Protea Wine

There are days when all you need is some great wine and even better conversation. Fortunately, both those things occurred recently but the wine really caught my attention because it came in a gorgeous bottle. Protea is a Chenin Blanc wine from South Africa that boosts flavors of pear, citrus and honeysuckle. It is a very light wine with lots of bright aromas without being super sweet. I can't say that I have tried Chenin Blanc wines a lot, but this one certainly made me want to try them. The bottle doesn't have a label but rather an ink that fuses to the glass that features a paisley and Cape Dutch design. I know that repurposing wine bottles is a huge trend right now, but it had enough style to be used as is. This bottle will be a beautiful vase and what more could you want than getting a delicious wine and super fun "vase" for under $20?!

Not So Average Pasta Sauce

While wondering the aisles of Central Market (usually a bad thing as I tend to get into trouble) looking for dinner inspiration, I came across this pasta sauce, Bean Good. The name was actually what drew me to the jar as that's not normally the name of a pasta sauce. Upon further review, I learned that this pasta sauce is made mainly from tomatoes and garbanzo beans which I have never seen before. It also has onion, olive oil, garlic, sea salt and spices. Sounded like a good combination to me so into the basket it went and of course I ended up trying it (since it was part of the dinner inspiration). I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be thinner than regular pasta sauce and did actually have subtle undertones of bean flavor. Fortunately, it didn't taste like just another red pasta sauce. It was a very light sauce which was awesome for me since I am not a huge sauce person. Just a head's up, if you are one of those people that has a side of pasta with your sauce you will probably use a ton of this sauce. This company also has two other kinds of sauces that I need to put on my list to try. This sauce is made with simple, good for you ingredients that turns a boring pasta sauce into something a bit extraordinary.

Sugar Plums Dancing In My Head

When I used to read The Night Before Christmas story, I always wondered if sugar plums were real, but it wasn't until a recent trip to Central Market did I find that these were real! If you are ever in the mood to try produce that you have never had, then head on over to Central Market. They always have a wide variety of every fruit and veggie you could possibly think of plus lots more that you didn't know about. I was feeling festive and wanted to give these a try. It looks like a small plum and turned out to taste just like a regular plum. I have to admit that I was expecting something a bit different and was slightly disappointed that it turned out to be just a baby plum. I was expecting it to be super sweet as the name is SUGAR plum. Though I wasn't overwhelmed with the sugar plums, I now know that these are the little fruits that are dancing in my dreams the night before Christmas.

Fig Butter

I haven't journeyed to Trader Joe's for a while and I decided that it was time to make a visit. This was a potentially dangerous task for me since they have some awesome stuff and I usually end up with a lot more than I went in for. However, this was my challenge to myself so I grabbed my list and headed over. I made sure to mentally remind myself that I should only go to the aisles of things that I actually needed. On one of those aisles, I happened to be passing this and I couldn't resist - fig butter. Butter that isn't refrigerated?...turns out it wasn't butter at all....it's really more like preserves.  I was surprised when I looked at the ingredients and it was just figs, water, sugar and lemon juice (told you it wasn't butter). So I grabbed a jar and headed to the check out because I was on the verge of getting into trouble. Fortunately, that was the only thing that came home with me that wasn't on my list. Winner! I decided that I needed to try this asap and found that it wasn't super sweet, but instead a tiny bit tart and full of fig goodness. If you like figs then you definitely need to try this! It's a perfect fall flavor that you can set out when you need a quick dip for crackers. Just pick up a jar for yourself and I am sure that you will thank me later.

Sweet Potato Sausage Breakfast Casserole

I am at the point where I am getting tired of the quick and easy breakfasts that you can grab and go, so it was time for a new recipe. A friend told me about this sweet potato sausage breakfast casserole she made and I decided to give it a try. This is a 7 ingredient dish that you can throw together and portion out so that you can grab and go. I made some adjustments to the recipe for things that I had on hand and used a 9 x 13 pan as the recipe didn't give a baking pan size. It turned out pretty well and incorporates some fall spices, so even though it's still summer outside the fall flavors are coming!

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, thinly sliced
1 lb breakfast sausage (try to get the organic version with as little sugar as possible)
1 container sliced mushrooms (I used cremini mushrooms)
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup almond milk (the original recipe called for coconut milk)
Pepper to taste
Olive oil
Ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (optional)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375.

Brown the sausage in a pan with some olive oil. Once it is cooked, drain off the liquid. In another pan, heat your olive oil and begin to sautee your onions. Pepper the onions while they are cooking. You can also add salt, but I don't typically use salt and especially because there is also sausage in this dish, I didn't add any. Also, I apparently wasn't thinking and started with a pan that was too small. Instead of creating more dishes for myself, I ended up cooking the onions and the mushrooms separately. Once the onions, were opaque and soft, transfer those to a plate and cook your mushrooms and then combine them with the onions.

Take your thinly sliced sweet potatoes and lay them out in the bottom of the pan. Then layer the sausage and mushroom/onion mixture on top. Top with the rest of the sweet potatoes. If you want to make this in a smaller pan, then create alternating layers of the sweet potatoes and the sausage and mushroom/onion mixture, but be sure that your top layer is sweet potatoes. Next, take your almond milk and add pepper. The original recipe suggested adding additional spices to the milk so I used ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Feel free to use whatever spices you want. Mix the spices and milk and drizzle it over the top of the casserole.

Cover with a piece of tinfoil and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are cooked. My was in the oven for 30 minutes and the sweet potatoes were fork tender. This easy casserole is made with ingredients that will keep you full and ready to take on the day. The original recipe suggested serving it with eggs and avocado. Plus this would make a great breakfast for dinner option as it isn't sweet and is healthy but filling. If you are looking for a twist, a touch of creme fraiche might be a nice addition. Come back and let me know how you served your casserole.

Revival Market

Revival Market is a gem tucked away in The Heights that is an interpretation of what a responsible market should be. They have a wonderful coffee bar where you can pick up a cup of coffee art or an assortment of meats and cheeses for a wonderful charcuterie or grab a not so average sandwich from their deli. One of the house specialties is their Korean Spiced Brisket, which comes with napa cabbbage, kimchi, pickled chilis, sprouts and gochijong. The meat looked deliciously tender and though I have never had gochijong it seemed like a wonderful combination. Gochijong is a fermented Korean condiment made with red chili, salt, soybeans and rice. If you are looking for a unique sandwich substitute this is the thing to try. I opted for one of their most popular sandwiches - grass fed roast beef. You may think there isn't a difference between regular and grass-fed beef but I can assure you that there most definitely is. The roast beef was topped with arugula, brown butter aioli, pickled onions and white cheddar on a challah bun. It was interesting that it was served on challah because I have usually only seen it used in french toast. There was a helping of ginger lime slaw that was crisp and refreshing. I am not usually a fan of coleslaw but this wasn't even remotely close to that. Revival Market has a small selection of prepared foods to go like pulled pork and mushrooms where all you have to do it heat and eat. I have heard that they have a killer whole wheat loaf and was intrigued by the blueberry basil jam...just more reasons for me to go back and visit. (Just be sure to look up their hours as they are a bit odd.)If you are looking for that little extra something Revival Market is the place to go.