Cultivating Hospitality

This post was inspired by a friend of mine who recently got married. She sent me a text suggesting that I write on hospitality, and the thought process I put into preparing a meal for guests. I absolutely loved her suggestion because a.) She helped me come up with a topic for a blog post - which is something that isn't always easy, and b.) I remember when I was in her shoes, newly married and so overwhelmed at the thought of hosting people in our home. So without further ado, Kaylie, this is for you.

One of the things I discovered about my husband after we were married was his love of people.

Okay, let me start over... I knew he loved people and valued relationships, but what I don't think I fully realized was how much he loved hosting people. In our home. For dinner.

If you know me, you most likely know that I don't enjoy cooking. I know how to cook, I learned young; I was 9 years old when my youngest brother was born. My mom had a hard labor and delivery, and needed a lot of time to recover. So from her reclining chair in the living room she taught me about meal preparation and laundry and other domestic responsibilities, and for years after that I kept helping out with those things regularly. 

But I cook simple meals. Meals that I didn't think were good enough to serve to dinner guests, and so, in a tizzy those first few times, I tried to impress by cooking complicated everything-from-scratch meals I had never made before - and in the process I probably stressed myself out more than necessary, and truthfully, those meals were rather bland.  

If there is one thing I want you to take to heart and never forget from this post it is this: The thing most people will remember about sitting at your table and eating a meal with you isn't the delectable flavor of the food with its beautiful presentation or the moist, richness of the cake you spent all afternoon preparing. What they will remember is how you made them feel. Did they feel welcomed and at home? Did they feel connection as conversation flowed? 

If you are a stressed and tense hostess your guests will notice it. Which brings me to my very first, and probably most important tip:

• Pick one or two main dishes that are full of flavor but easy to prepare, and make them several times, learning them well before you invite your guests for dinner. 
These will be your go-to options for whenever you are hosting, at least until you feel comfortable enough with the process to branch out more.

Often I will ask my husband to grill steak or chicken or fish, and I will prepare a fresh salad and my signature rice + bean -- an ethinic dish I learned to make while living in Jamaica, which I serve with artisan bread from a local bakery. Depending on who our guests are we will serve a local wine, however, if they aren't comfortable with alcohol I like to serve water infused with lemon, lime, and berries, or make iced tea. 

When my husband isn't able to grill, I make pizza. I've made this so many times I no longer need to pull out a recipe book. I like to switch up sauces and toppings for new flavors, sprinkle goat or feta cheese on top of the mozzarella for an unexpected twist, and if I have them on hand I always caramelize a few onions, because it adds rich flavor and a gourmet touch to a dish that's so easy to prepare. I will serve a fresh salad, and sometimes I like to serve these smokey roasted sweet potatoes as well. As before our beverage will be wine, fruit infused water, or iced tea, depending on who is at our table.

I don't often make dessert, but we always serve coffee, and if I have cookies or biscotti or dark chocolate on hand I will set that out as well.

Now that we've covered the basics of food prep, let's move on...

I like to prepare as much as I can before hand so that I don't feel rushed as I'm making the meal. A few things I've learn over the years are:

• Don't worry about cleaning your entire house before guests arrive.
There is no need to wash everything from top to bottom, but I do recommend you give your bathrooms a good cleaning, vacuum the floors and burn a fresh scented candle. Your house will feel inviting even if it's not spic and span if you do these three steps.

• Make sure you have time to get yourself presentable.
In other words, don't meet your guests at the door wrapped in a bath towel.

• Set the table
It doesn't always happen, but if I have time I like to set the table before our guests arrive so that I can add a few details to dress it up a bit. Black cloth napkins and a sprig of fresh herbs - say lavender or rosemary - at each plate can make a simple, elegant statement. However, if I am serving over 6 people I typically use paper napkins and skip the sprigs of greenery, and if there are more than 12 people at my table I find no shame in using paper plate and cups and plastic utensils. Remember, the point of hosting is about cultivating and growing relationships, it is not about being Martha Stewart!

And finally...

