Grilled Caprese Pizza with Artichoke

June 21, 2016

Without a doubt, the time seems to keep passing by faster and faster each year. I’ve arguably never felt so overwhelmed with work projects and with wedding season in full force, our travel game is real! I travel a decent amount for work and Jake travels about 4 times what I do, so with regular work travel combined with weddings (averaging at 6-12/year for the past few years), our summers seem to fly by in a blink. One thing I’ve really tried to focus on this year is to not wait for the weekend to partake in traditionally summer “weekend things” in an effort to squeeze as much of my favorite season out of this year as possible. Since to me there is almost nothing that feels more summery than barbecuing and eating dinner in our back yard, I’ve made it a priority for us to cook together/grill at least twice per week, even when it might be easier to heat up some leftovers and keep things easy.

I’ve been wanting to try grilled pizza for a while now and when one of our “weeds” in our back yard from the previous owner turned out to be an artichoke plant, I was feeling even more inspired than ever to fire up the grill. I purchased this pizza stone and pizza peel, picked up a few other ingredients from the store and we were good to go. I didn’t really put a ton of thought or time into researching a recipe for this (other than how to grill artichokes and I went by this aioli recipe) and instead just tried to keep it simple with things I knew would pair well together. This ended up being one of my favorite meals we’ve made together and we’ll definitely be making it again this week – I can’t wait!

PS: This recipe is all about timing so pour yourself a glass of wine and prep in advance if possible.

GRILLED CAPRESE PIZZA WITH ARTICHOKE

Prep: 15 minutes
Active: 45 minutes
Yield: 1 pizza (2 servings)
Wine Pairing: Napa Valley Red Blend or Edna Valley Pinot Noir

INGREDIENTS

4 medium/large artichokes
2 cups baby heirloom tomatoes
1 small bunch basil, chopped (15-20 basil leaves)
1lb. fresh pizza dough (I use Trader Joe’s fresh dough)
2 tbs. cornmeal
2 tbs. flour
8 oz. fresh burrata
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil
Freshly shaved parmesan

AIOLI INGREDIENTS

2 garlic cloves
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbs. vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

Fill a pot with 1-2″ of water and bring it to a boil while prepping your artichokes.
Prep your artichoke by cutting the sharp tips off the artichoke petals. Then trim the top of the artichoke (cut off about 3/4″-1″) and remove the smaller petals by the stem. If your artichoke has a long stem, trim it down to an inch or less.
Reduce water to a simmer, place artichokes in a steam basket and cover
Cook for 20-40 minutes until the outer petals easily pull off.
While your artichokes are steaming, knead and roll your pizza dough. Add flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and surface. Stretch your dough to desired size and shape (1lb. of dough dough should create a 10-12″ circle). Sprinkle pizza stone with cornmeal to keep your dough from sticking to the stone. Once dough is in place, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with 1/2 of your chopped basil leaves, add all of the burrata and finish with a dash of salt and pepper.
Fire barbecue to medium flame and place pizza stone on grill.
In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, the remaining basil, salt, pepper and olive oil. Stir to evenly coat tomatoes and transfer to a grill basket or foil and place on grill.
Remove artichokes from steam basket and cut in half length wise. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place on the top rack of your grill.
Prep aioli (directions below) while monitoring grill.
Allow your tomatoes to blister and artichokes to char slightly before removing. Scoop out the heart of 2-3 artichokes.
Once dough has reached your desired texture, remove from grill and top with artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Garnish with fresh basil and shaved parmesan. Plate remaining artichokes with aioli and serve immediately.
Serve with your favorite red wine (I recommend this or this). Cheers!

AIOLI DIRECTIONS

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt using a large heavy knife. Whisk together yolk, lemon juice, and mustard in a bowl.
Combine oils and add, a few drops at a time, to yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until all oil is incorporated and mixture is emulsified. (If mixture separates, stop adding oil and continue whisking until mixture comes together, then resume adding oil.)
Whisk in garlic paste and season with salt and pepper. If aïoli is too thick, whisk in 1 or 2 drops of water. Chill, covered, until ready to use.

Have a Great Weekend!

June 10, 2016

Between getting ready for our next catalog shoot, juggling a major design project and keeping up on normal day-to-day work, the past few weeks have felt so overwhelming and have been flying by faster than I can handle. I keep telling myself to quit sweating the small stuff and enjoy simple moments along the way. Whether it’s endless poppies blooming in our yard, lunch with my best friend in the city, or a glass of wine on the patio at the end of the day, I’m trying harder than ever to soak it all in.

We’re heading out of town for a friend’s wedding this weekend and have some filming at our El Segundo office on Monday so I’m getting ready to hit the road for a few days. The chaos continues! Here are some of my favorite moments from this week:

The tiny beginnings of our 2016 Sauvignon Blanc!

