MAKE YOUR OWN REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

Around here, we're always on the lookout for ways to step up our foodie game and it doesn't always mean patronizing a new restaurant. Finding a way to craft our own version of a common store-bought item can be so satisfying - even if it means some extra time in the kitchen. Take these easy to make refrigerator pickles for example. In no time flat, we made use of that extra bounty from our garden and produce piling up in our refrigerator drawer and had a full on pickle parade to snack on for weeks to come. Trust me once you make your own pickles, you'll reconsider that jar of grey, lifeless cucumbers on your next trip to the grocery aisle.

Truth be told, our upcoming camping trip gave us further motivation for prepping our jars of beans, cukes and carrots. Camping (or any gathering really) is serious food business amongst our group. As we typically do this time of year, we're making preparations for the camp Bloody Mary bar we host each morning during our stay. It's always a good way to circle up the troops before kicking off the day's festivities and we are always working on something new to bring to the table for those who swing by on site to take part. This year, we're stocking the bar with our very own handmade pickled garnish accoutrement (you know, if we can keep from eating them before we get there). I even designed some labels to further personalize our offerings.

Of course, you don't have to make a caseload at one time like we did. It's easier - and quicker than you might think to prepare a jar or two of your favorite variety.

Quick Steps

It's a simple preparation equation: wash, cut, boil and fill.

Wash. You'll want to give a good wash to all your veggies and jars.

Cut. Prep all your vegetables by chopping well before you make your brine. You may find you need to double your recipe like we did given the volume you wish to bottle up. We used green beans, carrots, onions, turnips and cucumbers. My husband also made a batch of pickled eggs. But you'll also want to prep cuttings of fresh herbs like dill and thyme and even extra onion, peppers and garlic cloves. You'll be layering those extras into your jars around your veggies.

Boil. There are many brine recipes out there. In all, we whipped up 5 different brines for this round. But don't be intimidated. There are a lot of recipes available out there with enough flexibility to satisfy all tastes. If you like them on the sweeter side, add a little extra sugar and use cider vinegar vs. the common white variety. I also whole-heartedly recommend using other types of vinegar like champagne, white wine, red-wine and even rice-wine as alternatives to the more pungent common white.

Fill. When you fill your jars, you will want to layer in your herbs, garlic and onion amongst your cut veggies. Leave an inch at top (so if you need to cut your vegetables down, do so). You can always go back in and add after the brine has been poured in.

My Tips

• Use kosher salt - not table salt in your brine. 
• Jars come in all shapes and sizes. Its fun to mix and match. I like to use these quart size and these smaller ones.
• Change the hue of white veggies like turnips and onions by adding a couple of slices of beet.
• Stray from the common pre-made pickling spices and use other things like mustard seeds, coriander seed, dill seed and caraway.

Recipe Links

Here are some links to recipes I personally like. I typically stick to the published ratios of water-vinegar-salt-sugar in these recipes, but I do take some liberties with the herbs and spices to suit our personal tastes. Not all use boil brines, but that's my preferred method.

Feasting at Home gives a great foundation for brines (with really pretty pics!)
Baked at Midnight features a non-boil, half-sour brine
Leite's Culinaria has a good recipe for a sweet pickle
Dinner Then Dessert has a recipe for the pickles I can't get enough of at my favorite Lebanese restaurant

There are a ton of recipes out there. Do you have any hot tips or personal favorites to share?

Care to see what we're cooking up this time? Our culinary camping adventures are well documented over on Instagram (@holtwoodhipster). Click the link to follow along!

ON THE TABLE // CAULIFLOWER RICE + ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH TAHINI DRESSING

My favorite dinner preparation method just might be roasting. I've figured out that I can chop up just about any vegetable and protein, toss it in some olive oil, a little garlic and salt and pepper and stick it in the oven for a quick and healthy dinner. Add to that a cup of brown rice and I'm happy to call that dinner any night of the week. There are very few dishes to wash and my meal is usually ready in under 30 minutes from start to finish. I've taken to this "new" way of eating - abandoning many of the multi-ingredient, calorie laden recipes I was trying to balance making on a work night for the sake of variety. The truth is, I can alter the type of vegetable and protein from night to night and still not feel as though I'm eating the same meal over and over and my body is feeling better for it. But I also have a couple of tricks that have served me well to keep things light and inventive- particularly when leaving out the protein. Cue in some homemade dressing and a grater. 

