Buttermilk Garlic Roasted Chicken

Chicken is one of my favorites. It goes well with basically anything, and I love experimenting with new marinades! The opportunities are endless.. And this my friends, is my new favorite.

The buttermilk soaks into the chicken for a whopping 48 hours! It's a tough wait, I tell ya. But it is so worth it. It makes the most tender, rich, fall-off-the-bone chicken, perfect for a family meal. Your family will be begging for this recipe once they try it, I promise.

Also, who doesn't love something they can prep two days before and throw in the oven? This girl does. I am all about quick and easy. And that is why I love this dish so much.

I was looking for a great opportunity to try it, and I figured Easter would do this dish justice. And it was so easy to prep something in a marinade two days before and throw it in the oven, it's a great choice for a big group.

You're going to start by prepping your marinade. Combine your buttermilk, fresh parsley, minced garlic, salt, and pepper into a bowl. Whisk it all together realll nice. 

Please go the fresh route and not the dried/shaker route! The fresh parsley makes this dish so delicious and the pre-dried stuff wouldn't do this dish justice. Trust.

YUM.

Pour your marinade over your chicken in a gallon sized freezer bag. I ended up using multiple bags because I had so much chicken. I doubled the recipe so I would have plenty of marinade. Make sure it coats the chicken generously, and all of it gets some love!

Seal the baggies real tight, leaving as little air in there as possible. Let it marinate for a maximum of 48 hours, minimum of 12 for best result.

Once it has been marinating for the appropriate amount of time, pour it into a large baking dish, covering allllll tha chicken. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes- until your chicken runs clear. I broiled mine for another few minutes to get the crispy dark spots!

It turned out so delicious and pretty on my Easter table. My family loved the dish and I know yours will too! Let me know how this dish turns out for you! Minimal work with maximum outcome, yes please. 

Enjoy!

XO

Easter Tablescape

I have to say, this truly was the most beautiful Easter yet. I hosted my family and it was so amazing having everyone under my roof. I did a simple table, including pastels and bright flowers, seemingly appropriate for the Easter holiday. I included my scalloped china and soft yellow linen napkins. I have to say, i'm a simplicity kinda gal, and although understated, it all came together so beautifully.

I made a Kentucky Butter Cake, much like a pound cake. It was so light and refreshing after such a heavy dinner.

Dinner was delicious. My sweet Granny brought her famous scalloped potatoes, they are really the bees knees. They're a staple at any family dinner. 

They paired so well with this mixed green, feta, pecan, and dried cranberry salad.

I tossed fresh fruit with Greek yogurt and honey, the colors in the salad seemed fitting for an Easter table.

But of course, the belle of the ball. A buttermilk oven roasted chicken, and a honey baked ham. What would Easter dinner be without a ham? And if you follow me on Instagram, you know the chicken marinated in buttermilk for 48 hours, it was so moist (everyone's most favorite word) and rich, I will share the recipe this week!

We finished dinner off with a slice of my Kentucky Butter cake and paired it with the fruit salad. A match made in Heaven.

It was so special hosting my family and feeding them in my home! I love when we can all just be together. It was a beautiful day!

The best place we can be is together around a table. I will share all of these recipes soon! I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend!

XO

T H E L A U N C H

Belly Rules Mind. It’s my truth.

I like to create things. I like food. I am passionate about it. I cook to feel good, and to eat well. It is the ultimate comfort for me. My week centers around what new recipe I am dying to try, what comfort food or deliciousness I can whip up. The weekends I live to shop markets, and watch the Food Network. 

Every bite, every pinch, tugs at my heart. I love to learn it, I love to create it, I love to share it, and I love to eat it.

We have to eat, why not love what we eat? Why not make each meal an experience? Something you look forward to, guilt free.

We are what we eat, so lets eat the good stuff. 

Another blog, right? I know, I know. Another young professional, 20-something, handing out wisdom or sharing her secrets for the best winged eye-liner. Where once you read the most recent success tips or diet tricks, you walk away thinking, How does she do it? Can I look that good? Can I have that style? Gah she's so skinny. All of this pressure to be successful, cook what's good for you, juice, the best yoga classes, the best workout style, the best hair tutorials, the best diets, the best accessories. The pressure to be successful at work, maintain the "eating clean" expectation, hit the gym, have the perfect proposal, the cutest apartment, the most flawless make-up. Live authentically. It's exhausting being a 20-something.

