WARNING: pointless post ahead. Read if bored at work and/or have time to spare.

I’m a total sucker for romance, and mush, and anything sappy. I love all things pink, heart-shaped, and glittery. If they’re retro-inspired or vintage too, then I’m sold.

But I’m not a huge fan of Hallmark holidays, and Valentine’s Day seems to be one of them. Having said that though, there’s nothing that says I love you like a giant box of chocolates from your man. Actually, I can think of another giant something from your man that could do and say a lot more than I love you * (teeheehee wink wink).

So when R. and I were at the candy store the other day (and we do seem to be finding ourselves there often) I could not—COULD NOT—resist this tin of Hershey’s kisses. Now, a few things I should mention before I continue with this post:

1. Hershey’s (or anybody else) did not send me this chocolate tin for free. I paid for it myself.
2. Hershey’s (or anybody else) did not pay me to write this.

Okay, so I fell in love with this tin. It’s pink, it has flowers, and it’s retro-inspired. I just had to have it. So I bought it, and I’m so thrilled I did; it’s gorgeous!

If any of you know of any other retro-inspired chocolate tins around, please let me know! Send me an e-mail or post a comment below.

Kisses to everyone!

xo

-S.

*Of course I mean a giant diamond. Why? What did you think I meant?

We’re back!

I can’t believe it’s been a month since our last post. I know we promised we’d be around more, but a lot happened in the last four weeks that made it difficult to post something. Things that happened:

1. The water heater broke and flooded the kitchen (fun!)
2. I had to close on a major project at work, which involved me practically living at the office
3. One of our cats passed away. This was very upsetting for us. I’ve never had  a pet die before, and I wasn’t in the mood for anything the week it happened.
4. R.’s brother is traveling and going off on a new adventure, and we’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible with him before he leaves (tonight!) Family is so important to us both, so we’ll miss him a lot. But we’re so unbelievably excited for him—we wish we could go too!

So those are our excuses. I realize that that’s just what they are—excuses—but life gets in the way of blogging sometimes and you know what? It’s not the end of the world. But we’ve missed you, and we’ve missed posting.  A LOT.

So here’s what this post is actually about: the easiest lunchy/brunchy thing you could possibly ever make. And I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love purslane. For those of you who’ve never tried it before, it’s a small, waxy, leafy green that kind of looks like lamb’s lettuce but isn’t. It’s got a really nice, grassy taste to it and holds its shape beautifully on a plate.

The highlight of this dish really is the purslane. I think purslane goes really well with fish because even though it’s got the same type of fattiness to it, it tastes to clean and fresh, and the texture is so unbelievably crisp that it complements fish so well. This particular salad is perfect for pairing with smoked fish dishes.

For the sandwich I used smoked trout, fresh baguette, and artisanal cream cheese. I also squeezed some lemon onto the trout to cut through the oiliness of it and add a bit of zing.

The dressing for the salad may not seem like it’s enough, but the idea is to lightly coat the purslane leaves, not drown them.  The capers might seem strange, but they add little pop! of flavor when you eat them.

Here’s the recipe for the salad—I hope you like it!

I love beetroot. I have made many a beetroot salad in my time. Which probably isn’t saying much, mainly because I’m not that old, but whatever. I usually tend to cook the beets first, but I was really hungry when I made this and just didn’t want to wait. And you know how they say necessity is the mother of invention? Yeah, well, here it is. All I had was beets, and I was in a hurry. So not too many options there.

This salad is ridiculously easy to make, and is really healthy too. It takes about five minutes to put together, which is a total bonus. Plus ,it’s winter and it’s cold, and you’re probably sick of eating your typical winter root vegetables roasted or boiled. Beets have that wonderful earthiness to them, and putting them in a salad like this makes them feel lighter and makes it feel like summertime. Almost.

I usually make a very similar salad but with cooked beetroots, and parsley instead of dill. I substituted the herbs because that’s what I had on hand and I thought it would work well.

I like to eat this version with fresh baguette. Mopping up the sloppy purple juices that are left on the plate is my favorite part…mmmmm…
You could also serve this as a bruschetta with some crème fraiche on top, or as a side salad with some meat and potatoes.

Dig in!

Happy New Year!

We know we’ve kind of disappeared. We got sucked in by the holidays; we had friends stay over, Christmas was CRAZY (when is it not?) and work for me has been super busy.

But, let me assure you, we are back. And we’ve gotten off our lazy butts and done a bit of work on the site. The about us section has been updated, and guess what? We’ve got a some new recipes to post starting tomorrow.

So about Christmas—I feel I should say a bit about how the day went, and what we made and ate and all that. We spent it with the almost-in-laws (no need to make that face, they’re nice people. Really. ) and we made chickens (yes, plural). We used the roast chicken recipe from our last post and they turned out great—moist and delicious. We also had cuttlefish in a red-wine reduction, lamb with mint sauce, roast vegetables, and various delicious salads. Do we have photos to share? Erm…no.

R. insisted that Christmas is special and that nobody likes to have a camera shoved in their face, which I thought was pretty fair.

The cool thing about this year was that all presents had to be hand-made. So R. and I made preserved lemons, orangettes, cucumber pickles, and flavored salts and sugars.  We got plum jam, eggplant chutney, and biscuits in return.

And we ate so much panettone. I love panettone—it’s absolutely delicious. It reminds me of my mother and Christmas in Italy. If you’ve never had panettone, you need to go out and try some. It’s basically a type of leavened hand-made cake. It’s delicious. We’ve got a recipe using leftover Christmas panettone coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been checking out our site regularly—it means a lot to us J

Xo

-S.