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How to Put Together a Cheese Plate (and Other Summer Picnic Recipes)

Thanks, Foodie, for sponsoring this post.

How to Put Together a Cheese Plate

Mike and I have been picnicking every chance we get this summer, usually just on our balcony. It’s been so nice and breezy and gorgeous. Some of my fellow bloggers have been posting their lovely picnics too, like this one with snacks for a toddler and this incredible birthday picnic!

I’ve gathered some simple picnic recipes in the collection above, but I also want to tell you about my recent realization: you don’t really have to cook for a picnic at all. Instead, you can throw together a cheese plate and some complementary snacks. It’s the quickest picnic prep ever! Mike loved it so much that we’re making it a Sunday tradition. Here are some tips for putting together a cheese plate:

How to Put Together a Cheese Plate
Clockwise from top left: Wensleydale with cranberries, St. André Triple Cream Cheese, Roth Buttermilk Blue, and Parmesan

1. Mix it up. Grab both hard and soft cheeses, strong and mild cheeses, sweet and savory cheeses. I chose Wensleydale with cranberries as a sweet, soft cheese and it ended up being Mike’s favorite. For a mild cheese similar to a brie, I also picked up St. André Triple Cream Cheese. It paired perfectly with apples and grapes. Roth Buttermilk Blue was a soft, stronger flavored cheese that I also loved with the grapes. Good ol’ Parmesan was our hard cheese of choice, and its strong, salty flavor made it a nice counterpoint to the sweeter cheeses.

2. Add complementary snacks. My grocery store had a whole range of perfect snacks close to the cheese display. We ended up with crunchy sesame sticks, a baguette, apples, grapes, strawberry jam, watermelon, and these amazing rosemary-roasted marcona almonds I had on hand from Trader Joe’s. Really, the sky’s the limit. Grab some figs, nuts, apricot jam, pretzel sticks, olives, whatever you want! But do mix up salty and sweet so you’ll end up with a nice variety of flavor profiles. I feel like the cheese plate is an exercise in mixing components to create the perfect bite.

How to Put Together a Cheese Plate

3. Splurge a bit. I’m a pretty cheap foodie: I usually skip the most expensive cheeses. But this time around, since cheese was the main part of our meal (and since I figured I’d use leftovers in other recipes), I let myself grab a few blocks of the expensive stuff. When it’s the primary flavor of your meal, it’s worth it!

4. Make it pretty. Again, we’re maximizing easiness, here, so I don’t mean make it fancy. Just pretty. I threw a table runner on our patio table, put the cheeses on a platter with grape bunches as a buffer, and poured the snacks into nice jars and ramekins. Things just taste better when they look good. Thankfully, it’s not hard to make a plate of cheese look fantastic.

Any other tips, veteran cheese platers?

Don’t miss these fancier Willow Bird picnics: The Secret Garden Party, A Heartfelt Birthday Do-Over, and School’s IN for Summer

June 29, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 0 comment

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Red Wine Summer Sangria (and Sangria Slushies!)

Red Wine Summer Sangria

High school was hard for me.

I went to school in fuzzy, adorable duck pajamas every day because I couldn’t be bothered to be uncomfortable while I was being subjected to high school. Ugh. They could make me attend, but they weren’t going to make me wear real clothes while doing it. I didn’t actually sleep in the pajamas: I just woke up and changed from my nightgown into them.

Once I got sent home for inappropriate attire, which I viewed as a huge injustice. The assistant principal couldn’t really explain why the duck pajamas were inappropriate. They just were. She said it “should be obvious” to me. It wasn’t. (I argued that they covered me from head to toe and only differed from “regular clothes” in that they had ducks all over them. Were ducks offensive? HUH? WERE THEY? I was That Kid. In what can only be described as educator karma, I’ve had That Kid in my classes plenty of times now that I’m a teacher.)

Red Wine Summer Sangria

I had plenty of other struggles in addition to my duck pajama drama. More serious ones, at that: depression, eating disorders, self harm, terrible time management, and anxiety. I didn’t understand why things were so hard for me. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t connect easily with other people. I wrote lots of poetry and checked out of everything except my work — and Mike. As many days as I could manage it, I skipped school (with my mom’s permission! I was a rule-challenger, but not a rule-breaker) and drove to Mike’s apartment in my little blue Pontiac Sunbird.

Red Wine Summer Sangria

Mike worked from home, so I always knew he’d be there (I still always know he’ll be there. BRB, crying.) This was before I owned a cell phone, so I didn’t call first: I just walked up and knocked on his bedroom window. One of the very best feelings was leaving a hard school day and then seeing him open the door in his baggy sweatpants and long ponytail (he used to have the longest, curliest hair!), grinning and excited to see me. I’d spend the whole evening with him (well, until 8:30, when I had to drive home because of my provisional license curfew.) We usually made Hamburger Helper and ate it while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on his uncomfortable couch.