Give this up, fit this mold. 

Let me tell you, this is not a good time to give up donuts. 

Is there a place for the homebodies? The girl who lives to be at home on a Friday night, and really hates to workout? The girl who has her girlfriends over to cook for them and throw back some wine, who doesn't make it to a spin class or a yoga class at 8am Saturday morning? The girl with her head in a book, a top knot, and sweatpants as her go to. 

My constant lurking thought has been- “Can I be a blogger if I’m not great at makeup, or I don’t have a budding baby bump to creatively document?” No offense or knock to girl’s that do, but I am not cutting food into toddler friendly shapes here- or giving you the best workout style advice. I am not teaching you how to be Super Mom or how to accessorize your spring wardrobe. This is just a small slice, a quiet corner of the world where I can share my favorite things. Things that make me feel good. Food for the soul. This is where we can go to read things that make us warm and fuzzy, or inspire us to think, or better: laugh. Here, we will find solace in Sunday naps and food for thought; The comfort food of the menu, the Friday of the work week. While I would love to have baby mouths to feed one day, and I am the first one to say I love to learn from a good makeup tutorial, this is just a place for life. Real life. Not experts. Just a 20-something, baking her way through a 40-hour work week, with puppy snuggles as muse, and on the reg guilt free indulgence.  

And although there may not be an expertise in that, I hope that you too, will learn something while you are here.

Let’s forget all that pressure. Let’s laugh, let’s read, let’s eat.

WEEKEND WARRIORS

Weekend means one particular, important, thing here in Atlanta: Brunch.

There are so many great brunch spots in the city. Bottomless mimosas, gravy & biscuits, cheese grits, hollandaise sauce creations... you name it. Brunch is an event. It's a religion. And we are active participants. Committed followers. Hallelujah, brunch. You get the picture.

One of my favorites brunch spots is Henry's. It is in the heart of Midtown, and the patio, is a place of worship. We practically live there when it's warm. So, as you have it, a beautiful sunny 70 degree Saturday was just waiting to be indulged on the Henry's patio, mimosas in hand.

One of my favorite dishes, their Pepper Gravy Fries. I didn't know it was possible to actually make french fries better. But Pepper Gravy will do it.

Notice: Iced coffee making a cameo in each shot. Another Saturday morning must-have.

I am so pumped for spring weather! Atlanta is the most beautiful in the spring. The flowers bloom, the Crepe Myrtles droop, and Piedmont Park is an every-day adult playground. Cheers to many more Atlanta brunches and patio Saturdays. I can't wait to tell you about all of my favorite spots!

GRILLED SPICY PARMESAN WINGS

Summer is so close! I can taste it.

Literally.

Summer food favorites: keyword: grill.

Grillz. Grilla. However you want to put it. It's my favorite summer word. Everything is so much better off the grill. And one of my grill favorites; Wings. 

First things first. Make sure you ask your butcher to:

a) Cut the tips off

b) Separate the wing.

When you're buying wings, they are packaged with the entire chicken wing, and there are few things more painful than trying to slice and separate the wings yourself. Trust.

Next: Season.

mmm. Another good word.

I use: Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, and just to make it weird different, Parmesan Cheese! It's my version of a secret ingredient. Except I am telling you. But really, use it.

For good flavor, I also pour over some Texas Pete hot sauce. That's the good stuff.

Toss all of this together in a box mixing bowl.

Glorious.

Let them rest while you heat up the grill. Be sure that you spray your grill with some sort of cooking spray. Second most painful thing: when you go to flip your wings, and you leave skin behind because it's stuck to the grill. Not cool.

No skin left behind.

Once your grill is hot, throw the bad boys on there. 

Flip every five minutes. I like to leave mine on until they get real pretty grill marks. 

I swear food tastes better when it's pretty.

Once they're done, toss them in more hot sauce.

And you've got yourself these beauties to munch on. I paired mine with french fries. I love making these when I have friends over, not only are they a crowd pleaser, but it's so easy to make a big quantity!

ENJOY! 

