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Sometimes it’s too hot to cook. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed (gratefully, happily overwhelmed) with more work than you can do in a seven day week. Sometimes you miss your significant other who happens to be extremely close to finishing his Masters thesis, in addition to working until after midnight several days in a row.

Last night all of those sometimes collided, and Wine Wednesday became takeout sushi and sangria night. We used to have sushi Thursday. We’ll call last night “Give me wine and sushi or I will cry Wednesday”.

Getting into the kitchen to whip up a summery sangria based on the ingredients we had in the house was therapeutic for me, as kitchen time often is.

For this sangria, you will need a bottle of dry white wine like this Travessia Pinot Grigio I found. I loved this when at its release and was actually surprised to find we had a bottle left when I was digging through the wine fridge.

You will also need a cup of Lillet Blanc. Never had Lillet? It’s a delightful aperitif, great in cocktails, and a perfect match for white sangria.

Lillet

Since we have a boatload of sweet, juicy peaches and even sweeter honeydew, I diced up several cups of the fruit.

peaches and melon

Make sure to have a vessel large enough for a whole bottle of wine plus. I used this snazzy pitcher my husband picked up. Smile We did have a nice glass pitcher at once point, but I don’t know where it is.

I muddled the fruit with the tiniest pinch of sugar and then poured in the wine and Lillet. A few good stirs, and it was ready to be chilled for about an hour. It can be served right away, but ideally the flavors will have some time to give the sangria a little love.

sangria

Serve over lots of ice in a giant glass.

sangria

Preferably alongside a meal that someone else made, in my case spicy tuna hand rolls.

spicy tuna hand roll

The sushi and sangria, along with Spotify, hanging out on our deck, and trying to plow through my work, made me a little less stressed, but I have a meeting this morning I am super nervous about. Tonight, I have dinner at Del Frisco’s, and when today is over, I think I will be able to breathe a little more of a sigh of relief. I hope you all have a great day!

What is your favorite summer drink?

Tags: recipe, sangria, summer, sushi, wine

Chicken salad has become a staple in our weekend boating diet. Simple to pack and bring along to eat with bagels, wraps, crackers, or slices of baguette, it’s a filling meal that staves off hunger at sea. Our friend Jill is a magician in the kitchen and makes one of the best chicken salads, and we have been luck to have her bring it along lately.

Even after eating it several times in a row, I found myself craving chicken salad this week and decided to whip some up using seasonal ingredients I had in the house. What resulted was far different than what I planned on making, but is definitely a new favorite recipe in this house.

I started with a bunch of organic chicken tenders, tossing them in olive oil and curry powder before putting them on a hot grill pan.

marinated chicken

curried chicken

Once all the chicken was cooked through, I chopped it finely and set it in the fridge for the afternoon while I got back to work. One of the many joys of working from home.

curried chicken

A few hours later, I chopped half of a small red onion, a few ribs of celery, and a jalapeno and tossed them with the chicken, along with a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise.

curried chicken salad

I sprinkled in a bit more curry powder, tossed everything together, then added a sweet ingredient, chopped fresh peaches. The juice mixed in with the rest of the ingredients and made for a nice sweet, soft contrast with the crunchy celery and spicy jalapeno. A bowl of summer was born!

curried chicken salad

I served the chicken salad in Tortilla Land tortillas which I had cooked and then let come to room temperature and filled with baby spinach. My camera battery died, so I didn’t get a shot.

I am excited to eat this chicken salad for lunch today!

How is your week going so far? Is it crazy that I am already very ready for the weekend? I am taking a half day Friday for a fun food tour, so I am trying my best to get as much work done as possible during the week. It’s a little overwhelming.

I hope you are all having a great day!

Tags: chicken, curry, dinner, healthy, peaches, recipe, salad

This week’s cooking is going to be heavily inspired by the Michael Chiarello’s Bottega cookbook. I can hardly believe my last visit to Bottega, one of my favorite restaurants ever, was almost two years ago. Time for this girl to get back to Napa.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day; pretty much all we got done was some shopping and baking and getting my broken phone attended to. When 7:00 rolled around, I wanted a simple dinner, so I set to work making Chiarello’s Calabrese Romano Bean Ragu.

The ragu can be served many ways, in a sandwich, as the book suggests, over pasta, as a side, or on its own. I decided to make it a light dinner. And while it was very easy, it was full of spectacular flavor.

I started with about two cups of green beans which I chopped into thirds and set aside. I also chopped about eight small red potatoes into half moons.

potatoes and green beans

First, the potatoes went into a pot of salted, cold water, and were brought to a boil and allowed to boil for a few minutes. I strained them out of the boiling water and threw the beans in.

I made sure the potatoes were nice and dry and added them to a pan of olive oil, about 1/3 cup that was being heated. I made sure that each potato had contact with the bottom of the pan and then left them so that they could a  nice brown crust.

frying potatoes

They came out lovely, tender, and golden.

fried potato

Once the potatoes were done, I strained the beans and added the potatoes, beans, a can of crushed plum tomatoes, three cloves chopped garlic, salt, and crushed red pepper to a pot. I brought the mixture up to a simmer and let it do its thing for about 10 minutes. The smell in the kitchen was incredible. I thought the heat of the tomatoes would go well with a crumbled goat cheese topping, so while the ragu simmered, I crumbled some up.

goat cheese

I served us heaping portions of the ragu topped with the cheese, which got soft and melty and blended in with all of the other ingredients. We were only missing a crusty loaf of bread for dipping!

bean ragu

I love the Bottega cookbook, and I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot of it. The food is rustic, and many of the recipes very simple. If only I could make my gnocchi as perfect as it is at the restaurant.

Have you been inspired by any cookbooks lately?

Tags: Bottega, cookbooks, Food, recipe, Vegetarian

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