ZUCCHINI, CORN, + PESTO PIZZA

If you've been following along here for awhile, you know that most Friday nights are homemade pizza nights in our house! I perfected my dough recipe YEARS ago and the only thing I've changed since then is making the switch earlier this year to organic flour. Hear me out on this one- something about the organic flour makes the dough SO MUCH BETTER. I can't explain it, but it's worth the extra few dollars at the grocery store. Also worth investing in? A pizza stone! This makes all the difference when cooking a homemade pizza at home. You just cannot beat it. 

This pizza was inspired by one they serve at a local organic farm here in Charlotte. My friend raves about it and I decided to give it a whirl. Mark Moore was skeptical at first, but I made him a believer. Corn on a pizza may sound odd, but trust me on this one. The sweet kernels add a little something extra and I am here for it. 

I layered the pesto on this one and it was just heavenly. There is nothing like fresh homemade pesto in the Summer. I was out of walnuts and pine nuts, so I made a quick batch with just basil, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil and I think this is what I will do from now on when making pesto for pizza. It was lighter and fresher tasting to me and without the nuts, the basil really shines through. That intense basil flavor on this pizza is what makes it so good. (besides the little pops of sweet from the corn) If you wanted to add some meat, I think prosciutto would be amazing on this one! 

It's like Summer on a pizza. 

ZUCCHINI, CORN, +  PESTO PIZZA

For my homemade Neapolitan pizza dough, follow the recipe HERE

1 ear sweet corn, cooked and cut off the cob
Handful of zucchini "ribbons" (I used a veggie peeler and shaved about 1/2-1 cups worth!)
Pesto (store bought or homemade)
Shredded whole milk mozzarella

If you are using homemade dough, preheat oven with pizza stone inside to 500 degrees. Once the oven comes to 500, remove the pizza stone and immediately prep your pizza.

Roll out dough and place on preheated stone. Spread a layer of pesto and then a very thin layer of mozzarella. Top with zucchini ribbons and sprinkle on the fresh corn. Add another layer of mozzarella.

Bake for 8 minutes on 500, or until nice and melty and bubbly! Hit it with some red pepper flakes for heat. 

TROPICAL SALSA

I love everything about Summer. The slow days and the late nights. The sun and the sand. Happy hours on the patio and even the HEAT. And give me all the fresh Summer produce. Summer is just the best. And so is Summer cooking! 

I've been hoarding all of my food pics on my phone with then intent of rapid fire posting this Summer because I have missed sharing on this little space. 

If there was ever an official salsa for Summer, this would be it! The original recipe comes from Tiffani Thiessen's Pull Up A Chair, but I tweaked it a bit and added some more spice! And because I was feeling EXTRA, I pulled up a YouTube video and taught myself how to cut out a pineapple and use it as a serving bowl. This salsa was a huge hit at a cookout two weeks ago and I think it's even better when it sits overnight! The flavors are insane and I will be making this on repeat for the rest of the Summer. Not to mention it's just so freaking pretty in this pineapple bowl! 

The best part about this is that all of the work is in the chopping and you just toss everything into a bowl. I honestly eyeballed the amounts here and just kind of added more of what I liked- like extra jalapenos for a kick! Scrape out the seeds if you don't like the heat, but I can't get enough. We are LOVING Late July Chips in our house. I picked them up for our Super Bowl nachos in the Winter and now they are the only chips I'll buy. The lime + sea salt ones are my personal fave. 

Now, whip this up for your next Summer shindig and while you're at it, teach yourself how to craft a pineapple bowl! 

TROPICAL SALSA
recipe adapted from Tiffani Thiessen

1 cup diced pineapple
1 cup seedless watermelon
1 cup diced mango
1 cup diced papaya
1/2 cup diced english cucumber
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1-2 jalapenos, finely diced
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
1/2-1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and let it sit and mingle for a few hours before serving. 

Grilled Lemon Salmon Kebabs

No better way to start off the week than with a healthy dinner recipe! My love for salmon knows no bounds and I'm always looking for fresh and new ways to prepare it. I LOVE grilling it in the Summer and getting that smokey grill flavor. Kebabs have been having a moment at our house, too. It's so easy to chop up a bunch of fresh ingredients, put them on a stick and throw it all on the grill. A one step meal that's delicous, healthy and doesn't take much prep time. 

These salmon kebabs are going straight to the top of my Summer favorites list. The flavor on the fish was INSANE from the grill as well as each piece being sandwiched between fresh lemon slices. Something about fish and lemon ALWAYS does it for me. I could be happy eating this as a meal every night this Summer. 

I found this recipe via Skinny Taste awhile ago and have been itching to make it. Also, how beautiful does the raw salmon and bright yellow lemon slices photograph!? These tasted as good as they looked. I tweaked the seasonings here a little and came up with my own spice rub for the salmon that was just perfect. It may sound strange, but don't forget to eat the lemons! This might be the best part of the meal.

