Weekend breakfasts are glorious – eggs, bacon, French toast, avocado-smeared bread…the list goes on and on. For the weekdays, I usually have yogurt and cereal, which let me tell you gets boring after awhile (especially when there aren’t any berries in season!)

So I decided it was time to spice things up, while keeping them fast and simple. Enter: Overnight Oats. These are easy, delicious, and make themselves basically. Let’s make ’em together:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Start with some old fashioned oats and some milk.

Add a tablespoon of chia seeds. These help the oats thicken overnight, and they add a boost of fiber and Omega-3s. And you know, a crunch.

Add some cinnamon. Probably not this much, I spilled a lot into the jar. It was too much, I can attest because I then ate these for breakfast the next day and it was like fall in my mouth. Unless you want fall in your mouth. Then add this much. Otherwise, stick to half a teaspoon.

Finally, add your yogurt. I used Greek yogurt, but you can do whatever you want, whatever you buy.

Now, shake it (not like you’d NOT shake a Polaroid picture, because you don’t shake those.) Shake it until everything is all melded together, and you’ll have a jar that looks something like this. Or, stir it if you’re not making it in a jar.

Leave it overnight in your fridge, and grab and go in the morning for a breakfast that’s better than your average fare.

What is a breakfast you make on-the-go but that’s not boring??

Ever since Rebecca moved to London, we’ve been missing her desserts, great vegetarian dinners, but most of all: her famous dressing. (OK, and we miss her actual presence, too.) Whenever we make a salad for a crowd, we lament not having Becca around to whip it up (but usually someone else does, begrudgingly.)

When I got my hands on some of these Zebra lemons (they’re stripped and pink in the middle, how cool is that?) and I had extra kale on my hands, I knew I had to make this dressing.

Here’s the thing you guys: I don’t even LIKE salad dressing. I find it heavy, I find that it masks the flavors of my food (and many, many toppings), and it ends up being too many extra calories for me. But I LOVE Becca’s dressing. I think it’s because it’s simple, easy, and well, contains garlic. YUM.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:

1-2 lemons, juiced (I used Zebra lemons!)
1 oz olive oil (equal parts to the lemon juice)
1-2 tbsp parmesan cheese (whatever you feel in your heart)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (I used two)
s/p

All you have to do is juice your lemons, mince your garlic, and put it all in a container and shake, shake, shake. This makes enough for three generous servings, or four if you’re going to dress a whole salad.

In honor of Jennie and Jeff deciding on a Rhode Island venue for their upcoming wedding, we decided to whip up a Rhode Island favorite – coffee cabinets. Known to the rest of the world as a milkshake or a frappe, Rhode Islanders call this a cabinet and they love just about everything coffee flavored.

Servings: 4 cabinets
Ingredients:
12 small scoops vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp coffee syrup 
2 tbsp sweet whey powder

We happened to have sweet whey powder lying around, but it’s not necessary if you don’t have any. What IS necessary is the coffee syrup, and if you don’t live in New England, you might need to make your own. Luckily, it turns out to be quite easy.

To make your own coffee syrup, you are going to brew three batches of coffee. Use fresh grounds every time, but reuse the coffee that you brew as your water for the next batch. When you’re done, use the super concentrated coffee to create a simple syrup in a 2:1 ratio. 2 parts coffee to 1 part sugar.

This post is from last summer when blueberries were in height of their season and I needed to make a gluten free treat for a friend. I hope you enjoy and find time to make this delicious treat!

So as many of you know, I have several friends who are on gluten free diets, including three people at work. Since I make treats for my co-workers on their birthdays, I usually feel bad when the treat is not gluten free – that means three people miss out on something delicious! The worst part is when I look at whatever I made, I say, “I guess I could have made this gluten free.” So, when the next birthday came around, I did: I made a gluten free pie.

The dough was simple, and I found it to be on par with the ease/difficulty of making “regular” pie crust. The only ingredient I needed that I didn’t already have was xanthan gum, and I got that from Whole Foods easily. The recipe I used came from King Arthur, though I did not use clear jel because I couldn’t find it. (They didn’t know what it was at Whole Foods, which meant I was not likely to find it in a pinch. Luckily, it was optional, so we were fine.)

Recipe for a two-crust pie (top and bottom crust):

2.5 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold butter
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vinegar

Your first step is to mix the flour, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt together in a bowl.

