Guest Recipe: Granola Template

My roommate Lili makes granola on a regular basis to prepare for the week ahead, and after a couple weeks of our house being filled with toasty warm coconut smells, I begged her for the recipe.  She typed up the recipe - more of a template, so it's flexible - via text, and I've written it out here to save it for myself.  I've since been making it regularly myself, and love having it in the morning with any mix of kefir, fruit, milk, yogurt, or nut butter.

Dry Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 - 1.5 cups nuts (sliced almonds, pecan pieces, walnuts, etc)
1/2 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients
1/2 - 3/4 cup honey, molasses or maple syrup
1/4 - 1/2 cup oil (coconut, olive, etc)

Optional Add-ins
1 -2 cups seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, chia, etc)
1 cup Coconut
1-3 tsp. spices (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Other Spices)
1/4 - 1/2 cup pumpkin (warm in saucepan before adding if using)
1/4 cup cocoa or 1 cup chocolate chipes
1/2 tablespoons uncooked quinoa

Preheat oven to 350.  Cover baking sheet with foil or baking mats. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl (including add-ins).  Add wet ingredients.  Mix, taste and tweak to preference. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes total, stopping to stir 15 or 20 minutes in. Stop when looks toasty brown and smells incredible!

Breakfast Apple & Egg Chop

This is a thing I like to eat for breakfast. 

It's a small apple and a hard boiled egg, chopped up with other things that may include hard white cheese or avocado, pepitas or nuts for crunch, and topped with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, and a little salt (or in this case salt I made ages ago that was mixed with crushed toasted nori).  

Christmas Roundup

A roundup of sweets & treats that could warm your home this holiday week. I've been prepping away for all the family to arrive in Arizona for a desert Christmas, so here are some recipes we love that you can use to welcome the ones you love! For more holiday pie recipes, please see Thanksgiving roundups One and Two, which list almost all of our favorite pies.

Holiday Snacks
Orange Chipotle Spiced Pecans: A great Christmas gift, or a snack to be made in advance of carloads of family arriving at your door. 

Cranberry Chutney with Baked Brie:  This recipe was included in a past Thanksgiving roundup, but really belongs in your holiday party or lunch line-up, so I'm cross-posting here. 

Baked Feta: Writing this roundup reminded me that I haven't written up a recent Parady sister discovery: almost all baked cheese is magic, feta included.

Ricotta and Roasted Grape Crostini I pulled some recipes from an impressive party menu Sarah once created, but I'm pretty sure I've had these elsewhere and they were excellent.

Stuffed Dates: Sarah does hers with bleu cheese & marscapone, I've had them with parmesan and drool just thinking about it.

Roasted Tomato and Rosemary White Bean Dip: K made this for a Christmas spread one year, and it's perfect party fare - a lovely warm dip, without being too heavy.

Gin-Marinated Olives

Cookies!

Holiday Cookie Roundup  I shouldn't even need a cookie section, because almost all the cookies you could need can be found in this post here, from a year where Sarah was clearly amped on holiday cheer and let it all out in the form of baking.

Spicy Gingerbread Cookies: The way gingerbread is meant to be: dark, strong, and with a kick.

Nutmeg Maple Butter Cookies: Another place these flavors blend together perfectly is this pie. 

Sweet Potato Biscotti: A guest post by one of our mum's co-librarians!

G-Free Salted Oatmeal Cookies

Grown-Up No-Bake Cookies

Flourless Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Christmas Wreath Cookies Inexplicably, these cookies that I made as a college student in a tiny apartment reign supreme as one of the top five  most popular recipes ever posted on this blog. 

Eggnog Florentines

Pie & Other Desserts

Chocolate-Covered Candied Oranges My favorite stocking gift as a kid were those chocolate oranges that you "whack and unwrap".  Here, a much classier version. 

Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Pie: A recent original Parady pie recipe.

Black-Bottom Citrus Pie: Four & Twenty Blackbirds makes a black-bottom lemon pie that is a dream during citrus season, but I've played with the idea of hearkening to the above-mentioned chocolate oranges by replacing the lemons with oranges here. Let me know if you try it!