I just can't stop thinking about these kebabs.

Lemon Salmon Kebabs

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
fresh cracked pepper
1 lb. boneless skinless wild salmon
2 lemons, thinly sliced
4-8 bamboo skewers 
Olive oil

Soak bamboo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes before prepping your kebabs. I was able to fit all of my lemon and fish onto 4 skewers, and had them all pretty full. If you are serving more people, divide the fish and lemons amongst 8 skewers. 

In a small bowl, combine oregano, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, kosher salt and cracked pepper.

Cut salmon into 1 inch chunks. Beginning and ending with the salmon, thread salmon and folded lemon slices onto the skewers. Sprinkle evenly with the spice rub and add a little bit more salt and pepper on top as well. Drizzle with olive oil. 

If doing these on an outside grill, grill on medium-high heat for about 8-10 minutes, until fish is fully cooked through. Make sure you turn the skewers often. For a grill pan, grill on medium high heat, turning often and cooking until the fish is cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. 

Italian Potato Salad

I love Summer eating, but what I don't love is feeling full and bloated and just blah from the heat and a big plate filled with ALL THE FOOD. There are so many fresh ingredients available to us in the Summer and along with that comes many ways to lighten it up any way that we can...so we can do things like have an extra glass of wine or save room for an ice cream sandwich, am I right!? It's all about balance, after all. 

Ditch the heavy mayo based salads and get on board with this super simple Italian style number. It's so much lighter than most potato salads with bright and fun colors that look pretty on any delicious spread. Parsley adds a green punch and it's unique flavor while red peppers offer some sweetness and new texture. I love the simplicity of this dish, using only olive oil as the dressing and letting the fresh herbs and veggies do the rest of the work. Leaving the skin on the potatoes is also a key step! Adds so much more. 

I grew up eating this and everytime I make it, it's a huge crowd pleaser. Not your typical potato salad and an unexpected twist on a cookout staple. I promise if you bring this along to your next get Summer get together, everyone will thank you. 


Italian Potato Salad

3-4 pounds of red skin potatoes, washed with the skin left on
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
big handful fresh parsley, chopped
2 roasted red peppers, cut into thin strips
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Wash and chop potatoes into halves or quarters, depending on how big your potatoes are. Boil until you can pierce them easily with a fork, but not so long that they are falling apart. 

While the potatoes cook, prep your onion, garlic, parsley and roasted red peppers. 

When the potatoes are done, drain and rinse with cool water and let them sit a few minutes to cool off. Cut them into smaller chunks and place into a bowl with the onion, garlic, parsley and roasted red peppers. Drizzle all over with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss it all together and adjust your salt, pepper and olive oil to your liking. Serve at room temperature. 

Happy 4th of July!

Stars and stripes forever! Wishing you all a wonderful holiday and Happy Birthday America! 

Friday Faves

A quick little edition of Friday faves to kick off the weekend and head into July! 

I need this Tequila Rose Spritz in my life ASAP. Rose is having a moment right now and I'm loving it more and more. Not going to lie though, the tequila is what sold me on this. Adding to my cocktail que! 

image via How Sweet Eats

These Buffalo Burgers from The Defined Dish were a great deviation from a basic grilled burger. I used lean ground beef and added some green onions to the meat as well. We ate them on top of arugula with caramelized onions and some roasted okra on the side! 

Image via The Defined Dish

I've never made it a secret that I love a good neutral nail color. I recently got this Orly color (Kiss the Bride) in a gel manicure for a wedding a few weekends ago and I'm in love! I grabbed a regular bottle of it immediately. This color is GOOD. 

Meet my afternoon dream team. This Starbucks iced coffee from the grocery store refrigerator section is all kinds of magic. I don't know what they put in it but I think it's a hundred times better than the iced coffee from an actual Starbucks store. I love it with a splash of half and half and lately have been adding a quick pour of the Trader Joe's Cold Brew Coconut for a little island flavor. Seriously the best.

These Beautycounter products have been game changers for my skin- especially the Cleansing Balm and Countermatch Sleep Recovery Cream. These are both SO GOOD. 

WE HAVE BLUEBERRIES! Our favorite neighbors moved and we transplanted their blueberry bush to our house. It's been moved twice now so I was a little worried about it but we've been getting a good handful of berries. It doesn't make up for all of the berries I buy at the store every week, but it's fun to have our own homegrown blueberries! 

Hope everyone enjoys another wonderful Summer weekend! 

