictured are the orange glazed carrots and squash blossom pizza winners.)
And the desserts!! The banana-chocolate bread pudding and butterscotch pot de creme were outstanding.
We sure will miss Anjali but you can keep up with her on The Kitchn and on her own blog Eat Your Greens.
xo,
Lydia