Arugula & Burrata Flatbread

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This flatbread is one of our go-to recipes for summer entertaining or a quick weeknight dinner. With just a few simple ingredients, this recipe bursts with flavor from the creamy burrata, citrusy lemon oil, and fresh basil. We top it with lots of peppery arugula (more than pictured) so that we have a salad and pizza in one. We love how fresh this dish feels for being a flatbread! We have made quite a lot of variations of this flatbread over the last two years. This go round we added chicken to this recipe to make this dish a bit more hearty as a main course, but many times we have made it with artichoke hearts for a vegetarian option. The recipe below includes both so that you can have the best of everything on the flatbread, but you can pick one or the other depending on what kind of dish you’re looking to make.

Arugula & Burrata Flatbread

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One of our favorite flatbread recipes for summer. We love the combination of the creamy burrata, fresh basil, and zesty lemon.

Ingredients

  • 1 package of premade pizza dough
  • 1 chicken breast
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup ricotta
  • 1-2 fresh balls of burrata
  • 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and sliced in half
  • 2 cups arugula
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bunch basil, chopped finely
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Take the pizza dough out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. If you are going to bake the pizza in an oven, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and put your pizza pan inside the oven while it pre-heats. If you are using a grill, preheat the grill to high (approximately 500 degrees).
  2. Make the lemon herb oil. Combine the olive oil, minced garlic, lemon zest, and juice from half the lemon in a small mixing bowl. Mix 1/2 of the lemon oil with the ricotta cheese. Set aside.
  3. Cook the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper on all sides. Cook on the grill or oven until cooked through (5 minutes per side on the grill and ~20 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees). Shred or chop the chicken into bite sized pieces.
  4. Toss a light coating of flour on your countertop. Using a rolling pin and some of the flour, roll out the dough into a pizza shape. You do not need to use all of the flour. Use it as needed if the dough is getting sticky.
  5. Place the pizza dough on the hot pan (for oven) or directly on the grill for 3-4 minutes to get the pizza dough crispy on one side. Remove the pizza dough and place is cooked side down on a tray.
  6. Add the pizza toppings. Paint the flatbread with the ricotta. Evenly distribute the chicken and artichoke hearts on the flatbread. Place the flatbread back in the oven or on the grill for 5-7 minutes until the dough is completely cooked through and the cheese is melted.
  7. Add the to the top of the pizza. Use the remaining lemon oil to toss with the arugula and basil. Sprinkle the arugula and basil over the top of the flatbread and top with a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot!

Instant Pot Hatch Chili Shredded Chicken

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We love a quick and easy taco night as a tasty way to get dinner on the table. Hatch chiles are in season in Colorado and we try our best to use them as much as we can this time of year and really soak up the smoky, spicy flavor they bring to a dish. We love to buy them pre-roasted at the farmers’ market but if you can’t do that, you can repeat that step yourself by buying them at the grocery store and broiling them in the oven. This shredded chicken comes together with the help of the roasted hatch chiles, our favorite salsa, and some sautéed onions and garlic. It is simple but incredibly tasty. You can use the chicken for tacos, enchiladas, or even as a meal prep recipe for salads and sandwiches throughout the week. Using the Instant Pot ensures this recipe is ready in under 40 minutes and makes very little mess in the kitchen, both great attributes of a weeknight recipe!

Instant Pot Hatch Chili Shredded Chicken

  • Servings: 6
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 A quick and easy recipe for delicious shredded chicken. We love to use this chicken for tacos, enchiladas, and as a meal prep recipe for salads and sandwiches.

Ingredients

  • 4 large chicken breasts
  • 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 4 clove garlic, roughly chopped
  • 4 roasted hatch chiles, stems and seeds removed and chopped
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 cup of your favorite tomato based salsa
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 chicken bouillon cube
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Set the Instant Pot on the “saute” setting. Add the olive oil, sliced onion, and garlic to the Instant Pot. Sauté until the onions start to become translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the hatch chiles to the pot and cook another 2 minutes.
  2. Season the chicken breasts on both sides with the garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken to the Instant Pot and sear for 3 minutes per side. You want to get the chicken nice and browned.
  3. Add the salsa, water, and chicken bouillon cube to the Instant Pot. Give everything a good stir so that the water reaches the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot with the lid and make sure that the steam release valve is closed. Switch the Instant Pot to the high pressure cook setting and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, release the steam and remove the chicken breasts from the pot. Shred the chicken with two forks and put it back in the sauce. Stir well to let the chicken soak up the juices in the pot and serve as desired.

