I absolutely love fall, but it always has a tendency to sneak up on me. Like this year – when I left Chicago for a 10-day trip to the UK, it was 95 degrees. When I came back, it had dropped to the mid-60’s and our plane had to be re-routed due to severe thunderstorms. We’ve had a few days of Indian summer since then, but in general it felt like just like that, the days of fresh corn, heirloom tomatoes, and leaving the house without even thinking about wearing a jacket were gone. Luckily, most of my favorite foods are fall/winter foods and I can’t wait to spend the next 6 months eating warm, hearty meals and drinking Sam Adams Oktoberfest. Hell yes.
Category: Savory
Whole-Wheat Pizza with Summer Veggies
Like most little kids, one of my absolute favorite foods growing up was pizza. Eight-year-old Meg could GET DOWN with some Hawaiian Pizza Hut pan pizza anytime, anywhere. And also like most little kids, my tastes have changed as I’ve grown older – more wood-fired thin crust with fancy meats and cheeses than greasy shredded mozzarella on an even greasier crust. But when it comes down to it, I have truly yet to meet a pizza that I didn’t prefer to most other things. From hearty and heavy deep dish (I am a Chicagoan, after all) to cracker thin crust with a delicate spattering of toppings, I love them all and could easily eat pizza every day. So considering how much I love to cook and bake, it surprises even me that I’d never attempted my own pizza crust before.
Farmers Market Potato Salad
I have a confession to make: we live right across the street from one of the biggest and best farmers markets in the Chicago metro area and…we never go.
Crazy, right?
Grilled Flank Steak with Corn and Basil Farro Salad
I undeniably have a tendency to plan for the future in lieu of living in the moment. My New Year’s resolution pretty much every year is to “worry less” and “be grateful every day.” I like to think I get a little better at these things every year (and undeniably am much happier for making a point to try to live my life in this way) but I definitely constantly find myself thinking about all the great things I’m GOING to do someday, taking away from the time I spend doing awesome things today. This applies to bigger things (see: starting a blog), but I also find it happens with the little things that make me just as happy.