PEARL + EARL: eats

Showing posts with label eats. Show all posts

10.03.2012

Eats: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Here in the midwest, autumn came out of nowhere. Suddenly, we're wearing our cardigans, we've pulled out our boots, and the trees have turned auburn and gold overnight. I love fall. I'm one of those girls who loves to snuggle and watch movies, with pumpkin scented candles, drinking pumpkin lattes with soy. I guess you could say I'm a pumpkin addict :) So over the weekend, I messed up the kitchen (thank you, Judd for cleaning up!) and whipped up my favorite autumn cupcakes: Pumpkin Pie Spice with Cinnamon Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting. YUM! Making these from scratch is certainly worth the work, so today I'm sharing my recipe to welcome fall ♥

It's my personal belief that organic ingredients not only taste better, but keep you feeling good. It doesn't have to be expensive. I bought most of my ingredients from Trader Joe's. Check them out if you haven't- it's really a fantastic store. Also, instead of finding a million spices and mixing them up, try Pumpkin Pie Spice from Mountain Rose Herbs. I got a big bag fairly cheap from them, and I LOVE their web store. They have a fine selection of organic products at wonderful prices. And you don't have to be in Oregon to get them! SO brew some hot tea, look this recipe over, and if you feel the urge, get to baking!

Even if you don't make the cupcakes, try this icing! It's seriously the most amazing icing I have ever tasted. And how can anyone say 'no' to cream cheese!! Hope you love them as much as we do!

HAPPY AUTUMN!

xox

P + E

8.16.2012

Presto! Asparagus Pesto Pizza

I was fortunate enough to work in a pizza shop throughout my entire high school career. I worked with close friends and it is truly one of the favorite times of my life. I learned quite a bit about pizza and I try to share that information whenever I can. I've always loved pizza, as I'm sure most of you have. The beauty of pizza is it's adaptability. Literally, you can add whatever you'd like to it and most times, dependent upon the toppings, it will taste amazing. Pizza is like a science lab, it's meant for experimentation and improvisation. Jessa and I love tomato sauce and occasionally ranch dressing as the base for a good pie, but most recently we've been using different flavors of pesto as the sauce. Today's experiment was a simple one; asparagus and pesto pizza. It did not disappoint!

We started out with some thin crust we bought from a little market. St. Louie is famous for cracker style thin crust and the shells are easily found in abundance here. We chopped up our toppings, set them aside and then we added the pesto as the sauce.

One of my secrets for a good pie: add the toppings then the cheese or add a small amount of cheese, then the toppings. This allows the cheese to act as a sort of glue to hold everything together. It also works as a formidable oven, locking in the flavors of the toppings and the heat from the oven between the cheese layer and the crust. You can see this in the before and after shot. The rest is rather simple and you may find all the other stages on the recipe card below.

This pizza tastes great with a fresh spring mix salad and nice hearty glass of IPA. If your feeling fancy, a nice cabernet or a dry merlot work well with this pizza. As always, enjoy experimenting and eat to live, not live to eat... but you can always live to eat well!!!

cheers,

earl

8.11.2012

A Backyard Date

Summertime is my favorite time of year. I feel like sometimes, as "grown-ups", we let it pass by. It's so easy to get lost playing catch-up all weekend, fulfilling obligations and rushing to finish what we couldn't find time to get done during the week. But occasionally, we're all fortunate enough to find a little time to breathe in some fresh air. Today was one of those days for us. We took advantage of the sunshine and enjoyed the local outdoor market, running around town with Neko and Bams, coming home and cooking up a storm, and finally, we treated ourselves to an impromptu backyard dinner date to celebrate the day and devour the food we made together.

We found this fantastic black bean, goat cheese and avocado taco recipe while browsing foodgawker, and decided to give it a try with our own twist. The honey-lime dressing in the recipe above is incredible- definitely try it!! Judd even made his authentic mexican pico de gallo, or as we call it around here- neko de gallo!

It was gorgeous outside, and the mojitos we made really hit the spot!! We've been making this traditional Cuban mojito recipe for a while, but loved the honey-lime sauce so much that we altered our go-to and added the honey into the meddling process. I'm telling you, this stuff is addicting!

I love unwinding outside, especially when the doggies are running loose. Perfect ending to a perfect day!

Hope you had an awesome Saturday too!

xox

P +E

8.09.2012

Celebrating the Month of the Sandwich

Well we're a little late on this post; however, despite our tardiness, it is the month of August and that means two things:

1. (unfortunately) Summer is drawing to a close
2. It's the official Month of the Sandwich

Nothing in life is sweeter (besides Pearl's baking) than a quick and delicious sandwich. In honor of our favorite month we've decided to share with you two of our favorite summer sam'wich recipes.

Avocado Basil Heirloom Croissant

This little beauty only takes minutes to prepare. Halve your croissant, add a slice of your favorite cheese, mine is gouda, slice up some avocado and throw it on top of the cheese. Then, halve a handful of lovely heirloom tomatoes, pile those up on top of the avocado, and the final touch is rather simple. Pluck off some basil from your basil plant and top the whole croissant off with as much as your taste buds can handle. Obviously we love goat cheese and honestly, two cheeses are better than one any day. So if your in the mood, throw a little goat cheese on, and then add the top of the croissant and you're ready to eat.

