21 Tuesday Jun 2016
Posted in what's ringin' our belle
Tags
bikini, buzzfeed, nordstrom, pedicure, pure wow, recipes, stylecaster, summer meals
The latest belle-ringers…
via purewow
from stylecaster.com
from mydomaine
via Norstrom
And finally…a refreshing Summer punch
Belles a-ringin’!
a&a
11 Friday Mar 2016
Posted in belle-icious
What’s a belle to do when her freezer seems to be filled with a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a lot of what seems like nothing? Well…we made the most out of an “over-stuffed” situation one recent rainy day…and the results were so delicious, we just had to share (as we belles do)!
Our version of a “Clean-out-the-freezer Fruit Crumble”:
This recipe is very simple and you can use whatever fruit combination you have on hand. In this instance, we used peaches, raspberries and blackberries. About 1 bag each. We drained and thawed briefly in a colander and then got impatient (that should come as no surprise). To the fruit add: 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Put in a 9×11 casserole dish.
The topping: 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 cup of old fashioned oats and 1 cold stick of butter cut into small slices. Combine all topping ingredients and with a pastry cutter or two knives mix topping until it resembles coarse meal. (impatience reared its ugly head here as well)
Put topping over fruit and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
One more view of the finished product…just for motivation;)
If you feel that now is a good time to empty the freezer of vanilla ice cream, we already beat you to it!!
So there you have it, another belle-icious recipe…and you cleaned out your freezer!! Multitasking is a belle’s way of life.
a&a
04 Friday Mar 2016
Posted in belle-icious
Tags
The blahs of winter can really get us down, and we often struggle to find a new and vibrant salad to perk up our menus. We decided to stroll the market and create a delish taste thrill of our own. Here’s what we came up with…and it does not disappoint.
Kale and Romaine Salad with Blood Oranges and Asian Vinaigrette
For the salad:
3 cups julienned Lacinato Kale
3 cups chopped romaine
1/2 diced orange pepper
1 segmented blood orange
1 diced avocado
1/4 c salted pistachios
Add your kale to a large bowl and drizzle with 1/2 T olive oil and a pinch of salt
Then add your romaine…
Now add your blood oranges….isn’t that color divine????
Your orange pepper goes in next
And then zee avocado….remember, she’s a good fat!!
Now scatter those pistachios about
The colors are amazing .
Now you’ll toss with this easy vinaigrette:
3 T rice wine vinegar
2 T sesame oil
1T soy sauce
1t honey
Cracked black pepper
Salt
Combine all in a jar and shake vigorously.
Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss
Et voila…a beautiful and mouthwatering salad.
Makes 4 side servings or 2 main servings .
Let us know what you think of our creative cooking. Feel free to adapt to your liking…that’s what we do!!
a&a
19 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in the organized belle
Tags
This subject came up over the holidays for one belle…and we felt it our duty to pass it on (’cause that’s what we do best, just sayin’).
One belle mother-in-law has been a very good steward of the old “family recipes”, and has always been very thoughtful in passing those on. Years ago, as shower gifts for each of her daughters-in-law, she purchased blank, bound recipe books and (in her own very distinct handwriting) filled them with her own favorites as well as those of her grandmothers, mother, and mother-in-law.
Well…now there is a new generation of cooks…her granddaughters. Although one is not quite “marryin’ age” (in that she shoves off to college next year), grandma doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to complete one of these books to leave as a legacy for these young ladies. She decided to give each of the granddaughters a book for the holidays this year, but was disappointed to find that the old spiral-bound, blank cookbooks which used to be readily available are almost nowhere to be found these days. Enter Amazon…
From Meadowsweet Kitchens, this book is not exactly like the old ones, but pages that are sold separately can be filled with handwritten recipe cards (in grandma’s hand) as well as full-size print-outs (or tear-outs) of their own favorites.
