Fave-Find Friday: Labor Day Weekend

Got any fun plans for Labor Day? We’re going to a pizza grilling party and a birthday party. We’ve also decided it’s time to clean out and re-organize our cupboards and freezer. How’s that for an exciting weekend?

Here’s Megan’s second video from the Pacific Northwest trip last month. She got to see two of her best friends from college, almost exactly ten years after they first met on Move-In Day!

Lots of great links to peruse today…

How to make your own everything bagel spice.

How to Age Gracefully—such a delightfully touching video!

Love the Motherhood Around the World series on Cup of Jo! The most recent one on parenting in Cuba was especially interesting.

Teachers, need a laugh?

An old high school friend started this beautiful online shop of home items and gifts from around the world.

Need a healthy last-minute meal? Ingredients to keep in your freezer.

Warm Apricot Cups with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Honey

Don’t you love apricot season? These bright, tangy, velvety little guys have been in abundant supply in our CSA these past few weeks. While we love buying dried apricots for our Summer Orzo Salad (preferably sulfur-free), late spring/early summer means we get to devour them fresh. How beautiful is this color?

Sometimes apricots on their own can be a little too sour. Cooking them for just a few minutes seems to bring out more sugars, and the goat cheese and honey balsamic add a sweet and savory component. Try these as an appetizer or side, or throw them on the grill!

We enjoyed ours with toast, alongside homemade lentil burgers and sautéed green beans for a delicious and fresh summer supper.

Warm Apricot Cups with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Honey (Print here)

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 3 apricots, halved and de-pitted
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon balsamic
• 6 tablespoons goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon roasted and salted sunflower seeds
• 1 cup arugula

Directions

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, carefully place the apricots, open side down, into the skillet. Cook for at least 5 to 7 minutes, adjusting a couple times to prevent sticking. While the apricots are cooking, whisk together the honey and balsamic. When the apricots are soft and browning, remove from heat and place them open side up on a plate. Fill each “cup” with approximately one tablespoon of goat cheese, drizzle with the honey balsamic, sprinkle with the sunflower seeds, and top with arugula.

We recommend serving immediately, with toast or fresh baguette. They make an impressive appetizer or a great side dish.

Notes

This recipe is very customize-able, and the measurements are just suggestions that can suit your preferred tastes. Cheese lover? Add some extra. Prefer pistachios? They’d taste great too. Hate arugula? Leave it off completely, or sub your favorite greens.

This recipe also scales up or down beautifully, depending on your crowd and appetite.

BBQ season and apricot season might come hand-in-hand in your region. Lucky you! Try these on the grill to wow your guests.

Summer Orzo Salad

Does it feel like summer yet in your neck of the woods? This light, wholesome orzo salad is a great way to celebrate the season (or to kickstart it, if you’re in need). Serve alongside your BBQ, tuck into a tupperware for a picnic, bring it to a neighborhood potluck, serve at a brunch or tea, or (let’s be honest) just scoop into a big bowl for dinner on a night when it’s too hot to cook. Wherever you take it, just plan to be asked for the recipe!

Megan’s mom shared this recipe with us awhile ago, and no one can remember where it came from. It is REALLY delicious, and so easy to make. Every time we make it, we seem to tweak the proportions a little, so the measurements below represent our current favorite combination—but to be perfectly honest, we sometimes just eyeball it. Which is to say, don’t fret too much about being exact.

While we encourage you to increase or decrease to your heart’s content, however, we want to also urge you not to skip, substitute, or add anything! We tend not to be such purists, but there’s a time for everything, right? Really, though, the combination of basil, arugula, apricots, feta, pine nuts, and lemon is just too perfect. Megan even has a secret: she eats this salad pretty carefully to make sure she has a bit of each ingredient in every forkful. It’s just that magical of an ensemble. Trust us.

It’s a good idea to cook the orzo a day ahead, or at least a few hours ahead, so it has time to cool. The mixed salad itself won’t hold up too long (the greens tend to get a little sad and wilty), but it’s still pretty tasty on the next day and edible even on the second, third, or fourth. The best way to make ahead or to have leftovers is to prep all the ingredients but wait to mix them until the day you will be serving the salad.

We enjoyed ours this weekend at a little picnic in our new favorite neighborhood park. We grilled some corn and veggies from this week’s CSA, a pork chop for Joe, and a lentil burger for Megan.