I could walk these rows for days.

So excited to find a row of pomegranate trees tucked away on our property.

Our architect (David Rulon) checking out the construction site.

Rebar and trenches – almost ready for footings and a foundation!

Blending some new top-secret juice with one of our winemakers, Tony Coltrin 😉

Grilling with Jake and testing out a new recipe 🙂 Cheers!

What kind of wine do you drink?

June 8, 2016

I’m always curious to know what type of wine people are drinking. What’s your go-to wine and why? And does it ever change? I did a quick google search to see what Americans are drinking the most of and it was a little shocking…

Chardonnay
Merlot
White Zin (!?!)
Pinot Grigio
Cabernet
Pinot Noir
Riesling
Zinfandel
Sauvignon Blanc
Muscat
Malbec
Syrah

I was really shocked to see Merlot at #2 ahead of Pinot Noir and Cabernet for reds. And White Zin – whattttt?! I knew there were certain regions in the U.S. that love their White Zin, but I had no idea it was so popular that it would come in at #3 overall. We’re in a unique situation because we always have wine samples floating around the house, but my favorites are Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (although Rosé is quickly climbing the list and is so good during balmy summer months). I’d love to hear your favorites – give me the deets!

* Top wine study results from winebusiness.com.

Mango & Avocado Quinoa Salad

June 2, 2016

Jake’s sister Michelle is one of the best cooks I know. Having traveled to more countries than I can ever remember, she’s developed a pretty impressive, worldly palate and isn’t afraid to try anything. She always knows exactly what to order at a restaurant and always knows exactly what a dish needs if it’s off. When she gave Jake a grill for his birthday, we invited the family over for our first barbecue in Napa for Mother’s Day. She offered to make a quinoa salad for a side and I LOVE quinoa so of course I was totally stoked! The end result was even better than I could have imagined – so deliciously light and fresh yet filling enough to make it a main course any day of the week. It was perfectly sweet, yet herbaceous and had just the right amount of acidity. I practically begged her for the recipe and to come back over so we could shoot it together and thankfully she said yes 🙂 The best part? Nothing about this dish is unhealthy or processed in any way. It’s also totally vegan so almost anyone can enjoy. It just goes to show that some of the best dishes are the ones created with the simplest ingredients.

Ingredients

1 cup red quinoa
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 fresh mangos, cubed
1 avocado, cubed
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
½ cup mint, chopped
½ cup fresh cilantro
⅓ cup olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, combine quinoa with 2 cups salted water. Cover and bring to a boil and the reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally and being careful not to burn. While quinoa is cooking, prep your other ingredients.
When your quinoa has fully absorbed the water and is light and fluffy, spread it on a cookie sheet and cool in the fridge or freezer for 10-15 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, and garlic.
In a large bowl, combine black beans, mangos, avocado, cucumber, mint and cilantro. Once the quinoa has cooled, add it to the large bowl and top with olive oil, lime and garlic dressing. Gently toss to combine.

Suggested wine pairing: Our new Pinot Grigio has flavors of mango and would really bring out the mango in the salad. It’s a light, summery wine that would compliment the quinoa, avocado and cucumbers well.

Recipe adapted from Vegangela.

Poppies & Pinot (Grigio)

June 1, 2016

Happy #WineWednesday and hooray for a short week! For the past two years, our company has participated in Bottle Rock, a music festival in downtown Napa. This year it happened to fall on Memorial Day Weekend so the past week has been filled to the brim with prep, load-in, working the festival, entertaining guests at home and load-out on Monday. I took the day (mostly) off yesterday to recover and our rentals were just picked up from my house so it finally feels like the festival has come to a close for this year.

Through all the Bottle Rock madness, we launched a new wine, a Pinot Grigio that customers have been requesting for years. Our #PinotForPaws (Pinot Noir) funds one pet adoption for every one case sold (over 13,600 shelter animals saved to date!), and it’s been hugely popular so we were excited to add a Pinot Grigio to the mix that gives back to the same cause. Good California Pinot Grigio can be tough to find and it can sometimes be seen as a negative in the wine-world if it isn’t coming directly from Italy. That being said, there were a lot of factors to weigh and launching a CA Pinot Grigio was a bigger decision for us to make than many of the other varietals of wine we produce. However, when we found a really good source, we had to jump on it and bottled our first vintage earlier this year. I finally got my hands on some yesterday and was able to taste it for the first time since barrel samples in February. I was so impressed with the finished product – deliciously refreshing and acidic with hints of yellow mango and passion fruit – the perfect pairing to some light fish or shrimp tacos, a seafood pasta or grilled veggies.

