Salt Roasted Rosemary Potatoes with Roasted Garlic Rosemary Butter & Arugula Salad...[gasp]

Hi, folks.

I made this dinner a few weeks ago for my parents and some of their friends.  

It all started because I made a chicken recipe {found on Pinterest} for my parents & my mom liked it so much she had me make it for all of her friends that she raved about it to.

I have made this chicken so many times...well, more on that later.

Right now I want to tell you about the sides that I made for this dinner.

First, I salt roasted some baking potatoes. 

I first heard about salt-roasting when Brian & I were over on the Gulf Coast visiting my cousin, Grove, & her husband, Adam.

They made these for us and I thought it was so cool but also seriously delicious.

The potatoes turn out so moist & fluffy that you really don't even need to put butter on them...but I did, because everything is better with butter.  

And because I found a recipe for Roasted Garlic Rosemary Butter.  

Puh-lease.  Just try to stop me.

{this recipe is from Cook's Illustrated magazine}

Scrub your potatoes to get rid of any dirt or grime...ew.

Fresh rosemary...yum.

Thoroughly cover the bottom of a 9x13
inch baking dish with table salt.
Remove outer paper from a whole head
of garlic and cut the top off.

Nestle the dry potatoes,
4 or 5 sprigs of rosemary,
& the garlic {cut side up} in the salt
leaving space between the potatoes...

...like this.
Cover with foil & bake in a pre-heated, 450 degree oven for
an hour to an hour & 25 minutes.
Carefully remove the foil, take the garlic out & brush
the potatoes with a little olive oil.
Increase the oven's temperature to 500 degrees
& bake the potatoes, uncovered, for an additional 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine an 1/8 teaspoon of salt
& a 1/4 teaspoon of fresh, minced rosemary...

& once the garlic is cool enough to handle, gently squeeze
the garlic out of the paper & mash it on up.

Add the garlic to the bowl with the salt & rosemary
& 4 Tablespoons of unsalted, softened butter
& mix well!
{Hey, Vegans, use Soy-Free Earth Balance!}

I really hope y'all will try this...the potato turns out crispy on the outside & moist & fluffy on the inside. 

Plus, they're infused with the garlic & rosemary flavors.

& with the Roasted Garlic Rosemary Butter...umm, yea.  Yum.

So, next I made this really delicious salad.  

My friend Ashley made it for us one night when we were cooking out.  It is just a baby arugula salad with a basic vinaigrette, {from Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics Cookbook.}

I used a bag of baby arugula...

the juice of 2 lemons, a 1/2 cup of olive oil, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt,
a 1/4 teaspoon of pepper & freshly grated parmesan cheese.

{I asked Brian to stir the dressing while I was finishing up the potatoes & about 10 minutes later I realized he was still stirring...he's cute.}

Mmm.

Mmmm.

Mmmmmmm.

So, this dinner turned out preeeeeetty well.  It was delicious & really very easy.

I'll tell you more about the chicken later...

Until then, enjoy your Thursdays everyone, Brian & I are trying out a new recipe tonight at my parents' house for the White Sox v. Red Sox game.  Go White Sox!

{Keeeeeeen-waaaa} Burrito Bowls

What's up, y'all?

I had so much fun yesterday sharing my new ottoman with you, it's been awesome seeing how many of you have checked it out today!

Tonight I wanted to share a new recipe that I tried out this week that. was. DELICIOUS.

Brian & I love Chipotle.  It's fresh and delicious.  

And it's Mexican, which makes up about 94% of Brian's and my diet.  

This recipe is a take on Chipotle's Burrito Bowls.  Only instead of using rice, the recipe calls for quinoa.

Ah, quinoa.  

Never had it?  Quinoa, {keen-wa} is a whole grain, prepared just like rice & it is a complete protein.  Big in the Vegetarian world, but catching on in meat eaters' worlds as well,  it's awesome. 

I came across this recipe on Pinterest, {duh.}  It hails originally from The Shiksa in the Kitchen,

{an AWESOME little blog, if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend it...amazing recipes.}

but I did make some changes to her recipe.  