We mention all of this to encourage you all to get your mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-in-law to do the same for you and yours. In these days of doing a Google search for anything and everything you might want to prepare, let’s not forget the tradition of the old family recipe. And when we all have grandchildren of our own, we can leave the legacy of the handwritten recipe for them as well.
Pass it on, belles!
a&a
08 Friday Jan 2016
Posted in friday friend 1-1
Tags
2016 planner, Bezels and Bytes, brunch, Country Living, do, Finding Beautiful Truth, fitbit, Gages on Augusta, meatless Monday, new year, Paper Source, Recipe.com, recipes, stationary, Target, thank you notes
From one of our favorite blogs, Finding Beautiful Truth, we found this January “do” list. Thought it was worth sharing…
a few of her do’s worth a little shout-out…
from Country Living
Number 2…drink 100 ounces of water every day. Remember, this is technically just a list for January…maybe to flush out all of those holiday toxins…and we “get it” that 100 oz might be a bit much. But water just makes a belle feel good and our S’well bottles help tremendously! Give it a try (at least for the next 23 days)
from Target.com
Number 7…buy some pretty thank you notes online or these from our local paper-haunt, Gages on Augusta, for the task at hand
from recipe.com
Pretty sure these are totally “doable do’s”.
And now check out the Glamour don’ts for the new year…(click the link for their full list). Although we have praised the benefits of thong underwear here, and our FitBits here, here, here, here, and here (we kinda like them…and we don’t think we go terribly overboard)…we do see the benefits of simplifying and relaxing a bit.
Bottom line (pun intended…remember, we said “thong” above..tee hee) is… YOU do YOU in 2016!! Do what makes you feel good which will help you be a good mother, wife, friend, daughter, daughter-in-law and all the other things you might be.
Happy, happy, belles!
a&a
27 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in belle-icious, healthy belle
We admit it…sometimes we have a carb craving that won’t quit…the kind that makes us want to mow through a whole loaf of French bread, or inhale a bowl of pasta. And when that craving hits, very few substitutes will suffice.
Well…one belle recently had a hankerin’ for spaghetti with meat sauce. In fact, she craved it for a couple of weeks before she was able to attempt a “fix” (she was a very busy belle…not much time for cookin’). Luckily, this gave her the chance to make a plan that might not be so detrimental to the ole waistline. This twice-baked spaghetti squash from American Heritage Cooking was the perfect way to get that spaghetti fix! (Whew…crisis avoided!)
Their recipe:
Our process:
Cut squash in half, scoop out the “yuck”, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, turn cut-side-down, and roast
While the squash roasts, get your meat sauce goin’
When the roasting is done, scrape the spaghetti-like strings of squash out of the shells
Place the squash in a bowl and prepare to add meat sauce and seasonings
Fill the squash “shells” with your sauce and top with grated mozzarella, then toss it back in the oven for a bit
Our finished product…served up with a salad…
And for another option, try the Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats from Half Baked Harvest…
Another winner!!
a&a
21 Friday Aug 2015
Posted in belle-icious
Tags
benedict, Carlsbad Cravings, crab cake, Fresh Market, hollandaise, Ina Garten, recipes, The Barefoot Contessa
Here’s a quick, elegant, spin on an old classic…with a couple of shortcuts…proving that Benedict isn’t just a breakfast guest…
Crab cake Benedict
We found a recipe for this dish (complete with picking crab and such) a while back. But…seems neither of us found the time to do the scratch version. So, alas, the recipe went unused. One night, in a rush as usual, a brilliant thought came to mind. As one belle was searching the local Fresh Market for somethin’ quick, she saw the prepared crab cakes in the seafood case. Dinner in a snap!
On a bed of arugula, place one fairly thick tomato slice.
Sauté crab cakes until done. Keep warm while you poach one egg per plate.
Whip up a quick hollandaise (this one is from dear Ina) …or try this lighter, healthier version from Carlsbad Cravings.
Pop egg on top, drizzle with sauce…done!!