• Meet your guests at the door
Welcome them in, and if there is any last minute things you could use help with, such as filling glasses with water or dishing food or stirring soup, ask them! In her book Bread & Wine, Shauna Niequist states that she will purposefully leave things undone so that she can ask guests for help. This is a great way to get everyone feeling comfortable and involved, especially in settings were guests might not know each other well. (If you need even more great tips on hosting, I would recommend you read the book... It's excellent.)


Another way of hosting, one Herm and I do several times over the course of the summer, is to plan a Bring Your Own Meat, Bring Your Own Beverage party. I will send out an invitation letting guests know that we are firing up the grill and they are welcome to join us. I ask that they each bring a few servings of their favorite meat or veggies to grill and a beverage to share. We provide the paper-ware and I typically make a side or two to serve as well. As people arrive the food is thrown on the grill and Herm works his magic, then we serve it buffet style. I have a galvanized metal tub with ice for the bottles of whatever drinks are brought along, and of course, we always end the evening with coffee and usually desserts that others bring. We've had over 30 people for these events, but since everything is outside, and every one is chipping in with food it is so easy and affordable, and so much fun.

Like I said earlier, remind yourself that hosting is about growing and cultivating relationships. And while it is nice to have a beautiful table setting and delicious, gourmet food, that is not the most important part! If it takes a pizza delivery and premade salad for you to begin feeling comfortable with hosting, that is perfectly fine. Just make it happen! There is so much that can be learned from life around the table... it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

I'm sure many of you have great tips of your own when it comes to hosting and hospitality. If you do, would you please leave a comment for me and Kaylie and anyone else who might feel unsure about this process as well? 

Blueberry + Peach Gallette

This summer we've been enjoying fresh fruit in abundance.

Our property line is scattered with wild raspberry bushes, which we harvested nearly three gallons of berries from. I froze about a gallon of berries, but the rest we enjoyed over cereal or ice cream or simply plain.

And I've been keeping our kitchen stocked at all times with peaches from the SweetPeach Company. I thought I liked peaches before I had a South Carolina peach, but I realized, after that first juicy-delicious bite, that I didn't know what I was missing. I can never go back to a northern peach again. New York, you grow many good and wonderful things, but peaches aren't one of them.

Blueberries are currently in season, so we've been munching those too. Last week when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and nieces and nephews were here we picked a nice amount. I froze most of mine, but kept a few pints in the fridge for fresh eating.

All this to say, on Saturday afternoon I had peaches and blueberries in the fridge that needed to be used up. I absolutely hate wasting food, so I was brainstorming what I could make out of them without it taking all afternoon or requiring me to go for groceries.

And that's when I remembered the partial box of phyllo dough in the freezer.

If you aren't familiar with it, phyllo dough is a paper thin pastry dough. There are many different uses for it, but I had a partial box in the freezer from the last time the cooking club got together. (Yes, I am part of a cooking club, and I don't even like to cook.) Our theme for the evening was Greek Cuisine, which means baklava was a MUST for dessert. Baklava is basically butter and sugar served between many crispy sheets of dough. When I start I can't stop... it's so good!

But that's not the subject of today's post.

Well, it actually kind of is, because when I remembered the phyllo sheet, I got to thinking about how good baklava would be with peaches and berries on top. I quickly searched the internet to make sure I wasn't crazy, and found a recipe similar to what I was thinking of and went from there.

Herm was impressed by the dessert and is already talking about the next time I make it. He thinks it should be a regular dish, served at least weekly in our home, guests or no guests.

BLUEBERRY + PEACH GALLETTE

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 sheets frozed phyllo dough pastry, cut in half
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 peaches, sliced

METHOD:

Cut phyllo dough sheets in half. Place first sheet of dough on foil lined cookie tray. Brush with butter, then sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of white sugar. Place a second sheet of dough over the first sheet, rub with butter, and sprinkle with white sugar. Continue this process until all 12 layers of pastry have been used. 
In a bowl toss together sliced peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oil or butter. Arrange peaches over phyllo dough in a single layer. Pour any remaining brown sugar/butter mixture over the peaches. Sprinkle blueberries evenly among the peaches.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes. Serve with ice cream or whipped topping, and of course, your favorite cup of coffee.

