Cooking From Scratch

I'm about to tell you how I used the contents in this box, to make this...(see below)

Brined Chicken with a Strawberry Basil Reduction and Zucchini Cakes topped with Yogurt Dill Sauce.

ScratchDC is a company serving up hand-prepared dinner kits that come "chopped, measured, marinated, and delivered ready to cook!" Perfect for working parents, newlyweds, busy professionals or those who typically get lost in the kitchen. Also perfect for foodies spending their summers working in DC:)

I first heard about Scratch when my boss came into work one day raving about the meal she had for dinner the night before. Her roommate owns a cafe/coffee/wine bar that is now a retailer for Scratch. They tested out the product and decided it was good enough to sell in his store.

Scratch sells their kits through retailers or delivers them to you office, home or doorman. After reading up on it, I knew I wanted to try it out. They have a different meal every Monday-Thursday and provide the menu to order from for up to two weeks. This cute brown box was delivered right to my office desk completely prepared for me to take home and cook up in about 40 minutes!

Scratch was started by foodies who have a passion for quality meals and awesome ingredients. Each kit is hand packed daily with pre-measured containers including everything you need. They even give you olive oil and salt and pepper. All you need are a few pans and kitchen knives.

Step-by-step instructions lead you through each dish. The kits serve two people. That being said, you could definitely stretch it two three people, we had tons of leftovers. They only thing is one person will be left out from the two chocolate chip cookies that each kit comes with to finish off your meal! How sweet is that! 

I wanted to test the product and make sure my meal turned out exactly as expected. I made sure to follow the instructions closely, especially the part where it says pour glass of wine while you wait 10 minutes. 

It really can't get easier that dumping pre-portioned containers into a bowl to be mixed up in to a gourmet dish.

The zucchini cakes cooked up quick and easy. Just heat a little oil in a pan and drop about three to four large spoonfuls of the mixture. Flatten them out and let them brown, give them a flip and they are done. 

This strawberry basil sauce was out of this world. I was licking the bowl and wanted to put it on everything. It was made from chopped strawberries, a little OJ, coconut oil and chopped basil. It was the cherry on-top of the meal!

I mean, I can't even tell you how amazing this meal was. I have strict plans to recreate this meal at home, so I will be sure to post the recipe. It won't be as convenient as using Scratch's kit but I'll see how it goes. If you are in the DC area you must give Scratch a try. This is another amazing Washington novelty I wish I could franchise to Oklahoma! 

Thank you to ScrachDC for the chance at letting me try your amazing product! Read more about their food and how it works on their website and Facebook page. 

Annie

Bites of My Life

The past two weeks have been filled with lots of blue, sorority songs, catching up with friends, getting settled, and celebrating the few days between recruitment and school starting. 

I personally don't mind school starting. I like having a routine to stick to and reasons to be organized. I love things the school season brings. Football games, sweater weather and in the words of Kathleen Kelly, bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils.

-Got to escape a few hours of work week to make my favorite sugar cookies.

-Kappa cookies for treats during our alumni/skit night!

-Pistachio, almond butter, white chocolate and orange liqueur rice crispy treat! Yes that is all packed into to one treat and sis brought it back for me all the way from San Diego!

-When a friend offered to buy all the ingredients for omelets as long as I showed her how to make one, I quickly obliged. 

-Loved getting to do my last recruitment week with the best PC around! Go Kappa!

-Cutie cups for the new house! 

-Loved exploring around the new West Elm in Classen Curve. Way to go OKC, now if we could just get a Trader Joe's, Zara and H&M....wishful thinking.

-A fresh coat of paint for my new room. Full bedroom tour to come!

-Can't wait for more breakfasts like this. Love having roomies who also enjoy things like coffee, breakfast foods, sriracha and smoothies. 

-A day of laying out and dinner at my dear friend's parent's house!

-Only good things went into this Saturday night salad. Avocado, dried figs, red onion, prosciutto and basil.

-To rap up my two weeks of bites; a back to school dinner with my Kappa family! Parmesan baked chicken with arugala salad, sautéed summer squash and watermelon feta salad!

Today is my last first day of school, hello senior year!

Annie

The Only Cobbler Recipe You Need

The best summer dessert, are you ready?

This cobbler is a family favorite. It's just about the easiest recipe and is always a hit!

It doesn't have a laundry list of ingredients like most recipes. It has two components: any kind of fruit you like then the delicious crumbly topping. Lot's of things are blue in my life right now so I kept with the theme and used blueberries, but I also love blackberries. Any combination of berries is also great!

Tucker Family Cobbler
yields 8-10 servings (one 8x8 or 9x9 pan)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pints or 3 cups of fruit (you can use blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, peaches etc.)
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 stick of cold butter

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Wash and dry your fruit then spread evenly in an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan.

In a bowl combine the flour and sugar. Beat your egg, then add into the flour sugar mixture with a whisk. Once you get it partially mixed, you can use clean heads to finish combining. Mix until your topping resembles pea size crumbs. Cover your fruit with the topping. 

Dice up the butter and place over the topping. The butter will melt in the oven and is essential to get that perfect crispy crumb top!

Bake for 40 minutes until lightly golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, homemade is preferred and this recipe comes out perfect every time! 

Buttered up and ready for the oven!

Like I said, this is the only cobbler recipe you will ever need!

Annie

Bites of My Life

11:59 p.m. bites post coming atcaha, still managed to get it up before Tuesday rolled around! My posts will still be few and far between for just a little bit longer. The second I came home I jumped headfirst into sorority recruitment. With days going from about 7:30 a.m. -11:30 p.m. its hard to find energy to exert into a blog post. I had to get my weekly bites post in though, even though it is awful sparse. Enjoy the random bits from my first week back at home!

