Favorite Recipes - Caprese Grits

Last weekend, T was playing in a golf tournament on Sunday morning and I was at home for the day with little on my agenda and I really wanted some yummy brunch food. 

We had eggs, grits and basil/tomatoes from the farmer's market so I decided to head to the fancy grocery store up the street and got some bacon and mozzarella and made a more than delicious meal. 

I baked the bacon in the oven (the best way, in my opinion), fried my eggs over medium with salt and pepper and made the most delicious caprese grits...

Caprese Grits

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

1.5 cups water (or chicken broth)

.5 cup quality grits (such as Bob's Mill)

Pinch of salt

1 small tomato, chopped

10 basil leaves, chopped

.25 cup fresh mozzarella, chopped

Pepper/Salt/Garlic powder

Balsamic Glaze (from TJ's) 

Olive oil

Instructions:

Bring water/broth to a boil with a pinch of salt. Once boiling, add grits and reduce heat to low. Stir occasionally until thick, about 6 minutes. 

While the grits are cooking, mix tomato, basil, mozzarella in small bowl with balsamic and olive oil, sit aside.

Once the grits have the right "grit" consistency, add small amount of salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste and stir. 

Add tomatoes, basil and mozzarella (leave a small amount for garnish), stir and let sit for 3 minutes. 

Garnish with a drizzle of balsamic and basil and the caprese left from above. 

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Summer Goal: Canning Heirloom Tomatoes

My paternal grandmother, Pearl, always canned tomatoes, peaches, pickles, and lots of other amazing goodies that she shared with her children, grandchildren and close family friends. I was handed down her canning pot and have been wanting to can some tomatoes for myself for years but never got around to it until a few months back in August. 

Dad picked up the heirloom tomatoes and peaches at the farmer's market in Charlotte while I got the mason jars, canning book and other canning items at Target, which had all sorts of canning goodies to help me in my canning goals!

I blanched the tomatoes then added lemon juice and salt to the jars before sealing in the canning jar. For comparison, this entire basket was filled with tomatoes and I only ended up with 7 jars of tomatoes! This was partially because it was late in the season and some of the tomatoes weren't usable. 

This is an activity that I thought would take a couple of hours and ended up taking the entire afternoon. While it did take a long time, I'm so glad I did this and will absolutely can more tomatoes next year! I've really enjoyed using these tomatoes to make homemade tomato basil soup and marinara sauce that tastes so fresh and just like summer. 

Favorite Recipes - Fall Harvest Salad

I had to make dishes for two friendsgiving dinners in the same day a few weeks ago so I needed something that would be easy to prepare ahead of time and require little work once at the parties. I started thinking about my options and decided to make salads and homemade dressing. 

One of my absolute favorite salads was one I used to get from Panera and only available in the fall - the harvest salad was absolutely amazing with mixed greens, pears, dried cherries, gorgonzola cheese, chicken and cherry balsamic salad dressing.

I googled recipes looking for this amazing salad recipe and found a copycat version of my favorite salad, here. I followed the directions loosely, making a few tweaks to the dressing (cooking the garlic, shallots and balsamic to mix the flavors more) and didn't add chicken since there would be a huge thanksgiving spread at each event. 

Tip: layer the toppings in the salad so everyone will get a taste of everything throughout the salad! 

Final product

I would definitely make this salad again! It was so delicious and everyone loved it! I just wish Panera still had it so I could order it every fall. :)

Summer Weeknight Meal

T and I usually plan out our meals for the week on Sunday, before we go grocery shopping. This makes our shopping more efficient and easier on weeknights because we know what we are going to have each night... and let's be honest, it keeps us from getting fast food on the way home from work!

Tonight we had planned to have a classic summer meal: crab cakes, roasted okra, pan-fried silver queen corn, and heirloom tomato/basil/mozzarella salad. Crab cakes were on special at The Fresh Market, corn/okra/tomatoes from the farmer's market, basil from the back yard and mozzarella from Trader Joe's. An easy summer meal with little effort to prep and make on a busy night!

T & I were both looking forward to this meal together on a quiet and rainy Monday night but unfortunately, T had to stay really late at work. Always one to to try turn lemons into lemonade, I ate really quickly after making dinner and then packed T's up and brought him a to-go plate at work. I took a little pic before he ate... (because that's what people with blogs do? because no post should be picture-less? because I'm proud of it? so many reasons to ponder, haha)

Summer meals are the best - grilled leftovers are always better and the produce tastes better, summer meals are just overall my favorites to make!

T's to-go meal