Uncategorized

CAULIFLOWER TACOS

February 16, 2019 by Sarah Baade 4 Comments

I know it might seem a little cliché to be making tacos when I’m based out of Texas but seriously, guys… TACOS!!! Who cares about clichés when a dish this delicious is on the line?!? Plus, it’s not like tacos are exclusive to this part of the country. During my first year of graduate school, my roommate and I would make tacos every week and any time we had guests over for dinner. I would always give our guests the same speech. “Tacos are a personal experience. We are providing you with options for your toppings but, please, create your tacos to your own liking.” I was always fascinated to see which toppings people would pile and which toppings would get skipped over.

I’ve come across several delicious cauliflower taco recipes out there but all of them are made with florets which don’t give me that traditional taco texture I’m looking for. By using finely chopped cauliflower, I was able to achieve a texture and appearance that is more similar to ground meat. Honestly, even when I brought this to work as leftovers, my colleagues commented that it looked like meat. While I still think taco toppings are a personal experience, I would encourage you to add some black beans or pinto beans for added protein into this dish.

Tips:

This taco filling has a bit of heat to it. To reduce the heat, leave out the cayenne pepper.
If you plan to top your tacos with the creamy avocado sauce, you can make it the day before and refrigerate until ready to use.

Print Recipe

Cauliflower Tacos

A new take on cauliflower tacos - your family won't even notice these tacos are vegetarian.

Servings: 8 tacos

Ingredients

For the Tacos

8 corn or flour tortillas
2 Tablespoons olive oil
14 oz bag finely chopped cauliflower
1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Optional toppings:lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, black beans, red bell peppers, diced tomatoes, salsa, creamy avocado sauce (see recipe below)

Creamy Avocado Sauce

2 small avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
juice of 1 lime
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

For the Tacos

Heat oven to lowest temperature possible. Wrap tortillas in foil and place in oven to warm while cooking the cauliflower mixture.
In a large pan over, medium heat, add cauliflower and onion. Stirring occasionally, cook until softened. Add minced garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in spices. Serve in tortillas with desired toppings.

Creamy Avocado Sauce

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until fully combined.

PEANUT BUTTER CUT-OUT COOKIES

February 9, 2019 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

In high school I was known for being the girl who was nice to everyone. Not a bad thing to be known for but that doesn’t necessarily make a girl particularly popular. Most people knew who I was and which activities I was involved in. I had a solid couple of groups of friends but I certainly wasn’t getting invited to any big parties on the weekends. In fact, the one time did attend a party with the popular kids, I found the scene to be boring and didn’t understand what the draw was. The get-togethers that stand out in my mind are actually almost juvenile. One of my friends would invite a few of us over at Easter and Valentine’s Day for cookie decorating. Her mom was the one who actually wanted her to host these decorating parties, my friend might have even been embarrassed to have us over for cookies and hot chocolate. I hope she looks back at it as fondly as I do though. I remember there being tons of cookies, tons of frosting, tons of sprinkles, and tons of laughter. There was no pressure to impress boys or to do something that might get us into trouble. It was just pure fun. I’m hoping my daughter will want to host similar parties as she grows up.

As I’ve gotten older, I still occasionally spend days decorating cookies but I’ve expanded beyond sugar cookies. Over the past few years I’ve favored gingerbread but February doesn’t exactly feel like gingerbread season. The cooler temperatures still have me thinking deep flavors – I’m just not quite ready for light floral/spring flavors. With Valentine’s Day coming up I still wanted to incorporate chocolate without making it the main event. What could pair better with chocolate than peanut butter?! So, I’ve created peanut butter cut-out cookies. The flavor is traditional but they are just as fun to decorate as a sugar cookie.

Tips:

While you don’t have to refrigerate this dough before rolling and cutting it, you can if you want to. Feel free to make the dough a day ahead, wrap it in plastic wrap and then chill in the fridge. Just be sure to pull it out and get it back to room temperature before rolling it.
I know it can be tempting to dunk the entire cookie in chocolate but try to show some restraint. Honestly, if you cover more than about half of the cookie, the chocolate will overwhelm the peanut butter flavor.

