Orchard Harvest Salad from The Art of Picnics

photo by Alanna O’Neil

There are so many great cookbooks coming out this fall and I’ll be sharing some of my favorites over the coming weeks. But one that I got to see an advance copy of is The Art of Picnics, the debut book by Alanna O’Neil. (And I was honored that she asked me to write a little endorsement blurb on the back of the book!)

During a time when we are all looking to have more of our gatherings outdoors, she has some great tips for packable items that feel special. Perhaps my favorite ideas of hers are surrounding cold-weather picnics (think snowshoeing to a feast in the woods!) with hot toddies, soup, hand pies and chive & cheddar biscuits—all packed in backpacks or on a sled. Sure, you could stay cozy inside, but an outdoor meal, even in winter, can be an invigorating adventure. Alanna grew up in Vermont, lived in NYC for a while and now lives in Maui…3 of my very favorite places on earth. How could the photos and recipes not be gorgeous?! A Thanksgiving-perfect salad from her book is below.

Orchard Harvest Salad

excerpted from The Art of Picnics and reprinted with permission from Alanna O’Neil

A note from Alanna: When I think of the perfect autumnal salad, a bit of crunch, nuttiness, and a touch of sweetness ticks all the boxes for me. Tuscan kale is a hearty and forgiving green that only gets better with a little bit of rest, or say after a good walk through the orchard. It can be easily made in the morning before you venture out, leaving you not to worry about a soggy salad later. You can pack it up into individual Mason jars to serve easily. 

Serves 4

1 bunch Tuscan kale (Lacinato or dinosaur kale), washed

1 bunch red kale, roughly chopped

2 cups radicchio, roughly chopped

2 McIntosh apples, thinly sliced

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 tablespoon grainy mustard 

2 tablespoons maple syrup (Preferably Grade B)

3 tablespoons roasted walnut oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Cracked black pepper to taste

Hold the stem of the Tuscan kale leaf in one hand and pull down along it with your other hand, removing the green leafy part. You can also cut the rib away from the stem if you’d rather use a knife. Chop the kale into 1” pieces and set aside.

Prepare the dressing by whisking together the balsamic vinegar, shallots, mustard, and maple syrup in a large mixing bowl. Slowly pour in the roasted walnut oil and continue to whisk together until the dressing is emulsified. Season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Add the Tuscan kale, red kale, radicchio, apple slices, pecans, and pumpkin seeds to the mixing bowl. Gently toss the salad with the vinaigrette until fully coated. (The kale leaves will relax on your journey so there is no need to massage them.) Sprinkle on the pomegranate seeds. 

Note: If you have the time to roast the nuts and seeds, all the better! On a baking sheet or cast-iron pan, gently toast the seeds in the oven with a teaspoon of olive oil at 350° until fragrant and slightly crisp, about 8 -10 minutes.

Kids' Art DIY

Almost a year ago we left our beloved little cabin when Winnie was born and moved (just down the street) to this bigger one. Three kids required more space! This month, I finally hung some art on the wall above this couch in the family/dining room off our kitchen. I just couldn’t figure out what to hang! We have a ton of framed artwork in the basement from our last house but I wanted something new and fresh. A lot of the art in our house is by people we know which makes it feel meaningful. It’s hard to know what new art to buy if you want some sort of personal connection or story.

So since this is where the kids hang out a lot, I did a DIY using kids art! Max did this little watercolor painting and I loved the colors in it, so I decided to scan it, divide it in half and have it printed large on fabric via Spoonflower to be framed. I found a couple framed canvases on sale at Target, popped the canvases out of the frame, and recovered them in my new fabric.

And voilà! Kids’ art reimagined. Max (who is 4, but did this a year ago) thinks it looks a bit babyish and told me not to tell anyone it was his (sorry, Max!). He’s moved past his abstract phase and his work is much more figurative now! 😜.

I scanned Max’s little watercolor painting into Photoshop. Then I cropped it into 2 halves and placed them on a white canvas in Photoshop to print at Spoonflower. I printed each half of the painting to fit the canvases I bought at Target, with a little extra space on the edges to wrap around and staple to each canvas.

I ordered it printed on a yard of Linen Cotton Canvas via Spoonflower.

I popped the canvasses out of the frames, then stapled my fabric around them, then popped them back in the frames.

