Archives for September 2012

Grilled Cheddar, Peach & Arugula

September 28, 2012 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

Let’s get right to the point here: you don’t need me to give you a recipe for grilled cheese. You also don’t need an extra thick coffee milkshake, but wouldn’t your day be better if you had one right now? Sometimes we want things that we don’t need. Like milkshakes and pie cutters shaped like acorns and recipes for grilled cheese.

I had this for lunch two days in a row. We’ve been lucky enough to still have some peaches at the farmer’s market (slim pickings, but I’m holding on to peach season with white knuckles), though I imagine this would be just as delicious with pears or apples, or even sweet plums.

And if you’re looking for a comfy tomato soup recipe to round this whole thing out, I’d suggest a hearty bowlful of Moroccan-spiced tomato soup. Yum.

…

Read More

Autumn Redux

September 22, 2012 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

I fall for fall.
Same time every year, it seems,
Every old time.
Do you fall at fall-time? I bet you do.
There’s cider and cocoa and cotton wool.
Firewood and firesides and fading sunlit breezes. Boots, too.
Tall ones and short ones, stomp stomping, crunch crunching,
The deep and dusty leaves, all reds and mustards and ochres and sages,
And who says that has to get old, anyway?

It’s the first day of fall today. Happy autumn! Like most everyone else, it appears, I’m into this particular switching of seasons. From shorts to tights, cotton to corduroy, peaches and berries to eggplant, apples, squash.

Here, a redux — some of my favorite cozy fall time recipes to remember as you swap your printed neon Toms for those earth-toned corduroy ones:

Try some roasted acorn squash and arugula, above.

Or chicken barley soup with kale.

Pumpkin ginger cake with salted maple glaze!

Mustard roasted potatoes & pears are the perfect compliment to any simple and hearty roast.

…

Lemon-ish Berry Berry Muffins

September 18, 2012 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

These are what’s happening exciting today.

Lemon-ish berry berry muffins, only faintly sweet and fortified with lemon zest, Greek yogurt, whole wheat pastry flour and (likely) the last of summer’s sweet berries.

These could be what’s happening exciting tomorrow, too! Lemon-ish. Breakfasty. Berry Berry-able. Muffinosity!

And if you wanted to make things extra exciting by bedazzling these with a simple lemon glaze, I wouldn’t be the one to stop you. Just saying.

…

Read More

Zucchini Chips & Creamy Spinach Pesto

September 11, 2012 by mollygilbert520 17 Comments

You guys! I’m like, totally kind-of not-really-but-a-little-bit famous!

I’ve been lucky enough to hook up with the fabulous people over at Terrain (one of my favorite home/gardening/loveliness stores), and become a contributor to their beautiful blog, the Bulletin! My mission, which I’ve clearly already chosen to accept, is to act as their West Coast farmer’s market envoy, which means I now have every excuse possible to spend the majority of my time at the Ferry Building surrounded by figs. And tomatoes and fresh bread and apples and cheese and squash. Obviously.

To celebrate, zucchini chips! Rounds of pale green zucchini, baked to crispy brown in a hot oven and slathered with cool, creamy pesto. I ate some as such, and then put the rest over a bowl of hot pasta with Parmesan cheese (a move that took everyone by delicious, delicious surprise). I highly recommend it (and I’m an envoy now so, I mean, I would probably know. Just saying).

Zucchini chips and pesto and pasta, oh my! The perfect way to pay homage to summer’s end and usher in some crisp fall weather. Please head over to The Bulletin at Terrain for the recipe!

Chewy Granola Bars

September 5, 2012 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

September is upon us, all of a sudden. Doesn’t it always seem to slap you in the face with a Jansport backpack? I mean, a few days ago I was drinking pink wine and talking about my favorite bathing suit cover-up, and today I had to go to the dentist and sharpen all of my pencils. School buses are toting kids around as we speak.

So, fine, maybe I didn’t actually sharpen all of my pencils today, but can’t you feel it? That shift from August to September, when everything starts to get serious and real and “back on track”? You can.

There are pros and cons to this shifting paradigm. My inner lazy lady mourns the loss of the slow summer months, but my typical oldest-child-type-A-eager-to-please-ism secretly heralds the crisp structure of autumn. Let’s compare:

We’ll start with September’s cons:

My birthday is not in September.
Peach season is almost over.
It’s now no longer appropriate to wear white pants.

And the pros?

We can start legitimately thinking about Halloween costumes.
After school snacks!
It’s now no longer appropriate to wear white pants.

I’d like to call attention to the point about after school snacks. Let’s make granola bars from scratch!

I’d never thought about homemade granola bars before, and was entirely pleased with myself when I pulled these out of the oven. I ate them happily, thinking myself the picture of sensible snacking health, until Ben pointed out that these are pretty much just cookies.