Sweet and Salty Days (and cookies)

Hello, August. What happened to July? 

These are the dog days of summer for sure. There is no escaping the heat and no escaping my preschoolers. It's not that I don't enjoy their company. It's just that occasional absence makes the heart grow fonder, and we have had not a single break from each other for quite a while.

Thankfully, we've had some diversions, like learning to ride a pony...

(she was much less nervous than her brother)

And of course some salty mornings on the beach, which never get old...

 I have loved watching them playing together. The older they get, the more they like to hang out. And lately they've been snuggling up together like puppies on the couch. 

We have several friends who've had new babies lately, so this weekend we made these salty sweet cookies to share with them. They turned out so good they didn't last long at all.

Salty Sweet Pretzel Cookies

makes 24

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces

Sea Salt

First:

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Next:

In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture in batches and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and preztels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Last:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of dough and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Mash the cookies down a little on the pan to help them spread, leaving about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe adapted from here.

We Saw a Bear

It is nice to have a place to go that is different from home. Where we live in the lowcountry it is flat. Hot. Marshy. So sometimes we head to a little cabin in the mountains...

where the air is dryer and cooler, there are ridges in the land, and best of all...

Mimi!

and the Captain

 and this time MeMaw too.

What do we do there? Read a lot. Eat a lot. Dig ditches and plant things and ride the train and go to town. We build towers, too, and stay up late to play games.

And we spend lots of time on the back porch rocking and swinging and waiting for something to happen. Sometimes there are deer, or wild turkey. At night there is just the sound of tree frogs and mysterious rustlings in the leaves. This time we saw a real bear, but I was not fast enough with my camera. We've seen bears at the cabin before, but this one was really big! He looked something like this:

I have always heard that bears love salmon, so I blame my mom's salmon spread for attracting him. It really is delicious. When I'm coming to visit she makes a big batch of it, and I can't ever get enough.

Salmon Spread

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 pound (4 ounces) smoked salmon, minced

First

Cream the cheese in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until just smooth. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, zest, dill, horseradish, salt, and pepper, and mix until just combined.
Next
Add the smoked salmon and mix with a spoon only, being careful to leave larger pieces of salmon. Chill and serve with celery, cucumber, or crackers.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten and the Food Network.

The Healthiest and Yummiest Pancakes Ever

Happy Memorial Day! 

Every weekend should be three days long. It gives you time to settle in. Be together. Relax and catch up. We had a very simple weekend. No babysitters, no day trips, no live music or fancy dinners out. But it was the absolute best. Even tropical storm Beryl did not ruin our weekend. In fact, all it did was cause us to hold on to our hats as we explored...

...did some work in the yard...

...took some couch naps (after all of that yard work)

...and of course logged plenty of beach time.

We have been trying to clean up our diet. Diabetes runs in the family, and we want to avoid it and all of the things that come along with getting older. We also want to shed a few pounds and teach our children to eat more vegetables. In short, we want to be able to run distance, paddle the marshes, and bench press each other well into our nineties. So we've stopped eating grains, sugar, dairy, and anything that triggers an insulin response in the body. It's an experiment, but so far it's going well. After one week I notice that my appetite is manageable, I don't have ups and downs in the afternoon, and since my taste palette has been re-sensitized to real food, fruit and vegetables taste like heaven. I will let you know more as time goes on.

That said, what is Saturday morning without pancakes? I made these Paleo-friendly healthy pancakes and we all loved them, including the little ones. 

Pumpkin Almond Butter Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 egg

4 egg whites

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 to 1/2 cup maple almond butter (or regular if you can't find maple)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp nutmeg

oil for cooking (I like coconut oil for this)

First:  Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk. It takes a few minutes to make everything smooth. 

Next: Heat a cast iron or nonstick skillet and add oil to coat the pan. Drop the batter in 1/2 cup servings. Flip when bubbles begin to appear and the edges are set. They cook up pretty fast which is a good thing if you have a child who loves pancakes as much as mine does. I served these with turkey sausage and agave nectar to go on top.

So far, eating healthy has been all pleasure and very little pain. And I'm glad, because we plan to live long enough to be able to afford our dream house on the beach:

No, I'm not serious. But I'd love to spend a weekend partying there!

