Labor Free Weekend?

As the alleged “last weekend of summer” comes to a close, I had to look up what the original celebration of Labor Day was. For those wondering, our government shares this: “The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America's strength, prosperity, and well-being.”

If anything we can be thankful to still celebrate a holiday that was created two centuries ago. These days, this typically gives a final call for weekends to head to the beach, to spend time outside in warm weather as the nights cool off, or to just relax and, I guess, not think about work?

I love a nice long weekend, and with my weekdays before packed with action and nothing particularly planned, I let a weekend in take me where it may… which, to no surprise, was filled with content for this space. When I can’t sit still, even after a long week, I get to making.

First stop: Rittenhouse Farmer’s Market. And I love this end of summer overlap of seasons. Still getting tomatoes, peaches fully around, even some apples popping up. Also picked up some Italian prune plums. Apples aside, all those others were shouting to be made into some sort of danish-style dish (*teaser*).

Yes, I did get outside throughout the weekend. Weather was too nice! And Lucy made her mayor rounds at the dog park and on walks, saying hello to everyone.

That said, I did in fact make LOTS of food. Saturday afternoon through even as I write this, I’ve been cooking and baking. So we’re going rapid fire this week. Pictures, short chatter and some links if you feel inspired. No labor required.

Green Goddess Pasta Salad with Cheese Tortellini

I’m a sucker for a good green goddess dressing. It’s my go-to when I treat myself to Sweetgreen for lunch. I use this NYT recipe, but otherwise, it’s a fairly simple: cheese tortellini + green goddess dressing + greens (arugula, snap peas, whatever else you’re feeling). So good I ate it for lunch and dinner.

Roasted Spatchcock Chicken

I’ve been making this particular recipe for probably four years now. It’s one of my favorite ways to cook chicken, plus it doesn’t take as long as you may think. For those who prefer to handle the raw chicken as little as possible, look for an already spatchcocked chicken (where the spine is taken out so it lays flat), or just go with two attached breasts and wings. Have I caused coughing attacks in a kitchen in 60 seconds thanks to the crushed red pepper? Potentially, but the flavor is worth the short pain.

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Muffins

Sneaky protein! Admittedly, I am not one to eat a big breakfast. “Oh, BuT BreAKfAst Is tHE MoSt IMPortaNT MeaL Of THe DAy!” Which I do understand because I have started to get better about breakfast these past few years, but I easily slip. So why not pack a little wellness into a sweet treat to start the day. Grab and go for my walk to work. Pretty sweet.

Eggplant Lasagna

Funky looking eggplant at the market? Sure! Seasonal + filled with pantry items? Sure again! This NYT recipe made a damn good dinner at that. Realizing now it was a Sunday dinner, too. But is it really Sunday dinner on a long weekend? Tasted like it, that’s for sure.

Sourdough Bread

Ideally I’d get this into a semi-monthly flow, but for now we improve the bakes when we can.

Mini Galettes / Danishes - Peach, Tomate, Plum

This is a recipe I’m working on… few bites, handheld and seasonal. May have been suckered in by the plums being called “Italian Prune Plums”. So throw them on some pie dough mixed with sugar and cinnamon. That’s the purpose of the recipe and I’d say it worked out well! And I needed to sneak in a little savory part to it with the tomates and parmesan. Potentially more to come on these…

Burnt Honey Ice Cream

This seemed to be the winner of the weekend from everything I shared on Instagram. Didn’t intend on that to be the case, but good thing is that I even made a quick video about it. Love when it works like that. Also love when I get to use local ingredients like the honey from Half Mad Honey, made in Philly’s Navy Yard right next to stadiums and I-95. The ice cream’s name speaks for itself, and Dana Cree has made the Ice Cream Bible with her book Hello, My Name is Ice Cream. Very fun flavor, also worked well with the peach galette. Also also, apparently September is National Honey Month? Didn’t intent on that either. Pretty sweet as well.

So that all happened in a few days. Felt nice to not stress about how long everything was taking but being intentional about following through with all the plans. When you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. No labor here. (That makes sense, right? Time to sign off.)

Enjoy the short week 🤘