Semi-Homemade Hot Dog Bar

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Entertaining does not have to be fancy to be delicious and delightful to your guests. We love having friends over in the summer for a backyard barbecue, and instead of spending hours prepping for a fancy feast, we like to have a really fun menu like this Semi-Homemade Hot Dog Bar. We love that we can cook hot dogs to order and let everyone fend for themselves with the hot dog bar ingredients to make their own meal. We have included suggestions for some of our favorite summer hot dogs below, and also encourage our guests to create their own flavors! If you are really in host and hostess mode, you can write out our ideas below (and some of your own!) to help guide your guests through the hot dog bar. The key to success with a menu like this is to think smart, not hard. You’ll notice that there are some repetitive ingredients amongst the list. We have also “semi-homemade” some of the ingredients, including the bbq pulled pork and chili, which have come from the prepared food section at the grocery store. If you want to make all of the bar toppings from scratch, by all means have at it. But if you don’t have time, you can still pull this off pretty easily. Having repeat and pre-made ingredients helps eliminate a ton of prep time in the kitchen, but doesn’t take away from the fun of the presentation. For reference, we like to plan for 2-3 hot dogs per person when making our ingredient list.

The Hot Dog Lineup:

  1. Asian Slaw Dog: Asian slaw, cilantro, sesame seeds, sriracha ketchup.
  2. The Cincinnati Dog: chili, onion, mustard, cheese.
  3. BLAT Dog: bacon wrapped dog, tomato, arugula, avocado, mayo.
  4. BBQ Pulled Pork Dog: pulled pork, barbecue sauce, everything bagel coleslaw.
  5. Chicago Dog: tomato, mustard, giardinara, sliced dill pickle.
  6. Mexican Dog: avocado (or guacamole), pickled jalapeños, cilantro,

Grilled Supreme Pizza

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Grilled pizza is a staple for us and is constantly popping up on our weekly meal rotation. We love how easy and versatile the base recipe is so that we can mix and match ingredients with the season and our preferences. For this week’s recipe we were craving a classic supreme pizza. We love the combination of veggies and sausage in a supreme – it is definitely the best of both worlds in our opinion and doesn’t feel overly filling like other pizza variations. If you have a home garden growing, this is a great time to incorporate a lot of those veggies! Because of pregnancy heartburn we chose to not add any spicy peppers in our recipe, but highly recommend adding chili flakes or giardiniera if spicy if your jam!

Grilled Supreme Pizza

  • Servings: 4
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Utilizing the grill as much as possible for our take on a classic supreme pizza.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb premade raw pizza dough
  • flour (for rolling the dough)
  • 1/2 cup pizza sauce
  • 1/2 lb Italian sausage links
  • 1/4 red onion, sliced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, seeds removed and sliced into strips
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 can black olives, sliced
  • basil

Directions

  1. Turn on your grill to high heat or if you are using an oven, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you are using a pizza stone, put it on the grill or in the oven to preheat as well. When the grill is hot, add the sausages, red onion, and yellow peppers. Cook the sausages 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway, until they are cooked through. Keep an eye on the bell peppers and red onions and remove when they are starting to char. Remove all of the topping ingredients from the grill and set aside.
  2. Use the extra flour to roll the dough into a thin round pizza. You want the pizza to be about a half inch thick so that it can support the weight of the ingredients.
  3. Place the pizza dough on the grill for 5 minutes (or in the oven for 7-10) until the bottom layer is crispy and has a hard crunch. Remove the dough from the oven and place cooked side up. Slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces and top the pizza with all of the topping ingredients (pizza sauce – black olives) in an even layer.
  4. Place the pizza back on the grill for 5 minutes (7-10 for the oven) until the dough is completely cooked through and the cheese is melted. Top with fresh basil, slice, and serve.

