Simplicity

Being in love and home for the holidays is really, really great. J and I started our vacation with a visit to our friend's ranch up the coast - what a beautiful reintroduction to California. 

                       

Devon & Patrick are raising all sorts of wonderful creatures on the ranch and sell all organic pork, eggs, and (soon to come) beef. The happy couple sent us home with cartons of eggs; the thin shells and assorted colors are gorgeous in a way that you forget exist outside of the grocery store shelves. 

Inspired by the simple life up North, I made our breakfast the simple way - sunny side up with a hint of truffle oil and sea salt.

Shishito Peppers + Grapefruit

Picked up some beautiful shishito peppers and grapefruits at the farmers market the other day. Thought they were interesting flavors and beautiful colors to combine. I pan fried the peppers with some olive oil and sea salt and then garnished with grapefruit. They were a big hit!

Lavender Sea Salt Chocolate Bark

If you know my family, you know our obsession with chocolate. I can proudly say we are the only family I know who has an entire drawer in our refrigerator solely purposed for chocolate. However the other day I found myself in an unusual position - craving a chocolate we didn't have. 

Consequently, I went around making my own lavender sea salt dark chocolate bark. Lavender grows like a weed in my garden, so I cut off a few twigs and finely minced the it until it was fine and powdery. I melted down dark chocolate (72%) and mixed in the lavender powder and a fair amount of sea salt. I then poured the chocolate onto a chilled baking pan and put it in the freezer until it hardened. About 20 minutes later it was solid enough to crack into thin bark. 

SO delicious, have to make this more often!

Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes

Brussels sprouts get an unwarranted bad rep. Sure, they're icky before preparation, but it takes nearly nothing to turn them into a delicious side dish. For these I just sliced them in half and laid them flat side down in a buttered pan with a lemon and salt seasoning. 

I cooked a few fingerling potatoes to go with them

Coconut oatmeal chocolate pecan cookies

This summer, Reed and I have been exploring all sorts of recipes, but have been particularly devoted to cookies. In addition to being one of the most fantastic human beings ever, he has one of the most fantastic beach houses in which to eat (and photograph) cookies. 
Be warned: these are not light snacking cookies, they fill you up until you are laying on the couch full of cookie related regrets. However...they are worth it. So delicious. These cookies were made by us with our two good friends and my wonderful boyfriend, who has just recently discovered the joys of baking with us. The recipe originally came from smitten kitchen,but was heavily modified so I've rewritten it to reflect how we actually made them.

Follow the link for the how to 

Pepper Pasta

This was a great and easy pasta dinner I made a while ago. In it I put a simple lemon rosemary chicken and shredded carrots. The fun part was baking a variety of peppers. I put them in the oven for 45 minutes until they were tender enough to slide the skin off. Once de-skinned, I let them marinade in a mixture of red wine, rosemary, garlic, and green onions until my patience ran out. I chopped them and added it to the pasta and sprinkled with goat cheese.

Baked Peaches

The month of July brings so many tremendous treats, not least of which is peaches. One of my favorite afternoon snacks is a perfectly baked peach. I prefer to prepare them halved and drizzled in honey, brown sugar, and vanilla, with a hint of mint and baked until tender. Next time I'll try adding a few twigs of lavender for taste.