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FunnyLove

family + food + feelings

summer

Bacon Basil Panzanella

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It’s the first day of school! Beck left this morning to great fanfare and WAHHHHH MY BABY and also guilt because honestly who needs school at age two and a half so if she stop school after high school that’s still sixteen more years of freaking school and also I’M FREE and also thirty weeks pregnant today so not free for long, sucker, and I’m hungry. 

It’s also 90 degrees here because of course it is. Climate change is a myth. 

But we may as well soak it up, right? Even people who hate summer love summer; the nostalgia of freedom from school and longer days, more daylight, and freaking perfect fresh summer produce. Spring and fall greens and gourds are just nothing compared to tomatoes, corn, watermelon, and fresh herbs, so I’m going with it as long as the weather stays this warm. It’s my payment for excessive heat while pregnant – watermelon. 

So today we’re using tomatoes and basil that are still everywhere in panzanella, aka bread salad, aka of course we should have bread in our salad. The dressing base is actually juice from the tomatoes, then we have salt, sugar, and shallot to round out the most delicious dressing. The bread gets crispy in the oven while bacon gets crispy on the stove, and honestly by the time we factor in the bacon and bread we should be just eating this for breakfast, shallot breath be damned. 

I’m not above it. 

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Corn Risotto with Roasted Tomatoes

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Because everything should have corn and tomatoes in it right now, you know? It’s true. 

Today! Monday, ugh, sorry. Another summer week! Yay, awesome! The first day of school???? for some, how. HOW. And, the week of our anniversary! It’s on Friday, and it’s been 5 years. A milestone! We are going to paint a room to celebrate and Jay might upgrade his phone because it doesn’t stay charged for more than a few hours. Big stuffs. 

Another big stuff is this risotto, for real. It’s so perfect for this time of year, cozy from the creamy rice and fresh with corn and tomatoes that are still so good. It works in warm or cool weather, and if you’ve never made risotto the secret is to stir between sips of wine so…you can definitely do it. Risotto gets a bad rap for being hard to make, and it does take some time, but can still be done in 45 minutes and isn’t hard at all. Perfect for an anniversary dinner or a weeknight where you have a few extra minutes to cook. 

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Skillet Tomatoes and Corn with Pancetta

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Ok, here is our detox-but-its-still-a-holiday-week compromise dish for the next few days/weeks/months. 

How was your fourth? We did a party on Tuesday and yesterday with friends/toddlers/grilling, I ate way too much beef and loved slash regretted it, and I feel like I can’t shower enough times to become not sweaty. Suggestions welcome for that one. The humidity around here is quite excessive. 

So let’s talk about this compromise food. Wonderful veggie base, corn and tomatoes that are getting just so good this time of year. Garlic for your health and happiness. Then for mental health and protein pancetta and cheese because you’re worth it, basil at the end because of course there is. The best part of it is that it’s made super quickly so the ingredients stay super fresh and not mushy at all, and we have a healthy + worth it meal in half an hour or so with very little fuss. 

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Classic Deviled Eggs

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Happy July! 

True life, I don’t like eggs, and I really don’t like hard-boiled eggs. It’s a texture thing, and the overwhelming smell is just…not enough to negate the idea of a cheap+sustainable+healthy protein. BUT, because everyone else likes eggs, and I know how good they are for us, I really want to like them. So, imagine my sadclown surprise when my magazine editor assigned me deviled eggs for our July feature. It was surprising because mainly I choose my own topics, but I’m always asking for direction because I’m eager to please and insecure. 

So, the irony of being told to write one recipe in over a year (and I supply 1-3 recipes per month) and have it be an egg recipe was not lost on me. I probably deserved it. It turned out to be a fun challenge, though, and I have a fun trick to offset the mealy texture of boiled egg yolks, something I find particularly not awesome. We make the entire filling in a food processor which is 1. easy and 2. produces a filling that is creamy, not mealy, and delicious. The rest of the ingredients are things you’d find in deviled eggs or egg salad, with lots of spices for flavor and some juice from the pickle jar for flavor. Flavor wins. 

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Buttermilk Fried Chicken

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FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE PATRIOTISM. 

Gag. About that first phrase, not the chicken. I do very much like Hamilton and the thought of the founding fathers, flawed as they may be, so maybe that’s our patriotism next week. You decide! 

Either way, summer is so much fun and such a great excuse to have parties, eat picnic/potluck food, and be generally sweaty and tipsy in public in a manner that is completely acceptable. I enjoy this, even though I can’t be tipsy just at the moment, frowned upon for the fetus and all of that. 

I am definitely sweaty in public, though, and DEFINITELY all about some extra carbs on my lean protein, in the name of patriotism and all that. I actually tested + photographed this chicken awhile ago on a day where we invited our bffs and their toddlers over for happy hour, playtime, and snacking. Let me tell you, snacking on fried chicken and not counting it as a meal is just something we should do more often, for our mental health. It was SO good, and I intentionally wrote this recipe with no long steps/overnight anything. Fried chicken is delicious without all of that, so why bother? 

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