Fig + Prosciutto Pasta Salad

Get ready for the most summery pasta of your life from Savory Simple. It is light, yet hearty, savory, yet sweet, and most importantly delicious. It’s perfect for the poolside, picnics, a date night, or a night in. You can even hoard it in your fridge to dole out during the week (seriously, this dish is perfect for that).

I was talking with a friend this week about the dilemma we find ourselves in on a weekly basis. We want to save money by preparing meals at home, but on a busy weeknight the thought of getting in the kitchen, let alone making the trip to get groceries before hand, seems daunting, tiring and undesirable. I’m a huge fan of recipes like this that you can store away and lean on when that tired and exhausted feeling hits you on a Wednesday at 7:30 PM and you’re starving. 

Get the full recipe here.

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Whole 30 Baked French Fries

I have a couple of food vices in my life at the moment: french fries, and cookie butter. Now that I have the art of french fries under my belt, cookie butter is the next challenge in my oh-so-sophisticated *cough cough* culinary repertoire. Now, I’m just spitballing here, but I’m thinking lemon sage cookie butter layered into a lemon pop, peanut butter cookie butter baked in warm brownies, key lime cookie butter cups. I can already feel my self control weakening.

Speaking of questionable self control: potatoes. White potatoes have gotten a bad wrap, which makes sense. I mean, the way they usually get into our bodies is through an uncontrolled binge of deep-fried, crunchy, salty, addicting, preservative-filled overload, lacking in nutrition and doing nothing but fueling our growing appetites. But potatoes, are a whole food, aren’t they? And french fries, done right, are just sliced & baked potatoes. So make your own and avoid that, “should I really be eating this?” question. Now remember: eat them with your fingers and dip them in everything.

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Whole 30 Baked French Fries

I'm telling you this right now. It does NOT get more glorious than this. 

Ingredients

russet potatoes,
sliced in uniform-ish strips
2T green onions, chopped
3 carrots, julienned
1T garlic salt
1/4t cayenne pepper
olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Toss potato slices generously in olive oil + spices. Spread on rimmed baking sheet and top with carrots, green onion, and more salt.
Bake for 30-45 min, checking every 15 and stir as needed.
Dip in anything and everything.

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Guacamole

Every finger food needs something delicious to dip into before you shove it in your face. When I was in the midst of Whole30, guacamole was this thing ( see Ultimate Finger Food Pt 1). I mean, is there anything this strange fruit can’t pair with, especially in this grill out, picnic time of a year that we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of? Toast – check. Salad – check. Eggs – check. Burgers – check. Dip – check. Tacos – check. Sandwich spread –  check. Dressing – check. I mean seriously. And also can I please just it them all day, every day?

The recipe king of the avocado world is most definitely guacamole. The beautiful thing about guac, is that you can’t really go wrong with it. And because of that, I never prepare it the same way twice. Sometimes I like it spicier, more crunchy, more salty, or with more of a garlic punch. You can cater it to your mood or to the preferences of anyone around you. So, in light of this fool-proof food, this post is more of a “choose your own adventure” story than a recipe. I list out all of the must have ingredients below, and you can combine them in any which way, smashing with a fork as you go. I’ve also listed some additional goodies that you may fancy tossing in there. As usual, the garlic in this recipe was grown right here in Denver, from Re:Vision’s Buying Club / Food Coop.

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Guacamole

Below are ingredient options. The method to this, smash with a fork, or better yet, a potato masher. You can even pulse it in your food processor (options options options).

Must Haves

avocados (duh)
red onion, diced
garlic, minced
lime juice
tomato, seeded and diced
jalapeno, seeded and diced
salt and pepper
fork for smashing

Additional Goodies

garlic salt
cilantro
bell peppers (of any variety)
cayenne or paprika
pine nuts
diced mango or pineapple
grilled corn
bacon or chorizo
chives
basil

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Sweet & Savory Trail Mix

For years (literally) I have resisted doing Whole30. A world without cheese is meaningless to me. But recently I’ve found myself further and further from the realm of moderation. It has become harder and harder to resist excess and choose what I know will do me good. Whole30 was my way of proving to myself that I if I put my mind to something, I can accomplish it. Everything in life that has worth will come with challenges. In some moments, the hardest thing for me is saying “no” to that glass of wine, carefully crafted cocktail, or warm gooey chocolate chip cookie.