I stumbled across the amazingly simple way to take ordinary cauliflower and reduce it to a rice-like texture somewhere within the Pinterest rabbit hole and once I did, my life may have changed forever. I was so happily surprised at how much the grated cauliflower easily subbed in for my go to brown rice - without all the extra carbs. Both the cauliflower and vegetables really pair so well with the tangy tahini dressing, which when prepared, will actually be enough for several bowls should you possibly have any leftover for lunch the next day. Make this on a Tuesday night or when hosting lunch for your friends on a Sunday afternoon. It's a tasty and versatile enough dish to work on either occasion.

Eat This // Pitaya (Dragonfruit) Smoothie Bowl

I rarely take the time to eat breakfast. For years, I've subsisted on endless cups of coffee taken at my desk until oh say 2pm when I'd find myself hightailing it to the kitchen (or drive thru) to save my stomach from eating itself. But for several weeks now, I've been working hard to break my bad eating habits and feed my body with healthy fuels - lots of whole grains and seeds, fruits and vegetables, all those good fats and plenty of water and vitamins. My new routine starts with an early breakfast to keep those hunger pangs at bay. My rotating favorite includes a colorful superfood assortment of good for me toppings against the fuchsia backdrop of a dragon fruit smoothie.  It comes together rather quickly, inexpensively and the best part is that it is a flexible compilation. Feel free to sub in your own favorite healthy toppings. 

Here's how I build my own Pitaya bowl at home:

Blend together:

1 Pitaya Plus Frozen Smoothie Pack

1 Banana

1/4 cup of Almond Milk

1 tbsp brown rice protein powder (Optional)

Ice (Optional)

Top it with:

1 tbsp Bee Pollen

1 tbsp Hemp or Chia Seeds

1tbsp Goji Berries

1/2 Banana 

2 tbsp Unsweetened Coconut

Check the Pitaya Plus website for purchase locations near you. I find mine at our local natural foods store, but juice bars far and wide are also using the stuff to make their own bright pink smoothie concoctions. Also, I know we are getting into cooler weather in some areas and a frozen smoothie bowl may not be at the top of the list on a cold morning. I forego the ice and find that it's not any chillier than a typical bowl of cold cereal. Only, this breakfast bowl is much healthier and let's just be honest, much prettier too.

Cornflake - Marshmallow - Chocolate Chip Cookies

Celebratory holidays always call for a special dessert. We played host to Father's Day festivities here at Holtwood House. So I rose early Sunday morning to whip up a batch of some very special cookies based on a recipe by Christina Tosi of 'Momofuku Milk Bar' fame to mark the occasion. These cookies are soft and gooey, crisp and crunchy - a win/win to please a table full of family members with varying opinions on just how they like their chocolate chip cookie. They required a few out of the ordinary steps and a watchful eye, but I'm here to tell you that the end result is worth the extra effort. The hardest part of preparing these cookies will be holding out and waiting for dessert before you tear into them (and I can tell you that four of my family members- you know who you are- did not). 

I always take time to read user reviews before embarking on a new recipe. While I usually try and stick closely to the original version, the reviews on this particular recipe equipped me with information I used to my advantage in developing a modified ingredient list below. I reduced the granulated sugar, added a 1/2 cup to the flour and because I realized mid-way through preparation that I was out - substituted almond extract for vanilla. I also was out of baking soda and in lieu of that, upped the amount of baking powder just a bit based on some online advice.  I'm pretty sure this last modification helped these sugary cookies to rise just the way they outta. Outside of that, I followed the step by step directions as is right from the Martha Stewart website where I saw the original recipe published.

INGREDIENTS //

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons coarse salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups Cornflake Crunch* (prepare this first- see below)

2/3 cup mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cups mini Marshmallows

* CORNFLAKE CRUNCH //

1/2 (12-ounce) box cornflakes (about 5 cups)

1/2 cup milk powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon coarse salt

9 tablespoons melted butter

A few more pointers based on my own experience with this recipe:

- Reduce your baking time. I had my hand on the oven waiting to pull these at the 9-minute mark. They were out when the edges just started to turn crisp right at 11 minutes.

- Equal portions in each scoop. Try and make sure you have the same amount of marshmallow and chocolate in every scoop. Those with more marshmallow or chocolate had a more gooey consistency and the edges almost mimicked a caramelized florentine style cookie.

- Scoop and cool the dough first. It's important to use cooled dough that's been in the fridge a minimum of 1 hour. I left my scoops in the fridge for two before baking them off.

