A Tasty Trio

Happy First Day of September!!

I’m bringing you all the carbs this fine Wednesday.

This might be one of my favorite food posts ever because let me let you in on a little secret…I freaking love sandwiches. Like in my soul. However, I don’t eat them often because carbs so doing this post was a very real treat for me. I chose three easy classic sandwiches and I’m showing you what drink to pair them with.

Give these tasty pairings a try next time you’re craving some carbs!

For the grilled cheese I used Fontina cheese since it pairs well with Chardonnay. My favorite combo? As much as I love all of these I really liked the PB & J pairing!

I hope your day is full of carbs and fun!

Let’s Get Cheesy

Hello Friends!

If you know me then you know I love to entertain. Hosting parties is like my thing. I also love to pick on appetizers and sip my vino instead of sit down dinners (I mean of course there is a time and place for that). On today’s Perfectly Plated I’m talking about the anatomy of the PERFECT cheese plate. Recently, I had someone tell me I should do a post on doing a cheese platter like you would order in a restaurant. Well here you go! MK and I always stay in for Valentines Day, and usually do wine and cheese. There also might be steaks involved. But always wine and cheese.

When I started hosting many years ago,  I did soooo much research on how to make the perfect cheeseboard. One full proof thing I learned was “something old, something new, something goat, and something blue”.  That will always stay in my head when creating this appetizer. A board like this might be intimidating but I can assure you it isn’t hard.

How to Charcuterie:

Here is a list of what I used:

Meats: Pepperoni

Salami

Prosciutto wrapped around mozzarella

Sliced ham

Sweet Sopressata

Cheeses: Asiago (old)

Fresh Mozzarella  (new)

Brie

Goat

Gorgonzola (blue)

I added: Grapes

Gorgonzola stuffed olives

Walnuts

Honey

Raspberry Rhubarb

Fresh Rosemary

An assortment of bread and crackers. Make sure to mix up the texture and flavors.

I recently came to own cheese knives. Why they weren't already a part of my life before is beyond me. But, I thought it would go perfectly with this cheeseboard talk to break down what you use them for.

Spatula: This one is for cheeses like Brie or Camembert

Cheese Fork: Move cheese easily with this to plates

Heart Shaped: Best for hard cheeses like Asiago

Soft Cheese Knife: For Gorgonzola or Mozzarella

No matter what your V-Day plans are, I hope they include some delicious cheese and wine of course.

These Are The Days

These are the days that we will tell our kids about, the days we will all too soon refer to as “the good ol’ days”. The days where we will say remember when we would sit outside and have dinner and just talk about our day as fresh cut grass wafts through the air.

There are many reasons I love to cook. Am I great at it? Probably not. Do I know what I’m doing? Only sometimes. But my main reason stems from something much deeper. Food is what you gather around as a family, as friends, as acquaintances that will end up friends before the nights end. Food is what unites us. Therefore, that’s why I love to make it and entertain a crowd.  

Sometimes I love a challenge when it comes to recipes but the only challenge with this one was my baby who wanted held the whole time I was cooking. I thought it would be great to share my delicious chicken recipe with you. It’s healthy and easy. 

Lemon Chicken with Herbs

1 whole chicken

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp fresh rosemary 

2 lemons (zest from one)  

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 small red onion

salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  

Mix together the thyme, rosemary, garlic, zest and butter with a little salt. 

Put chicken in a roasting pan, cut up one lemon and stuff it in the cavity along with a couple onion wedges and a little bit of thyme and rosemary.

Brush the chicken with your butter mix, squeeze the other lemon over the chicken. Then just bake for an hour. 

Enjoy!

Pair this with Sauvignon Blanc