Not His Mama's Shortcake

He is going to be so excited, I thought to myself, as I lifted the shortcake biscuits from the cookie sheets, placing them onto a serving platter. Local strawberries were finally available, and it seemed as though shortcake was all Herm ever talked about. And while baking certainly wasn't how I preferred to spend my precious day off from work, I knew the look of pure delight on the face of my beloved as he took his first bite of shortcake, topped with crushed berries and whipped cream, would make the sacrifice of my time completely worth it in the end.

I dutifully served supper, although I no longer remember what I had made, then brought the tasty surprise out to the deck. What is this? He asked me, unsure. Babe, don't be silly, I retorted, it's only what you talk about every waking minute. He still looked quite confused, leaving me confused as well. It's shortcake Babe. You know, you eat it with strawberries and whipped cream. I love shortcake, and this isn't shortcake, he replied, this looks like biscuits. 

I quickly grew defensive, yanking the box of Bisquick from the trashcan - giving away the secret, these were not made from scratch, leaving me as a failure of a Mennonite woman - as I hastily found the recipe on the back titled "Old-fashion Shortcake".  See, I pointed, see, right here, it's SHORTCAKE!

Maybe so, but it's not my mom's shortcake.  

Another summer came and went, and I did not attempt shortcake again, his mom's or mine.  But last week we were invited to my parents for a dinner of salmon and roasted asparagus, and I was providing dessert. I had several boxes of fresh strawberries from Pennsylvania and all of the ingredients on hand for shortcake, so I thought it was probably time to brave the waters again, and attempt his mom's shortcake.

However, instead of calling Herm's mom for the recipe, I consulted my ever faithful cookbook, Pinterest. I began typing Amish Shortcake Recipe, thinking that help narrow down the results. The first recipe to appear looked promising, it was baked in a square baking dish, certainly not the biscuits I had made two summers ago. This is it, I thought.

After I had made the cake, I took a picture of it and sent it to Herm. He never replied to the text, but when he arrived home he said no, it didn't look like his mom's, but he would still give it a try.

We enjoyed the meal thoroughly, as we always do when my mom is cooking. And on the ride home that night the words Herm said to me were worth recording, never to be forgotten. He said, Babe, I think maybe that should be your shortcake recipe. My mom can have hers, and you can have yours, they're both so good.

(Don't tell anyone, but I've made this recipe three times in one week. First for my family, then to serve when two friends came over for coffee and dessert out on our deck, and finally to go with a meal I made for our weekend guests. And I'm pretty certain it'll be made almost weekly throughout strawberry season.)

This, my friends, it the recipe:

Sarah's Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

For the Shortcake:

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten

For the Streusel:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened

Method:

1. Make crumbs with the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and butter. Add the milk and egg to the crumbs, mixing well until just combined. Spread the mixture into a buttered 8x8 cake pan. Set aside.

2. Make the topping by mixing the sugar, flour and butter. This mixture will be crumbly. Spread over batter in cake pan. Bake the cake at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

3. Serve warm with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or milk.

Enjoy!

Smokey Roasted Sweet Potatoes

After the first bite, I knew I was hooked. This recipe would be on heavy repeat in my kitchen, I would use it as a side for everything. If there were leftovers (which often is not the case) I would fry an egg for breakfast and serve it over top of the sweet potatoes for a deliciously healthy start to the day.

The recipe comes for the cookbook, Meals Made Simple by the author of Against all Grain. I absolutely love this cookbook, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to cook healthy and delicious meals without spending hours preparing them. It does fit the Paleo lifestyle, but is certainly not limited to that. (And it does not take all sorts of weird and expensive ingredients, which is one of the main reasons I love it so much!)  

Smoky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes, diced
• 8 ounces bacon, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 400*F.

In a large bowl, toss together all of the ingredients. Spread onto two rimmed baking sheets.

