Summer Street Corn Salad

Summer Street Corn Salad

I love summer food. Fresh watermelon, peaches, and corn, grilled everything, and all those potlucks. Yes, I love potlucks. And since we don’t go to nearly as many family parties or reunions since moving to Texas, I miss them. So, over the next few weeks or so, I’m having my own virtual potluck. A ‘here’s what I would take to the potluck’ if you will.

To kick off this summer party potluck: Summer Street Corn Salad. Another salad today? Really, Jill? Yes. Yes, yes yes. If this is the last salad I ever write about (hint: it’s not), then I’m glad I snuck it in. This corn salad is my go-to, my answer to what should I make to pair with that grilled chicken or spoon into some tacos to add a little umph or scoop right out of the bowl with some tortilla chips. I make some version of this corn salad almost all summer long, and it’s long overdue for its own post.

Continue Reading

Sunday Dinner Green Beans

Sunday Dinner Green Beans

Sunday dinner is a bit of a big deal in my family. Growing up it was always the “big meal” of the week, when my mom made things like roast beef with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding and homemade gravy and always dessert. Always. Calories don’t count for Sunday dinner (right?) and we go all out.

I’m not sure which matriarch of my family started this tradition, but I know for sure that my Grandma solidified it. My family is BIG on tradition (sing it with me… Tra-di-tion, tradition….. tradition!) and I love it! I really do – the holidays and the specific things that we eat on specific days and how we celebrate birthdays.

I also love Sunday naps. And Sundays full of reading on the couch. And Sundays most importantly not full of doing a thousand dishes. So I want a nice traditional Sunday dinner but I gotta get in my Sunday nap too. Enter these green beans.

Continue Reading

The Salad that Saved my Blog

The Salad That Saved My Blog

So, have you given up on the blog? Remember when you were a food blogger for like four months? Are you just not going to blog anymore or…?

Questions I’ve been getting for the past almost year. And all very good questions! And I’m glad for the questions because it makes me feel like people actually read what I wrote and care. Success!

To be completely honest, I kind of lost my mojo. Work got busy and Sutton got busy(er) and we bought a house and then holidays and then… life, right? And in all of this I lost my blog mojo. It felt like something looming over my head, a pushed-to-the-bottom item lurking on my to-do list that I constantly felt guilty about. I mean, I’m paying like $8 a month to keep this domain name as mine, I should probably put that $8 to good use.

Continue Reading

Peach Summer Salad with Fresh Corn and Basil

Peach Summer Salad with Fresh Corn and Basil

Hello, hello, hello! I hope you’ve all been well and are soaking up the last little bit of summertime before kids go back to school and we plow full-throttle into fall. I do love summertime and have really amazing childhood memories full of night games, family vacations, water parks, countless sleepovers, and pretty much living on the trampoline in our backyard.

I’m gonna be totally honest though – summer in Texas is hard. I will even go so far to say that I dread summer. This is my third Texas summer, and they are getting a little easier. But the heat and the humidity . . . I’m a melty puddle 90% of the time, with the other 10% being spent in the pool or the shower, after which I promptly return to said melty puddle. Ugh. I can’t even say I glisten. It’s sweat guys. Just straight up sweat, and it happens all. day. long. Ughhhhhh.

Continue Reading

Bacon Sweet Corn Guacamole

Bacon Sweet Corn Guacamole

Is it un-American of me to say I don’t LOVE bacon? I like it well enough, and I enjoy it on occasion. But bacon has had its day in the sun for a few too many days in my opinion. Bacon-infused donut with bacon filling and maple bacon frosting, bacon-wrapped hot dog with bacon jam on a cheddar bacon bun, deep-fried battered bacon – I’m gonna take a strong pass on all of this. Bacon is a great flavor but this is all just too much.

Continue Reading

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Salad

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Salad

I had some weird food stuff going on as a kid. I’ve already mentioned my early love of beets. Things really got weird with breakfast, though. I HATED eggs, toast, juice, pancakes, freezer waffles, and thought cereal was only kinda “meh”. As an 8 year old, what else was even left for breakfast options? Luckily I had a nice mom who probably figured something was better than nothing, so she let me eat dinner leftovers for breakfast. Every single morning. Because some microwaved chicken with mashed potatoes or spaghetti sound appetizing at 7 am. Served up, of course, with a hearty helping of older sister eye rolling, because why did her little sister have to be so weird! Apparently my 8 year old self thought this was all just fine. My poor mom! A few years later once I finally got tired of leftovers for breakfast, I had a banana with peanut butter every morning for a whole year, then Special K with Strawberries the next. (I’m shaking my head just typing this.)

Continue Reading

My Favorite Pizza Dough

My Favorite Pizza Dough

Confession: I have a really hard time paying money for pizza. Not much pizza goin’ on on my must-eat-in-Austin list. This is definitely not because I don’t like pizza, or that I don’t believe there is good pizza to be had in Austin (try here or here!). It really boils down to the fact that I’m cheap (I like to think of it as budget-minded). I have a really hard time paying $20+ for something that I feel like I could do a pretty dang good job of myself. For way less money. And I don’t have to pay an extra $1 if I want to add a scant few slices of jalapeno. (This is Texas folks, those little fiery gems should always be included.)

Continue Reading

Chipotle Grilled Sweet Potatoes on Live Grow Give

Chipotle Grilled Sweet Potatoes

One of my favorite things about moving to a new city (or visiting one for that matter) is figuring out where all the good food is. Cities we previously lived in had a few highlights here and there, all which could be condensed to a short list. Since moving to Austin, I have the opposite problem. My list is MASSIVE, and every time we go somewhere new, it usually is mind blowing, and I just want to go back and try the green apple guacamole with pineapple, jicama, and mint or that eggplant parmesan pizza because their pepperoni pizza was the best I’ve ever had. Oh and I almost forgot the milkshake with miso hazelnut blondie and huckleberry jam swirls.

Continue Reading

Baked Coconut Shrimp Tacos

Baked Coconut Shrimp Tacos

While Nathan was in Mexico, I was super intrigued to hear what people in Mexico did to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. In my mind, it was going to be some HUGE party. I mean, if we in America celebrate this Mexican holiday, surely people actually in Mexico really party it up, right? Well, wrong. I was informed that the vast majority of Mexicans don’t do a thing for Cinco de Mayo. I thought it was the country’s independence day – turns out it isn’t. From what I’ve since gathered, the “holiday” is more about Americans drinking tequila and eating a bunch of Tex-Mex. A day to celebrate tacos? That is something I could definitely get behind 🙂

Continue Reading

Ruby Red Slaw

Ruby Red Slaw

I’ve learned a lot about the science of food over the past 8 or so years. I studied the chemistry behind the individual molecules that physically make up different foods to the metabolic reactions that happen in our bodies to digest food. Food science was fascinating to me – the idea that I can take raw, whole, natural ingredients, add some heat and maybe a few things like fat, acid, salt, or sugar, and in return I get something far greater than what all those raw ingredients could have ever dreamed of being to begin with.

Continue Reading