an apple picking party

fall is here!!! fall is heeeeeere!!!! holy root vegetable, i am so excited. 

clearly i've already gotten into the spirit of things, but here's a scientific fact for you: fall isn't fall until you've picked an apple from a tree. (right??) like, you can eat all the pumpkin spice things you want, but you mustn't forget about the apples. 

in the past, my annual apple orchard trip has coincided with a trip home to illinois, but this year i figured there would probably be some hardcore apple orchards in the middle of all this rural business, so i conducted some research on the best places to go apple picking around grand forks. 20 minutes of failed googling later, eggboy came in from the fields, laughed really hard, and then directed me to the two fairly large apple trees in our backyard. apple picking parties are a thing here explained cathryn. 

oh.

...cool!!!!!

so rather than having our regular brunch club, the ladies and i became the most hipster versions of ourselves, took a picnic out to my backyard, sipped some wine, and picked a ton of apples. it was perfect. we talked weddings and miss america, we ate cheese and more cheese. we took moody photos of handfuls of apples. (good thing one of us had a fresh manicure.)

and then we retreated inside, away from the buttercream-loving bees, put on the sufjan, and stretched our definition of proper caramel apple coatings...

here was our menu:

for noshing // brown sugar challah, jam, baked teddybear camembert with raspberry preserves, and a bunch more cheese

for dessert #1 // sprinkle cake

for dessert #2 // caramel apples with coconut, toasted sesame seeds, sprinkles, sea salt, and smoked sea salt

for sipping // kendall-jackson avant chardonnay

for supper // chicken with apples + chardonnay 

i highly recommend an apple picking party, even if you don't have an apple tree. make friends with someone who does! or grow your own. or trespass. (don't trespass.)

-yeh!

thanks so much to kendall-jackson avant for sponsoring this post!!!! all opinions are my own!

ciabatta panzanella kabobs with honey goat cheese dressing

do you know how many times i have almost dropped an entire plate of food on someone at a party because i was trying to balance it with a gin and soda while forking up a piece of spinach while explaining exactly how i ended up on a sugar beet farm? many. many. many. and in a past life this would not have been a big source of anxiety for me because when my parents met, my dad dropped an entire plate of food at my mom's feet. so it's genetic and all that, but as i won't shut up about, i am not in the market for meeting a boy right now. 

which is why i love food on sticks. (or maybe this is just my new inner minnesotan coming out.) imagine all the things you can do at a party when you only need one hand for stuffing your face: you can shake people's hands, you can drink more easily, you can pick your nose. 

so here is an idea for a summery party food on a stick that is more bathing suit friendly than a corn dog, more filling than a carrot stick, and quicker to the table than a shish kabob. it's a salad kabob and it's made with one of my favorite salads, the panzanella. 

feel free to change up the veggies, and take liberties with your bread if you'd like. (because i'm assuming you all have seen the game changer that is shelly's grilled pretzel panzanella? i know!)

happy partying!

ciabatta panzanella kabobs with honey goat cheese dressing

makes 8 kabobs

ingredients

olive oil

1  small (4 inch x 4 inch) loaf day old ciabatta, cut into 1-inch cubes

salt + pepper

3 oz prosciutto

1 c spinach 

1 cucumber, chopped 

1 c cherry tomatoes 

2 peppers, chopped

dressing:

4 oz président plain goat cheese, softened

3 tb olive oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tb honey

1 tb milk

salt + pepper

clues

heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and cook the ciabatta cubes until toasty, a few minutes on each side. season with salt and pepper.

assemble skewers with a few of each component and then set aside.

in a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. drizzle over the skewers or serve on the side for dipping.