The Molasses Pie!: Another cross-post...I know I tell you to make this every Thanksgiving, but you should make it every Christmas, too.  

Egg N' Grogg Pie: Another Four & Twenty Blackbirds creation - all the boozy, creamy goodness of eggnog wrapped up in a pie. 

Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Cake: Can you think of anything else a dessert needs to contain? I can't. 

For Christmas Morning: Growing up, our family used to be gifted with a homemade potica by an old family friend, and I would always have a slice on Christmas morning. Seeing as how I haven't yet mustered the energy to tackle that kitchen challenge, I'm forever in search of a Christmas breakfast that is both festive and minimal effort the morning-of, lest breakfast stand in the way of present-opening.

Applesauce Sticky Cake with Dates

Stromboli: This is a guest post by my very good friend, whose family is filled with chefs, and who whip this up quickly for their family each year while making hundreds of cinnamon rolls for family and friends. 

Orange, Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls

Green Chili Souffle K & S made this for a long-ago Christmas morning for which I was not present, so I'm thinking I'll force them to make it again this Christmas, no? 

Gingerbread Dutch Baby: Dutch Babies are SO much easier than pancakes and waffles, and here's a perfect Christmas one!

Dark, Stout Gingerbread

Drinks - the warm and the boozy

Winter Marshmallow Trio: Chai, Peppermint, and Espresso: If you're going to get fancy enough to make your own marshmallows, you might as well go to town on the flavors, too. 

Decadent Hot Chocolate Mix: I often find myself disappointed in hot chocolate, and have searched high and low for a recipe that's foolproof to creating a rich, sturdy mug of hot chocolate without being sickeningly sweet.  Deb, of course, had the answer.  You will never need another hot chocolate recipe again.

Italian Amaretto Cookies and Bourbon Hot Toddys: Our hot toddy recipes on this blog are extensive (here, here and here). In this edition, Kate paired them with some lovely cookies for a Christmas celebration.

Coconut Curry Hot Chocolate: Make your hot chocolate with coconut milk and add curry marshmallows, because we all need a little sweet & spicy for our holidays. 

Gingerbread Latte Make a batch of syrup in advance and you're set for holiday coffee without the drive-through line.

Cranberry Sorbet Fizz

Fairytale of New York: This is described as a "winter-spiced old-fashioned", so I made a batch of the syrup in advance of our whiskey-loving family arriving.  It made my kitchen smell like heaven. 

Baked Feta

K told me a secret about a year ago - that Brie isn't the only cheese that gets 5x dreamier if you slip it in the oven before serving.  She has a different baked feta recipe, but below is the version I've been adding to every cheese plate since.  It's a simple way to knock your hor d'oeuvres spread out of the park. I'm confident it would be excellent with any manner of herbs.

Ingredients:

1 block of feta (doesn't need to be fancy, as you're about to fancy it up anyways)
Crushed Red Pepper
Oregano
Olive Oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cover the top of your feta liberally with herbs and crushed red pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until just soft, 10-15 minutes.  Serve immediately with your favorite crackers.

Vermicelli Bowl

Except with no vermicelli (just rice) and many many items from my fridge allowed to join the party:

- At base of the bowl are some black kale, snow peas and firm tofu slices cooked in the skillet with soy and peanut oil (the only hot item)
- Then cold leftover rice on top
- Then vermicelli sauce (lime juice, mirin, and fish sauce with finely chopped scallions)
- Then toppings!  Avocado, radishes, sprouts, mint, cilantro, leftover baked sweet potato, peanuts, fried garlic, these chickpeas, and the best part....... quick pickled watermelon!