BLAT Caesar

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We are all about entrée salads during the summer, but if we are choosing to eat salad for a meal it needs to be hearty enough to feel like a complete meal. We love this rendition of a Caesar salad, which is loaded with all of our favorite BLAT ingredients to make things exciting. We went rogue from romaine lettuce and decided to use arugula as the base of our salad. The peppery switch up provides a nice balance to the richer ingredients like bacon and avocado. This salad has a little bit of everything from creamy to crunchy and there is something in it for everyone. We think it is really satisfying for a lunch or dinner entrée, and even like to throw it all on a big platter and serve it family style if we are having people over for dinner.

BLAT Caesar

  • Servings: 4
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  Everything we love about a BLAT in Caesar salad form!

Ingredients

  • 8 cups lightly packed arugula or your favorite salad greens
  • 8 slices thick cut bacon
  • 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1 avocado, core removed and sliced

Ingredients for The Dressing

  • 1 raw egg yolk
  • juice and zest from 1 lemon
  • 1 glove garlic
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 2 anchovy fillets (optional)
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay the bacon onto a cookie sheet in a single layer. Cook the bacon for about 15 minutes, or until it is your desired level of crispiness. Remove the bacon from the cookie sheet and onto a paper towel to remove the excess fat. Set aside.
  2. While the bacon is cooking, make the dressing. Combine the dressing ingredients (egg yolk – anchovy fillets if you are using) in a blender and mix until combined. With the blender running, add the vegetable oil in a steady stream to the remaining ingredients. Blend until the oil is emulsified into the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Make the salad. Layer the arugula or other salad greens evenly into four bowls. Divide the tomato, avocado and bacon into each of the bowls as well. We prefer to leave the bacon whole for presentation, but you can chop it and add it if that is your preference. Drizzle each of the salads with the Caesar dressing and serve immediately.

Olympics Appetizer Board

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We LOVE watching the Olympics and can’t wait for the opening ceremonies to kick off the long anticipated summer games. This year is particularly special for us because our Chief Tasting Officer, husband, brother-in-law and uncle extraordinaire Ryan is competing in baseball for team Israel. We were crushed that due to COVID fans couldn’t attend this year, so we are doing everything we can to make the games special from home. We are kicking things off with this Olympic themed appetizer board, which is a great appetizer/snack board for the Opening Ceremonies tonight!

We have used the Olympic rings as our inspiration for this board and had a fun time scouring the grocery store for black, red, blue, yellow and green foods. This board combines everything we love about sweet and savory snacks and can be put together quickly to share with family and friends. As with any of our board recipes, swap with your favorite foods and use what you have already! Our suggestion is to stick to white and neutral “background” foods so that the colors of the rings stand out on the board.

Olympic Themed Appetizer Board

  • Servings: 6
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We are celebrating the Olympic opening ceremonies in style with this fun snack board!

Ingredients

  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 heaping cup broccoli, cut into small segments
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes
  • 1 cup kalamata olives
  • white cheese of your choice, cut into cubes
  • 1 package of your favorite nuts- we love the Trader Joe’s rosemary marcona almonds
  • 2 dips, ideally white in color to help the rings stand out
  • crackers for dipping

Directions

  1. Chop the bell pepper and broccoli. Start to arrange the rings on the board in the style of the olympic rings. This will take some patience as you have to rearrange the ingredients so that the rings are intersecting. When they are loosely assembled, start to add the other ingredients.
  2. Pour the dips into two ramekins and place the ramekins in two of the ring centers. Fill two of the other rings with the white cheese cubes and the third with the marcona almonds. Adjust the rings as necessary and surround the rings with crackers. Serve immediately.

Grilled Lemon Chicken Kabobs

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You probably know by now that we love cooking on the grill during the summer. We love versatile entrees that we can mix and match with other menu items, and these lemon chicken kabobs are a great addition to any cooking routine. We go back to this recipe over and over because it ticks all of the boxes: light and healthy, quick and easy, and the skewers pair well with nearly everything! You can serve them with a big salad (as pictured), pasta, or even barbecue side dishes. To make dinner even easier, we marinate the skewers the day before we plan to cook them so that we can just throw them on the grill and have dinner on the table in 20 minutes.

Lemon Chicken Kabobs

  • Servings: 4
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Zesty lemon chicken kabobs cooked on the grill for a quick and easy summer entrée.