Seriously. The best cookie I've ever had.  I hoarded one away and I'm already counting the hours before I can gobble it up for dessert tonight.

Poolside Noshing // Three Make Ahead Salads

The wind changed course last Friday morning, turning the air outside our Orange County home thick and heavy with smoke and ash from brush fires burning 40 miles south. Consequently, the day originally planned to be spent outdoors took a turn of its own and sent me straight into the kitchen, where I happily spent several hours experimenting with the food stocked in our fridge and pantry. I poured myself an iced coffee, turned on my favorite playlist and set about making three salads that could be pulled right out of the fridge and onto the pool deck for some light noshing over the sun-soaked weekend to come.

This one is my own take on a favorite Whole Foods creation. My version of this simple salad whips up fast and easy and stores well in the fridge for snacking over several days - if it lasts that long.

My go to chicken salad recipe typically involves a light tarragon vinaigrette. But lately I've been drizzling Liquid Aminos (a substitute for soy sauce) on almost everything I eat. So I married up my traditional love of an herb-focused chicken salad with my latest taste sensation and ended up with a salad that may be put on regular rotation all summer long. While you may be tempted to add salt along with the many other seasonings that go into this mixture, be forewarned that the Aminos or soy sauce will have already satisfied that element. Taste first, salt later.

I had a small bag of potatoes that were about to turn bad and decided to put them to work in this light, mayonnaise-free potato salad. I pulled out a jar of smoky spanish paprika, originally intending it to add some color. But I let the pungent smokiness of the paprika take the salad in it's own direction and in the end, I had a Spanish inspired version that was equally good served cold from the fridge, at room temperature or heated. For a heartier twist, a thinly sliced hard boiled egg would be a perfect compliment to this dish.

A Signature Dish

I experiment a lot in the kitchen. I'm often lured to try my hand at something I've never attempted to cook before based on a unique combination of ingredients or because Ina or Giada swore it might be the best they've ever had. But for as much as my collection of bookmarked recipes and cookbooks has grown, I have never really had a signature dish to pull from my back pocket- a recipe who's measurements and ingredients I know inside and out without reference, a tried and true dish I feel so confident about making for a table of family and friends that I wouldn't even think twice about it.

So it's been that I've been on a mission to find "the one". I suspect as my cooking acumen grows, I may eventually have one or two, but for the moment, I am focused on putting aside all my experimentation and perfecting a single recipe. Saturday night, I made one that I think may be it. I borrowed Bobby Flay's recipe for Pappardelle with Short Rib Ragu and while it's probably perfection made as is, I made a few tweaks to it based on our household's tastes (taking it more tomato based). In the end, I think it came fairly close to something I could make over and over again.  I threw on some music, poured myself a drink and patiently took my time with each and every step - something I rarely do and I found it truly made a difference, both in the eventual outcome and in my cooking experience. There is really an art to understanding how to achieve depth in seasoning a dish and as I sat at the table that night with my plate in front of me, I made some notes on where I thought I could do better on my next attempt. A little more heat perhaps to compliment the tomato I added, a little less cooking time so the sauce is not as concentrated, finish with fresh parsley... 

It got rave reviews around the table, but I know I can do better. By nature, expertise in anything comes with time. I'll try again soon, without occasion on a day when I can again take all the time I need to get it just right.

On Rotation // Crunchy Vegetable Salad with Warmed Champagne Dressing

It may not look like anything more than your average green salad in the photo above, but trust me when I tell you this salad is anything but ordinary. I've made it twice in the last week alone, even adding in some chopped chicken to make it a more substantial meal. It has so many good for you veggies and requires very little prep time. It's tossed in a warm champagne vinaigrette that takes the bite out of some of the crunch in the uncooked veggies, making it seem more indulgent than what you figure a health food salad should be. The good news is that you probably have half of the ingredients in your fridge like I did, making this an easy to throw together meal one night this week.

If you have a Trader Joe's nearby: I suggest buying a pre-packaged mixture of shaved kale, brussel sprouts and broccoli like I did (find it right alongside the other pre-packaged mixtures). It makes prep a snap! 

If not: You can always use a mandolin to shave down a couple of sprouts and a large spear of broccoli as well. Roll and chop your Tuscan Kale leaves down to make sure they are bite size.