Party Menu

Just add people!  :)

Clockwise, we have:

1.  Endives with goat cheese.
2.  In the blue bowl, fava puree with cherries and parsley.  Cucumbers on the side for dipping.
3.  A salad with grapefruit, avocado, endives, spring greens, marcona almonds, and a mustardy-lemony-mapley dressing.
4.  These tomato puffed pastries - they were the only thing I probably wouldn't make again.  Or, would make in the summer with better tomatoes or use some slow-roasted tomatoes.
5.  These no-bake cookies.  (FYI, I made them with vegan butter substitute for some vegan guests.  Worked just fine.)
6. Smitten Kitchen's orange olive oil cake, cut into cubes with whipped cream for dipping.
7. Newfangled cheese ball.
8.  Just above that, apricot butter with bread.
9.  Ottolhengi's gorgeous beet dip with chili and yogurt.  I wish I had seen his suggestion to thicken with mashed potatoes, but tasted amazing.
10.  The cumin chickpea puree from this recipe.

Not pictured, we also had:

11.  Grape, rosemary and ricotta toasts.
12.  Stuffed dates.
13.  Lemon cookies.
14.  Chipotle-orange pecans.
15.  And last but not least, probably my favorite:  Candied chocolate-dipped oranges.

Plus, some guests brought extremely tasty sriracha-roasted cauliflower with sesame dip.

Chocolate-Covered Candied Oranges

When I was a kid, one of my favorite parts of Christmas (and Annalise's too, as I recall) was getting one of those foil-covered chocolate "oranges" that divide into neat little segments in my stocking.  This is like that, all grown up.  Super easy, although the oranges need to dry for at least 6 hours, so plan ahead.

Ingredients: 

2 oranges

about .6 lb dark chocolate

Sea salt

1 cup sugar 

2 cups water

Equipment: 

A bain-marie or some way of suspending a bowl over boiling water.  

1.  Slice your oranges into thin rounds.  They DON'T need to be paper thin; my thicker slices did a better job being dipped in chocolate.

2.  Get the sugar and water boiling.  When they come to a boil, add the orange slices, then reduce the heat as low as possible; cover pot with a towel or sheet of parchment paper; and leave for an hour and a half.  

3.  Remove the oranges from a slotted spoon and let them dry on parchment paper overnight or for at least 6 hours (I did overnight).  They will still be a bit tacky and won't be completely hard, but they should be solid enough to withstand dipping in chocolate. 

4.  Cut the orange rounds in half.  Melt the chocolate in the bain-marie or bowl-atop-saucepan.  Dip each slice in the chocolate, then sprinkle with sea salt.  Place on waxed paper and allow chocolate to harden.

Baked Delicata

This is not a complete recipe but it IS one of my favorite fall-squash-related things.  Whenever I get my hands on a delicata squash, I tell myself to try something new with it, but I never can.

Slice up one or two delicata squash.  LEAVE THE SEEDS IN and the skins on, and discard the ends.  Slices should be no more than 1/2 inch thick.

Toss the slices in a bowl with enough olive oil to generously coat them, plus salt.  Lay them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with just a liiiiittle bit of honey, then flip them over so the honey side is down.

Bake at 350 until the bottoms are a deep, caramelized brown and the edges are wrinkling and caving in - about a half hour.  The seeds will get a little crispy and the squash itself will be completely soft, as will the skins.

Eat them hot as a side dish, hot or cold as a snack, or chopped up as a salad ingredient.  

Kaycee's Organic Raspberry Princess Muffins

Meet our youngest sister!  Kaycee, age 7, loves singing, dancing, science, and animals (and being an Alaska girl, that means not only cats and dogs, but also eagles, whales, porcupines and arctic foxes).  This is her first recipe on the sororial cooking blog, but it surely won't be the last. 

Adapted from The Disney Princess Cookbook

Kaycee's Adaptations:

Substitute raspberries for blueberries
Substitute organic gluten free flour
Substitute organic brown sugar and butter

Eat with your Dad on a chilly Sunday!