Add in your cold butter in pats (about scant a tablespoon big, or so.)

You can use a pastry blender or a fork to incorporate the butter – there should still be small chunks, but not too big. Think pea-sized.

Now, onto your wet ingredients. Take the eggs and whisk them up with the vinegar, until they are frothy.

It’ll look something like this.

Add your wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until it comes together, then roll into a ball.

Now you have to refrigerate for about an hour. (I wrapped mine in plastic wrap to stick in in the fridge.)

Meanwhile, rinse your blueberries and spread ’em out to air dry. The recipe I used for the inside of the blueberries was as follows, adapted gluten free by me:

2.25 lbs fresh blueberries, rinsed and stems removed
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup gluten free multi-purpose flour
1/2 cup white granulated sugar (100g)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter (unsalted), cut into small pieces

egg wash:
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk 

Mix together your lemon zest, lemon juice, flour, sugar, and cinnamon.

Coat your blueberries in the sugary mixture.

Now, you should be about ready to take your dough out and roll it. You need to let it sit out at room temperature for about ten minutes before you roll, otherwise it’ll be too crumbly.

I will say this about gluten free dough: it is not easy to move. But it’s OK. You can move the largest piece you can get into the butter pie dish, then push the rest in to complete the bottom crust.

See? Don’t fret. It’ll work out.

So, after your bottom is rolled out, you can fill your pie with blueberries. You might think they are not going to fit into the dish, but they will. I didn’t think they would fit. They did.

See? They all fit. And if they don’t, just eat one or two. Now, at this point, put the butter, in pieces on the top of the blueberries. I did not do this. I forgot the butter. The pie was still a delight, but you know, butter makes things better, so you should maybe add it in.

Because gluten free dough is more fragile than regular pie crust dough, I opted to cut the dough into stars and then cover the pie. That way, you don’t have to move an entire top, and it is properly vented, and it is pretty. So, pretty much a win, win, win.

Use an offset spatula to pull the dough up, so you don’t rip your stars (I ripped a few. It happens. You can re-roll the dough if needed.)

Roll until you run out of dough, and just keep layering the stars on the pie.

After you’ve layered the stars, you can let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up. Then give it an egg wash (1 whisked egg + 1 splash of milk) and then stick it in your hot oven (425 degrees.) You will let it cook at 425 for 20 minutes, then 350 for about 40 minutes.

And this, my friends, is what your pie will look like!

Please enjoy! Making this gluten free was easy peasy, and greatly appreciated by my gluten free coworkers. And the best part was you couldn’t even really tell!

 Recipe:

2 Crust Dough
Time: 20 minutes active, 70 minutes nonactive

2.5 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons cold butter
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vinegar

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, xanthan gum, salt.)
2. Chop cold butter into pats. Incorporate into dry ingredients.
3. Whisk together eggs and vinegar.
4. Add to dry ingredients, roll into ball.
5. Refrigerate for 1 hour prior to rolling, and let sit at room temperature 10 minutes before rolling.

Pie filling
Time: 20 minutes active, 60 minutes nonactive 

2.25 lbs fresh blueberries, rinsed and stems removed
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup gluten free multi-purpose flour
1/2 cup white granulated sugar (100g)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter (unsalted), cut into small pieces

egg wash:
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk 

1. Mix all ingredients except blueberries and butter.
2. Add blueberries and mix well.
3. Put blueberries into pie crust.
4. Top blueberries with butter pieces.
5. Top buttered blueberries with top crust (or crust stars).
6. Refrigerate 30 minutes (Pre-heat oven at this point).
7. Egg wash the top.
8. Place in oven for 20 minutes at 425.
9. Lower heat to 350 and let bake 30-40 more minutes.

When it comes to culinary exploration, Jennie and I will try anything at least once. Probably twice. We’d heard rumblings that watermelon could be grilled, and since I’m not much of a watermelon fan, it seemed like we had nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Nothing could have been easier. You just slice a small watermelon into rounds and toss on the grill for 2-3 minutes each side. The watermelon will soften and the sugars will being to caramelize.

Let it cool for a minute or two, then serve with feta cheese and honey. Truthfully, we didn’t love the end result here. It mostly tasted like the grill, which has it’s charms, but is not a flavor in itself. Our recommendation would be to try this mixed in with other grilled veggies, and to eat this right away while it’s still hot!