Avocado Asparagus Sandwich

This is one of my favorite recipes. Actually I found this recipe in the form of a tartine on 101 Cookbooks, by far my favorite food blog! In the spirit of Heidi's blog, I decided to redesign her recipe and turn it into a sandwich. This sandwich literally takes ten minutes to create, and believe me, it's worth every second. I prefer a nice whole grain bread or multigrain bread as the base. Butter the top and bottom and toast them in a skillet, a la grilled cheese style. When the two pieces are nice and toasted, pull them off the heat and set them aside. In the same skillet, add a tablespoon of EVO. Sauté up some sliced garlic and red onion. When the garlic and onion are almost browned, throw in a a few stalks of asparagus cut to the length of your bread. You'll only need to sauté them for about thirty seconds to a minute, whenever they turn a vibrant green you know they're done. In the meantime, dice up some avocado into a bowl and add a dash of freshly chopped cilantro. Mash that up together, the chunkier the better. Once it's mashed, spread a thick layer on the toasted bread, that will be the bottom of your sandwich. On the top piece of bread, spread a thin layer of goat cheese. Add the asparagus, garlic and onion to the top of the thick avocado layer. Then, pile on some pea shoots and add the top piece of bread. Ten minutes flat and worth the wait.
(If your really feeling dangerous, I like to add a few slices of a habanero to the asparagus, but Pearl's palette prefers a milder flavor, I live for the spice.)

Enjoy these sandwiches with a nice summer fruit salad or some kettle chips.

Just two reasons why we love August here at Pearl loves Earl.

enjoy,
earl

7.23.2012

Vegetarian Sliders (not just for carnivore's anymore)

So I do quite a bit of the cooking around our humble abode and Jessa will vouch for me when I tell you, that I'm a Jackson Pollock when it comes to food. By no means are my measurements precise or even well thought out. Like Mr. Pollock's art work, I tend to throw things together and see what our taste bud's think of it. Sometimes good, sometimes really good, and occasionally I ask Jessa what she thinks of it and she just gives me a loving smile... and I know to never make that again. Jessa's my canvas and she lets me throw whatever colors I want on her and if she doesn't like the combo she'll throw it right back at me. It's a relationship an amateur cook dreams about. After all, every good cook knows, you cannot create delectable eats without making some disastrous doozies along the way.

We debated for while what we should feature as our first official food post. When we were done debating, we continued debating, then, it was like someone pulled a chain and a light bulb lit up above Jessa's head. Instead of breaking out the big guns right away, why not start like everything in life... small! We thought it best to let the proverbial flower blossom. We went back to the roots of our relationship and decided to share with you, what Jessa had once shared with me. Jessa has been a vegetarian for most of her life and I have been a practicing vegetarian for a little over four years. When I was a carnivore there was one thing I could never turn down... a burger. I had missed them so much until Jessa shared her recipe with me.

Being an ex-carnie (pun intended) I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into her vegetarian sliders. I was delighted. I was hooked. I was in love. Not only are these little treats quick and easy, their perfect for anyone who only has what seems like moments for lunch, and in today's world I'm guessing that's almost all of us. These are my go-to treats for BBQ's, social gatherings, picnics or anytime I feel the need for a burger. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. And remember, cooking in the kitchen is meant to be shared with the person you love, no matter what you're making. So get in that kitchen with your other half and have some fun and please, don't be scared to throw some flour at each other while you're in there. You never know, you might just make some memories while you're making dinner, or lunch in this case!!!

cheers,
earl

Here's what you'll need. Don't be scared to experiment. Create these to suit your own personal tastes. These are suited to ours!!!

1 package of Morning Star Vegetarian Sausage patties (later on we'll post a veggie burger recipe that you can substitute for the Morning Star Patties)
1 package of King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
1 Avocado pitted and scooped clean of the skin
1/4 of an onion finely chopped
1 Roma tomato cut into 6 slices
3/4 of an oz. of Goat Cheese
6 small slices of Dubliner Cheese
A handful of spinach

Follow the directions on the box for cooking the Morning Star Sausage. While you're waiting for the oven to pre-heat go ahead and chop up your onion. I prefer a red onion for the taste and the flavor, but you use what you feel comfortable with. After you've chopped some onion go ahead and slice up your tomato. You can usually get six quarter inch wide slices out of one good size roma tomato. When you're finished with the tomato, slice up some Dubliner. Set all this aside and by this point your oven should be preheated. Go ahead and put in the patties. They take about twelve minutes to cook, I usually go about fifteen and flip them half way through. At this point, open up your avocado and scoop it into a bowl. Then add that goat cheese to the avocado and mash it up together. What you're left with is a very tart pastel green paste. Half way between cheese and guacamole consistency. Always do that last as the avocado will turn brown quicker the longer it's exposed to the air. Now at this point do a happy dance because you're almost done, and there's always time to dance!

Pull out those delicious Hawaiian sweet rolls and begin separating the top from the bottoms. When you've got about 2-3 minutes left on the patties throw the buns in the oven face down toward the burner and toast those little buns. Also, add the slices of Dubliner to the top of the patties. Rinse your handful of spinach and prepare yourself, you're almost done. Once the timer goes off, pull out the buns first and arrange them to build the Sliders. Coat the top of the buns with the avocado concoction, grab a pinch of spinach for the bottom of the buns, throw a tomato slice on top of the spinach, sprinkle some onion on top of the avocado and grab a veggie patty and place it atop the tomato. Put your top bun on top of the patty and SHAZAM you've got yourself Six Vegetarian Sliders. Add whatever condiments you deem worthy and Enjoy!!!

This recipe comes with a disclaimer though... once you eat one, you're just going to want one more!!!

Hi! We're Jessa + Judd (aka Pearl + Earl), and we are so happy you decided to visit! This blog is home to our adventures, DIY projects, yummy vegetarian eats, and favorite handmade things. Read more ♥