Leftover from my early-pregnancy period of morning sickness is a bit of a distaste for vegetables at the moment. I’m trying my best to eat healthy, but sneaking in veggies has been a challenge. So I’ve been trying hard to find any flavors of vegetable that sounds moderately appealing to me, and go full-force packing those into my diet. Butternut Squash has such a sweetness to it, that I can almost trick myself into thinking it’s less veggie and more like a treat! This weekend I experimented with a homemade hearty butternut squash soup packed with tons of vegetables and autumnal flavors. I hid a few carrots in there, and an apple and shallots for even more flavor. Some salty roasted pepitas and crusty bread make it a perfect chilly fall day meal! Full recipe below:
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This post was created in partnership with Keurig Green Mountain® . All opinions, images, and ideas are my own.
With a theme like pumpkins and apples, I was pretty sure that most of the recipes brought to the potluck would be on the sweeter side. We had lots of baked goods (and no one was complaining!) featuring these fall flavors, and served with warm Green Mountain™ Hot Apple Cider (made with real apples!) brewed at the touch of a button from my Keurig® K475 brewer. The hot apple cider is such a perfect fall treat, with hints of cinnamon and brown sugar. With all of the sweet flavors, I decided for my apple-themed recipe I needed to bring something a bit savory to the table to balance out our menu and pair well with the Green Mountain™ Hot Apple Cider. 
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This post was created in partnership with Keurig Green Mountain®. All opinions, images, and ideas are my own.
There is an endless bounty of pumpkin spice flavored recipes and products now, and when I decided on the pumpkin and apples potluck theme I knew I had to find a way to incorporate some pumpkin spice treats into the menu. Green Mountain Coffee® Pumpkin Spice Coffee was a mainstay for our warm beverage bar and it was so nice to have that warm, spiced fall aroma welcoming guests into our house as it brewed in my new, white Keurig® K475 brewer! (I just learned that Green Mountain Coffee® Pumpkin Spice Coffee is having it’s 15th anniversary this year – they’ve been pumpkin-spicing for half my life!). 
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Pulsar Watches sent me one of their newest solar light-powered watches to try out and help me celebrate “Life in Real Time.” This new campaign is about savoring each and every moment in time. With our new family addition on the way, I was totally onboard with this idea; savoring these quiet moments while we have them has been a new priority for me. It’s so easy to get caught up in my full inbox, and ever growing to-do-lists, but my husband and I have been making it a point to slow down a bit more on the weekends, live in the moment, and appreciate the time we have together as a family of two.
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I’m off to NYC this week for one of my favorite blogger events, Better Homes and Garden’s Stylemaker event! I’m rocking my best blogger outfits (which is a challenge with a baby bump!), plan on hearing from some great speakers on the BHG editorial team, and can’t wait to mix and mingle with design and style bloggers from around the country. This year I’m a bit more excited about the event, because I had the opportunity to work with Better Homes and Gardens and TRISCUIT Crackers on fall-inspired snack that will be served at the event!
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Labor Day is a friendly reminder of those fleeting summer moments, so I took it upon myself this weekend to make sure I got in as much summer flavor as I could. That meant pizza on the beach, ice cream from our local ice cream shop, and any recipe I could think of that was chock-full of summer corn and juicy end of summer tomatoes. This pasta dish is a new weeknight dinner favorite in the summer, it takes about 15 minutes to make. The base of the dish is based on a traditional Cacio E Pepe, a super simple Italian pasta that combines butter, pasta water, parmesan cheese, and tons of fresh cracked pepper. I gave the classic a summer-spin by folding in the sweet flavors of corn and tomatoes, which are a perfect balance for that bite of all of the cracked pepper. Full recipe below:
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It has been sweltering the last week or so, hasn’t it? I’m avoiding the oven at all costs and focusing my efforts on desserts that involve icy cold whipped cream and frozen bites of cream puff goodness. This recipe I’ve been working on is my favorite kind: a non-recipe! If you can pick up creme puffs in the frozen food section of Trader Joe’s or Costco, you’re pretty much already halfway there. All you have to do after that is make some homemade whipped cream (I usually drop in a pint of cream into my KitchenAid mixer with a tbsp or so of sugar, and 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract — whip until it starts to create stiff peaks).
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I’m open to any and all ideas to beat this August humidity! Beach days have helped, sitting my face 2 inches in front of a box fan has done the trick, and refreshing cocktails are always a good idea. This cocktail recipes can be made with or without alcohol, and is as easy as throwing all of the ingredients in the blender (an inexpensive handheld immersion blender will even do the trick if you strain it 2-3 times). The sweetness of the strawberries and the cool flavors of the mint and watermelon are so darn refreshing. I’ve been keeping a carafe of this in the fridge to sip on with tons of ice and a squeeze of fresh lime. Enjoying it through a flamingo straw is the icing on the cake! Full recipe below: 
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Do you have a go-to warm weather recipe? The one you default to when it’s just too hot out to cook? I think this is my new heat-wave dinner default, a summery panzanella salad packed with local, fresh ingredients that would make any farmer’s market wanderer proud. Panzanella always reminds me of Ina Garten, she’d say to use “good” olive oil and sprinkle giant sea salt flakes on top, so I like to channel her when tossing this together. What makes this panzanella different? Lots of sweet fresh corn — it’s the best this time of year and adds so much flavor and color! I served it with a few pieces of rotisserie chicken (didn’t even make it, I cheated and snagged one from the grocery store! Another great way to beat the heat!) and drizzled it with olive oil and salt and pepper to dress it up the flavors. I know this dish is going to be on repeat all the way through Labor Day.
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I tend to hit a cooking slump during this time of the summer. It has been terribly hot the past few days and I glance over to look at the stove like it’s going to bite me if I turn it on. Instead of phoning it in though (literally, I considered phoning in a pizza), I’ve been trying to take this heat wave as a cooking challenge — can I create tasty treats that also keep me cool? That’s where this idea came in! I took the elements of a nice chilled antipasto plate and made them into dippable skewers, laced with some chilled provolone, tortellini, tomatoes and olives. I made my own pesto for the dipping sauce (I just throw in garlic, basil, pine nuts and olive oil and keep adding until the consistency looks right) — try Ina Garten’s recipe if you like to be exact with proportions! They chilled down in the fridge for a bit until they were ready to bring to a friend’s pool party and proved to be the perfect cool snack.
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