Print Recipe

Peanut butter cookies dipped in dark chocolate - the perfect cut-out cookie for Valentine's Day.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 36 Cookies

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups creamy style peanut butter
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 oz dark chocolate melting wafers
variety of sprinkles for decorating (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt then set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat peanut butter, butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth.
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Gradually stir in flour mixture.
Once flour is fully incorporated, place 1/3 of the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap and roll to ¼” thick.
Remove top layer of plastic wrap and cut dough with cookie cutters.
Bake on a parchment lined sheet pan for 11-13 minutes or until edges start to brown.
Cool cookies completely before decorating.
Melt chocolate wafers according to package.
Dip cookies in chocolate then add sprinkles as desired. Alternatively, drizzle chocolate over cookies.

HAZELNUT ICEBOX PIE

January 27, 2019 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Lately it seems like I’ve been living in the glorification of busy. I’ve been chasing all sort of new goals. Isn’t that what New Year’s is about? I’ve been reducing and reorganizing the clutter in our house (hello #konmari). I’ve been doubling my workouts which is totally cliché this time of year but there are worse things to strive for in life, right?! I’ve been placing an emphasis on family through dating my husband (sometimes stay at home dates) and playing/reading with our daughter. When you add more to an already full schedule, something else typically suffers. For me, creativity has been a huge struggle this month. Typically, I come up with several recipe ideas each month, some make the cut for this blog and some don’t. However, we are always eating well and trying new dishes around our house. That was, until this month. We all have ruts and I am no exception but I’m happy to say the creativity is coming back and recipe ideas have started flooding in again.

These new routines and activities does not mean creativity needs to laid to rest. Quite the opposite. Creativity can only add to the creation of recipes that are easy to make as well as delicious. When my husband and I do date nights in at home we always include dinner and dessert in our plans. In need of something exceptionally easy to make, I came up with this recipe. This pie is the precisely what the doctor ordered to cure our cravings. Get your sweet tooth ready, you’ll need it if you’re going to hang with this one!

Tips:

You can elevate this recipe a bit by making a homemade graham cracker crust if you want to. Recipe included after the pie recipe.
I used half of a container of whipped topping in this pie. Feel free to use the rest for garnish when you serve the pie.

Print Recipe

Hazelnut Icebox Pie

Five ingredients are all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Servings: 8

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese, softened
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
7 oz hazelnut spread such as Nutella
4 oz frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 pre-made graham cracker crust

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and hazelnut spread until combined (a few streaks are fine). Fold in whipped topping then pour mixture into pie crust. Freeze at least 8 hours or overnight.

Print Recipe

Homemade Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 Tablespoons melted butter
2 Tablespoons sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Press mixture into pie dish. Bake 7 minutes. Cool completely before filling.

24-HOUR BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

January 14, 2019 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Every year it seems like the holiday season comes and goes at a faster pace than it did the year before. This year we traveled to the Dallas, TX area to celebrate Christmas with family. We had an amazing visit with lots of food, plenty of gifts and we made beautiful new memories. As my siblings and I have gotten older, we have started creating traditions with our own families. My husband and I generally keep things simple; Santa fills our stockings but no other gifts are exchanged between us. Our daughter is still too young to fully understand what is happening with gifts under the tree but her older cousins gave her a full introduction to it this year. For New Year’s Eve, we go to bed at our usual time. However, on New Year’s Day, we have friends come over for board games and sandwiches. This is a new tradition but one that I really enjoy. The day is filled with so much laughter and I really can’t think of a better way to start a new year.