Full Recipe:

Season:

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup wing sauce (I use Texas Pete)

Grill:

1. Place wings in a mixing bowl. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. Pour wing sauce over wings, toss together until covered.
2. Heat grill to medium-high heat. Spray your grill with cooking spray (safe for grilling).
3. Place wings onto grill directly, one at a time. Flip wings every five minutes until desired color. 
4. Pul wings off the grill, toss in additional hot sauce. 
5. Best with friends and fries. 

LEMON GARLIC TILAPIA

Basically, there are two ingredients that top all ingredients. They show up to the ingredient party and tell all the other ingredients to go home. They complete every recipe. They complete each other.

They complete me.

I'm talking, lemon and garlic.

Can we just take a second to appreciate these gifts to our Earth? I mean maybe not just Earth. Maybe they are enjoyed on other planets. Maybe not? Maybe after this blog post, people on other planets, (people? aliens?) will start using lemon and garlic together. Maybe they use them separately and now, they will use them together. You're welcome.

Not our gift to Earth, our gift to the Universe.

Not mentioned: Parsley. The lemon and garlic ride-or-die sidekick.

I am the first to tell you, I am not a big fish person. I mean, I love fish. It's just not my favorite food.

That is until I crafted this recipe for Tilapia. 

Tilapia is sort of a safe fish. It's not too fishy. It's like the beginner's fish. 

The best part about it being so mild, is you can spice it up. Yum.

I start out by melting four tablespoons of butter on the stove top. Mince two (large) cloves of garlic and add to the melting butter. 

Squeeze the juice from one fresh, ripe, whole, lemon into the butter.

Let this simmer for a few minutes.. really though, a few. When garlic gets too hot it turns green. And I don't about you but, I am just not a fan of green garlic.

While this is happening, place your Tilapia filets in a baking dish. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika. Take your infused butter, and dump it over your tilapia filets. It will not necessarily cover the filets entirely, but it will coat them generously.

Bake the filets at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Squeeze your lemon one more time over top, just for an extra kick.

Not pictured: Huge side of mashed potatoes. 

Voila. Beautiful, flaky, light, buttery, garlic-y, fish. It is SO good. And easy!

Full Recipe:

• 3 Tilapia Filets
• 3 tbs butter
• 3 minced (finely chopped) cloves of garlic.
• Juice of one lemon.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp paprika

1. Melt three tablespoons butter on stove top. Add minced garlic and lemon juice. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes.
2. Place filets in baking dish. Sprinkle salt, pepper. and paprika over Tilapia filets. Pour infused butter over filets.
3. Bake for 15 minutes.
4. Squeeze remaining juice from lemon over baked Tilapia.
5. Best with white wine, your favorite green veggie, and fresh parsley for garnish. 

ALL FALL DOWN - JENNIFER WEINER

All Fall Down  - Jennifer Weiner

I am so excited to tell everyone about this book and, it’s author. I love a good novel that truly allows you to escape, letting your brain take a little vacation. I love books that draw you in, characters that you can relate to.

Allison Weiss is one of my favorite characters yet. She is witty and smart, and a girl that women can see themselves in. She is struggling to keep her marriage, her career as a blogger, and her identity as a mother afloat. Her husband is sleeping in the guestroom, her dad is suffering from Alzheimer’s, her career as a blogger has taken off, and she is just trying to keep her head above water. Allison turns to quick relief; pain medication she was prescribed for her back. First one or two pills throughout the day to take the edge off. Then, three at a time, six at a time, to shoveling money from different bank accounts to hide her illegal purchase of extra pills from her husband.

Allison Weiss is fighting the demons women fight every day: Being the perfect mother, having the perfect home, the beautiful marriage, the most successful career. Allison is witty, warm, and desperate to pull her life together.

Jennifer Weiner’s sense of humor is infectious and she truly presents raw, relatable, realistic characters. I love that she serves up raw women as characters, that make us feel like being real is okay. We are real women, with real flaws, and those are the characters we can really identify with. Allison Weiss is your every day mom, juggling her self-esteem and her representation of motherhood. She exemplifies modern struggles and shows us: we all fall down. And it's okay.

All Fall Down is a modern spin on women’s fiction, with an edge, and it is impossible to put down.

 I enjoyed every second of this book, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

You can Purchase All Fall Down, Here.