Place in oven and roast for 15 minutes.

Toss to coat potatoes in the rendered bacon fat. Continue roasting for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are crisp.

Maybe I am a Foodie

For several weeks I've been wanting to blog about this, but before I wrote a post, I had to make sure this wasn't some passing phase, because - I think I might be turning into a foodie. 

Yes, me, the girl who doesn't really enjoy cooking, and who dreads 5:30 pm, because so often at that time I still don't know what we are having for dinner.

It all began when Herm and I decided we wanted to start eating a bit healthier during race training. It wasn't that we ate poorly before, but there is certainly always room for improvement and we wanted to put effort into it to see if it would help with "free speed". (Being able to run faster without training a lot harder.)

I researched a few recommended diets for runners, and liked what I saw from the Paleo lifestyle. The ingredients were things I almost always have on hand. The changes weren't very drastic ... so I started trying recipes I found on Pinterest. Our favorite dishes were almost always from the blog, Against all Grain.

I had a gift card to Barnes & Noble, and for the first time in my life, I purchased a cookbook! Meals Made Simple, by, of course, Danielle, from Against all Grain.

What I didn't know until I had the book in hand is that it includes eight weeks worth of meal plans and a shopping list that covers all of the groceries you will need for each week, which makes dinner prep a breeze. Since the arrival of the book five weeks ago I haven't dreaded the 5 o'clock hour more than a time or two!

I thought it would be fun to cook my way through the book, sort of Julie and Julia style, for one of my 24 before 25 goals. However, at the rate I am going, that'll be accomplished before my twenty-forth birthday. There hasn't been a recipe we didn't care for so far. And the sweet potatoes... oh my goodness, we can't get enough of them. I've made them at least six times. Leftovers (if there are leftovers) are served with an egg or two for breakfast. I will share the recipe in another post soon, I promise.

This is a book that I would recommend highly - especially if, like me, you want to eat healthy, flavorful meals, but you don't want to spend hours per day preparing them.

Chocolate + Peanut Butter Avocado Shake

I don't know about you, but I am always hungry. 

Lately it's become even worse than normal. I blame it on the fact that I am race training and nursing a child. To me, that sort of justifies all of the snacks I eat throughout the day. 

I always try to eat a clean and healthy diet, but it's especially crucial now, as I am training for the Seneca 7 and working hard to improve speed and performance. To me, that means eating a lot of fresh vegetables and protein, along with a small amount of fresh fruit every day. It also means that I avoid or drastically limit the amount of grain and sugar I consume. 

We've been eating a modified version of the Paleo diet for the past few weeks, and so far it has been amazing. 

However, sometimes all I want is something rich and thick and smooth and creamy and all of the other adjectives that would describe a chocolate peanut butter milkshake. 

Yesterday was one of those days. 

So, I threw a few ingredients in the blender and hoped for the best. And let me tell you, it was tasty. And I'm guessing if you would have had a sip, you wouldn't have been able to tell that what you were slurping on was avocado and dates and bananas. There was no ice cream or extra sugar involved. 

The original recipe comes from Danielle, of the blog Against all Grain. But in typical Sarah fashion, I glanced over the recipe and changed it up to fit the ingredients I had on hand. 

It was prefect for our snowy first day of spring!

Chocolate + Peanut Butter Avocado Shake

Ingredients:

• half an avocado
• one ripe banana
• three dates or a bit of honey
• three ice cubes
• two tablespoons peanut or almond butter
• 8 oz whole milk or almond milk
• two tablespoons cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

Method:

Throw all of the ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth and creamy.

If you try it, please let me know what you think of it.

9. Make French Macarons

When I was creating my 23 before 24 list, I wanted to include diverse activities, some that I knew I would thoroughly enjoy and others that were sure to stretch me a bit.

I had never had a French macaron, but I had heard stories about how difficult they were to make, how even very experienced bakers who made these tasty treats on a regular basis were not exempt from flopped batches of meringue. But after reading plenty of recipes and watching a few Youtube tutorials, I was fairly certain I could handle this... and so, nine days before Christmas, I set out to make the perfect macaron.

