Grubarazzi

Peaches , I love you. Summer wouldn't be the same without your soft skin that looks like it might burst at the peak of ripeness. When I take a bite, your juice drips down my chin in to my napkin-wielding hand. Just eating you whole is good enough for me, but what you add to summer meals is simply ambrosial.  Summer goes hand in hand with fresh produce. Tomatoes, berries, citrus, and stone fruits are gathered like jewels, piled high on counters, and eaten by the handful. When I throw a party in the melting summer heat I do my best to take advantage of the bounty and keep the stove in the off position. Cold Gazpacho is a must. Traditional tomato gazpacho is an amazing treat, but if your find yourself already serving caprese salad or garlicky bruschetta, try making this refreshing and surprisingly savory version made with, you guessed it, peaches .  I got the idea from a blog I love, Savory Simple . Her original recipe is fantastic, but I added Serr...

I have absolutely no Italian in me (that’s what she said). Not a streak. Yet some of my favorite foods come straight from Italia. Put a bowl of fresh pasta, creamy risotto, or pancetta in front of me and I tune the entire world out to sing sweet nothings to my food. I’ve never stepped foot in Italy, but I assume everyone sings to their food there.  If that is not the case, consider my heart broken. One of my favorite Italian dishes to make is risotto. It takes time, patience, and a little bit of love, but it is not the culinary version of Tour de France that everyone makes it out to be. It’s quite simple, really. If you know how to stir and wait you can make risotto. You start out with a little butter, olive oil, and chopped onions sauteing them until the onions are brown and sweet. Then you add the Arborio rice to toast and coat in the butter and onions. Using Arborio rice is extremely important, because it has a high starch content which creates that creamy consistency so...

Let’s talk about the easiest, cutest, and most popular party appetizer ever. Let’s talk about Caprese salad skewers.      A long time ago, some genius in Italy decided to combine basil, fresh mozzarella, and sun ripened summer tomatoes to make a salad. This simple salad would be drizzled with the best olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a beautifully aged balsamic vinegar. Then, another genius decided to use the mini version of each of these ingredients, stick them on a tooth pick and pass them around at parties. I mean, hello, the world is filled with great minds, people! We have to celebrate them. I am certainly not the first nor will I be the last to make people happy with these cute Caprese skewers, but they are so simple and so loved that I had to share. Make them for your next party and you’ll see exactly what I mean.  Caprese Salad Skewers Makes 20 skewers Ingredients: 1 pint cherry tomatoes 16 oz bambini bocconcini (baby mo...

We didn’t want to dance at our wedding, which is funny since we met on the dance floor in the heart of DC on a hot June night. It was a full moon, and we were both full of ourselves. There was all kinds of dancing going on the night we met. But for our wedding we craved another type of intimacy. Imagine getting married in a beautiful tulip garden at its peak then getting whisked away to eat and drink amazing Italian food. All we wanted on our wedding day was great food and family surrounding us, and Cinghiale was our final choice to help us create this closeness. For us, it was perfect. Our guests still talk about the food we served; platters of charcuterie, filet mignon on a bed of risotto, tender rockfish, and unlimited drinks. The most talked about item on the menu? The pillowy soft arancini di riso passed around during cocktail hour. The little balls of fried risotto were crunchy on the outside and supremely creamy on the inside, a perfect nibble before a sit down di...

Jeremy Kirby, the Brewmaster at Sunken City Brewery , moved his family to the small town of Hardy near Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia to brew beer where no one else has brewed beer before. This is hard to find in today’s United States, where every thriving metropolis from Colorado to Baltimore City has new small-batch breweries popping up every day creating exceptional hand-crafted beer that make the Executives at Budweiser cry their big boy eyes out. But Jeremy was intent on finding a hidden city to allow him to craft his brew for a new market, and he found the perfect spot at Sunken City Brewery.  Jeremy was kind enough to give us a tour of Sunken City Brewery during out last visit providing us with a behind the scenes look at the guts of the brewery and a brief history behind the name. As legend has it, an entire town was submerged in Smith Mountain Lake when the damn was built and the lake was born, swallowing cemeteries, churches, and brothels alike. The brewery...

It’s picnic season which means lots of sweaty backs, hot grills, ice cold beer, hamburgers, and hot dogs. It also means that grocery stores are creating condiment stands where you can grab the staples for your backyard BBQ all in one place. Classic yellow mustard, sugary ketchup, pickle relish, and some soft white buns coming right up!  This gives me a great excuse to throw a few punches at traditional picnic condiments by making my own, like these spicy and sweet Sriracha Refrigerator Pickles. They are so easy to make. With only a few ingredients you can add a crunchy new twist on top of your juicy burgers, or dice them to make a spicy relish to slather on hot dogs. Or, do as I do, eat them right out of the jar.  Making refrigerator-style pickles is so easy you’ll wonder why you ever bought a jar of soggy pickles at the store. The key to making a good pickle at home is to buy fresh cucumbers from a farmer’s market or organic grocery store. If you buy a wax-cove...

It takes hours to get to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia from Baltimore, Maryland. Four and half hours on a good day, and seven hours if you decide to leave anywhere between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm on a Friday given that you have to drive through the DC mixing bowl (aka: hell) to get there. But I can’t sing its praises enough. Almost ten years ago, my grandparents bought a home on Smith Mountain Lake, and we have been going as a family ever since. Sure, the tiles are crumbling in the showers, there is always something for my husband to help fix or build, and we often just spend hours on the porch staring at the lake without actually going in to swim or Jet Ski. But there is an immediate sense of calm that washes over us as we walk through the doors. We wash off the car ride, grab a glass of whatever alcohol we have on hand, and slide the glass door out to the deck to get warm hugs and breathe in the fresh lake air. It was the biggest gift our grandparents could give us. The gift of being...