recipe: BEET & SUGAR SNAP SALAD

If you remember, my last recipe post was a gem I was lucky enough to have discovered through my Jane Austen book club. Well, so is today's, or at least inspired. I changed a few things up, but the essence of this salad stays true to the original from the great cook, Caroline Carver. Again, Caroline, thanks! It's delicious, savory, quick to assemble and very satisfying on these hot, summer evenings. It includes two of my favorite things in the whole world: beets (a recent addition to my "favorites" list) and dill, so, as you'll see, it is full of beautiful color and, thanks to the sugar snaps, delightful texture.

INGREDIENTS:
3 medium beets
1/2 lb sugar snap peas, trimmed
goat cheese
1/4 cup shelled pistachios
1 tbs plus 1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbs plus 1 tsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbs chopped fresh dill
1 1/2 tsp sugar

1. If you are using fresh beets, cook them. (Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash each beet. Cut off the stems, leaving about an inch. Wrap each beet in foil. Back for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove foil. Let cool. Peel skin from beet with paper towel.) The grocery store was out the day I made this, so I used pre packaged beets which worked perfectly. Either way, once they are cooked, or once you have removed your beets from their packaging, slice. Place in large bowl.

2. Rinse and trim the sugar snap peas. (To trim sugar snaps: With the pea laying flat on the cutting board, curve out, cut off the top of the pod. Then pull out the tough string that runs on the inside of the curve.) Add to bowl.

3. Shell the pistachios, then add to bowl.

4. In a small bowl, mix mustard and vinegar. Gradually whisk in oil, then dill and sugar.

5. Season beets, sugar snaps, and pistachios with salt and pepper. Drizzle with dressing. Top with crumbled goat cheese. Toss and enjoy!

xo, A.

recipe: CORN & BLUEBERRY SALAD

As summer settles in, with no sign of going anywhere anytime soon, I'm finding myself craving...well, nothing. That is, until my last Jane Austen book club. Now, I'm not going to mislead anyone even a little bit. I'm a member of 2 book clubs in which I have completed 0 books. I try so hard, but restlessness wins the battle and before I know it, I'm up cleaning or DIYing or, probably more realistically, watching my summer addiction, Mistresses. (ABC, Mondays at 9.) But, despite my not having taken advantage of these great opportunities to broaden my literary arsenal, I can't quit my book clubs because the company is just too good. And at Jane Austen book club, the good company always brings even better food. This is where this week's recipe comes from. Specifically, it was made by Caroline Carver, this past book club's host. So, Caroline, if you're reading this, thank you for introducing me to this fab, summer staple!

INGREDIENTS:

6 ears corn

1 cup fresh, rinsed blueberries

1 small cucumber

1/4 cup red onion

1/4 cup cilantro

2 tbs lime juice

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs honey

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1. Clean silks from corn and cut off kernels into a large bowl.

2. chop the red onion, cut up the cucumber and rough chop the cilantro.

3. Throw onion, cilantro, cucumber and blueberries into the bowl with the corn kernels.

4. In a small bowl, mix dressing: squeeze both sides of a lime into bowl. Add the olive oil, honey, cumin, salt and pepper. Whisk.

5. Pour over salad, gently mix to combine and cover evenly. You can definitely eat this right away, but, as with most salads, a few hours in the fridge definitely won't hurt. 

This salad is savory, sweet, crunchy, and equally full of both summer flavors and color. Enjoy!

summer window displays

Oh yeah oh yeah - we're in love with our new window displays! We wanted something graphic (and, honestly, a bit less time-consuming) to follow up our major spring floral displays so a bunch of painted cones was the natural choice. They're fun, playful and perfect for the vibe we're going for this summer.

Alicia and I have had this idea twirling around in our brains since the fall (when you work retail, you're always thinking at least 3 months ahead) but really, we owe this display to Cristina and Austen. Those girls took the basic idea we had and made it into a reality better than anything we'd expected. We wouldn't be the store we are now if it weren't for our forage girls. Maybe if we ask nicely, Cristina will do a blog post on how to create these cones (they'd be super cute as decoration for a party!).

The new displays went up on Saturday and will be up through the first week in September.

Cheers!

Megan

happy hour at FORAGE: watermelon sangria

I feel like sangria is one of those drinks that you don't really need a recipe to create. If you have fruit and wine and you put em together long enough, I'm pretty sure it makes sangria. This watermelon sangria is no exception but lemme tell you...it's the best sangria I've ever put together. Tastes like summer and stuff.

Ingredients:
(serves 4ish)
2 cups watermelon chunks
Handful of blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, sliced
1 lime, sliced
1 apple, cut in quarters
Lemonade
1 bottle fruity white wine
Triple sec
Ginger ale, club soda, or any other carbonated beverage (I used a can of orange vanilla Polar Springs water)

Put the watermelon, blueberries, sugar and a splash of lemonade in a pitcher. Using the non-business-end a wooden spoon (like me) or an actual pestle (like a normal person), macerate the blueberries, some of the watermelon, sugar and lemonade together until the blueberries are just burst. Add in the rest of the fruit, the wine, a few splashes of triple sec and top it all off with the lemonade. Let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. Mix before serving; pour in glasses over ice. Top off each glass with a splash of something fizzy.