Summer Orzo Salad (print here)

Ingredients

• 1 pound orzo
• ½ cup (¼ cup plus ¼ cup) olive oil
• 2 generous cups fresh arugula
• ¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
• ½ cup dried apricots, chopped
• ½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn
• ¼ cup toasted pine nuts, cooled (or more)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (about the juice of one lemon)
• Salt and pepper, to taste 

Directions

Cook the orzo as directed on the package. Drain and put onto a cookie sheet. To prevent sticking, drizzle it with ¼ cup of the olive oil (reserving the other ¼ cup for later), toss, spread out, and set aside to cool. If cooking the orzo ahead, store in in a closed container in the refrigerator after it has cooled completely. When you’re ready to make the salad, simply transfer the orzo to a large bowl and toss gently with the other ingredients.

Sonoma Camping Trip: Joe’s Chicken Cordon BBQ

This weekend we took a spontaneous camping trip to the Bodega Dunes Campground in Sonoma Coast State Park. The dunes brought back memories of Cape Cod, but luckily we were much warmer than we would have been there! Our friends who teach there are on their FIFTH snow day… in a row.

Joe invented a little BBQ twist on your classic Chicken Cordon Bleu: rather than a swiss or gruyere cheese, a semi-spicy pepper jack and sliced onion; instead of a breading, sweet and tangy barbecue sauce; and in place of ham, a sliced pork tenderloin from the deli. While we ate, he repeatedly declared, “I think this is the best thing I have ever made.” You mean, while camping? “No, I mean ever.”

Joe claims these really weren’t that much more challenging than burgers. Just a little prep work the day before you leave.

Joe made his own barbecue sauce, and we’ll post a recipe for that once he has it perfected. He is still working on some tweaks!

So, what does a vegetarian eat while her husband is eating Chicken Cordon BBQ? Her favorite lentil walnut burgers, adapted from Molly Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook, of course! (Our adapted recipe is coming next week; it’s time to load up the freezer with a new batch.) We also had a beautiful butternut squash from our CSA that we wanted to eat up, so we tried grilling that as well. We filled the cavities with onions and peppers, then sprinkled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a splash of beer. This seemed to work great until we wanted to flip them over. The filler veggies got a little overdone because we had chopped them so small. But the flavor was still pretty good.

 

(Do you like our snazzy camping plates?)

One of our favorite things about grilling veggies for dinner is turning the LEFTOVERS(!) into a buttery, cheesy egg scramble the next morning. Just what we needed to gear up for a stunning hike along the coast and a giant flight of beers at Russian River Brewing (yes, of Pliny the Elder fame!) in Santa Rosa.

Don’t worry—we shared.

Please, tell us, what do you like to eat when traveling or camping? What tips and tricks can you share with us? How do you take advantage of your leftovers?

The Recipe (printer-friendly version here)

Ingredients

• 1 skin-on chicken breast between ½ and ¾ pounds
• ¼ pound sliced pork tenderloin (although your favorite deli ham will work)
• 1 thick deli slice of Pepper Jack cheese
• About 1/8 of an onion, thinly sliced
• Olive oil, salt, and pepper, to taste
• 1 large poblano, Anaheim (preferred), or red pepper
• Barbecue sauce (I prefer sweet and tangy, but go for whatever you like), to taste

Directions

On a hefty cutting board, pound down the chicken breast until it’s thin (maybe about a ¼ inch or thinner). Use a piece of wax paper on each side of the chicken to keep from sticking.

With the chicken skin-side down, add layers of pork loin or ham, then cheese, then onion. This is not an exact science (your amounts may vary), but be sure to leave enough room to roll it all up. Fold the chicken over everything so that you can turn over and tighten, forming almost a ball. Chicken should overlap onto itself and stick. With the Chicken Cordon BBQ in a nice package, drizzle and rub olive oil on the top (the skin), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place in a baggie overnight.

The next day, get the coals hot on the grill. Cut open the large pepper (slice off the top and bottom, then make a cut straight down and open it up) and place the Chicken Cordon BBQ on it, so that the pepper forms a kind of plate. Place the entire meal on the grill, cover with a cast iron pot or any lid you have. Cook for about an hour, slathering with barbecue sauce every 10 to 15 minutes.

After cooking, let sit for about 10-15 minutes before eating.