Bon appétit!
a&a
17 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in belle adventures, belle-icious
On a recent jaunt to the Big Easy, one belle took time out for a memorable lunch at Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel. Now, any belle knows that a visit to Nola must include at least a couple of “slips” on the usually-calculatedly-healthy diet (po-boy, anyone?)…but this bustling eatery makes everything so amazingly and creatively delicious, even an über-healthy menu item keeps patrons comin’ back for more…
bonappétit.com
Now, while we highly recommend stopping in at this worthy establishment next time you find yourself anywhere near the delta, we do realize that not everyone gets down there on a regular basis. So…you will be happy to know that the folks at Domenica are quite belle-like…they love to share! Yes, we have the recipe for you…as published in the May 2013 Bon Appétit:
Enjoy!
a&da
16 Thursday Jul 2015
Posted in belle-icious
The belles were recently in Charleston at the Southern Coterie conference. We learned so much…especially that we have so much more to learn!! We made some super connections, a plethora of friends, and discovered some amazing people and products. Thank you #thesouthernc!!
One such find was Hummingbird Fine Foods. During one of the breaks, Vaughn of Hummingbird Fine Foods offered up a taste of her farro salad. Want a taste thrill? Then make sure you order the Champagne Vinaigrette…we aren’t kidding!
All joking aside…at least for this sentence…we take our salads and dressings very seriously. We always prefer our own to bottled. Until now, there has been only ONE bottled vinaigrette that we like equally as our own…that would the be the French Poodle Vinaigrette which we told you about here. We are by no means bragging…well maybe just a little…but if we can make it better, why buy it? Until now.
This vinaigrette is tangy, tasty, and citrusy, with the perfect balance of flavors. It requires no tweaking…wow, we can’t believe we just said that!!
This recipe from Vaughn herself is super-easy and adjusts easily to your mood. Feel free to use goat cheese or blue cheese, add avocado, green onions or whatever strikes your fancy or is filling your larder…
Summer Farro Salad
Serves 4
1 cup farro, rinsed
2 cups baby arugula
1/2 cup yellow or orange pepper, diced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes halved
1/2 cup red onion diced
1 cup cucumber, diced
2 T chopped parsley
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 T chopped basil
Lemon slices and salt and pepper to taste
Hummingbird Fine Foods Champagne Vinaigrette to taste
Cook farro according to package directions, drain and cool completely. We made a big batch so we could have it on hand to recreate this dish quickly all week.
Transfer farro to a large bowl and add arugula, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and basil. Sprinkle with feta, salt and pepper, drizzle with vinaigrette and gently toss to coat. Be careful, you don’t want to break up the feta crumbles! Garnish with lemon slices and enjoy.
the finished product
10 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in belle-icious, friday friend 1-1
Tags
french fries, goop, Lincolnville Beach, lobster, lobster roll, Maine, McLaughlin's Lobster Shack, recipes
We told you about our Maine experience a couple of weeks ago (read here) and went on & on about the food…lobster to be specific. Some of the best lobster rolls can be found at the shabbiest road-side dives all along the coast, and we sampled our way for miles-n-miles! Our favorite was at McLaughlins Lobster Shack in Lincolnville Beach. Just take a gander…
Well…not that we can even come close to duplicating their perfection…we have found a worthy substitute. If you can’t make it to Maine this summer, you can at least pretend!!
From our dear friend, Gwyneth (she doesn’t know that we are so dear to her…but perhaps one day she will realize what she’s missing), here is an authentic stab at this delightful creation (with a side of fries to boot!)
From goop …
and for the fries…
One thought…we suggest you consider using a fresh loaf of Italian bread, sliced like a 2-inch (or wider) piece of toast in the place of the hotdog buns as a slight variation. Granted, the hotdog bun is a classic…but the bread allows for that chance to brush a bit of olive oil on the cut sides so that it can be grilled or toasted. Simply split it in the middle and fill. Just a belle’s two cents.
Enjoy!!
a&a
the RARE belle 