My Favorite Pantry Essentials

Friends often ask me which store bought items I like to keep on hand for easy weeknight meals and casual entertaining. Since we live in the woods the grocery delivery options are limited (and a trip to the store requires driving down the hill) so it’s nice to know I can whip something together without leaving the cabin.

These are the items I frequently have on my shopping list so they are always at the ready:

• Veggie sausages (I like the links & patties from Morning Star—I also put these in kid lunches)

• Nuts - especially roasted almonds , salted macadamia nuts and Marcona almonds

• Dates (they last a long time and go well on a cheese platter if you’re having people over)

• golden raisins (great on salads)

• Bagged kale and/or arugula (a great start to any grain bowl!)

• Everything Bagel seasoning (I love it on cooked vegetables)

• Quick cooking Farro (I sometimes get at Trader Joe’s)

• Quinoa

• Small corn or whole wheat tortillas (for a quick weeknight stir-fry veggie wrap or veggie tacos)

• Canned black beans (for bowls and tacos) and garbanzo beans (for salads or to mix with cooked veggies)

• Veggie broth or bouillon cubes (in case I want to make a quick soup by blending whatever squash I have on hand)

• Triple cream brie and/or burrata (great to have on hand for an easy happy hour if friends stop by)

• Fruit (especially apples and pears are great with cheese for snacking, or on salads and last a while)

Wraps + Bowls: If I can’t figure out what to make for dinner, I often stir fry onions, carrots, greens and whatever other vegetables happen to be in the fridge. I will then turn that into a wrap or tacos (using either type of tortillas above) or put the stir fry mixture on top of greens, grains and beans to create a “bowl”. You can also add veggie sausage. I like putting warm veggies on top of cold greens with salad dressing— a sort of warm/cold salad combo that is both filling and covers the bases of carb (grain of tortilla), protein (legumes) and veg.

For a super simple side dish using a handful of items from this shopping list, check out this Everything Bagel Greens recipe below!

Greens sautéed with Everything Bagel seasoning

What’s on your grocery list every time you shop?

Apple Matchstick Salad

It’s apple season! Growing up in the apple orchard when I was little, I loved this time of year when we started to pick and make everything imaginable with apples. We dried them, made apple butter and apple sauce, pies and tarts…the list is endless!

Cutting apples into matchstick-sized pieces for a salad makes them just a little more fun to eat, don’t you think? Slice a few apples this way and toss them with chopped pecans (or any nuts), dried berries and raisins (I bought a mix at Trader Joe’s with golden raisins, blueberries and cranberries), plus some fresh cilantro. Dress with a bit of olive oil, lemon and salt. Sweet, Salty, Savory! 

This week The Forest Feast turned 3, and I love that this little blog’s birthday falls during the harvest season. This week, our family is celebrating my favorite Jewish holiday- Sukkot, a harvest holiday where we build a little hut outside and have meals under it for a week. It’s so fun! And we’ve had warm nights here in the woods lately which has made it even better. I made this salad the other night and it was a hit.

Happy Harvest!

Apple & Honey Galette

Have I told you that The Forest Feast cookbook is out in other languages now? Yes! It’s out in German and Dutch (and more languages coming soon!)

Since tonight is the beginning of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) and it’s traditional to eat apples and honey, I though I’d share this simple dessert recipe from the book, which was a favorite on my blog: an Apple & Honey Galette (or Appel & Honing Taart or Apfel-Honig-Galette!)

Enjoy and Shana Tova!

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You might also like:

Honey Cake

Round Pomegranate Challah

Apple Herb Galette

River House Getaway

We recently rented an amazing house on Flipkey for a weekend out on the Russian River in Sonoma County, near where I grew up, and where a lot of my family still lives. All the rooms in the house had stunning water views, but the deck really made this place something special, with river vistas in both directions.

If you’re planning a trip to the wine country, this is a fun spot to visit. The weather is still warm into the Fall in this area- I have fond memories of my mom picking us up from school early on in the school year and heading out to the river for a swim before going home.

There was also a little dock on the water, right below the house, which was fun for afternoon swims and happy hour.

The house was very close to downtown Guerneville, which is a cute, funky little town (and much more wine-country-posh now than when I was growing up!). We had a great lunch at Boon and popped into several other places on the main strip. For picking up snacks to take to the river, I’d suggest Big Bottom Market or for killer deli sandwiches, try Berry’s Market. It’s always fun to rent canoes at Burke’s, and at the end of the day, go wine tasting at Korbel, or for a beer at Stumptown Brewery.

We were celebrating my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary and so we had a dinner one night on the deck and invited some relatives to join. Jonathan BBQed outside and we made a big summery buffet spread. With cocktails (or mocktails for me- this was before baby Ezra arrived!), we served Pesto & Onion Crostini and Strawberry Caprese Bites. On the dinner menu was BBQ chicken kebabs on a bed of arugula, Nectarine Tomato Salad, Farro Salad, and couple other dishes from my cookbook.

Cheers to late summer swims and cocktail hour on the water!

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This post was done in partnership with Flipkey, a vacation home rental website. I had a great experience renting with them and would do it again. All opinions here are my own.

Watermelon Tomato Salad

Hope everyone had a fun Labor Day weekend! Guess what- we had a baby boy! Little Ezra has arrived and we couldn’t be more excited, grateful, happy or in awe! Now we are a forest family.

As we enjoy these last days of summer, I thought I’d share a recipe that I did for the current issue of Remedy Quarterly, a fantastic foodie magazine that everyone should know about.

Enjoy!