As I think about traditions I can’t help but think of family favorite recipes. The first one that comes to mind is my grandmother’s egg casserole. The cheese sauce alone will have you begging for more! Unfortunately, the recipe is time consuming enough that I rarely make it. Maybe this is why our family typically only ate it for holidays or special occasions. As I was going through my grandmother’s recipe box I came across the “24 Hour Omelet.” Cheese? Check. Bread? Check. Eggs? Check. Easier than the traditional egg casserole? CHECK! So, I put this recipe together with some modifications (nobody needs their breakfast to swim in butter). I also changed the name because it honestly did not remind me of an omelet at all but more of a casserole that borders on being a savory bread pudding. This 24-hour breakfast casserole is not like the old family favorite but it is definitely delicious, easy to make, easy to customize and gets put together the night before.

Tips:

Have fun with this! You can change this recipe up by using any variety of vegetables or you could even add ham or cooked sausage for the meat lovers in your life.
You could also make this into a sweet version by skipping the cheddar and monterey jack cheeses and adding berries of your choosing. If you go this route, consider serving with syrup.

Print Recipe

24-HOUR BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

Delicious, easy to make and easy to customize breakfast

Ingredients

1 loaf sourdough bread
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
8 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped (optional)
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 cup loosely packed fresh baby spinach (optional)
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon chives, chopped

Instructions

Tear bread into chunks and place evenly into a greased 9x13” casserole dish (this will be approximately 9 cups of bread chunks). Sprinkle half of the shredded cheeses over the bread. Spread vegetables evenly over bread then cover with remaining shredded cheeses and cream cheese. Beat eggs with milk, ground mustard, salt, chives and cayenne pepper. Pour egg mixture over cheeses. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F. Bake dish, covered with foil, for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

December 9, 2018 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

Lately I’ve been realizing just how busy my weekdays are. A typical day means I’m up at 5:45am to get ready and help our daughter get ready for the day. After working a full day at the office, I pick our daughter up from school then head home. We have just a little time to play before needing to get dinner going. Soon after dinner, we put our daughter to bed and then I rush out the door to get a workout in. Around 8:00pm I am finally able to relax and catch up with my husband on how our day was. I know my schedule isn’t all that unusual, lots of families have a similar (or crazier) routine. To be honest, I also have TONS of help from my husband, he is my ultimate teammate in life! However, reflecting on my schedule has emphasized the importance of easy meals in our household. I do prefer to cook homemade meals but I definitely have days when those chicken nuggets in the freezer are all I can muster. On the days when I am cooking, I try to fix healthy meals and expose my daughter to a variety of foods and flavors (with an emphasis on vegetables).

My daughter has been really eager to help in the kitchen lately which provides an opportunity to share a wider variety of foods with her. She might not end up eating what we fix (she is only two years old, after all, and I’m realistic) but the exposure is still there. If she sees us prepping and eating healthy foods, those options won’t be strange to her as she gets older. This bisque recipe is actually a perfect one for her to help with. I chop vegetables and then let her put them into a bowl, season them and pour them out onto a sheet pan for roasting. We have also been finding ways to incorporate other lessons into our cooking routines. “How many eggs did we put in the bowl?” “What colors do you see on the pan?” Not to mention she is learning how to follow directions. All of this learning is happening while helping to get dinner on the table. This is what we call a Win-Win situation, my friends!

Tips:

You can absolutely roast these vegetables the night before you plan to serve the bisque and then blend everything together when you’re ready to eat it. Store those veggies in a sealed container in the fridge. However, since the vegetables will be cold rather than hot from the oven, you might need to pour the blended bisque into a pot and warm it over the stovetop or in a crockpot before serving it.
If you’re making this for a bigger crowd, double the ingredients. You can still roast all the vegetables at the same time but it won’t all fit in the blender at once. Blend what you can then pour it into a large pot and repeat this until everything is in the pot. Stir it all together with a large spoon or whisk until fully incorporated.

Print Recipe

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

The perfect dish to warm you up on a cold evening.

