Friday Night Meatballs

UPDATE - we forgot to include the link originally!  It's now added below :)


I've seen this article floating around the internet a few places, first on Cup of Jo and also on Oh Happy Day, and I think it's getting attention for good reason.  If you haven't heard of this Friday Night Meatballs tradition, go check it out....


Doesn't this sound like the most fun idea?  This lady and her husband host friends every Friday night for spaghetti and meatballs. I love this idea! It's a no fuss, no formal invitation kind of night - everyone's invited including kids!

It got me thinking about dinner traditions in general. Wouldn't it be great to take the thinking out if dinner one night a week? It almost makes that meal more special when it's a tradition too! 

Charlotte friends stay tuned we may try to implement this tradition or something similar soon!

- Heath

image via Kinfolk Magazine

Around here

Friday night dinner | St. Patty's day fun in Columbia | MK and high school friends | our own Turkish Ocakbasi | homemade poufy bread and cacik | Virginia on a bike ride | Sunday morning coconut pancakes | beers, guacamole and sunshine

Good morning and happy Monday guys. This weekend was a good one! Friday night we used some of the spices we brought home from Turkey last fall and made an array of grilled meats, vegetables, cacik (Turkish tzatziki) and poufy bread(that's a technical term!). We weren't sure how it would turn out but it smelled and tasted so similar it was awesome! 

MK went to see some high school friends in Columbia on Saturday and celebrated St. Pat's in Five Points. So fun to catch up with old friends! On Sunday the weather was too nice not to get outside so we walked up to one of our favorite spots and had a beer and guacamole, so good!

Hope everyone has a good week!

- Heath 

The Easiest Dessert Ever!

As much as I love to spend time baking sometimes you just need to whip something up in no time at all. So a little while ago while watching Chuck Hughes' show (another show I'm pretty sure no one knows exists except us!) I was so excited to find the easiest dessert ever. Chuck incorporated this dulce de leche as an ingredient in his Banoffee pie but it's just as delicious on it's own so I wanted to share.

It's as easy as heating a can of sweetened condensed milk for 3.5 hours. I think we've done it both ways, once boiling and once as Chuck instructed in the oven. Either are super easy and give you a rich delicious dulce de leche perfect for topping a bowl of good (store bought) vanilla ice cream. That's it, dessert is ready! So simple right? You can use this recipe for more detailed steps. 

If you're coming to my house for a dinner party anytime soon don't be surprised if you get to try this! Any other super easy desserts I should try?

- Heath 

PS these dulce de leche brownies look so good and now I'm dying to try these salted dulce de leche bars too!

image one and two 

Halley's Kitchen | Fromage Fort

 

My cousin Halley is in culinary school in Charleston we're always picking her brain on all things food when we see her.  She shared this recipe for Fromage Fort with us and we thought we'd share.  It's seriously the easiest thing ever, but it sounds and tastes very fancy and gourmet.  And I promise, you already have everything you need to make it in your fridge.

Formage Fort is basically a spread made up with tons of different leftover cheeses.  (Sounds delicious right?!)  Basically you just chop any soft cheeses and shred/grate hard cheeses you may have sitting in your fridge and pulse them in the food processor with a little white wine.  Give it a taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.  We used the cheese combo below (because it's what we had on hand) but mix it up and use cheese whatever cheeses you love - you can follow this for proportions but it's really trial and error.

 

Fromage Fort:
 basic white cheddar
Appalachian (leftover from Dean and Deluca)
basic blue cheese
aged gouda (leftover from Dean and Deluca)
 a soft but pungent brie (leftover from Dean and Deluca)
cream cheese
1/2 cup white wine

toss all chopped/shredded cheese in the food processor, pulse with white wine until you reach a spreadable consistency



This spread is perfect with a baguette or crackers as a little appetizer or cocktail snack.  We enjoyed ours with a little store bought pesto and it was delish!

~Mary Keller

Pour Olive & Summer Salads

So this post is really kind of two parts.  One part how much we love our neighborhood shop Pour Olive, and the other part how we're trying to clean up our lunch around here and eat more greens. :)  I feel like there are so many specialty olive oil shops these days (all the sudden!) but we're VERY partial to Dilworth's Pour Olive and really do think they may be the best.  They treat everyone like family and every time we go they act so happy to see us and ask us how Virginia's doing.  (They remember her name!  that's crazy, we don't go that often!)  But also, their branding!  How genius is their name and logo, and I love that their name and branding isn't a rustic Italian name like so many olive oil places I see.

Detox

Guys as I’m writing this I’m eating food for the first time since Sunday evening. Holy cow! I can’t believe we actually went through with this. I’m sure you’ve gathered from all our talks about food that Andy and I really LOVE food. We both were hesitant before doing this but really needed to reset our bodies to a better place to kick start some healthy habits. It’s so easy to get out of a routine and we definitely did so we were hoping this would put us in position to get back to a healthy lifestyle.