Since our yard is in poppy heaven right now, I picked a few to take some shots with our wine and wanted to share. Cheers!

Raspberry Serrano Sparkling Margarita

May 5, 2016

Happy Cinco de Mayo! When we moved to Napa, I was 100% sure about our new adventure until the last week or so before our move. Swept up in the excitement of buying a house, it hit me like a ton of bricks as we were packing that we were actually, really leaving LA. I was nervous about leaving the beach and trail I was accustomed to (where would we go for a run?) and everyday conveniences like our grocery store down the street where I knew everyone by name. I worried about no longer working out of our office every day and already missed our teammates (and their dogs!). Additionally, there is such an amazing creative community in LA that I felt we were just starting to tap into – as a creative at ONEHOPE, what was I thinking leaving that town? But aside from all of that, the major thing that made my heart sink, was leaving behind all of our favorite restaurants.

LA is in a bit of a food Renaissance and it’s tough to find a bad meal there. Jake is gone so much for work and we both travel a ton on weekends for weddings and events, so on the off-chance that we’re both home for a weekend, brunch is our jam. One of our favorite places in Hermosa Beach for brunch (and dinner) is Palmilla – a Mexican restaurant on the pier that we would walk to from our place. I’m sure it sounds crazy that I would have a margarita for basically breakfast, but anything goes when you’re eating eggs at noon – am I right? 😉 Palmillia is famous for its Raspberry Serrano Margarita – so perfectly tangy, spicy, sweet and salty all at once – and since we won’t be in LA for one of our favorite holidays today, I knew I needed to find a way to replicate it for Cinco de Mayo in the Bay Area. I created a Sparkling Margarita for ONEHOPE last year and it’s one of my favorite cocktails ever, so adding a dash of Sparkling on top of this guy just takes it to the next level. Enjoy!

PS: On a personal level, while we miss our LA restaurants, we’re having a ton of fun exploring the food scene of Napa Valley – it definitely wasn’t a bad place to move to on that front 😉

Raspberry Serrano Sparkling Margarita

Ingredients

ONEHOPE Sparkling Brut
1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 oz. tequila
3 slices serrano (more for garnish)
3 tbs. raspberry (muddled)
a dash of agave
lime wedge
salt

Directions

Combine lime juice, tequila, serrano, raspberry and agave into a shaker filled with ice. Shake to combine and pour into a salt rimmed glass. Garnish with extra serrano and lime wedge and top with Sparkling Brut. CHEERS!

Get the Look – Indigo Harvest Party

October 15, 2015

Yesterday I shared some of my favorite pictures from a party we threw at work in September that happened to be one of my favorite shoots we’ve done here at the office. Maybe we’re just accumulating good pieces that are really versatile or maybe I’m just better at knowing what to expect for entertaining + photoshoot days, but this party was honestly the simplest yet to achieve. I loved the laid back yet pulled together vibe and that nothing felt fussy. A relaxed host is the best host, so keeping the decor simple allowed everyone to relax without fretting over every detail and allowed us to just enjoy the evening with friends. At the end of shooting, we were all able to sit around the table, drink some wonderful wine over candlelight and share great stories.

I thought I’d pull together some of the key pieces to achieving this look below. For the most part, everything is pretty neutral with the exception of the pops of indigo to bring some color to the space so you could easily make this work with any color palette. I’d love to see if you replicate this at home! If you do, be sure to share over Instagram by tagging me @megrobins. Cheers!

Galvanized Serving Tray // Pottery Barn
Indigo Pillow // A Beachside Bungalow
Glass Candle Holder // CB2
Indigo Pillow // A Beachside Bungalow
Galvanized Planter // CB2
Marble Candlestick // CB2
Pitcher // Ikea
Serving Board // Sur La Table

You can view the rest of the images here. Big thanks to Joel from Studio EMP for the shots!

Indigo Harvest Party

October 14, 2015

Last month, we threw a little get-together at work to congratulate two teammates who had achieved some major milestones. The vibe was supposed to be casual and nothing too fussy, yet I wanted it to feel pulled together with some commonality. Since it was almost fall, but was still so incredibly hot, I decided to play around with a harvest theme that incorporated some cooler hues to keep the design from being too stuffy and hot on a scorching September afternoon (no reds or oranges here!). Thanks to a recent trip to the Rose Bowl Flea, I had a ton of indigo fabric that I knew would make a great base. I picked up some weathered indigo cloth napkins from World Market to keep the look cohesive and to create some contrast against our simple white plates. Playing off of the harvest theme, each place setting had a little artichoke on the napkin and larger artichokes, bay leaf, and simple fall greens placed down the center of the table. I evenly spaced a few white marble candlesticks and some simple votives to bring in a little warmth and glow. Since we were super limited on time, I threw some extra greens in a pitcher for the buffet table and painted a really quick congratulatory sign with watercolor to hang above. The food was also kept simple with a cheese and charcuterie board to pair with each of the wines we were going to be serving that night. A few sprigs of green kept everything tied together and we were ready to go! Take a look at some of my favorite shots from the party below. Cheers!