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup Raw cashews
1 large head Cauliflower, cut into florets
4 cloves Garlic, unpeeled
2 Medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 Medium yellow onion, sliced
2 Large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into large pieces
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt & pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons Red miso paste
1/2 teaspoon Ground cumin
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
2 cups Vegetable broth (more if you want to thin the bisque out a bit)
Croutons & chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Place cashews in a bowl of water and let soak. While cashews are soaking, put cauliflower, garlic and carrots in a large bowl. Drizzle bowl of vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a sheet pan. Place onion and peppers in the bowl used for vegetables then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a second sheet pan. Place both sheet pans in the oven and roast vegetables 20-30 minutes or until they are tender and edges start to brown. Note that the onion and peppers are likely to be done earlier than the other vegetables.
Drain and rinse cashews then place them in a high-powered blender. Peel roasted garlic cloves add them to the blender along with all of the vegetables. Add miso, cumin, sriracha and vegetable broth to blender. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Garnish with croutons and parsley.

AUTUMN HARVEST SALAD

December 1, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

A colleague of mine brought a huge grocery bag full of persimmons and oranges to the office the other day. He and his wife had an abundance of fruit from their trees this year and didn’t want it to go to waste. I grabbed a couple of each fruit from the bag and went back to my desk. At the end of the day there were still quite a few left so I grabbed a couple more. I hate seeing fresh produce go to waste.

About nine years ago I went through some challenging times; I left a marriage that was toxic. Divorce alone can be a huge financial burden. Getting divorced when already strapped for cash can nearly put a person under. My monthly budget was planned down to the penny and with just $63 per month for my groceries, I cried any time I went over that budget. I am thankful that I worked in an office that often had lunch brought in at no expense to the employees. Still, breakfast and dinner were up to me. Did you do the math? That’s right, I had approximately $2.25 per day to cover those meals. I was determined to still eat a relatively balanced diet off of that budget and there were times when I got creative (this doesn’t necessarily mean creative in a delicious way). I ate a lot of eggs and a lot of pasta during this phase of my life. I also learned how to really scour the grocery ads for what was on sale. In terms of produce, I chose sale items rather than what I might have actually been craving. I didn’t eat fresh fruit and vegetables everyday but I did manage to get some on my plate each week. It probably would have been cheaper to buy boxed/processed foods but the reality was that I needed to take good care of myself. There is no question, I would have needed financial help if I had gotten really sick or injured. The best way to stay healthy was to eat well and get exercise. Because of this experience, I still see fresh produce as having a huge value. I will always be incredibly thankful when a colleague/friend brings in extra fruit fresh from his own trees.

This dish was created with the persimmons and oranges that were brought into the office as well as a beet I already had sitting in my fridge. I added a few “splurges” with the arugula and toppings but the oil and vinegar were already in my pantry. My budget has far more wiggle room than it did nine years ago but I think I will always have an appreciation for creating a dish out of what is inexpensively available.

Tips:

Add the pepitas to the salad just before serving so they keep their crunch.
The creamy ricotta gives a nice mix of texture among in this salad but feel free to leave it out if you’re making it for a vegan crowd.

Print Recipe

AUTUMN HARVEST SALAD

A vibrant salad that takes advantage of seasonal produce.

Course: Salad

Keyword: Salad

Ingredients

2 cups Arugula
2 Large red beets cooked, sliced and quartered
4 Persimmons sliced
4 Small oranges peeled, halved and sliced - be sure to remove any seeds
2 Tablespoons Ricotta cheese
Salt to taste
Olive oil for drizzling
Apple cider vinegar for drizzling
1 Tablespoon Curly leaf parsley chopped
2 Tablespoons Roasted pepitas

Instructions

Spread arugula on a serving platter then top with beets, persimmons and oranges. Place pea-sized bits of ricotta throughout salad. Sprinkle salt and drizzle oil and vinegar over salad. Top with parsley, and pepitas.

POMEGRANATE BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE

November 24, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

I went, I ate, and I ate some more. I swear I tried to take small portions so as to have room to try every side dish. I didn’t succeed. The problem (truly the ONLY problem) with spending Thanksgiving with friends who love to cook is that you can’t possibly eat as much as you would like to. Every single dish was delicious. I walked away with a happy heart, a full belly, and arms full of leftovers to take home. Now that our leftovers are dwindling, I need a break from the comfort food. Did I really just say that?!? I love those traditional holiday dishes but moderation is a must.

