This week I’ve been visiting my old hood in Venice, California, where the air has been clear (surprise, no smog at the beach folks!), the sand and surf has beckoned every. single. day. and I’ve woken up each morning to the kiss of the ocean breeze coming my bedroom’s french doors.
I think I’ve finally hit my stride of relaxation and I’m lapping it up as much as I can.
Before I left for vacation I was asked to make you a summertime macaroni and cheese in honor of today being, drumroll please, National Macaroni and Cheese Day!
Happy Friday friends! This week I’m back in my old hood of Venice, CA with my husband, daughter and her BFF on a little family vaca. Wow, what a time warp we’ve flung ourselves back into.
Some things have changed, and a lot of things we wish would have, just. haven’t. Traffic. Gas prices. Young, hot couples in the grocery store who we think look just like us in our mind’s eye 15 years ago…we just can’t compare.
So instead of comparing, we’ll just hang out at the beach. As if that’s a challenge.
Happy Friday to you all, today’s a shortened list, because hey! I’m on vacation…Next week we’ll be back with an extended fave list, I hope you’re all ready to also enjoy a GREAT weekend.
This milkshake is 100% Smudge. I mean, cereal and ice cream? It’s a 10 year old’s dream! At first I scoffed the idea because it’s a pretty simple concept but then what milkshake isn’t? And when I recalled how Momofuko Milk Bar does a cereal milk ice cream, I realized this might be pretty much GENIUS!
Posting a milkshake in the middle of summer isn’t really a novel idea, but it wasn’t until I heard about Milkshake Week hosted by Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil that I jumped on the chilled bandwagon to join in some serious chilling. And give Smudge a reason to slurp to her little heart’s content.
As far as summertime in America goes, it doesn’t get much more patriotic than pie.
This quintessential all-American treat beckons nostalgia with every bite, conjuring memories of baseball games, bare feet and catching fireflies in mason jars. Pie comes in many incarnations these days — in bars and milkshakes, gussied up with pretzel brownie crusts, booze, and salted-caramel-vanilla bean-caramel whatever. Perhaps the most overly ambitious variation has been the cherpumple — you remember, that awkward dessert with the major identity crisis, the cake/pie hybrid? It might sound like the best of both worlds, and we’re not pie prudes, but it’s actually a hot mess.
Glammed up pies are fine and dandy every so often, but sometimes less is more, and sometimes we just want pie. Unadulterated, old-fashioned, make-your-mama-proud pie like Mountain Fresh Peach Pie or Caramel Apple Pie ala FoodieCrush.
We’ve found 20 classic recipes to conquer your hankering for comforting goodness, and render you homesick for your childhood. Andie MacDowell’s adorable pie song from the ’96 film Michael says it all, “Me oh my, I love pie.” So put on your best apron and get rolling.
Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye. Unless you have something bright and shiny and new to say hello to. And if it makes delicious food, then in my book, my welcome mat is always ready.
We recently welcomed a new addition to the family and gave a fond farewell to one of our trusty summertime soldiers. And so we begin today’s post with a wave goodbye and well wishes to our 15 year+ outdoor gas grill who will surely find a great new home as soon as we set him to the curb. He served us well, but after several grill surgeries and a starter that forgot it’s duty and brought too many near misses of singed eyelashes and a voluminous WHOOMP when he finally caught fire, his time had come.
With July deemed as National Grilling Month, our bright and shiny new grilling addition is going to get a workout because I’m taking note and will be sharing a new grilling recipe each week. We’ll be going beyond the standard grilling fare of burgers and dogs to dive into simple, but juicy-packed-with-flavor dishes that will have you racing to break out the barbie.
This week’s grilling subject is meat. My first recipe out of the gate is this Grilled Pork Chops with Spicy Balsamic Grilled Peaches. A long title for a relatively no fuss recipe that is totally divine thanks to a soak in a salty brine to assist in making an amazingly juicy chop.