Light & Fragrant Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Light & Fragrant Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Slightly adapted to be gluten-free from Elise's zucchini bread, at Simply Recipes

1 cup gluten free all-purpose flour (I recommend Pamela's All Purpose Artisan Flour Blend or Cup 4 Cup Original Flour Blend)

1/2 cup slightly heartier gluten free flour - a biscuit mix would work fine here, as would almond meal or gluten free oat flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 heaping teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 heaping teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg, beaten

1/2 heaping cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.5 to 2 cups grated zucchini, drained

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grate your zucchini and press into a colander to drain. I use a nice zester to get a really fine grate. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside. 

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat your egg, then pour in melted butter and vanilla. Fold in the sugar and grated zucchini, then slowly stir together with your flour mixture.

Butter the bottom and sides of a regular loaf pan and pour in batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown on top and fully set. 

Food Allergies and Ethics

Vegetarian and gluten-free. 

Sriracha Fried Avocado Tacos

Sriracha Fried Avocado Tacos

Corn Tortillas

Butter

Sriracha

Avocado

Spinach

Salt

Heat large skillet with a generous dab of butter and two large handfuls spinach. Salt spinach and saute until wilted, then push to side or remove. Add a bit more butter and a spoonful of siracha to pan, then add tortillas and begin to fry. Flip, adding more chili oil or hot sauce as desired. As the second sides fry, top each tortilla with spinach and 1/4 of an avocado. Press in half, do a final few seconds of frying on each side, and enjoy hot out of the pan.

To scale up - use an electric griddle and as many corn tortillas as you want!

Food Allergies and Ethics

Vegetarian, vegan if you skip the butter. Gluten-free but source your sriracha. Huy Fong says theirs are gluten-free, though in a slightly elusive way. You could also buy this fancy certified kind or make your own.

Heidi Swanson's Millet Muffins

This recipe is from Super Natural Every Day.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these muffins and promised my Mom I'd share the recipe with her.  Putting millet in a baked good it gives this wonderful little bit of crunch.  These are not oversweet, but also not bland in the slightest.  They are perfect with butter and tea for breakfast or in the afternoon.  Bake them!

Dry:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup raw millet
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet:
1 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup coney
1/2 cup unsalted butter, barely melted
Grated zest and juice (2 TB) of one lemon

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another.  Add wet to dry and combine.

Divide batter into a greased standard 12-muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes.

Guest Post: Coconut Granola

When my mom placed a big tin of this lovely mixture under my nose today, I swooned and ate half of it right up.  Slightly sweet, satisfylingly crispy, perfect for a hike / workday morning / movie snack, and allegedly very easy to make (plus, Mom points out, it "makes a boatload"):

Dry ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats (use gluten free if needed)
1.5 cups pecans and/or almonds
1 cup coconut flakes
.25 cup sesame seeds

Wet ingredients:
1 cup coconut oil (melted in microwave)
.5 cup maple syrup
.5 tsp ea vanilla and almond extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl, add to dry, and toss together.  Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 300 for 30 minutes.

Guest Post: Sweet Potato Biscotti

Our Mom called last week to brag about eating these awesome, tender biscotti, so of course, we commissioned a guest post from her fabulous colleague Tammy, a librarian, blogger, and maker of tasty treats.

Merry Christmas and Happy Eatings, Everyone!  I am honored that these sisters have graciously agreed to allow me the opportunity to share with you a recipe I just recently tried.

Knowing this family is very good about eating healthy, I was a little concerned as to how my horribly UN-healthy fare filled with full-fat, refined sugar, gluten and plenty of “vitamin C” (cholesterol) would be received.  But my fears were alleviated when I scrolled through these culinary delights and occasionally found my old friends, “cheese, butter, and heavy cream.”  And even the party twins, “BOOZE & PIE”!

So here goes…enjoy!

SWEET POTATO BISCOTTI

For The Biscotti:

3 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 t cinnamon
¼ t nutmeg
½ c butter
½ c sugar
½ c brown sugar
3 whole eggs
½ c sweet potato puree
½ c chopped candied pecans

For The Icing (optional):

1 bag white chocolate chips
1 T shortening


Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Mix together all dry ingredients and set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream butter & sugars together, then add eggs and puree.  Next, add the dry ingredients into the wet.  Fold in pecans.