Megan's June Playlist

The Neighbourhood, Sweater Weather
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Can't Hold Us
Zedd ft. Foxes, Clarity
Passion Pit, Carried Away
Kanye West, Touch the Sky
Jack White, Love is Blindness
Lenka, Everything's Okay
Of Monsters and Men, Love Love Love
Rihanna, Stay
Mariah Carey, Beautiful
Capital Cities, Safe and Sound
Michael Jackson, PYT

FORAGE girls (a night out)

Just a few happy snaps from the Lowboys show at Bistro last Friday evening. It was a dance-y, sweaty, loud, and smiley evening from start to finish. FORAGE girls love summer.

How To Wear: Florals + Bold Colors

Florals have been EVERYWHERE lately, so here a three easy ways to incorporate them in your wardrobe using clothes that are currently for sale at the shop.

1. Floral Dress : alone a floral dress can sometimes be a bit too much, but throw on a denim jacket and a statement bag and you're done!

2. Floral Top : A floral top is a statement in itself, so keep the rest of the outfit simple.  Here we just paired it with a black skirt.

3. Floral Skirt : Again like the floral top, keep it simple.  Just throw on a white top and a bold bag and you're ready!

Incorporating bold colors is a great way to update your wardrobe. Above are two ways to add a bit of color using clothes currently at the shop.

1. Color on Color : It might be a bit of a statement, but pairing a brightly colored skirt with a solid colored tee can be extremely flattering. 

2. A Touch of Color : A brightly colored bag is probably the easiest and most cost efficient way to add some color to your wardrobe. 

happy hour friday at FORAGE: southern Pimm's cup

I only listen to Jack Johnson in the summer, Deathcab when it's raining, exclusively. I binge on Talenti gelato for dinner on those 90 degree evenings in July and stock up on hot chocolate in the cooler months. I can't put peppermint anything in anything unless December 25th is around the corner and the neon sneakers stay on the back shelf of my closet until I can wear them with a sundress. All this to say: I like celebrating a season with things I consider its most essence-y.

Enter the summery Pimm's Cup. I first had this throw-back British invasion drink last May, when I was visiting my girl LT in Portland, ME. It's refreshing, light and decidedly different - it's just as easy to mix up a pitcher of Pimm's as it is sangria but feels a bit more exotic (as anything British feels more exotic than Spanish, right?). I found a recipe for a "southern" version of a Pimm's Cup in InStyle magazine last summer and just tried it out last night. Purists will most assuredly balk at the extra ingredients (while researching, I stumbled upon a comment thread on a PC recipe on a mixology website and things got heated re: the right way to make a PC) but whatevs, this was great!

Ingredients:
(serves 4)
1 1/2 cups Pimm's liquer
1 cup lemonade
1 bottle ginger ale (I used Reeds)
1 small bunch fresh mint
4 strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 lemon, sliced thin
20 thin slices cucumber

Prep your mint, strawberries, lemon and cucumber.

Evenly distribute those ingredients in chilled pint glasses and gently muddle (I use the end of a wooden spoon)

Combine Pimm's, lemonade and ginger ale in a pitcher and stir.

Fill glasses with ice, pour and enjoy! I think you could just as easily combine all the ingredients in the pitcher ahead of time and just cut up extra cucumber, lemon and strawberry to add to the glasses when you're ready to serve. 

I made my friend Jacquie the guinea pig for this particular recipe - we sat outside on my front porch for hours, enjoying the warm evening air until the ice melted in our glasses. We had a third member of our party - my cat Stormy couldn't allow herself to not be privy to the conversations, as evidenced above - that little head got as close to the screen as she could manage.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all our FORAGEers. We say thanks to all the men and women who have died protecting our country.

Cheers,

Megan

Megan's May Playlist

Justin Timberlake, Let the Groove In
Lana del Rey, Young and Beautiful
Passion Pit, Carried Away
Tame Impala, Elephant
Local Natives, Airplanes
Taylor Swift, Stay
Brandon and Leah, Showstopper
The Head and the Heart, Down in the Valley

happy hour friday at FORAGE: anniversary punch

We're big on birthdays, anniversaries and holidays here at FORAGE -- we're never ones to miss an occasion to celebrate!  Wednesday was beaucoup vintage's 3rd anniversary and while bv no longer exists in its physical form, we cheers'd to my first biz venture anyway. I texted Alicia at 2:30 to ask if she'd be down for a cocktail before our mid-week shift change (she gets mornings, I get afternoons) and   she said yes (duh) so I threw together a cocktail before running out of the house. It turned out surprisingly well (we continued to text about it that evening. Alicia: "Remember that cocktail you made us at 3pm today?" Me: "Yes, I remember it." Alicia: "I've been thinking about it.")

I plan on posting cocktail recipes here on the reg since cocktails are something we drink on the reg. Here's the first!

Anniversary Punch (makes 2 cocktails)
1 handful fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
14oz lemonade
3oz vodka
Splash of blueberry lemon sparkling water
Sprigs of fresh mint
Ice

Macerate the blueberries in a small bowl with the sugar and lemon juice until the berries are just smashed and the juice and sugar have become incorporated.

Fill 2 mason jars with ice. Add 7 oz lemonade and 1.5 oz vodka to each jar. Add a couple spoonfuls berry mixture to each jar and screw the lids on to the jars. Shake well.

Re-open the jars and add the sparkling water and mint to the top of the jars. Add a straw and enjoy!