Red Wine Summer Sangria

It’s funny. I typically think of high school as one of the hardest times in my life, and in plenty of ways it was. But reminiscing about those days with Mike made me realize that those Star-Trek-filled evenings on the couch were some of the best of my life, only topped by the Star-Trek-filled evenings in our first home together now. (BRB, crying again.)

Red Wine Summer Sangria

Another sweet aspect of this new stage in our relationship? We’re not babies anymore, so now we can drink together (and drive after 9 pm! Livin’ la vida loca!) We loved this sangria recipe from Bobby Flay. We even poured some in the ice cream maker and turned it into sangria slushies to combat the summer heat. Drink it outside with lots of snacks. Happy summer!

One year ago: Limoncello-Spiked Shortbread Icebox Cake with Fresh Raspberries
Two years ago: Anthony’s Cinnamon & Walnut Zucchini Bread (gluten-free adaptation included)
Three years ago: School’s IN for Summer! The Elementary School Reunion Picnic
Four years ago: Secret Garden Party

Red Wine Summer Sangria (and Sangria Slushies)

Recipe by: Slightly adapted from Bobby Flay, with a slushy spin inspired by Dessert for Two’s wine slushies
Yield: 8 servings

It’s summertime, and that means ice cold cocktails on the patio! This sangria is kickin’ and fruity. Mike and I enjoyed it (and sangria slushies!) on the balcony with snacks.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 bottles red wine (I used this article from The Kitchn to choose Garnacha and Tempranillo)
1 cup brandy
1/2 cup triple sec
1 cup orange juice
1 cup pomegranate juice
Orange slices
Apple slices
Blackberries
Pomegranate seeds (I skipped these)

Directions:
Make simple syrup by heating the water and sugar together over high heat in a small saucepan, stirring, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour into a separate dish and allow to cool completely (I stick mine in the fridge after a bit to hurry it along.)

Pour the cooled simple syrup, wine, brandy, triple sec, orange juice, pomegranate juice all into a huge pitcher (mine was too small, which led to lots of spillover when I added the fruit.) Stir to mix. Add the fruit and stir gently. Cover tightly and store 24 hours in the fridge before serving to let all the flavors meld.

For slushies: Put about 2 cups of your finished sangria (with fruit strained out) into an ice cream machine for around 25 minutes. It takes longer to freeze than regular ice cream or sorbet because of the high alcohol content. Spoon your slush into a shallow bowl or cake pan and stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes, stirring/scraping every 10 minutes or so, or until it’s the consistency you want. Transfer to glasses and serve with sangria-soaked fruit on top!

Pro-tip: To keep sangria cold without watering it down, pour some of your sangria into ice cube molds after making it and freeze overnight as your sangria chills. These ice cubes come out adorable and can double as boozy popsicles.

June 21, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 9 Comments

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Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce

Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce - Willow Bird Baking

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

I think I’ve figured out the problem. You know how everyone always wonders out loud why people are so rude on the internet? And how we speculate that it’s because under the veil of anonymity, folks tend to ditch their filter and say all the rude things they’ve been thinking but are too polite or embarrassed to say in person?

That might be true, but it’s never seemed like a complete explanation to me. Are you trying to tell me that everyone’s really that rude, but they’ve just been shamed quiet? That’s so discouraging. And no one I meet really seems that rude. Everyone seems pretty nice. I think there’s another component to this rudeness equation: the internet doesn’t just permit rudeness. It encourages it in the name of engagement.

Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce - Willow Bird Baking

I could talk a lot about this slippery slope into unkindness: how I feel like popular, once-respectable news outlets have begun, essentially, trolling their readership and sensationalizing content in order to encourage views; how celebrity gossip sites exploit human beings relentlessly in order to fulfill the our base, voyeuristic desires; how reality television plays a role in (mis)shaping our perception of how interpersonal relationships should operate.

But for now, I just want to focus on this narrow sliver of an observation: companies and organizations want engagement from their audience (on social media and websites) because that increases their visibility and therefore their income. I know this because I am a (teensy, one-person) company and I try to increase my engagement all the time. I encourage people not just to look at my recipes (but thanks for that, too!) but to comment. I ask fun questions on my Willow Bird Baking Facebook page, share tempting photos on Willow Bird Baking’s Twitter page, pin awesome recipes on Pinterest that I hope you’ll like, and share fun times on Instagram.