A lot of websites now allow you to upload artwork and have it printed on canvas and mailed to you, which is another good/easier option. But I really like the linen-y feel of this fabric with the printed watercolor.

This is the room the kids spend a lot of time in…it’s right off the kitchen and leads to the deck, so it made sense to me to have kids artwork hung up.

Product Sources:

FABRIC: Spoonflower (upload your own design and print on fabric)

FRAMES: I bought some frames similar to these

VASE: white stoneware vase

TABLE: side table holding toy baskets

The Forest Feast contains affiliate links which means we may make a small commission if items are purchased via links we provide, at no additional cost to you.

Introducing...The Forest Feast Road Trip!

I’m so excited to share the cover of my next book, The Forest Feast Road Trip! It’s now available for pre-order and will be released March 22, 2022.

For this book, we took the idea of ‘cooking in a cabin in the woods’ on the road! In a series of family road trips over the course of about a year, we stayed in 10 different cabin-like dwellings around California. This book is a bit different in that I feature interior and exterior shots of all the cool places we stayed, from a craftsman cabin in Big Sur, to a yurt on an urban farm in LA, to an A-frame in Big Bear. The 100 vegetarian recipes are inspired by produce grown in each region and also by dishes we ate in restaurants along the way. After visiting a date farm near Palm Springs, I came up with a vegan Date Shake recipe. We picked strawberries with the gals who run Fly Girl Farm on the Central Coast which inspired a Strawberry Caprese that ended up in the book. We visited farms and wineries, dipped in natural hot springs, hiked, kayaked, swam and visited more farmers’ markets than you can imagine!

The book got delayed because of a new baby arriving mid-pandemic (I needed a bit more time!). Thankfully we did the bulk of our road tripping and shooting in 2019. That summer we did one big 2,500 mile trip spanning 3 weeks and didn’t leave the state– California is huge! A series of smaller road trips followed. I grew up in California and thought I knew it pretty well, but I discovered so many places I’d never been while making this book, and there is still so much for me to see!

Jon was really the mastermind in planning our travel days and he found so many cool hikes and other spots for us to stop at along the way. When we decided to break up a big drive heading north through the Eastern Sierras and didn’t have accommodations planned for the night in between, he went online and found a lavender farm nearby, De La Cour Ranch. They had cabins to rent and we were able to book one last minute! It ended up being one of my favorite stops, a truly magical place run by an amazing woman, Julie, who grew up less than a mile from where we live now. Unexpected discoveries and connections along the way make road tripping such a fun way to travel. Plus, this stop inspired a recipe for Lavender Shortbread Cookies!

A big shout out to all my newsletter subscribers who signed up to recipe test. Because of you, I had more testers than ever this time which makes this book feel like a community effort and a labor of love. Your names are in the back of the book. Thank you again!

I’ll share more stories soon, but in the meantime, please pre-order the book! Pre-orders actually have a lot of impact on the success of the book, so I really appreciate it. Books will ship March 2022.

xx!

Erin

Jewish New Year Cards

Growing up on an apple orchard, we did everything imaginable with apples, including using them as stamps. Around the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashana, it’s typical for Jews to send out New Years cards to friends and family. I had fun making these recently with our kids to wish our loved ones Shana Tovah and a sweet new year.

Apple Stamp Cards

Directions: Slice an apple in half from the stem down. Put a small amount of tempura paint on a plate and dip each half in like a stamp. Press onto thick cardstock-type paper. Use watercolor paints to add a stem and leaf and any personalized message. Mail as a postcard or pop them in an envelope to share.

Watch this little video for a short tutorial!

Round Challah for Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, starts a week from today and we are gearing up!

Two things I make annually without fail are Honey Cake and round challah. Traditionally the bread is baked round at this time of year to symbolize the cycle of a new year beginning. There are a lot of apples and honey involved in these holidays – apples for fall and honey to sweeten the new year ahead. I love using pomegranates too because they are so festively autumn.

For the challah, I use my recipe that’s in my first book (it’s the last recipe if you have the book) and I make it in a standup mixer. I braid it into a long braid, pinch the ends and then coil it into a circle, tucking the ends underneath. I dot the top with fresh pomegranate seeds and brush with egg before baking. Then I drizzle it with honey once it’s out and slightly cooled, and add a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.

Shana Tovah! (Happy New Year!)