In order to give my body a day or two of recovery, I’m trying to keep things lighter and healthier. I’m also embracing pomegranate season for this delicious smoothie. Pomegranate has become one of my favorite smoothie ingredients. Part of the allure could be that fresh pomegranates are hard to come by through most of the year – you want what you can’t have. But I actually really do love the flavor and find that they add a natural sweetness without the tartness that some other fruits can bring to a smoothie.

Tips:

You can portion out the fruit and spinach ahead of time, place them in a bag in the freezer. When you’re ready to make your smoothie, empty the contents of the bag into your blender and add the almond milk, flax seed and chia seeds.
See video below for my method of removing seeds from pomegranate.

Print Recipe

POMEGRANATE BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE

Satisfy your sweet tooth with a healthy option.

Servings: 2 smoothies

Ingredients

seeds from 1 large pomegranate
1 frozen banana
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 cups spinach (loosely packed)
1 cup almond milk
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
1 Tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a high-power blender and blend on high until smooth.

FORBIDDEN PASTA

November 8, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

This pasta dish is a total exception in our house, we just don’t make pasta veryoften. I honestly relate it to my middle school and high school years. My mother would make spaghetti twice a week and I eventually just got tired of it. I totally get it, pasta is easy and can feed a crowd on the cheap – everyone will walk away with a full belly. But too much of anything will make me tired of it. What dish did you eat as a kid that you tend to avoid even years later?

For me, the game changer in eating pasta at home is the sauce. Again, I totally understand the ease of sauce from a jar but this homemade sauce is next level. The addition of goat cheese gives this tomato based sauce a creamy zing. We devoured this to the point of discomfort the first time I made it (hence the name Forbidden Pasta). We have since learned to pace ourselves.

Tips:

For those looking to add a protein to this dish, shrimp would pair beautifully
Feel free to adjust the amount of red pepper flakes to your liking. Add more for more heat in your dish or eliminate it altogether if you’re feeding folks who prefer a no heat at all.

FORBIDDEN PASTA

Serves 6-8

16oz penne pasta

1 Tablespoon olive oil

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

28oz crushed tomatoes, drained

3 Tablespoons tomato paste

4oz goat cheese

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

14oz vegetable broth

Grated parmesan cheese (optional garnish)

Directions:

Cook pasta according package instructions. As pasta is cooking, work on the sauce. Heat olive oil in a large, 2” deep sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook down for about 4 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and cook down for 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and spices then crumble in goat cheese. Stir until paste and cheese are fully incorporated. Stir in vegetable broth and simmer over low heat until pasta is ready. Add pasta to sauce and stir until pasta is fully coated in sauce. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese if desired.

FORBIDDEN PASTA

Save Print

This creamy pasta sauce will have you going back for seconds and thirds.

: Slice Of Honey

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

16oz penne pasta
1 Tablespoon olive oil
½ medium yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
28oz crushed tomatoes, drained
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
4oz goat cheese
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
14oz vegetable broth
Grated parmesan cheese (optional garnish)

Instructions

Cook pasta according package instructions. As pasta is cooking, work on the sauce. Heat olive oil in a large, 2” deep sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook down for about 4 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and cook down for 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and spices then crumble in goat cheese. Stir until paste and cheese are fully incorporated. Stir in vegetable broth and simmer over low heat until pasta is ready. Add pasta to sauce and stir until pasta is fully coated in sauce. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese if desired.

SOFT BATCH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

October 29, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

The other night we were invited to a friends’ house for an impromptu dinner – with no need to bring a contributing dish. What?! These friends were just wanting to love on our family and spend time together in community. How awesome is that??? An evening filled with conversation, kids running around playing and adults catching up on life. This is what sharing a meal is really all about. That being said, I struggle to just show up at someone’s house for a meal without having some sort of food in hand. I looked through the pantry, found some basic baking ingredients and whipped up some chocolate chip cookies.