White Bean Soup with Rosemary and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I know, I know. You're not supposed to eat soup in the springtime. Especially in Charleston, where it has already hit the upper 80s. But this is a really lovely soup with layers of flavor. It meets so many of my criteria: it's easy to prepare (10 minutes of prep and 25 minutes to cook), it's healthy, my children will eat it, and it makes enough to serve two nights in our house. Yes. Soup is most appreciated when its cold outside, but the flavor of this soup is light enough to serve year-round. I just make a simple salad to go with it. I found this recipe in Gena Knox's "Gourmet Made Simple" which is a very pretty little cookbook written by an Athens, Georgia girl.

Rosemary White Bean Soup

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

4 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1  sprig fresh rosemary or 1 Tablespoon dried

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (not packed in oil - I used the kind in a pouch)

Fresh Parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional if you avoid dairy)

First: Heat oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add onion; saute for 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in garlic and continue cooking for an additional minute. Add beans, stock, rosemary and tomatoes. Season with salt and simmer for 20 minutes. 

Last: Discard rosemary stem; season with salt and pepper to taste. Top each bowl of soup with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Rustic Strawberry Tart

Two things about this tart should totally embarrass me. One is how unbelievably easy it is. The other is how quickly we ate it. And by we I mean Andy and I; we didn't even share with our children.

Boone Hall Farms in Charleston grows the most beautiful strawberries, and in April and May we like to go and pick them right off the vine. It is dirty and buggy, but the big juicy berries are worth it. That and teaching our children that food actually grows in the ground. So I was very excited to find this recipe on  A Toast to Taste.

I served this straight from the oven and topped it with vanilla ice cream, but you could also use homemade whipped cream. This would be the perfect dessert for summertime entertaining. It's elegant and will make your guests feel like you went to way more trouble than you actually did.

Rustic Strawberry Tart

1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed
1 lb organic strawberries, washed, destemmed, and quartered
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
juice from half a lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Wash, destem, and quarter your strawberries. Add them to a large bowl along with the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Stir and set aside.

While the strawberries are marinating, roll out the puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface until it's about 1/8" thick. Transfer to lined baking sheet. Spoon strawberry mixture into the middle of the pastry sheet, leaving about an inch and a half border. Fold up the sides of the sheet, free form. Brush folded sides lightly with water. Bake for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden and strawberries are bubbling.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting. 

Peanut Butter Balls

It's been a warm winter in the lowcountry, and we've been spending as much time as possible outside at playgrounds, walking trails, and (best of all) in our own backyard. Of course the key to keeping everyone happy is keeping them fed (and fed and fed and fed), so when I saw this recipe I got excited because this is a snack that will travel.

If you ask my boy what he wants for lunch on any given day, the answer is always the same: peanut butter! These use peanut butter along with some other nutritious ingredients (flaxseed, oatmeal) making them somewhat healthy. I had to add the chocolate chips for myself the kids, of course.

Peanut Butter Balls

Makes 20 quarter-sized balls

1 cup natural peanut butter (chunky or creamy)

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

1 cup rolled oats - quick cooking works best

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed or wheat germ

2 tablespoons sweetened flaked coconut

1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat peanut butter and honey in the microwave until easily mixed, about 15-20 seconds.  Stir until blended.  
2. In a separate bowl, mix oats, flaxseed, coconut, and chocolate chips until combined.
3. Add peanut butter mixture to oat mixture and stir until incorporated. 
4. Roll into quarter-sized balls. 
5. You might want to roll these in cocoa powder or powdered sugar if you want to get fancy.
6. Chill the plate of balls in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

He approves!

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili

Soup, soup, what would my family eat if it weren't for soup? I promised you a soup recipe, and this is my absolute favorite soup of all time. I remember when my mom started serving it back in the 90s (that makes me feel old). At the time it seemed very exotic. Chili without meat? Chili with squash? Can you do that? Oh yes, you can.

Now it seems not the least bit unusual, which shows me how far we've come. My two-year old eats it and asks for seconds.

Be sure not to miss the cashews, which give it a nice crunch and really add a lot. You might consider adding avocado too. If you don't enjoy wrestling with butternut squash, you can buy it already peeled and cut up at Trader Joes.

Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili

4 tablespoons vegetable oil 
4 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium butternut squash, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 10 cups)
2 cups canned vegetable or reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 14 1/2-ounce cans diced tomatoes
2 15 1/4-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
4 tablespoons chili powder
4 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
1 cup cashews, coarsely chopped

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add the oil. Add the onions, red peppers and jalapeno and saute until softened, 5-8 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the squash, broth, tomatoes and their juice, black beans, chili powder, cumin, oregano and salt and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. 


Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the corn and cook for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Top each serving with cashews.


