Beautiful Beaufort By the Sea

Posted on July 19, 2012 by kelleychisholm

Beaufort is hands-down one of my favorite places in North Carolina. Three hours from Raleigh, the historic district has a great waterfront with some fantastic restaurants and bars, unique shops and great scenery. If you’re lucky, you may see some of the wild horses grazing on Carrot Island, which is just across the waterway. You can sign up for various water tours and cruises at the dock, or just kick back and watch the boats come and go at this charming little town by the sea.

If we stay in Beaufort instead of nearby Emerald Isle, we usually choose the Inlet Inn or the Beaufort Inn. During the summer, both require a minimum 2-night stay on the weekends. Neither have pools, which is their only drawback. I have also stayed at the Pecan Tree Inn, a great little bed and breakfast place if that is your thing (I’m not a big fan of B&Bs, but this one is nice.)

Unfortunately, you have to drive to the beach, but it is not too far away, approximately 15-20 minutes, depending on time of year and traffic. We like to go to Fort Macon, which is a great place to watch the boats go by, but no alcohol is allowed since it’s a state park. If you want to enjoy some adult beverages, head down Highway 58 and park at any of the public beach access places.

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Food of the Month, July 2012: Blueberries

Posted on July 15, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 

July is National Blueberry Month, so to celebrate I decided to make a delicious and moist blueberry lemon bundt cake for the kids (okay, for me, too.) I also toasted the month with a refreshing blueberry-cranberry spritzer made from the blueberry infused vodka I posted about last month. I’m so happy that blueberries are in season right now – you can get great deals at the Farmer’s Market and some of the vendors offer organic berries.

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Mac-n-Cheese Muffins with Prosciutto Ham

Posted on July 6, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 

The first time I ever had macaroni and cheese cups was at my friend Sally’s home. They were absolutely wonderful and inspired me to make some of my own. I came up with this recipe that calls for four different types of cheese, elbow macaroni, prosciutto ham and panko crumbs. Pasta, pork, cheese and bread – some of my favorite food groups for sure! These reheat well – just zap them in the microwave for a minute or so – perfect to take to work for lunch.

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Veal Saltimbocca

Posted on July 1, 2012 by kelleychisholm

I recently ran across some nice looking veal scallopini at the Harris Teeter the other day, and decided to buy some since it had been a while since I’ve had veal. I usually make Veal Marsala, but this time I wanted something different. Since I already had some Fontina cheese at home (and no Marsala wine), I decided to make this quick, easy and delectable Veal Saltimbocca. Make sure that your veal pieces are pounded thin – about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. “Saltimbocca” means “jump in your mouth” in Italian, and this stuff certainly does – it is absolutely fabulous!

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Drink of the Month, June 2012: Infused Vodka

Posted on June 26, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 Nowadays you can’t go to your local liquor store without seeing rows of different flavored vodkas – anything from citrus to coconut, green apple to pear, root beer to watermelon. I started wondering how difficult it would be to make my own infused vodka and after just a bit of research I discovered there was nothing hard about it all. Just follow a few easy steps, and voilà, you have a custom-made spirit to enjoy. The best thing is you get to control the intensity of the flavors you select.

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Chicken-Que Sandwiches with Creamy, Crunchy Cole Slaw

Posted on June 18, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 

Years ago I was trying to figure out what to do with some leftover chicken and came up with this recipe for “chicken-que” that is patterned after pork barbecue. You can cook the chicken all day in the crock pot or, if you want some fresh chicken stock, heat it on the stove for several hours. Toss the shredded chicken with some zesty, homemade barbecue sauce and you are in for great treat!

I like to make sandwiches using fresh rolls and the chicken-que topped with creamy, crunchy coleslaw (recipe follows.)

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Kel’s Rainbow Fruit Kabobs with Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce

Posted on June 11, 2012 by kelleychisholm

June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, so to celebrate I decided to make these festive fruit kabobs with a low-fat cream cheese dipping sauce. These are so easy to make and they’re good for you as well. The dipping sauce has three ingredients and takes just minutes to assemble.

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Bobby Flay’s Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Smoked Chile-Cilantro Sauce

Posted on June 7, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 

Harris Teeter had boneless chicken breasts on sale the other day, so I scooped up a pack with no idea of how I was going to prepare them. Then I remembered this Bobby Flay recipe that I first made about five years ago for goat cheese stuffed chicken with a chile-cilantro sauce, which is simply fantastic. I absolutely love the combination of the goat cheese, olives and roasted red peppers that is the stuffing for the chicken. Plus the poblano pepper/cilantro sauce is to die for. When you make this, pound the chicken breasts thin, thin, thin – it makes the chicken easier to roll up and less likely for any of the wonderful goat cheese stuffing to leak out.

I have tweaked Chef Flay’s recipe just a bit and use herbed goat cheese instead of plain. I also substitute Kalamatas in place of the nicoise olives, and add a little bit more since I love olives. In addition, I do not use quite as much olive oil as in the original recipe.

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Boats, Bikes and Bars – Key West Style

Posted on June 4, 2012 by kelleychisholm

 

Key West holds a special place in my heart. Not only is the island tons of fun with scads of bars, restaurants, water sports and gorgeous sunsets, it’s also where Brad proposed to me in 2001. We were having dinner at Mangoes on Duval Street and it was his birthday as well as Mother’s Day. Getting engaged was not even on my radar, to say the least. Our server figured out what was going on when Brad got down on bended knee, and she brought us a couple of glasses of champagne as soon as she saw my thrilled and stunned reaction. Since then, I have enjoyed a glass of bubbly each time we visit (not to mention at a few other places on the island.)

Brad and I have returned to Key West a handful of times since that first trip, but it had been a while since our last visit. Since our 10-year wedding anniversary is this year, we decided to take a long weekend while the kids were on spring break (thanks for letting them stay with you, Mom!) As usual, we enjoyed some of our favorite places, but also tried some new things that included taking a wonderful sunset dinner cruise and renting some bikes to get around the island. Based mainly on this particular trip, here are some of my recommendations of places to try in Key West, both on land and on water.

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The Incredible, Edible Egg

Posted on May 24, 2012 by kelleychisholm

May is National Egg month and to celebrate I took the kids to the Sumner-Byrd Farm and Hatchery in Holly Springs. What fun we had! In addition to receiving a great tour of the farm/hatchery, Roy and David loaded us down with some fresh chicken and quail eggs. I never had quail eggs before and decided to pickle them. This is an easy and tasty way to prepare these tiny little eggs, and the recipe is at the end of this post. I used some of the fresh chicken eggs to make a classic quiche Lorraine, which I blogged about last week.

The Sumner-Byrd business services include selling certain breeds of eggs for hatching, and fresh eggs for eating (chicken, duck, goose and quail.) They also sell chicken chicks, quail chicks, guinea keets, ducklings and goslings. Visit Roy and David’s website for additional information, hours, directions, etc. It is well worth the trip to get local, fresh eggs in the Triangle area.

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