Not even two weeks into Whole30, some pants that were a bit snug before, had become a little roomy, I had more energy, and wasn’t feeling as bloated as before. I don’t think the Whole30 program is for everyone (it also takes planning and preparation), but if you’re wanting to try something that will make you feel better and break some bad eating habits, it’s a decent option that gets you eating real, delicious food.

I learned that one key to not caving into the urge of eating a billion cookie cups is grocery shopping to the point that you’re thinking “how the hell am I going to eat all of this?” I was amazed at how much we were eating from our own fridge when we weren’t eating out a few times a wekk. This trail mix, inspired by a receipe from Nom Nom Paleo, is one of the the things that got me through those munchie moments.

Sabrina and took off with the mix on an adventure to Hanging Lake, where Eb and Jonathan took our engagements back in July of 2014. If you aren’t familiar, while the trail to the lake isn’t long, it’s like walking stairs the entire way. I’m not going to lie, this trail mix was the perfect snack after making the trek up to the iconic view. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and savory and has just the right amount of kick.

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Ingredients

2T ghee
1c raw almonds
1c raw cashews
1/4c sunflower seeds
1/2c raisins
1T rosemary leaves
1/4t cayenne pepper
salt

Instructions

Melt ghee in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and add nuts, rosemary and cayenne. Stir frequently, coating all of the nuts in the ghee, while they toast. Add salt as needed to taste.
When nuts are fragrant and toasted (about 8-10 minutes) remove from heat and let cool. Mix in raisins and enjoy!

Paleo Chicken Nuggets

When I was in college, my mentor and I went to Chick-Fil-A  just about every week to talk about life and whatever chapter of the Bible we were reading together. I think that’s when my love affair with those tender, yet crispy nuggets started. It’s just about the only fast food that I crave, but when I do, it’s the only thing I can think about. And the SAUCE the sauce the sauce. I would like to think that I have a healthy relationship with this establishment, but I’m starting to reconsider.

I saw this recipe from Stupid Easy Paleo for a home-made version of the infamous nuggets, and had to try them. Who doesn’t need a good nugget in their cooking repertoire? And ohemgee are they delicious. Jackie (a fellow CFA lover) and I served it up with some home made guac and yummy baked french fries. Recipes for those two lovely items are coming soon!

Find the recipe here

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Cake, Cake, Cake

How do you celebrate a dear friend’s return to Denver after a three-month stint in California? Some of us decided that the only rational course of action was to surprise her with exactly one billion cakes. Here are the results of three overachievers, 10 sticks of butter, and an entire Saturday devoted to baking. The celebration was filled with sunny and stormy Denver weather, lovely friends, and sugar galore.

As I wouldn’t describe myself as a baker, I decided to trust the pros, so here are some awesome recipes from the masters. A huge thanks to Megan (master baker) and Heather (stylist extraordinaire). I’m pretty sure we crushed it. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Cake

I have been jonesin’ for this chocolate cake ever since I saw it on the Smitten Kitchen blog. It is so dense and rich and the batter tastes like the most delicious chocolate pudding. GET AT IT!

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Funfetti with Marshmallow Buttercream

The addition of lemon in this recipe makes for a damn good batter and the marshmallow buttercream is the perfect pairing.

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Vanilla Cake with Whipped Cream
Icing and Ganache

The vanilla cake and icing were from the Model Bakery Cookbook. For a Ganache you can top on just about anything:

Ingredients

11oz bag of white chocolate chips
3/4 c heavy cream
1 T butter (room temperature)

Directions

Heat heavy cream in a small sauce pan over medium low heat until bubbling, stirring constantly.
Pour heated cream in a bowl over the white chocolate chips, stirring with a whisk to melt and combine. Whisk in the butter until smooth.
Let cool slightly and pour over anything your heart desires.