Serve this with cornbread and you've got a great fall meal.

Oven Pancakes

Oh, glorious weekend, how we love you. This was a good one. The light was clean, the air crisp, and there were ghosts and goblins everywhere. Here's how we spent our two days:


Playing on the beach. Fall days are so nice at the shore. It's not too hot and the sun feels good on your skin.

Starting in October the dogs are allowed to stay on the beach all day, and they are everywhere and sooooooo happy. You've never seen so many happy dogs! If you're lucky sometimes the salt air mixes with wood smoke from fireplaces in the houses that line Sullivan's Island.

 

 It's enough to make me want to build a bonfire, roast s'mores, curl up in a sleeping bag and spend the night on the beach. But that will have to wait until these guys are a little older.

Listening to Warren Haynes live coming in through our windows. He was right down the street at the Southern Grounds music festival.

Watching Tennessee get beat by the mighty Alabama. It's a rebuilding year. At least now we have a classy coach, and one who can rock the orange pants with style. And here are the two Volunteers on game day.

Painting pumpkins. It's not the color combo that I would have chosen, but I like to let him do his own thing.

Anticipating moving into our house. We'll be there in four short weeks. I guess I should begin packing us up (what?). Here's what it looks like so far.

Eating soup, soup, and more soup. Recipe to follow later in the week. And for Saturday breakfast this oven pancake which was oh-so-easy and very popular.

Oven Pancake

9 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour (I used half white and half whole wheat)

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all in blender and blend until smooth. In an oven preheated to 425 degrees, melt 2 T butter. I used a cast iron skillet, but a 9x13 baking pan would work too. Next pour the mixture in the pan and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve these with whatever you like. We used strawberries and powdered sugar, but apples, bananas, whipped cream and maple syrup would all work as well.

And finally, sitting in this traffic jam as we waited for the bridge to open on our way home.

Goodbye weekend, hello Monday. The end.

Cinnamon Brownies

There are pictures of apples and sweaters all over the internet, but it is hard for me to get excited about fall just yet. All the coffee shops are advertising pumpkin lattes. My son's Halloween costume sits in a box, ready to go. I even have out my fall cocktail napkins, courtesy of my mom. It is 88 degrees in the lowcountry today. The mosquitoes are still out.

Nonetheless, I've been getting ideas for fall and winter and a little excitement is stirring. I can't wait to have a house to decorate. I plan to make this advent calendar with my preschooler this year. And today I made some very wintry tasting brownies.

Let me say that I've never jumped at brownie recipes that call for using unsweetened cocoa powder. That doesn't seem like real chocolate to me, and it seems too easy to use something I always keep on hand. But that was before I learned that the taste of cocoa really stands out when all it shares the pan with is butter, sugar, flour, and a little cinnamon. The only fat comes straight from the butter instead of from the fat and binding agents used to make a chocolate bar. The only sugar is real sugar. The taste of these brownies is amazing, gooey, rich, delicious. The cinnamon cuts through it all just perfectly. They are just what I needed on this late summer day, when I am happy to be soon saying goodbye to September. It may not be fall yet in Charleston, but at least it is fall in my kitchen.

Cinnamon Brownies

10 tablespoons butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon mexican vanilla

2 large eggs, cold

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and place in the microwave, cooking in 30 second increments as not to over cook. Stir after each 30 seconds. Cook until butter is melted, and ingredients are well combined--it looks fairly gritty at this point, but it smooths out once the eggs and flour are added. If you don't have a microwave, a double boiler will work just the same.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter. The recipe says 20 to 25 minutes, but I found I had to bake them for about 30. Let cool completely on a rack and then lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares.

This recipe comes from this gorgeous blog.

Little Baileys Cheesecakes

I happened upon these little beauties on thestonesoup.com, which is rich with quick and easy recipes. In fact, the whole premise is 5 ingredients in 10 minutes or less. I find that when I'm hosting a dinner and preparing every course myself, sometimes I run out of steam by the time dessert comes around and I end up buying something from a bakery. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but these little cheesecakes are impressive and elegant and take even less time than a stop off at the bakery. I made these this weekend when my parents were in town, and everyone thought they were delicious.

Little Baileys Cheesecakes

6 shortbread or butternut snap type cookies (I used Walker's shortbread rounds)
1/3 cup Baileys
7 oz. ricotta
9 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Line a muffin tin with 6 muffin papers.

Place cookies upside down in the bottom of each. You may need to trim them a little with a knife to get them to sit flat. Drizzle each cookie with 1 teaspoon Baileys.

