12 Tuesday Jul 2016
Posted in what's ringin' our belle
Tags
basil, buffalo wing croutons, career girl daily, cocktails, how to say no, how you know you arent getting enough sleep, nubby twidget, nubby twiglet, preserving basil, salad, The Stripe, thekitchn
The latest belle-ringers…
How you know you aren’t drinking enough water
Buffalo wing croutons ..enough said…
How to say NO comfortably
Because it’s impossible to get good help these days
The best way to preserve basil
Well, ring my belle!!
a&a
01 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in belle-icious
We love it when we run across something a little different in the salad “arena”. While we wing it with green salads and our old stand-by’s, it’s exciting to change it up a bit! Here’s one we found and tried last week…to RAVE reviews!!
The perfect addition to the July 4th picnic (and a great way to use those little tomatoes popping up in gardens everywhere!!), try now & thank us later!
from cooking classy on pinterest
Asparagus, Tomato and Feta Salad
the ingredients:
2 lbs fresh asparagus, chopped into 1″ pieces and blanched
1 lb grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered
6 T champagne vinegar
2 t lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt, pepper
2/3 c chopped walnuts, toasted
4 oz feta cheese
the assembly:
Once asparagus is blanched & cooled and tomatoes are chopped, prepare your dressing using the vinegar, lemon juice, oil, garlic, and salt & pepper to taste. Toss tomatoes and asparagus with dressing and allow to sit in fridge until ready to serve (can be done up to a couple of hours in advance). When ready to serve, add the toasted walnuts and feta. Toss to coat, and serve away!!
Belleicious!!
a&a
29 Friday Apr 2016
Posted in belle-icious, friday friend 1-1
We’ve mentioned the Happy Everything cookbook before…but thought it was time to dig in a bit. Found this Italian Chopped Salad that totally rang belles at a recent dinner party. Just HAD to share!!
Italian Chopped salad
Dressing:
1 T white balsamic vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1/2 t honey
1/2 t Dijon mustard
2 T extra virgin olive oil
Salad:
4 c baby arugula, coarsely chopped
1c flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 c mint, torn
1 large cucumber, peeled & diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, seeded & diced
2 c cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 can (15.5 oz) chickpeas, drained & rinsed
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Now…
Do your choppin’
Whisk your dressing…
Put it all together…
Toss…
…and prepare for the accolades
Again…
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
12 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in belle-icious
Tags
besh big easy, brick street cafe, coquilles saint jaques, crab, crabmeat ravigote, Food52, Ina Garten, john besh, make it ahead, persimmons, radishes, recapo, salad, scallops, shrimp, throughthelookingglass.com
With Valentine’s Day coming this weekend, we’ve been puttin’ some thought into a special meal for our near and dear…and, of course, we busy belles love a menu that is gourmet-worthy but can be prepared in advance. This one is perfect for a romantic evening for two or can be served at a larger Valentine gathering. In fact, one of our good belle friends served this at a Valentines dinner last year, and it was both tasty and memorable.
For appetizers, a bowl of cashews or pecans would be more than enough, but if you really want to step it up a notch then you have to make this Crabmeat ravigote . We found the recipe in Best Big Easy by John Besh.
Via Pinterest
We served it with endive leaves as shown and some crackers. It was inhaled. Just sayin….
On to the main course. We love Ina Garten’s Coquilles St. Jaques. It is rich, decadent and simply divine. It’s an impressive course to serve to your significant other or a gathering of friends.
Via Pinterest
We found this in Ina’s book, Make It Ahead, but you can find the recipe here in its entirety . If you find all scallops to be too rich, feel free to do half shrimp, half scallops. It works beautifully. You can also use domestic mushrooms with ease.
A fresh baguette to sop up all the sauce is most assuredly in order.
A simple salad is all you really need to round out this menu. We had the pleasure of having a beautiful simple green salad with persimmons recently. We had never thought to have them in a salad and they were a delicious addition! Try it…you’ll adore it!
Via Food52
Feel free to change up the greens. We had ours with butter lettuce, baby romaine, persimmons and watermelon radishes. Find the recipe here at Food52.