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Roasted Rainbow Trout + Kerala Green Beans

This past Christmas, my mom gifted me the book Nom Nom Paleo. To be 100% transparent, it sat on my shelf dutifully for a few months until I cracked it open and OMG I’VE BEEN COOKING EVERYTHING IN THERE! From aoli, to chicken wings, to the most amazing pork I’ve ever made, and now this beautiful creation. I honestly can’t get enough. Head on over to her blog for some great recipes.

You also may recognize my beautiful friend Megan from the winter gathering. She was the brains and braun behind the green beans and the molten chocolate cake that we hastily consumed in this post. Megan is the Food system coordinator for Re:Vision, a Denver non-profit committed to working with residents in neighborhoods to eliminate food deserts, train leaders, and strengthen community ownership. Re:Vision works with over 300 backyard garden families, has a CSA and buying club program and is opening a community owned food hub / co-op. AKA it’s the shit.

On to green beans: I’m going to humble brag for a second. Every time I make my green beans, I get asked for the recipe. I’m a pretty big fan of them and it appears everyone else is too. But let me tell you, these green beans that Megan made blew my socks off. After we were finished with dessert, we both stood in the kitchen, munching on the beans that didn’t get eaten, until guess what. They were all gone.

However, the recipe from Pondicheri did require that we get creative with how to open the coconut that it called for (without a cleaver, machete, or hammer). We spent the first 20 minutes scrambling around looking for sharp sturdy objects (a half of a kitchen shear won out over a volleyball net stake). We then used a flashlight as a hammer the to force the shears into the coconut in a few places to create a large crack. We ended the process by throwing it as hard as we could against the side of the house. Spoiler alert, it worked. And if Meg and I were ever deserted on a tropical island together, all of the coconuts would be quivering in their husks.

Kerala Green Beans

I will say unashamedly that these green beans are the best that I've ever had, like ... ever. 

Ingredients

1/5lb green beans
3T coconut oil
1t black mustard seeds
1t minced garlic
2t black pepper
1t salt
2-4 stalks kari leaves, chopped
1/2c grated fresh coconut
2t amchur (mango powder)

Instructions

Trim ends of beans and slice into two. In a large saute pan, heat up the coconut oil over high heat until shimmering but not yet smoking.
Add the mustard seeds and heat until they start to pop and sizzle. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds until opaque.
Reduce the heat to medium high and add green beans, black pepper, and salt.
Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the beans are tender but bright green.
Remove from heat and stir in kari leaves, grated fresh coconut, and amchur.

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Orange Garlic Broccolini

I have lived 7.5 years of my life in the great state of Texas. Six of those were spent in Fort Worth, going to college and establishing myself in the city after graduation. About a year before moving to Denver, I went through a “health kick,” to put it mildly, where I worked out constantly and ate healthy almost 24/7. During that year my work out buddies became my good friends and eating healthy became a lifestyle (the amazing food and drink in Denver has all but ruined that by the way).

One of the things I miss most about FW is weekly trips to Central Market (think whole foods on steroids). I spent way too much dough on quality food, wandered aimlessly through the enormous bulk food aisles, and stared down all of the fresh ooey gooey muffins, as if looking at them would satiate my sweet tooth. But if were to sum up my love for Central into one word it would be “broccolini.” Central’s garlic roasted concoction opened my eyes to these delicious, green, crisp creations that I didn’t know existed.

This recipe is an ode to the sweltering Fort Worth days, discovering food loves, and the people that make Texas home.

Orange Garlic Broccolini

Perfectly tender, these little buddies have just a hint of sweet citrus with a savory punch of garlic and salt.

