Yes, Fall has officially begun because we are now passed Labor Day! Do you still wear white? Just curious!?
Well, I’m definitely cranking out some warmer meals this week. The only thing that has been different about the Atlanta weather for the past week is we’ve had a lot more rain. I love the big storm clouds. I don’t love the fact that the storms seems to come during my boys’ nap time. They aren’t fans of constant thunder! Oh, well, I will train them right!
Pot Roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions
Beef Tips over Basmati
Chili (from a friend through a freezer meal exchange that I will be sharing) and cornbread
And i’m baking some soft batch cookies with fall candies. Can’t wait to show you finished product! And share them with a mom who is about to have another baby!
For this week’s edition of Sundays in the South, I am featuring I recipe I finished up this morning.
I am definitely from the South. And if there is any dessert that is commonplace in the South, especially the Deep South, it is pound cake. Unfortunately, pound cake might rank right up there in my just-never-asked-for-desserts. Unless you are this one particular pound cake found at a tiny bakery in a tiny town off I-40 in North Carolina.
Ketchie Creek Bakery serves an amazing Five Flavor Pound Cake with a rich and smooth buttercream which I would take over most any dessert in the world. You get a huge piece and need to split it with about 4 friends, but man, it just melts in your mouth.
But, this pound cake features two of those flavors…lime and vanilla. I made it today for our family reunion and my Dad’s comment “Its dense and moist.” Exactly what a pound cake should be.
I tweaked How Sweet Eats recipe of this – I thought it was too lime-y, so the recipe you see below makes that adjustment. Also, I didn’t have a vanilla bean, so I upped the amount of vanilla. The end result was still tangy and smooth.
Fall – I think for a lot of us kitchen people its one of our favorite seasons. Pumpkin. Cinnamon. Sweet Potatoes. Apples.
But, I don’t think I had ever experienced a Fall season until I moved to North Carolina in 2000. See, I grew up in central Florida. The only two seasons we had were Summer and Christmas Day (and some years we only had one season). I loved it. I was close to Disney World though I only remember going in high school and college when I would do Night of Joy with the youth groups. I was close to the beach (though we had a pool, so my Dad couldn’t figure out why we needed to spend money going to the beach).
But, I remember moving to Wake Forest, North Carolina to start seminary right before a huge snow storm – rethinking the whole moving north thing. But, then fall came around at the start of my second semester. I adored the sound the leaves made as I walked through them on my way to class. I loved wearing jackets with my jeans (even though I would sport some flipflops usually). I loved sitting down with a warm cup of chai or steamed milk or hot chocolate to study out on the lawn. The bright blue Fall sky against the browns and yellows and reds of the leaves. Gorgeous.
And of course, Fall brings pumpkin! I could eat pumpkin goodies year round, but yesterday when I stepped outside for an early morning out, and felt the slightly cooler Atlanta air, I knew I was ready for Fall. So, I whipped up these pumpkin butter muffins for my mister. They were a winner. (This recipe was inspired by Joy the Baker)
Summer food should be pretty. The sun is shining. The gardens are bursting with fragrant herbs and brightly hued fruits the way God imagined and created them.
While I didn’t grow the items found in this summer salad, I did buy them at the Whole Foods in Buckhead (a delightful shopping, eating, and living area of Atlanta). This Whole Foods takes the cake on any one I’ve been in. The produce alone would be reason to keep coming back to it again and again. I remember the first time I took our older son in there. He exclaimed “watermelon” while looking at the sample containter of beautiful red, completely juicy, delicious watermelon. (And that was the first time he had said it!)
And another favorite thing I love about this salad is the dressing. I do love to make my own, but when you’ve found a simple summer vinaigrette such as this one: Brianna’s Real French – why waste the time in making my own? It is slightly tangy and fragrant and rests lightly on any food you put it on (this salad and our pink grapefruit salad are our two favorites). And if you want to know where to get the delicious Yard Blend that I use in this side dish, contact my friend Jayme over at Holly and Flora.
So, without further ado – here is a perfectly simple summer side dish that would be a great accompaniement to your next light summer affair. Get some crusty bread, cheese, wine, berries, and this – night well made.
In Wake Forest, North Carolina, a place I called home for 3.5 years in my twenties, sits a well-known favorite of the Olde English Tea Room. As you walk in the door, you are greeted with the fragrance of enough tea to make any tea-lover happy.
They had delicious cakes that friends of mine baked in the wee hours of the morning and the slower hours of the afternoon. Delicious chicken salad and a chicken and rice soup that I ate almost exclusively. And they had quiches.
I never tried theirs because I didn’t know what I was missing. I didn’t start eating quiche until a few years ago. Maybe its because I thought it wasn’t filling or was too dainty of food – I mean, I love macaroni and cheese and a good steak or burger. But, now I know better.