I started by grinding my own almond flour from almonds I had in the freezer. It took at least an hour to get the meal fine enough to sift, while being extra careful not to turn the meal into almond butter. Then I began, mixing, sifting, blending. I followed the recipe with precision, on that cold rainy day, which isn't something I do well.

When the batter was mixed, but not over-mixed, as was stated on the recipe, I poured it into a plastic zip-lock bag, cut the corner off of the bag, and began piping the meringue onto parchment paper. The cookies were suppose to be 1.5 inches in diameter, which turned out to be trickier than it sounds. I ended up with a lot of un-uniform dots of goo all over the place.

After 45 minutes of drying time the meringue was ready to go in the oven. I set the timer and began to hover like a mother hen hovers over her chicks, peering into the glass every few minutes, eagerly waiting for the timer to beep, signaling that I had passed the macaron-making-test.

Look, they have feet! I said, delighted, as I pulled the first tray from the oven rack. Feet are an essential part of a good macaron, or so I had read.

As the macarons cooled down, they started to sink in the centers too. Under baked. Are you kidding me! The recipe so clearly said to be sure not to keep them in the oven too long or they would burn.

I failed that test. Instead of sailing through, like I was sure I would, creating the perfect French macaron, I ended up with a bunch of gooey, under-baked- but-still-very-flavorful, Tisamisu French macarons.

We ate them all, and enjoyed every morsel, but I knew that I couldn't truly consider that an accomplishment. If I was going to cross off number nine on the list, I would have to try again. If I was going to cross number nine off of the list, I would have to succeed.

Over Christmas and New Years, my sister, Kate, went to India. On her flight back to the States, she had a long layover in Paris. She explored the city a bit, and came back with a box of delightfully colored French macarons. They were heavenly, and right then and there, as I crunched into that salted caramel treat, I vowed that I would try again, and again, and again, until I had make the perfect macaron.

Fast forward to this past Saturday - my internet free weekend - where I had all day to be snowed in at home and do what ever I please, as long as it didn't have anything to do with the internet.

The choice was easy.

I measured and weighed all of the ingredients before hand, down to the very gram, and began mixing, sifting, blending, following every step with care. When it was time to pipe the batter out onto the parchment paper, I traced the shape of a quarter onto the paper in rows of six, then I slowly squeezed out the exact amount needed each time. After 45 minutes of drying time, I put the trays into the oven, and didn't hover quite as much. After the timer beeped, I peeked in, and decided that a few more minutes of baking wouldn't hurt.

As the circles of meringue cooled, I whisked a dark chocolate butter cream frosting together, then spread it over one cookie and sandwiched it with another cookie.

These were perfect! I could now crossed off number nine on the list and feel truly okay with myself. I had accomplished the task well.

These are really good, better than the ones from Paris, my brother, Bryan, commented. Especially better than the rose flavored one.

If you want to try making macarons too, this recipe is really good! I didn't follow the recipe for the filling though, because the first time when I tried it, the mascarpone didn't set well. Instead I made a butter cream filling.

I would also like to thank Deb Stoltzfus, who graciously sent me a few of her tips and tricks, along with recipes and tutorials, after my first attempt went wrong. From what I hear, she makes some of the best macarons you'll ever taste. Thanks Deb!

The Perfect Pizza

Shortly after Herm and I were married, I invited my family over for dinner. I learned to cook and bake at a very young age - by nine or ten I knew how to make yeast bread and not too long after that yogurt. It wasn't uncommon for me to make supper for our family of seven. But hosting people in my own home seemed much different than simply cooking a meal at my parents home, where the pantry is fully stocked, unlike my very minimal pantry at the time. My sister volunteered to come over for the afternoon to help prepare the meal. She suggested that we make pizza.

I had never made pizza before, and was never really that impressed with the homemade pizzas that I had tried. The crust was always lacking, I thought. The recipe Kate shared with me was from The Pioneer Women's cookbook, so even though I wasn't too keen on homemade pizza I knew this was worth the effort, because be honest, when was the last time that Ree Drummond failed you? Um, never. Exactly.