Place dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.  Shape into a 15”x16” log and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and place log on a cooling rack.  Let cool for 30 minutes or more.  Slice into ¾” to 1” slices* and return the slices to lined cookie sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes.  Flip slices over and bake on other side for 8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling racks.

These are good without the icing, but for extra scrumptiousness, melt chips and shortening in microwave in 30 second increments until melted.  Dip one side of biscotti slices in white chocolate and let dry on cooling racks until firm.

*Slices may then be sliced in half lengthwise for a more authentic biscotti size.

Early Winter Breakfasts: Spiced Butternut Muffins with Bittersweet Chocolate

At some point during the Thanksgiving grocery shopping bonanza, I sent my husband out for a butternut squash. He returned with the largest gourd known to man, which, he informed me very grouchily, cost $9. A $9 squash?! Adding insult to injury (no, really, I tore my rotator cuff during the Thanksgiving festivities and am sure lifting this sucker didn't help) I ran out of time to make butternut soup on Thanksgiving day.

We're determined that $9 is not going to go to waste, so we've since had squash in our chicken soup, squash cooked into quinoa polenta arepas, and now squash in these perfect. not-too-sweet breakfast muffins. 

This recipe seems a bit fussy, but it's only because I was using up other leftover holiday ingredients, like buttermilk and heavy cream. You don't need to follow my lead here, and could definitely substitute plain old milk. And if you're not gluten free? You can sub the brown rice flour for whole wheat and use a regular all-purpose flour. The almond meal would still be a nice touch, or just increase the amount of one of the other flours by 1/2 cup. 

Adapted slightly from this lovely recipe:

Spiced Butternut Muffins with Bittersweet Chocolate

Adapted a little from this lovely recipe at Making Thyme for Health

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour (I use this mix)

1/2 cup almond meal

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup roasted and mashed butternut squash** 

2 eggs

2/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

In a large bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. Set aside and preheat your oven to 350°F. Fill a 12-muffin pan with liners.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of your wet ingredients, including the squash. I did this by hand with no problem, and my squash was pretty dry. 

Slowly fold the contents of your wet bowl into the dry mix. Don't overdo it. Fold in the bittersweet chocolate last. 

Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. 

**You can either pre-roast your squash or puncture its skin and then microwave the heck out of it. You might get some more depth if you roast it, but for muffins I found the microwave a very acceptable cooking method.

Don't forget to roast and enjoy the seeds!

Food Allergies and Ethics
Gluten-free, vegetarian

Perfect Oven-Fried Potatoes

Easy peasy perfect oven-fried potatoes. Picture says it all, right?

Ingredients
Yellow potatoes (4-5 good-sized, could also use a larger number of tiny fingerlings)
Butter (1-2 Tbsp)
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Put somewhere between 1-2 tablespoons of butter in a glass baking pan and place on the top shelf of your oven so that the butter heats with the oven. (You can do more or less butter depending on the size of your potatoes and your personal butter preference.)

Puncture your potatoes with a fork and place them together on a plate, then microwave for 5ish minutes or until tender. The first time you do this, stop halfway through and check. Watch not to turn them to mush, you want them to be cooked through, soft, but holding their shape. Sometimes if I have bigger potatoes, I flip them halfway through, too.

Next, quarter the steaming potatoes with a sharp knife. You could oven-fry 'em whole or halved, too, but you'll get a better crisp if you quarter them.

Pull out the baking pan and add your potatoes to the sizzling butter. It's ok to do this even if the oven isn't at 425 yet, you'll just have to watch your baking time. Don't be alarmed if the butter has browned a bit, then you just have brown butter fried potatoes and what's not to love about that! Toss with salt and pepper. Add more butter if you need after you see how coated the potatoes are. I go for a nice coat but not dripping.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. I like to finish off with a quick broil to get them even crispier. Flip them halfway through if you want, though sometimes I'm too lazy and it's fine.