-A touch of SCOUT to spice up the kitchen at my cutie new house! Say hello to our Trash Cache in Varsity Blues (my favorite pattern from the new collection).

-Me and my favorite gal. Just doing a little late night reading in my cozy new bed!

-Great to be back with these chickadees.

-A surprise visit from the Super Juice truck to keep us healthy and energized during the long days of work week!

-Get ready for the overload of food posts that are about to happen this year. Having my own kitchen is a wonderful thing. First up, my family's notorious cobbler recipe. 

Annie

D.C. Diary: The Conclusion

It's been a week since I've been home. I'm not going to lie, it's nice to be home, but not a day goes by that I don't think of something in D.C, get reminded of something, or feel like I'm missing out on things going on in the city. I'm super busy in the muck of sorority recruitment, so luckily I have that to keep my mind preoccupied.

I drug Anna and Emily to July's Truckeroo. It's a food truck festival at the Bullpen outside the National's stadium. It was a beautiful night with live music, drinks and food trucks for days. I chose the crepe truck! I ordered my veggie crepe while a tub of Nutella bigger than my head stared me down in line. 

Continued perusing the streets of Georgetown to find my dream house.

Loved getting to show Kathleen Barre 3 Georgetown! We took two classes over the weekend and loved obnoxiously matching. 

Visited Union Market for the second time. Sampled yummy treats, shopped around and...

...happened to visit the same day DC Scoops was going on! An ice cream tasting event with all different local ice cream vendors!

Shopped around in the fabulous Salt and Saudry inside Union Market. A unique home goods store filled with locally made goods, specialty foods, glassware and cookbooks. 

Finished our day at Union Market outside at the picnic tables enjoying the beautiful day. 

Checked walking the monuments at night off my D.C. bucket list. If you visit D.C, you have to go see these beauties at night.

Everything is more grand and aw worthy under the moonlight. 

I was surprised by the amount of people there at night, but now I know why. 

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge WWII memorial fan, but it looks sooooo cool at night. 

Climbed up and around to snag a pic with the home state!

From dark to light, the monuments are cliche, one of the coolest things in D.C.

Our last morning, we woke up at 5:15 to watch the sunrise! I loved seeing runners go by, stop in front of the Washington, take a picture, then run off. Locals still find beauty in their city. 

The cutest little housing building on GWU's campus I stumbled upon on our way back from the morning at the monuments. 

I'm going to miss my little walk through the farmer's market after work on Wednesdays. 

If you follow me on insta you know my food grams are slightly out of control. They only heightened in D.C. and I then made it a goal to get regrammed by @dcdining. It happened a few times and it sadly would make my day every time.

My goal is to make brunch much more of a thing in Norman. My Saturdays and Sundays lived for brunch. I can't claim this as mine, but my friend's eggs chesapeake were too pretty not to take a pic of. Toasted baguette, crab meat, poached eggs and hollandaise. 

The Matchbox cinnamon rolls finally happened. I followed them with the egg frittata making it one of my favorite brunches. 

Quinoa, asparagus arugula goodness. 

Smoked Salmon Pizzetta at Kafe Leopold. 

Nutella for days at my favorite ice cream shop.

Seared Tuna salad at El Centro for lunch with my fellow interns and boss. 

Our spread at Birch and Barley officially made it my favorite restaurant in D.C. The food, the drinks, the atmosphere and the fact that my sis was there made it one of the best!

Came home with two bags of Hippie Crack. Oh how I will miss you Baked and Wired. 

Colorful add-ins to my mediterranean bowl at Cava Grill. 

A much anticipated meal. 

After a slight run-in with peanut butter, it was necessary to wash it down with a cone of pistachio ice cream. Pistachio has quickly become my favorite ice cream flavor. 

A boozy blondie, just like me. Totally kidding, but this blondie was delish. 

Bruschetta to start our italian feast at Lavagna on Barracks Row.

Two bowls of pesto pasta for the table, because sometimes you just need a big bowl of pasta. 

A loaded plate after going through the Famers Fishers Bakers buffet line. Highlight was the bruleed grapefruit. 

A plate of biscuits and cinnamon rolls for every table at brunch. Plates of benedict, pizza and sushi also went by. It was an array of fabulous food. I'll be honest, it was delicious but I like my brunches heavy on the breakfast and it leaned more toward lunch. 

Homemade crab cakes, slaw and corn alfresco. I love a good meal outside. 

Tried my first Acai Bowl. I went for the "Coco Bowl" with strawberries, bananas, coconut, and acai juice, all topped with granola. It was basically and overpriced smoothie bowl I could make at home, but it was worth it. 

Free 'secret' flavor Georgetown Cupcakes. This was post-dropping the box head first, but hey, they were free. 

A farewell breakfast at First Bake. My Egg in a Nest consisted of two eggs nesting inside chili cheese bread topped with hot sauce of course. 

The epitome of my summer internship. Doing anything to get the perfect instagram shot, I constantly asked myself how this could really be work. 

My social media creeping came back to bite me in the butt when my co-workers made me match names with instagrams of people from the office at my going away party. I worked with some of the best people around that I miss so much.

My two SCOUT sidekicks. 

A little Nutty Professor shake at Ted's Bulletin to round out our summer in D.C.

To D.C,

Thank you for allowing me to live in your city for a summer, make memories I'l never forget, eat your amazing food that is better than any other city (you can mark my word on it), have the best internship that was more rewarding than I could have ever imagined, and for making it the best summer of my life. 

Sincerely,

-Annie