A classic, simple dessert that is always a crowd pleaser. One of the neat things about chocolate chip cookies is how many variations are out there. And people have strong opinions on what they prefer. Soft batch (like this recipe), chewy or crisp. The way to vary the outcome is through changing the flour, the sweetener and the leavening agent. The other thing I like to do is use more than one kind of chocolate in my cookies just to add a little more depth to each bite. If you’re ever creating your own recipe, play around with these variables and see what you come up with!

Tips:

If you have left your cookies out too long when cooling them and they end up dry, put them in a zip lock bag with a slice of bread. You’ll be amazed at how much moisture those cookies will absorb!
If you don’t need three dozen cookies at one time, you can scoop the dough into individual servings and freeze it. Later on, you can pull out what you need and bake just a few at a time.

SOFT BATCH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter (softened)

2 large eggs

½ cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12oz semisweet chocolate chips

4oz 70% cacao extra bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat sugar with butter. Add eggs, maple syrup and vanilla. Ingredients will not fully combine just yet. Mix in dry ingredients 1 cup at a time, until all ingredients are fully combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop heaping tablespoon-sized mounds of cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheet. Leave 2-inches between the cookies. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove cookie sheet from oven and transfer the cookies from the parchment to cooling racks.

A FOOD LOVER’S TRAVEL GUIDE TO CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

October 18, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Earlier this month, my friend, Deya, and I spent a few days in Charleston, SC for a girls trip. It had been years since I had gone on a girls trip. Does a trip back to your home state even count as a girls trip?!? Years, it had been years!!! Not only was I overdue, I had a really stressful week leading up to our departure. This could not have been more perfect timing for me to get away. Deya had been dreaming about going to Charleston for a long time and was the one who got the ball rolling. We did our research, had a couple of planning sessions over coffee and ultimately planned the whole trip around food. Don’t get me wrong, we were excited to see some sites too but the itinerary was focused around local restaurants.

FRIDAY

We arrived in Charleston on Friday afternoon with time to relax and refresh from our flight. Our first culinary stop was at The Ordinary, a seafood hall and oyster bar. In a restaurant with a bar this beautiful, I think a cocktail is exactly the right way to start. I had the Raoul Duke and Deya had the Classic Daiquiri. Both rum based drinks, these cocktails were incredibly smooth and just slightly sweet. We ordered the ordinary Hawaiian rolls with sea salt butter as our appetizer. The salt on the butter, and the rolls added so much flavor! These rolls were also our introduction to benne seeds – a type of sesame seed that was brought over from western Africa by slaves in the early 1700’s. We quickly learned that these seeds are a local favorite and are incorporated into dishes at restaurants all over the city. Our second starter was the snapper ceviche with pedron pepper and avocado. When you’re at a seafood restaurant, you order seafood, right?! This dish was incredible fresh and light and served with huge tortilla chips. For our entrees, we shared the New England style fish chowder and the grilled New Orleans Style BBQ white shrimp. The chowder was creamy with huge chunks of fish – exactly what you want from a chowder. However, the shrimp dish is what really won us over. If you’ve never had New Orleans style BBQ you might be surprised to know that it is nothing like a typical red BBQ sauce. Instead, this divine sauce is made up of butter, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce and rosemary. We at a lot of amazing things on this trip but this sauce is what we continued to talk about even after we got home. Friends, do yourself a favor and just order some extra sauce on the side – you’re going to want to dip some of those Hawaiian rolls into it!

The Ordinary, Charleston, SC

SATURDAY

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? We knew we had a full day ahead of us so we wanted something hearty to get us going. We walked from our hotel to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit on King Street. It is such a tiny little restaurant but it is cute as can be. They offer up a variety of biscuits (living up to the name) along with a couple of sandwich options and a handful of other options. At first glance you might think the menu is limited but let me tell you, when you’ve perfected what you make, there isn’t a need for a huge menu. Deya and I each had the bacon, egg and cheddar biscuit sandwich with a coffee. This sandwich was so thick I could barely get my hands around it, let alone my mouth. The biscuit itself was so rich and buttery!!! That butter is exactly where the love lies in this meal. If you stop in here, get there early. There was a line to the door when we arrived and not an hour later we saw the line curling out the door and down a couple of store fronts. Absolutely worth a little bit of a wait though.

