April 13, 2016

.everybody loves cheese.


Over the past 3 years I have done one full Whole30 and multiple W14s and every single time all I can think is how I could never eat paleo 100% of the time because, cheese. I might be a little obsessed but, cheese is delicious and I don't want to live without it. Everybody loves cheese. You know, except for the few people who don't. This is not a post for those people.



A few weeks ago I had an awesome little gathering for some ladies I have met recently. There was cheese, there was wine, there were fruits and veggies and it was just a grand time. One of the things I made, that I was probably most excited about, was baked brie, topped with cherry preserves and wrapped in pastry dough. I've wanted to try it forever and the fact the it was so amazingly easy just made it even better. Plus it was insanely delicious. After the party there was about a quarter of the wheel left and my husband tried a small bite.... then took the whole serving bowl and finished it off!




After that successful recipe attempt I was curious as to what else I could do with baked brie. I didn't have any more crescent rolls but one night the husband was working overnight. It was just the little ladies, me and Frozen for the billionth time. I had brie, half the jar of leftover cherry preserves and a can of biscuit dough in the fridge.

So.... I stuck it all together and bada bing, bada boom. Delicious, gooey, tart, carb-filled amazingness was born. And again, it was so easy it's almost ridiculous. I feel like this dish would be awesome at a party as well. Truthfully, there's not even really a recipe. It's as easy as putting the brie in the middle of a baking dish or sheet, pour the preserves on top of it, arrange the biscuit dough around the sides of the brie and bake as directed by the biscuit brand. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and serve.

I feel like this would be amazing as some sort of savory brunch option as well. Perhaps some bacon on top of the brie, with the biscuits. Scramble up some eggs to go with. I'd love to hear more ideas!

XO

April 5, 2016

.oh hi.

Well hello friends.

What's been happening? Over here it's been, well, mostly just life. Moving, and babies, and surviving. All that fun stuff.

For awhile now, however, I have felt that something has been a bit lacking. Me. I have been a bit lacking. So, I'm not saying I'm back, I'm not saying I'm not back, but I am saying I know I need to kind of kick start myself back into..... Sara.

Not wife Sara. Not mama Sara. Not friend Sara. Just Sara.

Now, that being said, we have been in a new state, Georgia, for a little over 6 months now. We're still figuring things out. Still finding good people. Still looking for a niche. But in the meantime, a girl has gotta eat lunch. As do her babies, who are 2 and 4 now, so not so much babies!

I asked the Peanut to help me meal prep for this week. I let her pick lunches. On the list are green smoothies, crackers and cheese, sandwich kabobs, tuna salad and......

Grilled cheese with tomato soup!

Now, I won't lie. I definitely considered just buying a canned tomato soup and calling it a day. But then I remembered how much I have been missing the creativity and pride of cooking something amazing and sharing it with y'all. I thought, was a great, simple recipe to whip up and blog about. So, a plan started forming.

One thing to note at this point: I hate tomato soup. There I said it! I hate it! I always have, ever since childhood. But once upon a time I had an amazing bowl of tomato soup. It was in South Dakota, in 2008, at the Prairie Berry Winery (which also has frickin' amazing wines, if you're ever in the Black Hills, find a way to stop in!). And no, I can't tell you why I ordered tomato soup, when I know I hate tomato soup, but I just did. And it was worth it. Maybe God spoke to me and told me to order the soup. Je ne sais quoi. So, when I was trying to decide how to make my soup, the Prairie Berry concoction is immediately what came to mind.

I mean, come on y'all. Come on! Tell me you don't want to lick your screen right now. It was an amazing bowl of soup.

Creamy, tomato-ey, with a nice hint of basil. The soup was better than the grilled cheese. Which is bread and cheese, and therefore pretty hard to beat. I set to recreating something similar.

And failed. Miserably. My soup tasted nothing like the soup I remembered. And in fact I absolutely hated it. I'm sure that's a big surprise. My girls loved it, so I'm guessing it just tasted like typical tomato soup. Since I hated it so much though, I'm not going to post the recipe. It's basically just a giant pot of tomatoes with some spices anyway. Nothing too ground breaking.

I will say though, I did add a secret ingredient. I thought this was going to really change the taste of the soup to something I would prefer. My super top secret ingredient? Canned coconut milk. I put that shit on everything.

And by everything I mean, you know, stuff that needs cream.... like soup. And.... yeah, pretty much just soup. Nah, I use it in my coffee, in curries and even with berries for desert. I absolutely love adding a little coconut milk when applicable. And even some times when not applicable. No shame. Coconut milk is the new put a bird on it. Just do it.

Sadly for my taste buds, however, even my secret ingredient didn't really make this soup shine for me. So I'm basically just saying hello and I will have to work on something that's actually recipe worthy this week. I'll see what I can do!

XO