Ingredients

  • kabob skewers
  • 3 large chicken breasts (about 1.75 lbs)
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 1 tbs honey
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • pinch of red chili flakes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Directions

  1. Combine the marinade ingredients (lemon – black pepper) in a large mixing bowl. Dice the chicken into large, bite sized pieces. Add the chicken to the marinade, toss well to coat the chicken, cover, and place in the refrigerator. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight.
  2. Preheat the grill to 500 degrees.
  3. Ten minutes before you want to start cooking, soak kabob sticks (if you are using wood kabobs) in a bowl of water. After the kabobs have soaked for 10 minutes, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and evenly divide the chicken amongst the kabobs.
  4. Put the kabobs on the grill over direct heat. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side, or until the chicken juices run clear. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving.

Caprese Bruschetta

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Now that our social lives are getting back on track, we feel a little rusty in the dinner party/entertaining game. We find ourselves going back to the basics as we dust the rust off and have more people over for dinner. One of our simple hacks to make entertaining easy is to have an interactive appetizer as part of the menu. While our guests are having a drink they can also stay busy making their first bites of food. This way, we can be in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner. We love this caprese bruschetta because the ingredients are so simple but the taste is so impressive. By swapping fresh tomatoes out for garlic roasted tomatoes, traditional fresh mozzarella for creamy burrata, and simple basil leaves for homemade pesto, we have made each ingredient feel more special with hardly any effort. This appetizer is bursting with flavor and perfect for any summer gathering.

Caprese Bruschetta

  • Servings: 4
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A simple appetizer featuring our favorite summer ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 1 baguette, sliced on a bias
  • 1 ball fresh burrata, drained
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 3 tbs olive oil, divided
  • 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1 batch homemade pesto
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Toss the tomatoes with the olive oil and the sliced garlic. Lay everything in a single layer on a cookie sheet and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are just bursting. Use a slotted spatula to remove the tomatoes and garlic from the pan and into a serving bowl, leaving any juices and oils behind. Toss the baguette slices with the oils from the pan and put in the oven. Toast for about 5 minutes, or until the baguette is crispy.
  3. While the tomatoes are cooking, make the pesto. Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Place in a small bowl for serving.
  4. Drain the burrata and pat it dry with a paper towel. Carefully slice the burrata into segments and lay it in the serving platter. Season the burrata with a little salt and freshly cracked pepper. Assemble the serving tray with the tomatoes, pesto, and baguette slices. Serve immediately.

Alaskan King Crab Rolls

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Every year for Calli’s birthday, we have a seafood birthday celebration with our best family friend, Leslie. We order a box of Alaskan king crab legs from Costco, steam the legs and serve them with lemon and hot butter. It is one of our favorite summer traditions and something we look forward to every year. The dinner is simple and the crab legs are just SO good. We had a few left over this year and didn’t want to waste one bite, so we decided to repurpose the crab into crab rolls. This recipe is intentionally simple as we want the crab to shine. If you don’t typically find yourself rolling around in leftover crab legs, you can typically purchase them by the leg at your regular supermarket.

Alaskan King Crab Roll

  • Servings: 4
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Our take on a classic lobster roll using Alaskan king crab legs.

Ingredients

  • 4 king crab legs (cooked, cooled and shells removed)
  • 2 tbs mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt
  • juice of one lemon
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp hot sauce
  • 4 brioche buns (or hot dog buns of your choice)
  • fresh parsley

Directions

  1. Combine the mayonnaise, greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt, dill, pepper and hot sauce in a bowl and thoroughly mix together.
  2. Gently break the crab meat into large, bite-sized pieces. Add the crab to the bowl and fold the crab in gently so that the dressing covers all crab pieces.
  3. Toast the buns (add butter if you would like). Add a generous portion of the crab mix to the bun and top with fresh parsley. Serve immediately with a slice or two of lemon.