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In a bowl toss together:

Kale/Brussel Sprout/Broccoli mixture (I fill a large serving bowl 3/4 full)

Handful of sliced pearl tomatoes (sub in dried cranberries if you don't like tomato)

1/2 a small red onion sliced thin

1 chopped avocado

1 diced green apple

1/4 cup of pitted kalamata olives (warmed in microwave)

1 fresh, uncooked corn on the cob - kernels sliced right off the cob and into your bowl

1/4 cup of feta cheese (I used non-fat feta) 

1 diced chicken breast

1/2 cup prepared champagne vinaigrette

Warm a 1/2 c. of the champagne vinaigrette and drizzle on top of greens. I always start with a 1/4 cup and let the greens wilt down and see if I want to add the additional reserved 1/4 cup. You want to leave a little crunch!  Trader Joe's also has a really nice champagne vinaigrette, but you can easily whip one up yourself. 

Serves: 2 for a full meal / 4 as a side dish

Simple Summer Dinner

The temperature both inside and out last night was hovering somewhere between 79 and 84 degrees. When it comes to preparing dinner on warm summer nights like that, I tend to err on the side of easy.  I shoot for minimal effort over a hot stove and I don't even wanna think of turning on the oven. Last night's dinner was a perfect example of a quick and easy meal that still felt a little indulgent. 

BRUSCHETTA + A WEDGE SALAD

Ok, so I did turn on the oven for all of 10 minutes to make crostini (and trust me, I soon regretted it). But you don't have to. Pop some of your favorite crusty bread into the toaster instead. I like to smash a little avocado onto the bread first before topping with chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion and olive oil. I put a block of fresh Romano cheese onto the table as well, thinking we'd dust it over our bruschetta. Old habits die hard though and we just ended up flaking off a couple of chunks to eat alone.

I paired the self serve bruschetta with a wedge salad- something we always order when dining out, but forget to make at home. I was reminded how much I love them! To keep things lighter, I experimented with a version of homemade blue cheese using fat free greek yogurt. It came out a little tangier than a typical blue, but we ate it guilt free. We washed it down with a dry of rose, a perfect compliment to all of the sharp and tangier flavors used in this no fuss meal.

Fruit Fever

It might just be symptomatic of the season at hand, market stands now overflowing with fresh stone fruits, juicy watermelon and strawberries on the verge of over-ripening. But I feel like the signs of a bonafide fruit fever have been building for some time. Throughout the cool season, we saw recipes using poached and macerated fruits, infused bar syrups and citrus cocktail garnishes; by Spring, we were all juicing it up and filing away recipes that would satisfy a sweet tooth without sacrificing health benefits. Now that summer has unleashed it's heat, I've noticed a trend using fruit in colorful, inventive ways that give new life to tired seasonal recipes. 

I'm certainly making use of the summer bounty at my local grocer. These days, I'm roasting strawberries and adding them to my latest batch of ice cream, freezing off fresh rings to make popsicles and even grilling peach halves to enjoy a light dessert with little fuss. I'm pretty sure few twists beat a good old fashioned slice of cold watermelon (sprinkle on a little salt- it will change your life!), but I've discovered that treating the fruit with a little spice, ice or heat first really goes the extra distance to create a deeper, richer flavor than simple cut fruit can offer alone.

Strain it | Grill it | Roast it | Freeze it

Crostini with Roasted Tomatoes + Whipped Burrata

This recipe was born out of my sheer necessity to get something on the table quick and in time for last minute company. Why not let my hasty experimentation work to your benefit one night this week for dinner?

I was two hours into garage clean up last week when my sister called to say they'd be stopping by. We made plans for a quick dinner at the house later that night, but a day in the garage does not bode well for a night in front of the stove. In the end, I decided on a simple bruschetta of sorts to pair with a salad. A trip to Trader's that evening and I found myself skipping the requisite diced tomatoes with basil and decided to roast off the lot of them instead. 

I've made two batches of this recipe since and tweaked it slightly for you as follows. Note that though I do not picture them here, the first batch of tomatoes I roasted were of the Campari variety and I wholeheartedly recommend them if you can find them. You might even be able to ease up a little on the sugar if you do. 

Once you have your tomatoes sliced and your garlic chopped, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of sugar. Toss with the olive oil and roast off in the oven. 

Brace yourself for the amazing smell that will undoubtedly begin to fill your house.

Once roasted, I like to pull them out of the oven and sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and then toss again. They will sort of melt onto one another, creating a jam that can be spooned right on top of that creamy burrata.

Pair this with a light salad and call it dinner...or lunch or a snack, like I did several times over the last week.