Blogspot - Recipe Scratch Rusia

The Spritz This became my favorite cocktail after seeing it in the Barefoot Contessa's Cooking for Jeffery Book a couple of years ago.  It is a fresh, crisp, not too sweet, not too strong, citrusy Italian cocktail.  I feel like I have to document it on the blog because it has become a sort of legend amongst our friends this summer. Our friends who lived in Italy for a couple of years served them at their annual Masters Party this year.  Even (especially!) the guys are going crazy for the Spritz.  Then we went to Vail with the same group of friends for a wedding - the Spritz became the official drink of the wedding.  It is the perfect drink for an afternoon cocktail and so refreshing on a hot day/evening.  Now, they've become a staple for all of us at the pool, during a round of golf and before (and after!) dinner.  We're hooked! There is a bit of controversy amongst us on what is the best recipe.  The guys tend to like it a bit stronger (more Aper...

When I'm having some girlfriends over for a drink before dinner, or maybe we're having an afternoon playdate this has been my go-to snack.  It is a little different than a typical cheese board - a little more simple.  It is homemade parmesan biscuits (Barefoot Contessa), shards of white cheddar (also very Barefoot Contessa), blue berries and Boursin covered in honey (so good!).   I present them all of a big pine  Bread Board  to make it feel rustic and casual.  It is a very help yourself sort of presentation.  This large board is part of a  Set of 3 Aged Pine Bread Boards  in my store - they've just been restocked.   I have the boards all over my house - not only in the kitchen, but also in my mudroom.  I use them for staging photos for the store, a tray for drinks and, of course, cheese boards. When we moved into our kitchen, it felt very brand new (which was great) and I wanted to give it a little bit of rustic aged charm.  J...

Emma and I spent the day at The School House  on Sunday making fresh tomato sauce.  I had made some last weekend for dinner with Mike's parents and it was so delicious, I decided to make a huge batch while real summer tomatoes were plentiful. In Lexington there are so many farmstands that have wonderful (inexpensive!) local produce.  The garden at The School House is still a couple of weeks or so away from having "plentiful" tomatoes, but we are picking several baskets full of cherry tomatoes right now and we did pick our very first big tomato this week.  Soooo, I guess I'll be doing this all over again in August with the tomatoes from our own garden from the 16 plants we have (yikes!). For this large batch, I used all of these 12 large tomatoes + 4 onions + 3 sticks of butter.   It made 7 x 8oz. containers ( Plastic Kitchen Container Sets, 18 for $8 here ) of sauce to put in the freezer or give away.   We especially like this sauce with large rigatoni. ...

Emma and I treated the girls to lunch this week at The School House .  I really like simple food in the summer so BLTs were the perfect lunch for a super hot July day.  The School House has been open for 3 months now, so it was a good time to catch up with the team to get some feedback from them.  They have done such an amazing job taking over the packaging and fulfillment and teaching themselves the business.  We have very few packaging errors (and when one or two pops up - they take it so personally!) and they really do take pride in making sure each package is beautifully assembled.  I LOVE how well they take care of my customers.   Read more about The School House, here > The School House is in my hometown of Lexington, Missouri.  It is about an hour from my house, so try to get there once every couple of weeks. When we do, we always stop by the local farmstands to see what's in season.  Our favorite is my cousin's - Fahrmeier Farms . ...