Here they are:

- Start by sautéing some finely chopped Onion in 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil in a medium sauce pan,

{the recipe called for 1/4 Cup, but y'all know I love sautéed onions, so I just used half of a small onion}

- Go ahead and throw a clove or 2 of minced garlic in there now, too

Give them a few minutes to get nice and
translucent and brown...I like to salt them when I first put them in.

- Next, rinse & drain 2 {15 oz} cans of black beans

- Now, combine the black beans in the sauce pan with the onions & add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, a Tablespoon of cumin, 1/2 Cup of water, a small handful of fresh, chopped cilantro & the juice of 1 lime

{these seasonings differ from the original recipe, I used my traditional taco seasonings}

- Bring the black beans to a boil and then turn to low and simmer for at least 15 minutes

- Meanwhile, rinse 1 cup of quinoa in a fine mesh strainer

- Bring the quinoa to a boil in 2 Cups of water, then reduce to low and simmer, covered, for around 20 minutes

{leave the quinoa alone while it's simmering...once the water has all evaporated, fluff with a fork...this should keep the quinoa nice & fluffy}

- After the quinoa is cooked, stir in a small handful of fresh, chopped cilantro & the juice of 1 lime

Now, use whichever taco or burrito toppings you prefer!  

I made my favorite corn salsa, {you can find the recipe here,} shredded cheese, chopped lettuce & avocado, {duhr.}

- First, put your quinoa in the bowl and serve black beans over that

- And, finally, add your toppings!

These turned out so well!  We really enjoyed them.

Seriously.  Delicious.

They are so filling thanks to the quinoa and black beans...yum.

I hope you'll give them a try, until then, here's hoping you made it through today without coming down with a case of the Mondays.

**Update**

I'm linking this up to another Pinterest Party, here!

This one is put on by:

Sherry {Young House Love}
- Check out Sherry's awesome Paint Project

Katie {The Bower Power Blog}
- Katie made such a cute TeePee, {from a project which I've also pinned!}

Kate {Centsational Girl}
- I am obsessed with Kate's X Base Table

& Michelle {Ten June Blog}
- Michelle's Modge Podge Nursery Art has the wheels in my head turning for sure...

These ladies are a huge inspiration to me.

If you haven't been to their blogs yet...well, you're crazy...but seriously, go.  At least check out their Pinterest projects!

Until then, Happy Tuesday, folks.

How to: Go Overboard on Your Boyfriend's Birthday

I started this blog just after I turned 25.  There was something about that birthday.

25 years.  A quarter of a century. 

I had no idea what I was doing...

My friends were all either getting married or being promoted or buying houses or having babies.  

I was single, living in a garage apartment with Atticus {my dog} had been working the same part-time jobs for three years, had rather randomly decided to become Vegan, and then suddenly had to move back in with my parents...

I had no idea what my next 25 years were going to look like.  

I wasn't even sure what I wanted them to look like.

So, I started this blog and started talking to you about the things that I thought I might want for the 2nd quarter of my life {...if I live until I'm 100...just go with it}

Brian turned 25 today.

For the last couple of weeks I have been completely overwhelmed by this birthday.

I'm not sure why.

Maybe it's because it's his first birthday with me.

Or maybe it's because I spend too much time on Pinterest and I was overcome with creative inspiration.

Or because he's turning 25 and this is My Next 25 Years and I envisioned all of the blogging possibilities...

Maybe it's because I am head-over-heels in love with this man and I have never felt more like celebrating the fact that somebody was born.

I think that these are all probably true.

But the number 25 kept flashing in my head and I decided to do something that I used to love doing for my friends when I was in high school.

25 years.  25 gifts.

Surprisingly enough...this was a helluva lot easier to accomplish when we were 16.  

But I powered through.  If you count cards and meals and desserts and little trinkets and spread it out over a few days it's not so difficult... 

{that being said, I will not be doing this again for his 30th birthday}

So, after a birthday dinner last night with Brian's family, I gave him his first gift.

I think he was a little confused by the 1 on his card.  Until I gave him a gift with a 2 on it.