The meal that evening was a success, and the pizza was surprisingly simple to make. In fact, it is now one of my go-to ideas for a simple but delicious meal. I've made it so many times that I no longer need to pull out the recipe, it's just filed away in my brain. I also use the same dough recipe for Stromboli.

I tweaked the recipe a bit; I add a few seasoning for extra flavor, and just a bit of sugar, which makes the dough soft and chewy. Sometimes I will experiment with different kinds of flour too, like fresh ground whole wheat or oat. But for the sake of simplicity, I am sharing the basic recipe and will let you experiment with it however you please.

The dough can be refrigerated for up to a week, which I often do if we are hosting guests, so that when it's time to make supper, all I need to do is pull out the dough and let is rise a bit before rolling it out and adding toppings.

Okay, enough with me gushing about this pizza. I'll just share the recipe and let you discover it for yourself.

It might be a life-changer.

The Perfect Pizza

DOUGH: (adapted from the Pioneer Woman's recipe)

• 3/4 cup Warm Water
• 1 teaspoon Instant or Active Dry Yeast
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Granulated Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Sugar
• 3 tablespoons Olive Oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes.

In mixer, combine flour, salt, granulated garlic, Italian seasoning, and sugar. With mixer running on low speed, drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast and water mixture until combined.

Cover mixing bowl with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour, or store in fridge until you need it.

When you are ready to make the pizza, preheat the oven to 450*. Punch the dough down into a nice, tight ball, then roll it out thin with a rolling pin.  When the crust is nice and thin, lay it onto an oiled stone or pan. (I always use a pizza stone, and dust it with cornmeal after oiling it.) Bake the dough for about 7 minutes, then pull it out and put your favorite toppings on it. Place the pizza back into the oven for 10 more minutes.

TOPPINGS:

• 1/3 cup Pizza Sauce
• 2 tablespoons Mayo
• Handful of Spinach
• 1/2 cup Caramelized Onion
• Hot Peppers to taste
• 1 cup cooked, shredded Chicken
• 1 cup Cheese of choice
• Hot Sauce

Mix pizza sauce and mayo together, spread over crust. Layer spinach, caramelized onions, hot peppers, chicken and cheese on top. Sprinkle with a hint of hot sauce, and finish baking as directed.

Poached Eggs on Toast

The summer of 2013 was pretty crazy. Herm was working to establishing a branch of Keystone Custom Decks here in New York. In between jobs here, he would head to Pennsylvania for work. The branch down there was booked full and so glad to have him on the crew. 

I was working at a local cafe and cleaning for several families. When I could, I would go along with Herm to PA for the week, but most of the time I just stayed back. 

I know I have said it before, cooking isn't my first love. I do it out of necessity and love for my men. If I was single, my diet would be pretty bland and boring.

When Herm was working out of town for those many weeks that summer, I would make a big pan of baked oatmeal and eat that for breakfast and lunch every day. Supper would be a salad of some sort and maybe grilled chicken too.

But I was pregnant and my iron levels were on the lower side of safe, so my midwife told me to step of my game or I would have to eat liver. I was bound and determined that I would not eat liver, so I began to eat spinach. And lots of it! I ate it in salads, I drank it in smoothies. I threw it into soup and even thought about trying to make brownies with it. (Just kidding. I don't bake brownies.)

Because of my go-through-a-bag-a-day spinach habit, I came up with this recipe. I guess it isn't truly a recipe, more of a glimpse into how I now love to fuel my morning.

Ingredients:

     2 eggs

     2 slices whole grain bread

     2 sausage patties or slices of turkey bacon

     A large handful of baby spinach

     Feta Cheese

     Chipotle hot sauce

      Fresh cracked pepper to taste

I begin by adding about 2" of water to a small pan and bringing it to a gentle simmer. In the mean time I crack the eggs into separate ramekins and carefully tip it into the water once ready. While the eggs are cooking, about three minutes, I put whole grain bread into the toaster and warm the sausage patties on a small skillet. After the patties are hot, I throw a large handful of spinach into the skillet too and wilt it. 

