All posts tagged: featured

Southern Greens Shakshuka | BHM Virtual Potluck

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February is Black History Month and to celebrate, I have joined up with 27 of the best black food bloggers from around the globe for a Virtual Potluck! From African to Creole, Caribbean to Southern there is something for everybody; with each blogger contributing their very own recipes in a number of categories (Meat Entree, Seafood Entree, Vegetarian Entree, Beverage and Dessert) to share with you each day of Black History Month. Check out and try some of the other amazing recipes from our participating bloggers listed at the end of this post! Those who know me well, know that I love a good brunch. If I’m totally honest, I would tell you that I pretty much live for brunch. Thoughts of where we’re going for brunch on on the weekend tend to dominate my late-week thoughts. I may or may not have a spreadsheet showing which brunch places in town serve bottomless mimosas…

FEED Supper 2016

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About four years ago, my husband and I attended a charity dinner in town called Project Dinner Table. It was the first long table dinner I had ever attended and I’ve been obsessed with hosting one ever since. There is something about being seated at a dinner party with 100 other people that stirs my imagination in a profound way. It isn’t just the food; it is the communal experience– a feeling of being a part of something really special and really BIG. Last weekend after about 8 weeks of planning and cooking for what seemed to be forever, I was finally able to make that long table dinner party dream a reality and hosted my very first FEED Supper. It was an incredible experience, combining the things that I enjoy the most: feeding a lot of people, eating great food, and making a difference! Each year, beginning on September 16 and culminating on World Food Day, October 16, hosts around the globe join together to “truly share a meal” with their dinner guests. The premise is so simple: host a supper and ask your dinner …

Easy Gatherings with Uncommon Goods

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This post was created in partnership with Uncommon Goods, purveyors of unique and wonderful things! I cannot believe that we are halfway through September, which means only two more weeks until my favorite month and my favorite season of the year! Seriously, after a long, terribly hot summer, I am so ready to crawl out of my self-imposed indoor seclusion and get reacquainted with the world again. I think every September I go through a kind of nesting syndrome. In January, I’m ready to throw everything away–remember my attacks of minimalism?  But by September, I’m ready to decorate EVERYTHING. But here’s the thing they don’t tell you about minimalism: after a few years of it, you come to the realization that you don’t have any things! I know…that’s kind of the point. But after I while, I’m starting to get the feeling that I want to be surrounded by a few more pretty things. So, it was perfect timing when Uncommon Goods reached out to me to collaborate on this post. At first, I was actually paralyzed with indecision. You …

The $20 Dollar Dinner Party: Pork Ragú with Creamy Polenta

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Having friends join us for dinner in our home is one of the most fun and positive things we can do with our weekend. Sure, we could go out to dinner, there are more than enough amazing restaurants in Las Vegas to try, but there’s just something special about sharing a meal at home. Personally, I love having dinner parties. If I could, I would have a dinner party every single weekend! This particular weekend, I had a dilemma. I had a nearly empty checking account and four people coming over for dinner. The solution to my dilemma was a recipe for Pork Ragú with Polenta from the March issue of Bon Appetít Magazine. When Bon Appetít arrives in my mailbox, I get as excited as a kid with a Christmas catalog–eagerly dashing away with it and dreaming of all the scrumptious recipes I can make. When I saw this recipe, it lived in the back of my mind for several weeks, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to make it. Living in the West, I learned to cook pork shoulder using Mexican …

The Apollo Cocktail with St. George Terroir Gin

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It’s really, really great when you have thoughtful friends who know you well enough to buy you gifts of gin. Those are the kinds of friends that you hold onto for dear life because a friend who knows your favorite spirit is a special friend, indeed. My dear friend Lori Rice of Fake Food Free is just that kind of thoughtful friend! A few weeks ago, I was surprised and thrilled to receive a package in the mail from her containing an entire set of St. George Spirits Gin as a wedding gift! The set came with their 3 signature gin varieties: Terroir, Botanivore and Dry Rye. St. George Craft Distillers hails from Alameda, California, which just happens to be Lori’s stomping grounds. It’s no secret that Gin is my favorite spirit. I love it because the flavors in gin so easily combine with fresh herbs and I love cocktails that taste like they’re fresh from the garden. Since I was unfamiliar with this particular brand of gin, I was very excited to hold a little tasting for myself in order to get to know …

“W & P” Mint Julep from “Shake”

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It’s been a really long time since I shared a cocktail recipe with you and it seems like Tax Day is a good time to have a nice libation to either celebrate your refund or soothe your nerves if you had to pay! This Mint Julep is another favorite from the book “Shake: A New Perspective on Cocktails” by Eric Prumm and Josh Williams and they call it the W&P Mint Julep. It took me a few minutes to figure out that W and P were the author’s initials…I’m a little slow. It’s a simple, straight-forward mint julep–nothing fancy, just good Bourbon, fresh mint, a bit of lemon juice and sugar cubes for sweetness and lots and lots of crushed ice. Absolutely refreshing. The inspiration for this cocktail came from the abundance of mint and lemon balm we have growing in our garden. It was so healthy and gorgeous and every time I passed by it I thought “I need to make something with this mint as soon as possible”. Well, I’m glad I did because last …

Tagliatelle with Caramelized Orange and Almonds, plus Seared Duck Breast

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I’m beginning to think that there’s some literal truth to this March Madness thing. After a month of family bulls%&t, food failures, photography failures and fights with The Husband I’m really ready to throw in the towel on the month of March. And to think, the month started with so much promise! The weather has been perfect. Absolutely beautiful. It hasn’t even been windy, which is really weird. For once, I had written out a calendar of ideas and recipes to post. And then, as if on cue by a Soothsayer, the Ides of March brought with it a firestorm of crazy. I’ve had quite enough, thank you. Last year in March it was the same thing.  Are any of you having a rough month as well or is it just me? This recipe is probably the one good thing that came out of this lousy month. I was driving to work one day, listening to The Splendid Table podcast, completely engrossed by Lynn Rosetto Kasper’s soothing voice as she coached violinist Joshua Bell through this recipe …