1st round of gifts

So, over the next few days I will share with you some of Brian's gifts and some seriously amazing birthday-week recipes...

On the menu:

Key Lime Chicken {& Tofu}

Smashed Fried Potatoes

Monkey Bread

Individual Omelettes

Crock Pot Boiled Peanuts

AND

Chocolate Chip Cookie Oreo Brownies...

you heard me.

Until then, Happy Birthday, Brian.

I love you.

Here's to your next 25 years.

Dinner for Two: Part 2

Hello, again!

If you missed Part 1 of this dinner, you can check in here for my guacamole recipe, {the BEST guacamole in the world.}

This is the recipe for my Vegan black bean tacos with corn salsa.  I found the recipe in this month's Self magazine.  You can find the original recipe here, but I made some yummy changes to it that I think you'll want to see.

Vegan Black Bean Tacos with Corn Salsa

So you're going to start with 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed, and 1/4 cup of old fashioned oats and corn meal each.

I ground the oats and corn meal together in my food processor first, but this step is optional.

Next, combine the black beans, oats and corn meal mixture in a food processor along with:

3/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

& 2 cloves of garlic, minced

the original recipe called for 1 tablespoon of chili powder, but like I said, I love cumin, so I opted to use the same seasonings that I use when I make tacos, so instead I used:

1/2 tablespoon of chili powder

1/2 tablespoon of cayenne pepper

& 1/2 tablespoon of cumin

So blend it together until it is a crumbly texture...I added about a 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/8 cup of water to the mixture because the first time that I made this I thought it was really dry.  

Adding the oil and water helped a lot, but it's up to you!

Using your hands, crumble the mixture onto a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray, & also spray the mixture.  This will help it brown and get crispy.  

Put it into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Take it out, break it up and flip it around, spray it again and put it back in for another 15 minutes.

While the black beans are in the oven, you can make this AMAZING corn salsa.  Seriously, this is delicious...

Take 1 cup of corn, I used frozen, thawed.

1 medium red bell pepper {yum} diced.

The recipe called for 1 chili pepper, but I'm not crazy about chili peppers, so I used a jalapeno instead.

I didn't know this, but most of the heat in a hot pepper is in the ribs and seeds, so take them out for less spice, but you can save them & use it to make hot sauce, which I think is cool.  Or hot.

Also dice up 2 or 3 green onions.

Once again, my favorite part...

The juice of 2 limes,

Fresh cilantro, {I did 2 of these bunches, about 1/4 of a cup}

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

and that's it!  

I love this salsa, I love that it doesn't have tomato in it.  Not that I don't love tomato, I just think it's an interesting twist.  AND all it's got in it is lime juice...brilliant.  Love it.  Fresh & delicious.

While I was looking for my food processor in all of my kitchen things, which are packed up, and getting more and more annoyed...I saw all of my Anthropologie dishes, which cheered me up.  

I decided to get them all out and set a nice table for our dinner.

So, here it is...

Dinner for Two by Anthropolgie

Featured in this Table Setting:
Long-Term Shakers
Lotus Dinner Plate
Flame Leaf Bowls
Homegrown Monogram Mug
Rag Rug Placemats


*The dinner plates I used and the bowl I served the guacamole in are no longer available on Anthropologie.com.  Sorry, kiddos.


So, that's it!  


I had leftovers for dinner last night and lunch today...yum.


We're making these chocolate bourbon milkshakes tonight, {thanks, Pinterest}


I'll share how it goes soon.  Until then, here's wishing you beautiful evenings for quiet dinners with the people you love.  And lots and lots of beautiful Anthropologie dinnerware.  

Dinner for Two: Part 1

Hi, everybody.

I hope you all a great weekend.  I sure did!

Brian and I had a black tie event Saturday night for his law school.  We're fancy.

We had such a great time, but on Sunday we were in pretty serious need of some downtime.

I don't know about you, but when I have been over-served and am feeling less than perfect the next day, I crave really fresh, delicious, healthy food.  

Or french fries and beer.

But yesterday it was fresh Mexican that I was craving.

So, while Brian was napping, I ran to the grocery store and bought what we needed to make one of our favorite dinners...