Combine remaining ingredients, including remaining Baileys, in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Divide mixture evenly among muffin papers and refrigerate for at least an hour until ricotta firms up.

Both images via thestonesoup.com. My appologies for using borrowed images, but my pictures did not turn out.

Mediterranean Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes, Feta, and Olives

I made this on a weeknight and thought it represented minimal effort for maximum results. The fresh mint adds a lot, and I find myself using feta often because it's a full-flavored cheese that's lower in fat. The recipe uses a high-low approach when cooking the chicken, which means that you get a flavorful browned crust without drying out the interior. You can translate the technique for all kinds of chicken dishes.

Chicken:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 boneless, skinless breasts
salt and pepper 4 teaspoons canola oil

Relish:
2 minced garlic cloves
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup coarsely chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup shredded mint
2 tablespoons water
salt and pepper
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. For the chicken, spread the flour into a shallow dish. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge the chicken in the flour and shake off excess.

2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken and cook until well browned on the first side, 6 to 8 minutes. Flip, reduce the heat to medium, and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate and tent loosely with foil.

3. For the relish, return the skillet to medium heat, add the garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, and water, scraping up any browned bits, and cook about 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Pour the relish over the chicken and sprinkle with the feta and mint before serving.

This recipe is from the America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.

Skinny Margaritas

via

Ever since I learned that tequila is the liquor with the lowest glycemic index from some of my crazy (and very skinny) friends who follow the Paleo diet, I've been making these at home on a regular basis. They're easy and good and best of all, it's a scientifically proven fact that the more of them you drink the skinnier you get.

One of the keys is using a decent tequila since you will really taste it. Usually that means a silver instead of a gold. We really like Milagro tequila for its smoky flavor. My brother sips tequila neat, but he's always been sort of a general badass.

To make skinny margaritas:
1. Fill a pretty glass with ice. Crushed is best.
3. Fill the glass about 1/3 full with tequila.
4. Add enough sparkling water until the glass is almost full. Flavored is nice, but plain is good too.
5. Add a touch of Rose's sweetened lime juice - about a pinkie finger full.
6. Use lots of fresh lime to top it off, and don't forget a nice cocktail napkin.
If you are a Paleo purist you would avoid the Rose's, of course. You try it your way and figure out what you like.

And here's my brother, the general badass, only instead of holding a glass of tequila he's holding my daughter.

Aren't I nice to send you into the weekend with a new cocktail recipe? Happy sipping.

Better Banana Bread

A friend of mine just expressed her frustration that ice-cream and Honey Buns are on the menu everyday at her kindergartner's school. Yuck. What five-year-old is going to choose vegetables when he has the option of filling up on ice-cream? Because it can be hard to help our children make healthy food choices outside the home, it's important to provide them with healthy options at home. I like this banana bread recipe because it's lower in sugar than most. It also replaces some of the fat with yogurt. I make it even healthier by substituting whole-wheat flour for one fourth of the white flour. The best part is it still tastes delicious.

This recipe is straight from my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook which I can't say enough good things about. These people are total food nerds. This is a crowd who will dork out on making forty-seven batches of banana bread just to test out whether changing the nutmeg/cinnamon ratio by 1/4 teaspoon makes any difference in taste. They spend all their time in the kitchen so that we don't have to, and I appreciate them for it. I also have their Healthy Family Cookbook, which is sort of my go-to cookbook. Their recipes never let me down.

Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1-1/2 cups + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well (they must be very ripe or your bread will be gummy)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 and generously coat a 9 x 5 pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the nuts. Do not overmix; the batter will look thick and chunky.
3. Scrape the batter into the pan an smooth the top. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 55 minutes.
4. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack for 1 hour.

Make this Summer Salad

Today at 4:30 I was wondering what to make for dinner as I railed through the grocery store, one child strapped to me and the other crying while driving one of those hideous race car shopping cart things around. This salad never fails. You can add things or take them away depending on what you forget at the store, and you can easily make it a meal by adding protein. Here are the ingredients:

arugula (my go-to lettuce because the nutty flavor can't be beat)

mango (it's so sexy and the color looks so pretty with any shade of green)

red onion chopped fine

tomatoes

toasted almonds (just put them in a pan with a little olive oil - it's easy)

avocado

Dress it all by mixing white wine vinegar, fresh lime juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper together. Make sure to  start with the vinegar and lime juice and then whisk the olive oil into that to emulsify it. Tonight we added rotisserie chicken and it was so easy.