The Columbus Coffee Experience

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We have moved to a lot of new cities for baseball season over the past few years; probably 8 in the last 5 years alone. Moving to a new city is both exciting and a little overwhelming, so we try and get our boots on the ground and familiarize ourselves with the city and neighborhoods as quickly as we can. One of the ways that Jamie does this is her famous “restaurant list”. Whenever we go to a new city (be it for a baseball move or a vacation), Jamie gathers some internet intel to create a list of restaurants we need to try while we are visiting. When we got to Columbus, Ohio this year for baseball and began digging around for research, we realized that the work had already been done for us. The Experience Columbus visitor’s bureau has two maps to help explore the city: The Columbus Coffee Experience and the Columbus Ale Trail. You can go to each of the locations on the two maps and get a stamp after visiting. This concept is a dream come true for type A foodies like we are. Not only have we expanded our exploration of Columbus well beyond what we would normally explore in a baseball season but we have been able to support a number of local restaurants in the process.

So let’s talk coffee. There are about two dozen coffee shops on the Coffee Experience map. We were glad to see that most of the shops have survived Covid shutdowns, but there are a few changes as to what is open with the current map. You can pick up the map in any of the shops participating and start your coffee experience. Rather than go through each of the shops one by one, we wanted to highlight our favorite shops and add a few more that deserve a spot on the map.

Best Coffee

Judging the best coffee out of over 40 coffees is a difficult task. Some people like a straight forward beverage, and others (looking at you Ryan) like to order the coffee that most resembles dessert. Keeping those extremes in mind, here are the standout beverages we had along the way:

  • Winan’s – peaches and cream breve latte
  • Bexley Coffee Shop – strawberry latte
  • Roaming Goat Coffee – perfect cappuccino
  • Crimson Cup – french toast crunch latte
  • Brioso – their shop is closed for beverages, but their coffee beans were the best we purchased

Best Food

While food isn’t a requirement for a “coffee experience”, we are not ones to turn down a good breakfast to pair with our morning caffeine. For the sake of research we ate more muffins, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries than we care to admit. Here were our favorites:

  • Fox in the Snow – hands down one of the best breakfast sandwiches in Columbus. The food is so good we went there twice! The pastries are also incredible if you are in the mood for something sweet.
  • Pistacia Vera – lots of traditional French breakfast items. The almond croissant is still discussed regularly as one of the best things we have eaten in Columbus. The croque monsieur and smoked salmon sandwich are perfect for a heartier, savory option.
  • Coffee Connections of Hilliard – maple waffle breakfast sandwich. It’s a little sweet, a little savory… the perfect start to any morning.
  • The Brekkie Shack – this shop is not on the coffee experience map, but is one of our favorite stops for breakfast and had to be added to our recommendations. The “all the feels egg sandwich” gives us exactly that, with an unusual combo of egg, bacon, cheddar, and crispy brussels sprouts.
  • Boston Stoker – after accompanying us to about two dozen coffee shops, Tuck thinks that this is the standout shop for furry friends. Their pup cup was his favorite!

Best Ambiance

Most of the time we are grabbing coffee on the run, but every once in a while we want to relax and enjoy the morning. These shops had our favorite places to enjoy our coffees or have such a cute storefront that we would want to bring visitors just to experience the vibes of the place.

  • Kittie’s Cakes Bexley – we love the patio at Kittie’s and the cute bookstore they share a space with. Kittie’s was also the only shop that made Jamie’s favorite drink (an iced cappuccino) so they earn bonus points for that alone. The neighborhood is great for a stroll, which is exactly what we did after downing a cinnamon roll and cappuccinos.
  • Luck Bros’ Coffee House – another shop that is not on the coffee experience map but is a great experience in Columbus. They are in Grandview Heights right across the street from a cute park and have a good sized patio to enjoy your coffee. Pre-covid they offered a coffee tasting flight, and we hope they bring that back soon.
  • Pistacia Vera – we already mentioned them before, but the aesthetic of this shop is Jamie’s favorite. They sell gorgeous flowers and have an open atmosphere that makes them stand out on the list. They do not offer seating post-Covid, but we were recommended to take our food and drinks to Frank Fetch Park a few blocks away. This little tiny park might be the cutest spot in German Village, and perhaps all of Columbus.
  • Stauf’s Victorian Village – there are quite a few Stauf’s shops on the coffee experience, but the Victorian Village location is definitely the standout. The shop is located in an old church and they did a great job of modernizing the space while keeping true to the building’s roots. They have a good sized shaded patio that is perfect for enjoying your morning coffee.