Ingredients

1t orange zest
2T olive oil
juice from 1/2 of a medium lemon
salt
8 garlic cloves (4 whole / 4 minced)
1 medium shallot (minced)
1 large bunch broccolini
handful of pine nuts
handful of dried cranberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Toast pine nuts in a skillet on stovetop, stirring frequently. Be sure to watch carefully; they are really easy to burn. When done, remove from stove & set aside.
While pine nuts are toasting, mix together 3 T olive oil, orange zest, 1t lemon juice, & salt in a small bowl.
Remove tough ends of broccolini and place in large bowl with 4 whole garlic cloves. Pour the olive oil mixture over broccolini & toss until evenly coated.
Heat a few glugs of olive oil in an oven safe skillet over medium heat. Add shallot & garlic & cook until fragrant & soft (1-2 minutes).
Add broccolini to pan and sauté for about 10 minutes, until broccolini is bright green and beginning to soften.
Top with an additional tablespoon of olive oil and remaining lemon juice. Transfer pan to oven and roast for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from oven & top with pine nuts & cranberry. Serve immediately.

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Winter Gathering 2015

One of my husband’s best friends is quite the cook. Southern born and bred, Andrew makes some of the best wings I have ever tasted in my life (no wonder Chad keeps him around). I’m not entirely sure what started our conversation, but a few months ago, he mentioned that his dad grows rutabagas. Um.. ruta-what? I mean I had heard of the things before but wouldn’t have been able to tell you what one looked like, let alone how to cook one. He promised to bring me a rutabaga if I would incorporate it into a recipe for my blog. Of course I said yes. I’ve never seen or touched one in real life but of COURSE I can make a blog worthy dish with one right? A month or two past and our conversation faded from my mind.

Andrew came to our house one night after Christmas, with a white grocery bag in hand, concealing the large, heavy, rutabaga from his dad’s garden in Hephzibah, Georgia. He handed it over, rather unceremoniously I might add, and it took me a moment before I realized what it was.  I removed it from the bag, as dirt sprinkled slowly and steadily from its thin tangled roots onto my floor. I wrapped it up tightly and stored it away in our fridge.

Let’s be honest, the thing kind of intimidated me, and I’m sorry to say it took me about a month before I got the courage to not only cook it, but make it the main component of our Winter Gathering. After doing a bit of research on how to cook them (much like you would a potato), and nailing down brunch as the meal that would take place, it followed that creating a hash with the unruly vegetable seemed to be the best option.

Our Winter Gathering just happened to fall on the predicted “snowpocalypse” weekend in Denver which was the perfect setting for our wintery brunch.

I had reached out to our friend Darrelle in January about hosting our gathering in her home, or “the barn” as we call it, which I am mildly obsessed with. So obsessed, in fact, that we hosted our rehearsal dinner there. She is as gracious as she is beautiful and said she would love to be a part. So began a snowy February morning with a few friends cozied up with coffee, mimosas, a camera, and one weird looking vegetable that makes for a darn good hash.

Rutabaga Hash

You will need a sharp knife to handle the task of dicing a rutabaga, which can also be substituted with any sort of potato. It served 5 very hungry girls & was inspired by this recipe.

Ingredients

1 rutabaga, peeled & diced
6 slices of bacon, sliced 1/4 inches thick cross wise
1/2 red onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, minced
1/4 t red pepper flakes
salt + pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
6-8 eggs

Instructions

In cast iron skillet, brown the bacon until slightly crispy & remove to a paper towel.
Over medium heat, sauté rutabaga, onion, & garlic until just beginning to brown. Reduce to medium low and cover cooking until the rutabaga has begun to soften ( 7-10 minutes).
Uncover and add green pepper, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Cook until the rutabaga is tender and beginning to crisp on the outside.
While the green pepper cooks, heat a large pan & fry up the eggs.
Add bacon to the hash & heat through.
Off heat, stir in parsley & top with fried eggs. Serve immediately.

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Biscuits

This is a super simple recipe from the Food Network that yielded soft, delicious, buttery biscuits.

Ingredients

2c flour
4t baking powder
1/4t  baking soda
3/4t  salt
2T  butter
2T  shortening
1c buttermilk, chilled

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don’t want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that’s life.)
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes

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