Husk is one of those restaurants we had heard a lot about when we first started doing research for our trip. The best advice I can give here is to make reservations well in advance. Deya made our reservation at least a month ahead and we still were not able to get in for dinner. However, the lunch menu was great and lunch is always more affordable than dinner. Having had such a hearty breakfast, I kept it relatively small for lunch and just had the Charred broccoli with mushrooms, crispy onions, smoked cheddar and Alabama white sauce. I’m a sucker for broccoli anyway but this flavor was incredibly rich, like melt in your mouth comfort food. Deya started with the pickled shrimp dish and, of course, I sampled it as well. I didn’t even know pickled shrimp was a thing (I grew up in a land locked state) but it was absolutely delicious! She had the fried chicken with Carolina gold rice, bacon, cabbage and butterbeans as her entrée. I didn’t taste this one but Deya raved about the rice and bean mixture!

Saturday night dinner was truly a unique experience. Deya found Feast Upon Charleston through AirB&B Experiences. We ubered our way to Chef Christopher’s home and were greeted by his huge smile, smooth jazz, and a choice of rum or gin for a cocktail. The blackberry mule he made with rum was the perfect drink to sip on while getting to know the other soon to be friends attending this pop-up dinner. Once we sat down, Chef Christopher treated us to a four-course dinner. He changes up his menu regularly so I hesitate to spend too much time describing our meal but let’s just say those crab cakes could be famous one day. Not only can he cook, Chef Christopher was able to give us history lessons on both the food and the city of Charleston. What I loved most about this dinner experience, though, was getting to know people we otherwise wouldn’t have ever met. Chef Christopher’s food is delicious but his passion for creating community is what really shines through.

SUNDAY

I love rich, buttery food as much as the next person but at some point, you also need some fresh, lighter fare. Sunday morning, we hit up Butcher & Bee for brunch. Coffee, local beets and ricotta toast for me. Coffee, crispy sweet potatoes and the smoked salmon bagel for Deya. The flavor combinations made with such fresh ingredients – exactly what I needed! This is one of two restaurants on the list that I absolutely wish had a location in my hometown of San Antonio. Lots of vegetarian options in addition to classic options like a burger. Seriously though, go here for the freshness that they put together on their plates!

Our big splurge dinner was at Zero Restaurant + Bar. This place made us feel like we were on an episode of Chef’s Table. So much thought goes into each dish – colors, textures, plating, and of course flavor. This is the type of spot that is best experienced without the distraction of a phone. In other words, no photos for this one. If you’re looking for a romantic spot to celebrate a special event, make the reservation and enjoy every single bite.

MONDAY

If dessert for breakfast is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Sugar Bakeshop has got to be the cutest little bakery I have EVER seen! Jars upon jars of huge cookies plus cupcakes galore. It is absolutely best for my waistline that I don’t live near this shop. We shared all five of the mini cupcake flavors that they had available that day. Coconut, vanilla, honey, almond and caramel. If I could have, I would have tried every single dessert but I needed to save room for one last lunch in the city.

Our last meal was at Basic Kitchen. This restaurant has natural light flooding in from all sides which automatically has you feeling refreshed. Using seasonal and local produce, they strive to fuel your body with food that will keep you going throughout the day. Once again, great vegetarian options abound here. I had the basic bowl which was full of veggies and chickpeas; Deya had the power bowl which was packed with protein from steak, eggs and quinoa. These dishes were so good we didn’t even bother sharing with one another. I also need to take a moment to mention Kellie, the general manager. She took genuine interest in our experience and was more than happy to answer questions we had about the food and the restaurant.