To assemble, I layer the wilted spinach over buttered toast and add the sausage patty on top. Then I put the poached egg on top of it all, careful not to break the yolk. I like to crack pepper and crumble feta over the egg and sprinkle a bit of chipotle hot sauce too for extra flavor. 

Sometimes, when I am not in the mood for bread, I will make the same thing and serve it over a bed of quinoa instead. Either way, it's simple. It's delicious. And it's full of iron!

But you know what the part of eating this breakfast is? It's eating it with this sausage and egg lover.

Enjoy!

A Manly Meal

If tonight was the last chance you'd ever get to eat again, what meal would you choose?

Me: Something I didn't cook.

Herm: King crab legs, drizzled with a buttery garlicky sauce and a hint of fresh lime. Fettuccine Alfredo, rich and creamy and flavorful, loaded with mushrooms and shrimp. Oven roasted kale, lightly coated in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Wine, semi-sweet, a frosty Niagara or Riesling.

Perfect example of opposite attraction.

I married a man who loves gourmet food almost as much as he loves me. (I'm okay with that  now.) When he finds something he likes, he will still be raving about it weeks later, if he is especially fond of it, years later.

On one of our first dates he told me about his other love, King Crab Legs. He had a far away nostalgic sort of look in his eyes as he spoke. Even after we were engaged then married he still brought up the past. I made a mental note and saved it for later.

Later happened to be his thirty-third birthday.

A few weeks before that special day, I told my sister, Kate, of my plans and asked if she would help. We were going to make a kingly meal in celebrate of Herm's life. It would be a surprise.

Herm, however, had other plans and suggested that on his birthday we go finish our last minute Christmas shopping, grab Starbucks and people watch for a while. The mall around Christmastime is so delightful.

Frantic, I contacted Kate. If I set all of the ingredients out would you prepare the meal? She was willing.

Our afternoon was wonderful, strolling the mall, sipping lattes and soaking in the holiday cheer. Window shopping and newborn-parent-watching. Eventually we decided to call it a night and head home.

Why are the lights on? Herm asked me as we pulled into the drive. Oh, did I forget to tell you? Our chef is here, preparing dinner. 

We walked into a house smelling of garlic sauteed in butter, of crab and shrimp and all of Herm's favorite things.

The food was prepared, ready to plate. As we sat down to eat, our chef became babysitter, caring for Carson, our then three week old, so that we could enjoy the meal without interruption.

Every thing was fabulous, made to perfection. Herm thought so too, I know this because a year later he still raves about that meal.

His birthday is on the twenty-third, two days before Christmas. Again, he suggested we go finish up our last minute Christmas shopping and this time go out to dinner, we had a gift card to spend at Red Lobster. I willingly agreed to his plan, but just so you know, I will be doing a repeat of last years meal for you, probably sometime after Christmas... Which brings us to Thursday night.

After Carson went down for his nap, I began, whisking, melting, seasoning, and drizzling. Within 30 minutes the food was prepared and plated and Herm was talking again about last years meal and the first time he had king crab legs and how good this food was... And I, a wife who doesn't particularly enjoy preparing food, felt a bit of the joy and delight rub off on me too.

Yes, Herm has another love, and I'm okay with that.


Want to try this meal? The Fettuccine Alfredo was adapted from Pioneer Woman || Garlic Butter Baked Crab Legs came from Big Oven || This recipe is similar to what I did for the kale || And the best Finger Lakes wine is from "The Good Doctor"

DIY: The Kitchen Project

This post is way over-due. My kitchen has been "finished" for over a year already. I think its definitely time I document it. 

Let's get started, shall we?

I met Herm the weekend he came up to New York to have closing on his house. I think it was probably a good thing that he had already purchased the property before we were married, because honestly I don't think I would have seen the potential that he saw. The stench of smoke, the yellowed walls, and the cigarette burns in the carpet would have kept me from noticing the gorgeous lake view. The mounds of garbage littering the yard and the overgrown flowerbeds would have distracted me from the stream with several waterfalls running through the woods.