So here are the details if you’re interested…

After your first two green juices in the morning, the order of the remaining juices is up to you. I just liked to keep my taste buds on their little toes so I spread my green juices out throughout the day. And Pro Fuel is so delicious and hearty I saved it for last as my dinner and desesrt all in one.  We bought all our juices from Viva Raw, a local juice place in 7th street station, but you could easily do this with Suja or other brands commonly sold at Whole Foods and Healthy Home Market. So a quick recap on my three days.
 

Day One – pretty rough. Not going to lie I wanted my coffee BAD and I never thought I’d want a hand full of the raw nuts (I keep at my desk) so bad! We stayed busy that evening and I think that helped keep our mind off of the hunger.

Day Two – I woke up feeling great. As the day went on I honestly would have loved a snack and was a little more lethargic than usual but overall felt great.

Day Three – feeling good. I think I determined by day three that my body felt great but my head didn't. I was a little out of it. Not terribly, I still accomplished plenty at work, but I definitely wasn't on my A game.

 Overall - I struggled to focus but needed things to do to distract me. I could not have done this on a weekend or days that were not packed with activities.
 

So now that I am detoxed, I’m focusing on my morning runs and eating cleaner. I think I’ve mentioned before we generally try to eat pretty healthy Sunday/Monday to Friday. Basically allowing two days (the weekend) for a few splurges. Not like every Saturday we eat burgers and fries but we‘re allowed to be more generous with our selections and indulge a little more. I’ve always felt like this kept us on track and I think it does but I want to focus in the future on keeping the M-F foods even cleaner. So I’ve compiled a few breakfast, lunches (packable) and dinner recipes that I have on my list to try.  
 

Breakfast

Overnight Oats and Muesli Parfaits

Yogurt, Fruit and Granola Parfait

Banana and Almond Butter Toast (a current favorite!)

 

Lunch

Thai Rice Bowl

Quinoa Salad

Hummus Stuffed Pitas
Mexican Rice bowl

Dinner

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Best Salmon Ever

Avocado Cups

Salmon and Lentils

Eggs in Tomato sauce over zucchini noodles

  

I'd love to hear any of your go to healthy recipes! Oh and has anyone else ever done a cleanse?
 

- Heath

Happy Friday and Leftovers

Happy Friday guys! We have a weekend full of prepping for Thanksgiving, setting the table and testing stuffing recipes etc. so I'm excited to really start getting in the spirit. We're also trying this Porchetta recipe this weekend. Again we were sold on a cooking show! What are you guys up to this weekend?

Oh and I've been thinking, has anyone ever not had leftovers after Thanksgiving?  I don't really see how it's possible because we always do.  I am not complaining though because I for one love having a second plate, or going back for maybe just your favorites. Since we're hosting a small crowd this year I've been brainstorming some things we can do with what is sure to be a large amount of leftovers.

Here are a few ideas:

Potato cakes: Leftover mashed potatoes make the perfect potato cake for breakfast Friday morning. This is a favorite in our house! We do this every time we have mashed potatoes, we usually wing it but you could certainly follow something like this recipe. 

Turkey, Cranberry and Brie Sandwich: Leftover turkey piled high on toasted wheat bread with cranberry relish (or whatever you have on hand) and slightly warmed brie cheese sounds like the perfect lunch for Friday. 

Turkey Soup: My mom's been making turkey soup with our Thanksgiving leftovers as long as I can remember. It's a thick hearty soup almost a stew that is the perfect warm meal on a cold fall evening. One day we'll get her to write down her recipe but until then I'm sure any classic turkey soup/stew would be delicious!

Turkey Pot Pie: While the heartiness of a pot pie is similar to Thanksgiving it really is the perfect way to use any leftover turkey and vegetables. Pot pies are so versatile you can throw in almost anything you have or use this recipe as a guide.

What are your favorite ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers? Have a wonderful weekend!

- Heath

Image via Savor Home Blog

Popcorn Toppings

Happy Halloween guys! I hope everyone has lots of tiny trick-or-treaters tonight, that’s my favorite part of Halloween so I can’t wait. We’re going to pop some popcorn and watch a Halloween movie tonight after visiting Virginia (and MK and JD) in her pumpkin hat of course.

We don’t have a microwave so a while ago Andy ordered this popcorn maker. I wasn’t on board at first but now I love how it encourages us to use different toppings on our popcorn. And it’s much healthier than bagged popcorn too. I love parmesan and truffle salt on my popcorn but it isn’t Andy’s favorite so I think we may try some sriracha salt on half of our batch tonight. If you’re local my sister in law found a great little place, Salts of the Earth in the 7^th street Market uptown. She brought us a bag full of different salts we’ve been trying. They’re all really interesting, thanks Jill! A few others options I added to my list to try too!

Sea salt and honey (via the Faux Martha)

Rosemary and parmesean (via Cup of Jo) 

Chinese 5-spice (via the Kitchn)

Paprika and parsley (via Serious Eats)

Cilantro and lime (via Bake Your Day)
Chocolate, coconut, caramel (via Top with Cinnamon) for dessert! 

Any genius popcorn toppings? I also love throwing M&Ms into a bowl of hot popcorn, salty sweet + chocolate can't go wrong!

- Heath

image via Top with Cinnamon