Summer Strawberry + Avocado Salad with Prosecco Vinaigrette

Every season is salad season in our house, but there is something so extra tasty and fresh about salads in the Summer. I love the simple cooking that comes in the Summer. Grilling some meat or fish and making a giant salad filled to the brim with goodness to go on the side. Easy, satisfying and on the lighter side for these Summer scorcher days. 

This is my current Summer salad crush and we've been having some version of this at least once a week. I looooove the combination of the strawberries and avocado and the crispy bites of bacon are just the best. I don't always add corn but when I do, it adds a whole new level of flavor. This salad is great on it's own as a side, or add some grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon for a full meal. So much flavor going on here!! And I don't know how I ended up with Prosecco vinegar in my pantry instead of champagne vinegar, but dare I say I'll be buying the prosecco again and again. The dressing is the icing on the cake here. 

ENJOY!

Summer Strawberry + Avocado Salad

5 oz. container of your favorite salad greens (I like half baby greens mix and half arugula)
5-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 avocado, diced
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 cobs corn, cooked and the kernels cut off

Assemble all ingredients in a large salad bowl and toss with prosecco vinaigrette to combine. Serve immediately.

Prosecco Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp. prosecco vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste to your liking. 

Summer Stuff

I have always been a Summer lover, but it's especially sweet with my little sidekicks. It's hard to believe that August is just around the corner!! Thankfully, we still have a good chunk of Summer left. 

We have spent tons of time at the pool, seen lots of friends and have been hitting all of our favorite Charlotte spots. Will and Kate are at such great ages right now and truly so much fun.

Will got some caterpillars for his birthday and we had fun watching them turn into butterflies! The entire process was about 20 days and well worth the wait. We let them go free on July 4, which was fitting since it was Independence Day. I ordered this Insect Lore kit from Amazon and it couldn't have been easier. The kit comes with a voucher to order your caterpillars once you are ready for them. Will is already asking when we can order more caterpillars and we will definitely be doing it again in the near future!

Another fun find of the Summer has been this Ice Cream Ball. I swear, this thing is genius. This was another birthday present that Will got from some friends and it has been a huge hit. You fill one side of the ball with ice, and the other side of the ball with the ice cream ingredients, then roll it around for 20 minutes. Making kids work for their ice cream- this is an idea I am totally behind! 

Mark and I even got to sneak away to Asheville for a dear friend's wedding and it was wonderful! Any excuse for some quality time together and a weekend away with friends. Shortly after that, we spent another weekend in the mountains with some more good friends. Mark played in a golf tournament and Will, Kate and I enjoyed a little escape with friends in the crisp mountain air. There is nothing like the mountains in the Summer! 

I think that my favorite part of the Summer has been watching Will and Kate become best friends. They have always loved each other, but their little relationship has grown so much over the past few months and it brings me so much joy to be a part of it. Their conversations are pretty hilarious and they ADORE each other. 

I want to remember these sweet Summer days forever. Hope you all are enjoying them, too!

Save your Summer Memories with Chatbooks!

I love everything about Summer. The lazy days, the longer nights and plenty of sunshine to enjoy. We are making so many wonderful memories and I am soaking it all in as I know these two little ones of mine will only be this little once. Can't Summer stay forever!? Luckily, I have tons of photos of their sweet smiling faces and all of the fun we are having. 

I read an article once about how photos rarely get printed these days because we just take SO MANY OF THEM. Out of the whole article, this line has always stuck with me; "don't let your photos grow up to be jpeg files". I say that in my head nearly daily as I snap photos of moments that I want to remember, both big and small. With our cameras quite literally in our back pockets at all times we are hoarding ALL THE PICTURES. Get those files off of your phones and cameras and into photo books for your family to enjoy for years to come.

A few years ago, I discovered Chatbooks and immediately fell in love. They make it so easy to get your photos printed and bound and shipped right to your door. I subscribe to my Instagram photos, which immediately get shipped to me every 60 photos, and I have made a few other custom books, too. We have quite the collection now and Will and Kate LOVE looking through them- they are perfect for tiny hands. They have become my favorite memory books to flip through.

These cute books also make great little gifts!

The Chatbooks Semi-Annual Summer Sale is live now and you can get 20% off of EVERYTHING through July 31, 2017.  The sale includes their new collaboration with Rifle Paper Company which I cannot wait to get my hands on! I am drooling over all of these gorgeous floral prints. Use code: GROW 

Download the Chatbooks app to get started. Don't let your Summer memories hibernate on your phones and cameras!

*This post is sponsored by Chatbooks. All thoughts and ideas are my own. I received free product for writing this post.

SlimeTime

We are a few weeks into Summer here and our days have been carefree and easy. Will's favorite thing to ask me when I tuck him in at night is "what are we doing tomorrow", and it's been fun planning our days together. He gets so excited about the little things and is always up for an adventure, whatever it may be. I have a huge list of indoor activities I want to do with Will and Kate this Summer and the first on our list!? SLIME TIME!

