Design.Wine.Dine.

Cleaning It Up // Easter Leftovers

One of the greatest things about any major holiday (aside from gathering with friends and family) is the food. And one of the greatest things about the food is the leftovers. From Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing sandwiches, to ham and cheesy potatoes after Easter, leftovers always give me something to look forward to after our families have returned home and life goes back to normal post-holiday.

That being said, I’ve done a major overhaul on my diet and lifestyle this year and I know how easy it is to get completely derailed by a holiday. I vowed to not let that happen and I’ve been more successful than ever at bouncing back after work travel, birthday celebrations, etc. However, in the sake of tradition, I didn’t want to completely change our family’s Easter menu and I inevitably ended up with (easily a week’s worth) of leftovers that I knew were going to kill my stomach if I indulged. In an effort to hang on to the holiday for just one more day, I decided to whip up an Easter “bowl” that would allow me the nostalgia while also being a lot better for me than filling up on dairy and sugar.

I wanted to keep that “honey baked” ham flavor, without the prosed cane sugar, so I made a simple dressing with a tiny bit of honey and dijon mustard to pay homage to the classic. What I love about this dish is that it’s full of vitamins from the greens and healthy fat & protein from the egg. While there are a decent amount of carbohydrates in the quinoa (check your labels), it’s a superfood that’s packed with protein and will fill you up without spiking your blood sugar, causing an inevitable crash later. See what I did below:

Easter Bowl

INGREDIENTS

A few pieces of leftover ham (we only glazed half of our ham so I pulled these pieces from the unglazed half)
1/2 cup prepared quinoa
1-2 cups greens (I used spring mix)
1 egg
2-3 tbs dressing (recipe below)
Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

  1. Prepare quinoa (or reheat 1/2 cup if using leftovers).
  2. When quinoa is within 5 minutes of being finished, fill a sauce pan 2/3 full of water and bring to a boil to poach your egg. I follow these instructions and they’ve never failed me.
  3. After your water is heating, place ham in a small skillet over low heat and prep your dressing (below).
  4. Once all components are complete, assemble your bowl, drizzle with dressing, and finish with freshly cracked pepper & a touch of salt. Enjoy!

Dressing (serves two so serve half and store remaining dressing for up to 1 week in the fridge)

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs. dijon mustard
1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. raw honey

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all dressing ingredients and whip together with a fork or whisk until well combined and texture is consistent.

What do you think? What’s your favorite way to repurpose holiday leftovers?

Spring in Napa

Swung by the vineyard on Friday to give the girls from Found Rentals a tour. So grateful for sunshine!

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a lovely Easter or Passover weekend with loved ones! My parents were in town so it made for a fun and delicious day in the kitchen. Northern California has had the wettest year on record with Easter being no different, so while it wasn’t bright and sunny like last year, it made for a cozy afternoon of cooking and table setting with my mom and dad. Jake and I celebrated my 30th (for the final time!) at The French Laundry the night before with friends (Megan, who was also turning 30 and Erik, Megan’s fiancé and Jake’s college friend & business partner), so we were really feeling Saturday’s wine consumption – ha! The low key Easter celebration was just what the doctor ordered. Here are a few snaps from the weekend!

PS: I wanted to acknowledge what a privilege it was to celebrate at the iconic French Laundry. As two foodie couples, this was a dream of all of ours and we took some time to reflect on that before dinner. Jake and I decided that 2017 was going to be a year of experiences, not things, and it was truly an experience that I’m so thankful for and that I’ll never forget.

F R I D A Y // Happy place


Tiny clusters of Sauvignon Blanc forming.

SATURDAY // The French Laundry (iPhone snaps)


Had to grab a group shot in front of the famous blue door.


Excited and anxiously awaiting the first course!


Kitchen tour! The energy was magnetic. There was plenty of hustle bustle, but I was shocked at how calm, collected, and genuinely kind the staff was. They made us feel more than welcome and even offered to take pictures for and with us.

S U N D A Y // Easter


Easter table with my mom. Recreated last year’s look (more details here).


Spring strawberry salad with pomegranate vinaigrette, candied walnuts, and feta.


My dad’s famous Deviled Eggs (with parsley ironically resembling the Michigan mitten).


So thankful for my parents. It was truly wonderful having them here and I can’t wait for them to be officially California residents in six weeks!

Hello Spring!

Spring has arrived in Napa Valley and I always seem to have a new burst of creative energy when the seasons change. Excess creative energy inevitably leads me to my little home on the web which is how I ended up here! There are so many things that have gone down in the past few months that I haven’t shared, but below is a quick rundown without diving into too many details.

  • Estate8 is moving along faster than ever (drywall starts next week)! I’ve been posting about this pretty regularly over on Instagram so you’re probably pretty up to speed if you follow me over there.
  • My parents officially bought a home in Vacaville, CA (about 30 minutes from our home) and I could not be more thrilled for them to move here in June! They’re visiting right now to get their new home spruced up and move-in ready in about six weeks.
  • My sister and her husband decided to move to California as well and are officially enroute to the west coast! This was the biggest shock for me of all and I seriously can’t believe they’re moving here!!! I’ll share more on this story at another time because it’s a good one!
  • I turned 30! It’s still setting in so more on that later too… ha!

Things have been crazy busy while trying to juggle the Estate8 project and still keep up with my real full time job at ONEHOPE so I hadn’t had time to think about Easter (one of my favorite holidays) until last week. Since we’re hosting some friends and family and there was no real time to try to think of something new for our table this year (and because I loved last year’s so much), I decided to stick with almost the exact same look. I was flipping through pictures from 2016 and realized I never shared these so I figured I’d get them up here on the blog.

The inspiration for it all started when my parents and I were exploring St. Helena a few years ago and I found these tiny, vintage farm animal caricatures at a resale shop. I had no idea what I’d ever use them for and my mom thought I was crazy, but at $20 for the set, I knew I had to have them. I believe they were labeled as cupcake toppers, but last Easter I decided to put one at everyone’s place setting as a starting point for the look and took things from there. I had these rose wine glasses on hand from a photo shoot, picked up some peachy pink napkins (similar) and a vase (similar), pulled out my gold flatware, tossed in some simple florals from Trader Joe’s and we were ready to go! I’ll be recreating the look on Sunday and I can’t wait for everyone to gather round. Wishing you a very happy Easter or Passover! Cheers!

PS: Links to the products I used (or similar) are below if you want to recreate this look in your home for a spring brunch or dinner. xoxo

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