Black Bean Tacos with Corn Salsa and Guacamole

Yum.

I found the recipe for these Black Bean Tacos in this month's Self magazine.  

I was actually surprised to find 5 really good Vegan recipes in the back of the issue.  {And they don't have soy in them, which just means good, fresh, whole ingredients.}

You can find the original recipe here, but I made a few changes to it.

As I do with most Mexican recipes we love...I added guacamole.

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, it's entirely possible that I have, but I make the BEST guacamole in the world.  

I googled a basic recipe some time back when I found some ripe avocados on sale and just tweaked it here and there.  

I tried to pay attention to measurements as I was making it last night so that I could give you a solid recipe, but I normally just toss it all together and taste-test until I get it right.  

So, here it is...

The BEST Guacamole in the World

For this recipe, I used 3 ripe avocados.

{It made enough for snacking on before dinner, adding it to our tacos, and we still had a lot leftover.}

I just slice the avocado up while it's still in the rind and then sort of squeeze it out into a bowl.  Depending on the ripeness of the avocado, you can slice it up more or less.  

I like to it to be on the chunky side, so once I've sliced it up at this stage, I only stir it as I add the other ingredients in, which blends it up well enough.

I know that I've mentioned to you how much I love watching The Food Network.  One of my favorite tips that I have picked up from watching has been how to easily dice an onion.

Brian isn't crazy about raw onion, but I am, so I compromise by dicing the onion pretty finely.  {relationship expert}

Start by slicing through the onion lengthwise.

I only used half of this large onion for this recipe.

Remove the outer layers and trim the top but leave the stem attached.  I guess that's a stem.  For this description, it's a stem.

Slice through, as shown below, but do not cut all the way through.  The stem is by my index finger in this picture, so you cut all the way through to the bottom but leave it all connected at the stem.  {wow, I thought this would be easier to explain...}

Then slice once through the middle, again do not go all the way through.

And then slice through as shown, {the pictures are doing a better job than my words are,} and, voila!, perfectly diced pieces.

When you get too close to your fingers to hold it safely you can turn it on its side and finish that way.  Brian won't watch me chop onions anymore, it makes him nervous.  

I may or may not have cut myself once or twice.  Don't worry, I still have all 10 fingers.

I used one large ripe-on-the-vine tomato for this recipe.

I seed the tomatoes to avoid the added moisture.  However, sometimes if I am working with avocados that are not as ripe I will add it in, which helps.  But these avocados were perfect!

So out it went.

So my favorite part of this recipe is probably the fresh-squeezed lime juice.  

I LOVE it.  It has such a fresh, delicious taste.  I use a lot.  For this batch I used a whole lime.  

I have a little contraption that is actually really great for getting all of the juice out, and it has a funny story attached to it about how Brian and I got 2 of them for free, but that's for another day.

And then fresh cilantro.  A small handful.  Or so.  

Chopping fresh herbs is not fun.  But this helps me get it done...

Bunch it up as small as you can in your fingers and then chop through it that way.  You may want to run your knife through it one or two more times.  All up to you.

{I actually just stumbled on this herb mill on Pinterest, has anyone ever used one before?  Might need to invest in one...aghem, Brian.}  

So that's about it.  Just keep stirring it together really well as you add in the ingredients.  And also add in:

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cumin, (optional, but I love cumin)

1 clove of garlic, minced

That's it!  Stick it in the refrigerator for a while so that it is nice and chilled.  

The leftovers keep pretty well, too.

I squeeze a little more lime juice on it before I put it away in a tupperware and that helps to keep it from turning too brown.  Just stir it up, should stay fresh for at least another day or two!

And that's it!

The BEST Guacamole in the World
{& one of my favorite new Anthropologie bowls}

This stuff is seriously addicting, so just don't say I didn't warn you.  

Brian also wanted me to be sure to let you know that he suggests using Mission Tortilla Chips for your guacamole.  They're the best.  

OR you could put it on some delicious Vegan black bean tacos...

But more on that tomorrow.

Until then, here's hoping that you had a lot of fun this weekend, and a lot of downtime on Sunday to recuperate.