I created this quiche because of the presence of these sweet little peppers that were on sale at my grocery store. Oh goodness. Their sweetness, after cooking just a bit in some olive oil, tasted divine and simple in the pool of eggs and cream and cheese that they baked in. I went the simple route and used a store bought pie dough for the crust – but do what your heart – and your counter space limitation – tell you to do. Maybe you have a pie crust recipe from your grandmother that you use all that time – then by all means use it.
Deliciously rich and sweet quiche perfect for any time of the day
Ingredients
1 unbaked pie crust
1 cup shredded Italian cheese (I use a 5 cheese blend)
1 cup heavy cream
6 eggs (I use all natural Great Day Farm eggs)
7 sweet mini peppers, chopped, seeded
olive oil
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Bake the pie crust for about 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Chop the peppers and sauté until just soft in evoo. Season with salt and pepper.
In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream, spices, and half of the cheese.
When your pie crust is cooled, layer the rest of the cheese in the bottom.
Then top the cheese with the peppers.
Then dump in the egg mixture. If you are using a deep dish you will be able to fit all the mixture. If you aren't then you'll have a little left (just scramble it up in a pan and have a breakfast 1 and 2).
Bake on a baking sheet for about 45 minutes or until no longer jiggly in the center of the quiche.
Serve with a simple green salad or some fruit and a muffin.
One of my favorite things in the world of food is Caesar dressing. The tanginess and saltiness and creaminess just makes me salivate and want to dip everything I have in front of me – bread, croutons, crackers, vegetables, meat, salad (of course), in it. Just dump the contents of the bottle in a large bowl and let me dig in! I wanted to liven up some frozen green beans and thought this would be the perfect side dish. I could have easily eaten the whole dish!
This breakfast reminds of two of my favorite morning meals. Pancakes at Guglhupf in Durham, NC. And oats in the Bay Area of California with my Dad. Let me tell you about them.
There is a little bakery/café in the central part of Durham that I still crave their pancakes. Ask my husband: they serve the best most amazing, perfect textured pancakes EVER. I wish I could get their recipe. The pancake plate comes with apples, butter, and syrup. At most restaurants, I have to ask my server for my syrup because the pancakes just need help. I rarely have ever used all the syrup at Guglhupf. They don’t need any more. I can devour the plate and be completely satisfied by the rich goodness that I inhale on my fork. Then I want to go home and recreate them – but have yet been able to. My husband is sitting here beside me making up an ode de Guglhupf. Funny man I live life with.
The Bay Area of California. With so much going on – its a place I’ve only been to once but would love to explore more of – and most directly north of there in the wine country of Napa. But as I look at pictures of the Bridge and the Bay, it pulls me and calls me to travel there to explore all of its goodness. One such goodness is the breakfast I had. I don’t remember where we went, but the oats were amazing. This was really before I started eating oats on a regular basis. I grew up a Life Cereal girl. A whole tray of goodies came out with a big steaming bowl of oats. Bananas, raisins, syrup, brown sugar, all to create your own bowl of goodness. I thought to myself oatmeal could be fun!
Well, thinking about these two delicious breakfasts helped me create this mornings bowl of oats. Oats are a healthy and inexpensive way to feed your whole family in the morning. This recipe serve 2.5 (Eli doesn’t eat quite a whole bowl yet.)
All of the above give you a snapshot into why I love pizza. What I don’t love about pizza: the way it makes me feel. I can’t eat it as much anymore and I will save the rarities for grace pizza.
I still love the flavors of pizza so I want to incorporate those flavors into a more healthy dish for my family. This was gobbled up by my men and me one evening for dinner.
Macaroni and Cheese will live on in my taste buds as one of the best foods in the world. Blue box or baked – if there is mac and cheese at a table, you can assure yourself that I will have some on my plate.
So, looking through my pantry and fridge this afternoon, I made up this one to take to community group tonight. Enjoy it – and long live macaroni and cheese!
Every time I open my fridge, I see this bowl of Brown Eyed Baker’s salted caramel sauce staring me in the face. Its like its begging me to make something with it, or just dig in with a spoon. That’s what spoons are good for, right? Eating caramel!
While I was visiting a local bakery on Friday (interview and photos coming soon), I was inspired to use it in a different way. That different way came about in my kitchen today. Husband ate them – right out of the oven, before the caramel even had time to set! They are that good.
Here are two important criteria to remember when baking these: quality contents produce quality baked goods. The two stars of these mini cups are the salted caramel and the chocolate. I used a Dutch bittersweet chocolate for some of the chocolate in these cups and then the homemade salted caramel. Taste matters when baking – not just precision!