Obviously, you can do this with more than 4-5 potatoes, I have just found that to be a nice size to serve alongside breakfast or lunch for P and I and have some leftovers. These are also delightful with a little grated cheese and a glass of red wine. Which I think counts as a reasonable working gal's dinner.

Sea Salt & Vinegar Roasted Squash Seeds

In Phoenix, I froze all my food waste that could be composted and hauled it to some gracious friends who had both a compost pile and chickens. Since moving to Boston, no workable composting solution has presented itself and I've been regretfully tossing all my beautiful veggie peels and seedy innards.

Until we find a way to divert food waste again, I'm trying to be more mindful about reducing the amount of it that ends up in one of Boston's trash incinerators. This morning, poised to toss the innards of a gorgeous acorn squash, I realized one squash's worth of roasted seeds would make a lovely afternoon snack.

Whether you have the seeds from just one acorn or butternut or delicata or kabocha, or a whole slew of pumpkin seeds from Halloween prep, you can do the same. Let's use as much of our veggies as possible, people!

Sea Salt & Vinegar Roasted Squash Seeds

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse your seeds well, and then spread on the bottom of a glass baking pan or baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, plain, to get them dried out. Once beginning to crisp, reduce the heat to 250. Pull out seeds and coat well with olive oil, sea salt, cracked black pepper and white wine vinegar. (Be generous with the vinegar if you want that puckery taste!) Let bake for another 30 minutes. Pull out and enjoy warm as a snack or on top of soup, like this roasted red pepper and potato or this chopped veggie soup with crema and seeds.  To save for later, let them cool completely and then store in a glass jar with an airtight lid, then use as a topper on a hearty salad like our warm quinoa and chickpeas mix.

Chopped Fall Slaw with Brussel Sprouts

Somewhere between a chopped salad and a slaw, this is a lovely way to use up brussel sprouts when you're tired of roasting them. Crunchy and light! I recommend serving with a heavier soup or any dish with a lot of starch or cheese.

Ingredients
About a dozen brussel sprouts
1 pint grape tomatoes
White wine vinegar
Lemon
Olive oil
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper
Maple syrup

Assembly
Rinse your brussel sprouts and cut of their woody bottoms. Chop in a food processor or shred manually with a sharp knife. Place into salad bowl and toss with several large squeezes of lemon, olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. Next, rinse and finely chop your tomatoes. (I did this in the food processor too, just be careful not to turn them into tomato paste.) Add to the sprouts. Add a bit of white wine vinegar and maple syrup to taste, toss, and enjoy.

Food Allergies & Ethics: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free.

Melon-Olive Skewers with Bread & Rosemary

I haven't snapped a picture of these skewers at any of the several summer barbeques for which I've made them, but besides being juicy and chewy and savory and sweet, they are also quite lovely, pale green and red and black.  You'll need:

One ripe green melon (really key that you get a good one, as we all know the horrors of unripe honeydew - cantaloupe would probably be nice too), cubed

Cherry or grape tomatoes 

Gemlik olives (mild, wrinkly black "breakfast olives"), pitted

Crusty bread, cubed

Skewer these items (all at a 1:1 ratio); drizzle them with a mixture of olive oil, something tart (lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, balsamic, apple cider vinegar, etc.), rosemary, and salt; and grill them.  Smaller cubes grill more nicely and are easier to eat.  You can serve people their own skewers, or unskewer everything, toss in a bowl, and serve as a salad.

Summer Tea Smoothie With Strawberries + Avocado

It was 111° F here in Phoenix yesterday. With heat like that, a smoothie in the morning is basically a necessity, but the typical dairy + banana base loses its appeal.

Enter the summer smoothie made with sun-brewed green or herbal ice tea, avocado for creaminess, frozen berries, cinnamon, and honey. This morning, I covered frozen strawberries with tea I brewed in the sun yesterday using 1 bag of organic green and 2 bags of Tulsi Cleanse. After blending with my immersion blender, I added 1/2 an avocado and a ton of cinnamon and honey, then blended again until smooth. Light, hydrating, creamy, and delicious.