Here in our town, there is a bakery by the name of the Brick Street Cafe. They happen to serve a chocolate cake that is addictive, travels well, and even gets better with age (although it won’t last long despite that fact). We often order it for birthdays, beach trips, weekend getaways, and just about any excuse we can create.
Can you imagine our sheer and utter joy when we discovered the recipe for this magnificent cake. So now …behold ….
We can thank Through Her Looking Glass for sharing the end all and be all of chocolate cakes…The Brick Street Chocolate Cake
Here is zee Recipe
Happy heart day y’all
a&a
17 Thursday Sep 2015
Posted in belle-icious
We are always looking for a a fresh take on sides and salads …ones that are delicious but beautiful to look at and even better to eat.
This Asparagus with Burrata fits the bill!
We found the burrata (a couture level of mozzarella…creamy, ooey, gooey, light and fresh) at Whole Foods. If you can’t find it, sub in a good quality mozzarella.
And, speaking of quality…the ingredients here are few and simple, so get the freshest and best quality you can locate. You will be glad you did…and craving this dish over and over.
The ingredients:
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 medium shallot , finely chopped
1T coarsley chopped parsley
1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 t cracked black pepper
3 T good quality olive oil
1 large bunch asparagus, trimmed
1 container Burrata or good quality mozzarella
In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, shallots, parsley, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
In a skillet of boiling water, blanch the asparagus and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until just cooked through.
Transfer immediately to iced colander to stop the cooking.
Either divide the asparagus among individual plates or place on serving platter. This can be prepared through step 2 in advance. Let all stand seperatly at room temp until ready to serve.
So beautiful, so easy, so scrumptious!!
For the original recipe (untweaked) go here.
This could be the perfect side to you Labor Day fare. Enjoy!!
a&a
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
02 Tuesday Jun 2015
Posted in what's ringin' our belle
Tags
baker by nature, bauble bar, bbq chicken pizza, biggirlssmallkitchen, decadent chocolate cake, Food52, kale, lariat, michale stars, pearls, pinch of yum, salad, tees
No we aren’t tired of it yet…especially when it’s in this salad .
A homemade pizza we are dying to try!
How to be ready for a party at a moment’s notice..and belles need to be prepared…always!
A lariat that we swoon over!! Or a lil’ drama for those ears…they deserve attention too!
The best way to Beat the heat! Would make a great Father’s Day gift too!
Michael you can do no wrong. This could be our new Uniform.
We all deserve a little Decadence …just sayin…
And, of course…a delightful cocktail.
Cheers!
a&a
09 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in belle-icious, healthy belle
Tags
From the blog, how sweet it is, this Spring Green Salad with Candied Meyer Lemons and Fried Goat Cheese is to…die…for!
We’ve made this countless times, always to rave reviews! (Any leftover lemons make a sweet, crunchy, refreshing snack…bonus!)
Photo and recipe from http://www.howsweeteats.com
Perfect for the spring dinner table, don’tcha think, belles??
a&a
17 Thursday Apr 2014
Posted in belle-icious
We are here to tell you, it’s true, we simply can’t get enough of the stuff. We jumped on the kale train and we are all on board.
This version we are sharing with you is from Joy the Baker. If you haven’t visited her blog yet, it is about time you did. We find ourselves getting lost in her recipes and the photos will tempt your taste buds.
Just a few ingredients and a little time and you will be thanking your lucky stars (and us) that you made this tasty salad with an Asian spin.
You will need:
A fresh bunch of kale (curly) stems removed, cut into the thinnest chiffonade you can manage.
1/3 cup roasted almonds coarsely chopped
In a bowl whisk together:
1 small clove garlic minced
Generous pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Pinch of salt
2 T soy sauce
4 T rice wine vinegar
2 T sesame oil
2 t honey
Pepper to taste
Now toss the kale , almonds and dressing and try to restrain yourself from eating it with your bare hands.
The original recipe calls for sesame seeds but in our eagerness to create this we neglected to notice we didn’t have any in the larder. We also doubled the recipe because we just KNEW this salad was going to cause a ruckus if there wasn’t enough to go around.
In a word: scrumptious
a&a
the RARE belle 