-yeh!

lactalis compensated me to license the photos and content in this post and provided me with complimentary président cheese products. all opinions are my own.

if you'd like to enter to win $50 worth of your own président cheese, visit artofcheese.com, where you can download a coupon and enter the pinterest sweepstakes, plus find more recipes and product information.

grilled wedge salad with a fried egg and cranberry feta

i returned home yesterday to a denim-clad smiley faced eggboy, a very gleeful garden, and a garage that doesn't have a boat in it (i'm still not actually sure who the boat belonged to, if it actually works, and where it is now, but it was here since we moved in and despite how glamorous having a boat sounds, having a second parking spot feels equally if not more glamorous, especially when i'm still on the fence about the boat shoe trend). 

being home right now feels kind of like i just ran 10 miles and am about to eat a pizza. it's great and i sort of never want to leave, but at some point we're going to have to hit the road for at least a few days to scout wedding venues. eeee!!!!

speaking of weddings, let's talk salads. because i'm going to eat a lot more of them in the coming months, or at least that's what i tell myself when there isn't a box of donuts in front of me. the good people at président cheese are hosting a big internet salad party, so i just went straight for the good stuff, i.e. bacon and eggs. it's kind of a man salad, and it may or may not be a breakfast sandwich in disguise, but it's a fun main attraction if you feel like a grilling by the pool but feel awkward downing a burger while wearing a bathing suit. 

rather than dressing this salad, i like cooking the yolk so that it's extra runny and oozes all up in that wedge. this combined with the yummy grilled taste of the lettuce and onion and topped with sweet tangy cranberry feta makes for a very fun salad. 

be sure to check out the other salads up in here because they all look so fun and tasty!!!!

grilled wedge salad with a fried egg and cranberry feta

serves 4

ingredients

1 head lettuce

olive oil

kosher salt

8 strips bacon

1 medium onion

4 eggs

black pepper

1 c président regular feta crumbled with cranberries

clues

light a grill or heat a grill pan over medium high heat.

slice lettuce into 4 wedges and brush them lightly with olive oil. grill on both sides for a few minutes, until they start to brown. sprinkle with salt.

grill the bacon and onions on both sides as well.

fry the eggs in a little olive oil until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny. season with salt and pepper.

to assemble, place each lettuce wedge on a plate, and top each with two slices of bacon, some onion, an egg, and two tablespoons of feta.

enjoy!

-yeh!!

lactalis compensated me to license the photos and content in this post and provided me with complimentary président cheese products. all opinions are my own.

if you'd like to enter to win $50 worth of your own président cheese, visit artofcheese.com, where you can download a coupon and enter the pinterest sweepstakes, plus find more recipes and product information.

a resolution cake

in 2014, i resolve to...

1. spend more time with cake.

2. shower more often than i did in 2013.

3. go less insane when people call frosting "icing," say "melk" in stead of milk, and pronounce caramel "carmle."

4. brush my hair at least twice a week.

5. eat more macaroni and cheese at midnight.

6. not leave one square of toilet paper on the roll and then blame eggboy for not changing the roll.

7. eat all the vegetables before they spoil.

8. be a good chicken mama.

9. read the chicken mama books before ordering chickens.

10. splurge on stone ground chocolate, mrs. meyer's lavender hand soap, and the good bacon.

11. not splurge on dumb things that are trendy and dumb and also stupid. 

12. go to the library.

13. check my instagram less when i'm around other humans.

14. read the chocolate chip cookie thing in its entirety and memorize it. read more things like it and improve my kitchen skillz.

15. invite friends over for high tea, midnight supper, and elevenses.

16. go to montana.

17. eat more collard greens.

18. expand my egg repertoire and make more exciting breakfasts for eggboy.

happy 2014, everyone!!!!

-yeh!

........but, molly, we were told there'd be cake?

oh yeah! oh yeah! check out this cake i made:

it is a chocolate graham cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and marzipan balls.

i made it by subbing half of the flour for graham flour in my favorite chocolate cake recipe and then the frosting, well, i just mixed up a bunch of softened butter and cream cheese and then added a crap ton of powdered sugar, some cocoa powder, a splash of vanilla, and a few pinches of salt. for the marzipan balls, i just kneaded in some food coloring and rolled a few in gold jimmies. then i dusted the cake board in cocoa powder to give it a little sumthin sumthin. 

i donated it to the extended egg family white elephant gift exchange, where grandma egg won it and shared it with everyone, so we all won! yay!