WE HAVE ARRIVED and we are becoming slime making experts around here. Perhaps we have a future selling this stuff on YouTube like the cool kids!? We made our first batches last week and Will is loving this stuff. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about the mess but we have had zero slime hair disasters so far so I'm calling it a success.

Mixing it up has been the most fun for Will. He likes to pour the glue, add his coloring and dump in the baking soda. When that's all mixed up, I add the contact solution a little at a time. This is a great rainy day activity for your little ones. We've had our slime in ziploc freezer bags for a week now and it's still just as good as the day we made it! This is the recipe from Elmer's Glue and I followed it exactly the first time. It came out a little too hard so I added less contact lens solution- the most random ingredient of all- and the result was much better. 

Elmer's Glue Slime

12 oz. Elmer's glue

1.5 Tbsp. baking soda

food coloring

3 Tbsp. contact lens solution

In a large plastic bowl, dump glue. Stir in baking soda and food coloring until combined.

Add contact solution, one Tablespoon at a time, making sure to mix quickly. The mixture will become hard to stir and this is when the slime forms. I have found that about 2.5 tablespoons of contact solution is just the right amount. Slime will form into a ball- remove from the bowl and knead a few minutes to get it to the right consistency. Store in an airtight container or ziploc bag. 

For more recipes, it's Slime Central over on the Elmer's website! 

Cherry Tomato + Hearts of Palm Salad

I'm allllllll about Summer salads. When everything is so fresh and colorful, they really are hard to beat. All you need is some ripe produce, good olive oil and vinegar with a little salt and pepper and everything kind of just falls into place. Grill some chicken or fish and serve a little Summer salad on the side- this is my kind of eating right here.  

Hearts of Palm are one of my favorite salad ingredients. They add an interesting texture and take on the flavor of a simple vinaigrette beautifully. We grew up eating these with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. So simple and so good. This is the perfect little Summer side. Cherry tomatoes are my favorite and I love adding both the red and the yellow for that bright Summer color. I'll be making this one again and again!

Cherry Tomato + Hearts of Palm Salad

1/2 pint red cherry tomatoes
1/2 pint yellow cherry tomatoes
1 can hearts of palm, drained and sliced 
1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 red onion, sliced thin
olive oil
red wine vinegar

In a small/medium bowl, combine cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm, parsley and red onion. Drizzle with a little olive oil and vinegar, and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature or cold. 

Sunshine State Vacay

We recently spend almost a week in Florida and had the best time. We stayed in the Tampa area with Mark's family and had fun exploring the area that he grew up in. The car ride from Charlotte clocked in at around 9 hours and with our two little ones in tow, it took around 11 hours. 

We spent a ton of time with Mark's family and extended family and our kids looooved having fun with their cousins. The beaches were gorgeous. I love love love Carolina beaches, especially Kiawah, but this was a different kind of beautiful. I don't think you can ever compare them because they both have their unique qualities. 

This was Kate's first trip to the ocean and she was in LOVE. She ran through the water, got her toes in the sand and made a giant mess. Ha! The little princess has no fear. Will hadn't been to the beach since he was two, and he was so excited to be back. 

Tarpon Springs was my favorite little spot! We walked around the little town that reminded me of a European village. We enjoyed some Greek pastries with coffee and popped in and out of the shops. The boats were just beautiful- something about seeing tons of boats on the water gets me every time. 

We ventured to Clearwater beach to dinner one night. We ate at Frenchies Rockaway Grill which came highly recommended. The outdoor patio was right on the beach and our meal was FANTASTIC. Fresh fish from the gulf coast is hard to beat- my grouper was beyond delicious. It also turns out that Tampa Bay Brewing has some pretty delicious IPA. 

After dinner that night, we walked on the beach just before sunset. The sand is like baby powder and the water is crystal clear. I'm a beach girl so this was heaven for me. Will and Kate loved running around on the sand and sticking their toes in the water. This was my favorite night of the entire trip! 

We spent a day at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park which was fun and hilarious. Apparently this is one of Florida's oldest attractions, including MERMAIDS! My six year old Ariel loving heart was freaking out a little. 

The Florida sun was in full force and it was HOT but it was such a fun outing. We also took a boat ride down the springs and watched a wildlife show with snakes, alligators and turtles. 

On our way home, we made a pit stop and enjoyed a glass bottom boat ride in Ocala. The state park has been been running these boats for over 100 years! The Springs were beautiful and Will especially loved being able to see all of the fish and turtles below. Our captain tossed fish food into the water and tons of fish swam up to the bottom of the boat to eat. I still cannot get over the crystal clear spring water. Definitely worth the stop and it was perfect since it was right on our way home.

Thankful for fun, sun and plenty of family time and memories!