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Nectarine and Berry Topped Salad with Pecans and Gorgonzola

August 29, 2016

So I am the most awkward person ever.

Let’s start from some funny/horrible things that happened recently.

On Tuesday, Autumn and I stopped by the house before heading into work to check on progress. Not much was happening to our house, but the house next door had a busy crew. I swung by to talk to one of the guys to see if he would be involved in our house. He was explaining that they have not yet been giving a date when they would poor the slab but he was thinking it would be Friday or Saturday. While we were chatting, Autumn was hoping around and playing around me. Of course, she thought it would be super awesome to yank up my dress HIGH UP to hide under there.

I was not wearing underwear.

Yep. Flashed one of the guys working on our house.

I basically turned purple and stopped talking to him and booked it to the car.

Fast forward a few days, and we’re now having our slab pour on Saturday. We stopped by to check it out and of course I see him. I gave him a little wave like ‘yep…’. Anyway, things are going smoothly until we are about to leave. Price got Autumn in the car while I finished up taking the last pics we wanted.

Well, I snapped my last picture, turned, took a step and fell into a hole.

Everyone on the job site saw it.

I mean, come on now!!! I will not be able to show my face there anymore. #theworst

In other news, this salad ROCKS!!!!

It’s such a great summer salad. It has fresh stone fruit and berries on it. The berries on there are so juicy and fresh. The saltiness from the cheese is a great contrast to the sweetness of the fruit. Plus, it’s just so pretty.

We brought this salad to a dinner with friends this past weekend because I just thought it would be a fun way to incorporate summer fruit into a salad. Plus, it’s a fun sweet contrast to the smokey ribs we had.

I did a pretty simple dressing of just extra virgin olive oil with rice vinegar. I didn’t want the dressing to over power the salad, especially the Gorgonzola. Just a rich extra virgin olive oil and a bit of vinegar will do. Don’t over do it.

Summer is winding down, so now is the perfect time to run out and get some fresh, ripe fruit to use in this salad. Savory every last bit of summer!

Nectarine and Berry Topped Salad with Pecans and Gorgonzola

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

10 ounces of mixed greens
1 nectarine, very thinly sliced
1 Cup blueberries
1 Cup blackberries
1/2 Cup glazed pecans
2-3 ounces of crumbled Gorgonzola
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 Cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Process

Arrange the greens in a large shallow bowl or on a serving platter.
Scatter the slices of nectarine all over the greens. Then, add the the berries all over the salad.
Sprinkle the nuts and cheese evenly on top.
Combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Dress salad just prior to serving or dress individual portions.

Jumbleberry Crumble

March 28, 2016

Do you know what you do when you work 40+ hours of over time in a month?

You neglect your blog and you buy new shoes.

What’s the point in making loads of OT if you aren’t going to enjoy it? Am I right!?!

So I am tired, but I have 2 new pairs of Sperry’s on there way. Okay, 3 pairs.

I’m super excited about that.

And I will be super excited when I get a chance to catch up on sleep. One of these days…

In the mean time, I have a new, delicious Secret Recipe Club post to share.

I was given Nicola’s blog Lemon and Cheese for this month’s secret trade off. She is based in London so I enjoyed checking out all her recipes that are baked in Celsius and measured in grams and ml. Plus, I loved seeing all her recipes that called for Courgettes, which we know as Zucchini. ha!

Her recipe archive is long and extensive. I just kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. There were so many recipes to choose from, and a wide selection too. It makes me want to get out and cook more.

I wrote down several recipes as I was trying to select a recipe, like her Crispy Garlic Chicken, Thai Yellow Fish Curry, Roasted Cucumber Tzatziki, and Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls. In the end I decided on her Jumbleberry Crumble since I wanted something sweet to enjoy and I figured this would be a great treat with fruit.

I’m glad that I made this Jumbleberry Crumble since it was so super simple and the results were incredible. Incredible. I’m telling you I loved it. We all loved it.

It’s not overly sweet. I often find that crumbles and crisps are overly sweet, but this allows the natural sweetness of the berries to shine through.

Since strawberries are in season now here in Florida, I used more strawberries in the jumbleberry crumble than the rest of the berries. But, just in case you’re curious, I used 6 ounces each of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. And then the rest was juicy, fresh Florida strawberries. Berry bliss right there.

Serve this up with some ice cream or freshly made whipped cream and I am telling you that you will be in love. You’ll be sneaking off before bed to crack open the fridge just to get another bite in love. Seriously.

Jumbleberry Crumble

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients

For the crumble

1 Cup flour
2/3 Cup rolled oats
4 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 Cup sugar

For the fruit filling

2 pounds mixed berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries
1/4 Cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Process

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place an shallow oven-safe baking dish on a sheet pan.
Combine the flour, oats, butter and sugar in a bowl. Mix together with your fingers into create a crumbly texture.
Combine the berries, sugar and cornstarch in a large sauce pot. Stir together and set over a medium heat. Cook until the berries just start to release their juices.
Transfer to the baking dish. Top with the crumble mixture.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crumble is golden brown and the juices are bubbly.
Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!

Adapted from Lemon and Cheese

Check out all the other great Secret Recipe Club posts HERE this month!

And be sure to check out my 4+ years of Secret Recipe Club posts!!!!

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Mixed Berry Rustic Pie

August 1, 2014

While we were in Maine last weekend, Price made blueberry pancakes for breakfast one day. Of course they were Maine blueberries. On a whim we gave Autumn some. I say ‘on a whim’ because she is not a breakfast ~~person~~ baby. Her morning bottle is eaten in 2 parts and it’s the smallest bottle of the day. So I didn’t think she would be interested in it.