{All images by Joel Maus of Studio EMP}

Fig & Chevre Ciabatta Toast

October 8, 2015

Toast is really having a moment. I’m fairly certain that avocado toast opened the toast door and now it’s everywhere in every shape, size and ingredient combination. And honestly, what isn’t there to love about toast? Growing up, I ate toast almost every morning (peanut butter was my favorite) and I don’t really know when or why I stopped, but I’m a big fan of this new toast trend and exploring new ways to enjoy it.

With a leftover loaf of ciabatta and a a handful of figs remaining from our fig frenzy at the office, I decided to try a combination of flavors that I’d been wanting to explore. This crostini was a huge hit so I decided on a toast and whipped these up in almost no time. The end result was pretty incredible. They were easy enough to throw together in under 15 minutes, but felt a little fancy with the drizzled honey and sprinkling of thyme. AND, with the perfect wine pairing, they were certainly something that you could eat anytime during the day or night. Toast isn’t just for breakfast anymore, people! Cheers!

Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 6 servings

I N G R E D I E N T S

6 slices of fresh ciabatta
1 tbs. butter (melted)
8 oz. chevré
3 figs (thinly sliced)
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2-3 tbs. honey

D I R E C T I O N S

Preheat oven to 350 and butter both sides of each slice of ciabatta.
Place slices on baking sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes (until bread starts to toast). Remove from oven and carefully flip toasts. Bake for another 3-4 minutes being careful not to let the toast burn.
Remove from oven and allow toasts to cool slightly.
While toasts are still hot, but cool enough to be handled, spread each piece with chevré and top with 3-4 slices of fig.
Garnish each toast with a few small pieces of thyme and drizzle honey over top.
Serve immediately and serve with Chardonnay (for white lovers) or Pinot Noir (for red lovers) – my recommendation is the Pinot which is known to pair wonderfully with chevré. Cheers!

Chicken a la Vendemmia

October 1, 2015

With pound of leftover figs from our Fig & Rosemary Sparkling Cocktail and Fig & Prosciutto Flatbread Pizza, I was on the hunt for a yummy fall harvest inspired recipe. When I stumbled upon Michael Chiarello’s Chicken a la Vendemmia recipe, I was sold. What better way to use up our figs than with ripe grapes that could be pulled off of our own vineyard? Since I was making this in LA and not at the Napa house, I opted to use table grapes instead, but next year when I’m in Napa for harvest, I’m definitely making this with grapes from our vines. I sought out to replicated the dish with a few little tweaks along the way and was delighted with how simple and delicious this turned out to be. I’ve never cooked a bone-in chicken breast, but it was so juicy and wonderful that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to cook a boneless/skinless chicken breast again – so much better! The skin and fennel added just the right amount of savory crunch and it’s hard to go wrong with figs. The combination of the figs and grape made for a sweet sauce over the chicken that paired wonderfully with a well balanced, lightly oaked Chardonnay. YUM!

Find the original recipe here and make sure you check out Michael’s restaurant, Bottega in Yountville the next time you visit Napa – it’s one of our favorites. Cheers!

Time: 1 hour
Yield: 2 servings

I N G R E D I E N T S

2 lbs grapes (seeded or seedless table grapes)
2 large bone-in chicken breasts (skin on)
Sea salt
Pepper
2 teaspoons fennel
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup shallot, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced rosemary
1 cup fresh figs (halved)

D I R E C T I O N S

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Using a food processor, puree the grapes and then strain. You want to extract as much of the juice as possible so you may need to press the solids up against a sieve to do so. 2 lbs. of grapes should yield about 2 cups of juice.
Season your chicken breasts liberally with fennel. Sprinkle each with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium/high heat. Once your skillet is hot, add the olive oil and chicken (skin side down) and cook for 4-5 minutes. Flip the chicken breasts over and cook for another 2 minutes. Transfer pan to oven and cook until chicken is done (10-15 minutes).
Remove chicken from the skillet and discard all but 1-2 tablespoons of fat from the pan. Add the shallot and cook until softened and slightly transparent. Add rosemary for 10-15 seconds before incorporating your grape juice, stirring to evenly distribute the heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes (or until mixture starts to reduce) and add your figs. Allow figs to warm throughout (about 1-2 more minutes before removing from heat).
Plate your chicken and pour the sauce and figs overtop. Garnish with fresh rosemary and serve with a glass of ONEHOPE Chardonnay. Cheers!

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