 When Herm was on the market for a house friends had mentioned this place to him. He said he looked at the ad and knew he would never buy it, but came to check it out anyhow. When he pulled into the drive a herd of deer were in the front yard and Keuka Lake was sparkling in the distance. I'm not even sure if he noticed the many imperfections after that. This place was a hunters paradise and he knew it was the one. 

Thanksgiving of 2011 the entire Esh family came up to help Herm get the house cleaned up so that he could move in. They spent hours scrubbing and wiping and painting. Bless them!

This is before they cleaned. The place was trashed.

About nine months later we were married. 

The house was very livable by the time I moved in, but it was a man-cave through and through, so I went to work and started adding my touch to the place. There are still days when all I see is the cigarette burned carpets and wonder how much longer it'll be until we can remodel... but when I look over these pictures and see just how far it has come I am amazed. I love this house and I love the man who saw potential and knew this was were he wanted to start a family. <3

This was after I moved in, but before I painted

I didn't want to spend a lot of money redoing our kitchen, because our long-term goal is the remodel the entire house, but the cabinets and counter tops drove me crazy! They were a cheap yellowy-beige Formica that screamed early 90's. In general I don't enjoy working in the kitchen, but I do spend a lot of time there, so I was determined to figure out a way to change the cabinets and counter-tops that was affordable. I was shooting for less than $100.

Prep work is so time consuming. This stage was pretty intense.

I love the look of concrete, but I do realize that it's pretty time consuming, and from what I've heard, its tricky to perfect as well. Pinterest was my go-to research tool. I found tons of tutorials and blogs and ideas on there. One of the blogs I found showed a beautiful kitchen makeover - including painted counter tops that looked like concrete! I decided to give it a try. Check out this blog post if you want to see what kind of paint I used. Just be warned: It's NASTY stuff. Herm and I painted the counter tops one evening and then promptly left for the weekend. When we returned the house still smelled horrible.

Look at the difference! Much, much better.

Another thing I wanted in my kitchen was a subway tile back splash. I priced tile out at Lowes and knew it would be too expensive. My sister, Kate, is super talented; she paints, she draws, she sews, she does carpentry, she's a photographer, and she's single ;-). That said, I started bugging her about painting tile for me. She was willing to help out. I painted the entire back splash area white, then she put extremely thin painters tape on the walls in a tile pattern and started blending shades of grey and green over top. After she was finished, we pulled off the painters tape and... tada! We had tile with grout. Kate's brilliant. 

Nobody is willing to take my word on the tile being paint.
They always need to touch it first.  

And finally, I wanted a coffee/wine bar. Our kitchen is really tiny with limited counter top work space. There was an awkward spot by the fridge where there could have been more work space, but all it boasted was a trash can. So, again I went to someone super talented with another idea... I asked Herm to build a cabinet for me where I could have the coffee grinder and coffee pot, along with my espresso machine on top, and where the microwave could be stored out of sight, because we really don't use it often and it was taking up so much room on the counter. 

Don't you love when you have an idea of what the project will look like and after it's all finished it looks so much better than what you even imaged? Me too!   

The wood was reclaimed from an old barn. We first used it
to make a table for our bridal party to use at our wedding,
and then Herm used it again to make this. He also put
a piece of glass on top of the wood for easy clean up.

The shelf above the coffee bar was made out of old metal handrails that were attached to our garage and an old piece of lumber.

Oh, one more thing... The island area of our kitchen boarders the living and dining room. (it's an open floor plan.) Whenever we host people, we always end up hanging out around the kitchen, so we decided that instead of just having a wall area to lean on, we should make a bar area to sit at. Herm is an artist through and through. He went to work and made a butchers block counter top for the bar. It was all reclaimed lumber that he stripped down into thin sections and glued together. It added the final touch our little kitchen needed to be cozy and enjoyable. 

Do you have any DIY tricks of your own? I would love to hear them!

-Sarah