If you’ll notice, I actually bothered to link to all my social media pages in that paragraph: just another example of how I’m funneling you toward engaging with me. And I mean engage: I want you to tweet, comment, share, like, pin. When you engage, you see my content MUCH more than if you’re just a passive observer. I do this in part because I love interacting with you, but also to reach you more; more people engaged means more people visiting and more income to support my work.

Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce - Willow Bird Baking

Obviously, I don’t believe that encouraging you to engage is a bad thing or I wouldn’t do it. But I do think it has unintentional consequences. People are constantly being asked to give their unvarnished input online. Clothing companies ask, “Would you wear this dress?” Food magazines ask, “What’s your favorite condiment?” You’re asked to weigh in on celebrities’ outfits and hairstyles — and parenting choices, and marriages, and after-hours activities. Trolls (which studies suggest might actually be people dealing with certain mental illnesses) have a field day egging people on, so comments get indignant and dicey fast. See this article for a hilarious example of how absurd things can become. An Australian radio station posted a funky recipe to — you guessed it — encourage the engagement and interest of their listeners, and boy did it ever do so.

No wonder that even when we’re not asked to engage or give advice, we feel comfortable sharing our nastiest opinions out in the open. No wonder unkindness and kindness both feel like perfectly reasonable methods of engaging; after all, controversy and comment-fights spur MORE engagement! To businesses that prioritize their bottom line (so, most businesses) that’s even better! No wonder when a dear friend’s cookbook was reviewed on a popular food website, strangers commented things like, “That looks like crap,” and, “Not even remotely appealing,” as if it were as natural as breathing.

I think the answer is to make this phenomenon transparent. If you know you’re being encouraged to engage and that it’s inspiring unkindness, you can make some personal rules to govern yourself. My rules are no zaps (no snarky one-liner comments designed to put someone in their place), and to only engage in a positive or neutral way unless it’s productive to disagree (for instance, I’ll challenge a racist statement, but not someone’s cake, for cryin’ out loud.) I use the THINK acronym to evaluate my comments in this way:

THINK before you speak! - Willow Bird Baking
* * *

Hopefully this summer pasta won’t inspire any snark! I can’t imagine anyone having anything bad to say about this dish. I love it because if you start with fresh ingredients, you’ll end up with a gorgeous meal. The parsley and basil along with the bite of Parmesan in the buttery sauce create the perfect balance. And nothing says summer like a dinner that’s this easy to toss together. As usual lately, I recommend you find a great outdoor spot to enjoy this recipe!

Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce - Willow Bird Baking

What do you think? What personal rules govern how you comment online?

One year ago: Gooey Chocolate Coconut Cream Skillet Cake
Two years ago: Sweet Orange Florentines
Three years ago: Itsy Bitsy Berry Cream Pies
Four years ago: Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Creamy Coleslaw, and Summer Bean Salsa

Fresh Summer Pasta with Plugra Ricotta Sauce

Recipe by: Adapted from Chef Kevin Kidd
Yield: 4 servings

Start with super fresh ingredients to create this simple, fresh pasta dish! I love how quick and easy this recipe is.

Ingredients:
28 ounces fresh OR 19 ounces dried tagliatelle or fettucine
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced diagonally
1/4 cup white wine
2 ounces unsalted Plugrá European-Style Butter, sliced into 1/2-inch slices
8 spears asparagus, sliced into 2-inch chunks
8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 bunch fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, rough chopped
12 fresh basil leaves, rough chopped
lemon juice, salt, freshly ground pepper, Parmigiana Reggiano as needed

Directions:
Prepare an ice water bath in a medium bowl. Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil over high heat and blanch the asparagus for 2-3 minutes before plunging them into the ice water to stop cooking. Drain the asparagus and set it aside.

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a rolling boil over high heat and add fresh or dried pasta. Cook 3 minutes (fresh pasta) or according to package directions (dried pasta). Going to Italy made me realize I’d been overcooking my pasta my whole life: al dente means your pasta should have a definite toothiness to it when bitten. Be careful not to overcook! Drain the finished pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water for the sauce later.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add shallots and cook for a minute before adding garlic and sautéing for close to a minute or until lightly caramelized but not burnt. Add white wine to deglaze the pan. Whisk in Plugrá butter until it’s melted and blended into the sauce. Add the green onions and asparagus and stir to heat them briefly before reducing the heat to low and adding chunks of ricotta cheese. Salt this to taste — for me, this meant a LOT of salt, because it has to salt all the pasta as well. So don’t be shy.