Well, I was wrong. Really wrong. She gobbled it up. And then we made more and saved them for lunch for her and she ate them up too. (Just to clarify there was no syrup involved!)

We had occasionally given her berries prior to this but this has definitely awakened something in her because since then she eaten a lot of blueberries and had some

Mixed Berry Rustic Pie_09

So I can see that she is going to L-O-V-E this Mixed Berry Rustic Pie when she is older.

There are 4 different kinds of berries in this pie- blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. It’s loaded up with berry goodness. When Price had his slice (for breakfast- better lighting!) he said it was ‘berry good’. ba-dum-tss!

Because there is not much too it I would really urge you to make homemade crust for it as it adds to much good texture and flavor. Plus, I think it would just look better with its handmade edges vs its factory cut circle-y edge. I am a big fan of store-bought crust, but I think this one needs a handmade one.

As well, I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to putting in cornstarch to thicken the filling. I think it’s sooo much worse to have a soupy pie than one that is a bit too thick. It affects the bottom of the crust and how you get the slice out of the plate. So if you think you’ve used enough, add some more!

Other than that… this recipe is a piece of cake! 🙂

Mixed Berry Rustic Pie

Makes a 9″ Pie

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup cold butter
1/8-1/4 cup ice water

For the Filling

1 pint blueberries
6 oz raspberries
6 oz blackberries
12 oz strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
2-3 Tablespoons cornstarch (depending how juicy the fruit is)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Process

For the Crust

In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar. Cut the cold butter into very small pieces, put back into the refrigerator to keep extra cold.
Using a food processor/pastry cutter, or your hands, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture crumbly and looks like sand.
Slowly add in the water until the mixture holds together.
Pat and form into a loose ball. If the mixture is too warm at this point then put it back into the refrigerator for a few.
Flour work surface and roll out crust two inches larger than pie pan. Place crust in the pie pan.

To make the Pie:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine berries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice in large bowl.
Add berries to pie crust. Then fold edges of crust over filling, creasing as needed.
Bake at 30-40 minutes or until filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.
Serve warm with ice cream!

Inspired from Tidy Mom

Thirsty Thursday: Red, White, and Blue Sangria

May 23, 2013

I can’t wait for Memorial Day.

Summer is my favorite time of year and Memorial Day weekend is the unoffical kickoff to summer. It’s going to be gloomy in Boston this weekend but I don’t care! We are grilling no matter what!!! I just love this weekend and what it represents so I was excited when Amanda picked Memorial Day for our Thirsty Thursday theme this week.

I know everyone thinks of flags for the Fourth of July but I think of the Red, White, and Blue just as much now. So that is why I made a Red, White, and Blue Sangria. Sure, sure the pineapple is actually yellow but let’s play along and say it represents the white. It’s a great summery drink to enjoy now or for the Fourth of July 🙂

red white and blue sangria_03

Amanda made Sarasota Lemonade. It’s perfectly refreshing and a great drink to cool off with while taking in some sun this summer! Sounds so good that I might have to sneak some to the beach… shh don’t tell!! 🙂

Red, White, and Blue Sangria

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

1 bottle dry white wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc
1/2 cup triple sec
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
1 1/2 cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
1 pineapple chunks
2 cups Sprite

Process

Combine all of the ingredients, except the Sprite, in a large punch bowl or pitcher and stir well. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Serve well-chilled with a good scoop of fruit floating in each drink.

Inspired by Recipe Girl

Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars- SRC

May 18, 2013

I made these Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars for Memorial Day weekend. We munched on these while we watched the Coke 600 NASCAR race. It made the race even better. How can you not love a sweet treat and hot guys!?! ha 🙂

Well, these were a fantastic pick for this month’s Secret Recipe Club. Huge hit. It made the house smell great while baking so that we agonized waiting the hour for them to cool before cutting. I’m just so glad that this month I had Avril’s blog Baking and Creating with Avril and we picked these bars.

The bars are super simple to make and are bursting with fresh berry flavor. I used strawberries and blueberries but feel free to add some raspberries in there as well. We loved that so much at we felt that the white chocolate is not even needed. It’s great but if you don’t have it on hand (I don’t normally), don’t stress out. These will kick butt with the buttery crust, fresh fruit and crumbly topping.

I found it a bit easier to gently cut the bars when they were still warm so that it made cutting through them when they cooled easier. Like scoring something before you cut it- that’s my 7 yrs of maki. As well, made for thing a bit easier when cutting through the chocolate so it wouldn’t make a mess breaking the drizzle up.

I swear you won’t be able to eat just one of these. So fantastic!

Fresh Berry White Chocolate Streusel Bars

Makes 24 bars

Ingredients

2 cups oats
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup COLD butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces strawberry jam
1 tsp lemon zest
2 cups fresh berries (chop or slice strawberries if you use them)
3 ounces white chocolate chips

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside at 15×10 jellyroll pan (rimmed baking sheet.
In a large bowl whisk together oats, flour, both sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in COLD butter that has been cut into small pieces. Combine the butter into the dry ingredients either with your hands or a pastry cutter until butter is well incorporated as little crumbles. Remove 1 cup of the mixture, set aside. Evenly press the remaining mixture into a jellyroll pan.
Bake for 12-13 minutes or until it is firm to the touch, but not browned.
Warm the jam in microwave for 30 seconds. Add in lemon zest to combine. Spread the warm jam over the crust.
Evenly sprinkle the berries over the jam layer and then sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until topping is a light brown. Remove from oven and let cool 1 hour before cutting. Once cut pour the melted chocolate over the bars in the pan.

Slightly Adapted from: Baking and Creative with Avril

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