Add the pasta into the pan (and a little of the pasta water if you need it) and toss it in the sauce over low heat. Add most of the parsley and all of the basil and toss. Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the top. Now comes the adjusting: taste your pasta and add salt, more olive oil, a healthy grating of Parmigiana Reggiano, freshly ground pepper, a spritz of lemon juice, etc., as needed to balance the flavors. You should end up with a bright, flavorful, fresh tasting pasta.

June 19, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 18 Comments

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Radishes with Whipped Butter, Anchovy, and Parsley

Radishes with Whipped Butter, Anchovy, and Parsley

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

The Official List of Summery Things That Have Happened So Far This Year:

1. In addition to my carefully planned summer party, I threw together an impromptu balcony get-together with friends. Okay, it wasn’t supposed to be impromptu. Really, I had scheduled it about a month ago and forgotten all about it! When my friends showed up, it became impromptu, all right. Thankfully, I had a lot of odds and ends in the fridge and it was a better night than I could’ve planned. Great friends = great times.

2. I tried a summery makeup palette: peach glow blush, shiny gloss, and my favorite mascara.

3. I watched my first-ever 7th graders graduate from high school. What?! THEY WERE 12 WHEN I STARTED TEACHING THEM. 12!

4. A ladybug flew up my nose. Okay, this wasn’t the most pleasant summery experience. But it still counts. Incidentally, in case you ever need to know, ladybugs smell like peanut butter.

5. We finally saw birds at our new bird feeder! And we also realized that birds are extremely messy eaters. Whoa.

Radishes with Whipped Butter, Anchovy, and Parsley

6. Mike and I went downtown for a sushi date at Sono, which was incredible. I wore my summery strapless dress for the first time this year.

7. I roadtripped down to Charlotte to visit my very best friends, all the teachers I used to work with!

8. We’ve been keeping the doors thrown open to let in the amazing weather.

9. WATERMELONS OCCURRED.

Radishes with Whipped Butter, Anchovy, and Parsley

10. I made my first-ever cheese plate and ate it on (you guessed it) the balcony.

11. I downloaded a new app called Sky Guide and can’t wait for a clear night to go stargazing! Mike and I have already been using it to preview the constellations that we will see when the clouds go away.

12. I made sangria (and sangria ice cubes to keep it cold without watering it down!) Can’t wait to share this recipe with you.

13. I found out I’m the worlds lightest-weight lightweight, because I drank approximately a tablespoon of said sangria before I was feeling a little cross-eyed. No fair.

14. I put some butter in a piping bag to store in the fridge. Now I can pull it out anytime, let it soften, and make these little radish appetizers! The creamy butter mellows out the peppery bite of the radish. Just add either anchovy or salt (if you prefer) and a teensy bit of parsley.

Let’s dive into summer together! What summery things have you done so far this year?

One year ago: Spiked Biscoff Cookie Icebox Cake (only 5 ingredients!)
Two years ago: Krispy Kreme Doughnut Croque Madame
Three years ago: World’s Best Grilled Cheese (Sharp Cheddar & Caramelized Onions on Beer Bread)
Four years ago: Baked Eggs with Salsa and Toast Points

Radishes with Whipped Butter, Anchovy, and Parsley

Recipe by: Adapted slightly from Chef Kidd
Yield: 4 servings

A fresh, crisp summer appetizer to enjoy outdoors! Apparently these tasty little bites are very French. If you don’t love anchovies, feel free to skip the fishies and use kosher salt instead. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1/4 pound Plugrá® European-Style Butter, unsalted, room temperature
2 organic watermelon radishes (I couldn’t find these and subbed 5 big regular radishes)
2 anchovy fillets, drained, sliced into very thin strips
2 sprigs Italian parsley, fresh, minced

Directions:
Whip the Plugrá Butter with an electric mixer until light and airy. Transfer to a small pastry bag and reserve at room temperature. Scrub the radishes thoroughly to remove dirt and trim ends. Using a mandolin or sharp kitchen knife, thin-slice the radishes. Arrange the radish slices evenly on a serving plate. Pipe whipped butter in the center of each radish slice and garnish to taste with a slide of anchovy and parsley. Make sure to taste a few to get the right proportions — you don’t want the anchovy to be overpowering. I’d put more butter if I made these again — it’s so creamy and delicious with the peppery radishes.

June 9, 2014 by Julie Ruble | 5 Comments

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5 Steps to Throw an Easy, Breezy Summer Party

5 Steps to Throw an Easy, Breezy Summer Party

I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

IT’S SUMMER. Don’t give me that, “It’s still spring” nonsense. I’ve taught my last English class of the year (please don’t mention anything about grading) and so IT’S SUMMER. I threw a mini WELCOME SUMMER (because it’s summer.) party this past weekend as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Let’s celebrate my favorite season!