Farmers Market Pizza

A pile of good things on some dough. That’s what pizza is to me.

This pizza was too beautiful not to share. We used our favorite dough recipe and piled on some of our farmers market favorites, from bottom to top it went like this:

Porzio’s Pizza Sauce

thinly sliced onions

a little freshly grated Romano

Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse mozzarella

Okra from Ron’s Roots sautéed with a little masa and our Sea Salt&Pepper Blend

Chourico from Wishbone Heritage Farms

Simple, easy, delicious.

It’s time to party, pizza party!

XO

Charleston Spice Co.

Cream cheese bites

Fast, easy, delicious.

These little bites are a crowd pleaser! They can be a simple appetizer before a more complicated meal or just a nice light afternoon snack!

All you need is 8 oz of cream cheese (we used cream cheese from Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse) and 4 teaspoons of our Onion Dip Blend (or another of our dip blends, the choice is yours). Once you’ve blended these two, let sit to flavor up a bit more or use right away.

Spread the cream cheese over crackers or fresh bread and top with fresh veggies, olives, or even pesto!!

XO

Charleston Spice Co.

Field Trip – Savannah, GA

It was a gloomy overcast day when we decided to go to Savannah to visit the farmers market.(Yes, we work at farmers markets and on our days off we visit farmers markets.)

We thought that perhaps we would drive out of the gloom and into a sunny day. As it turned out, the clouds in Savannah got tired of flying high and decided to settle in for the day:

But we’re not ones to be put off by the soft mist and cool caressing light of a city being hugged by clouds. We meandered through Forsyth Park and eventually made it to the farmers market. Garnette was more attentive to the market as I was busy gazing at the beautiful trees that shelter the market from rain and sun.

After taking in the market and stoping and chatting with our friends at The Charleston Artisan Cheesehouse & Vegetable Kingdom tents, we explored the streets of Savannah. And what a pretty city it is!! Just aimlessly wandering up and down the streets and alleys was a treat.

We were quite peckish after walking miles up and down and back and forth so we stopped for a delicious late brunch at Collins Quarter. It was really tasty and a great way to fortify ourselves for a little more walking and the drive back to Charleston.

We’re hoping the rest of the year is full of little day trips like this one. There’s nothing like a new year to spark the excitement of adventure & travel!

Where is this year going to take you?

xo

Charleston Spice Co.

London Broil

Let’s just take a minute and talk about what dreams are made of.

(Uh, a meat eater’s dreams, definitely not a vegetarian’s dreams.)

Like this luscious London broil from Solo Verdi Meats:

I’m not usually one to salivate over a bloody hunk of meat. In fact if you asked me what kind of meat I love I’d tell you I like brussels sprouts.

But this was really good.

Here’s how you make it happen:

1.) Go to the farmers market.

2.) Find the person who’s selling pasture raised or grass-fed beef and get yourself some.

3.) If you’re at the Charleston, Summerville, or Mount Pleasant farmers market, find your favorite spice dealer and buy some Cocoa Nib Rub or the blend of your choice. (If you’re not from around Charleston that’s okay you can still get your spice blends HERE.)

4.) The night before you plan on grilling your meat, cover it with your spice blend, place it in the fridge and let it become the piece of deliciousness it was meant to be.

5.) After you grill it to perfection the next day, remove it from the heat, cover it, and let it sit a little while longer. If it’s a really good piece of grass-fed meat then it just needs a little while longer to truly be as tasty as it can be. We let ours rest for an hour while we assembled the other part of our meal, stuffed baked potatoes.

6.) After twenty minutes to an hour, slice it up and enjoy!!

Have a great weekend!!

XO

Charleston Spice Co.

 

Brainstorming

We do our best daydreaming, uh, I mean, brainstorming at the farmers markets.

One of us will say, You know what I want? Vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce and peaches and blueberries.

And the other person will say, Mmmm chocolate waffles with dark chocolate chunks…

And we’ll lapse into silence as we both get lost in thought but later we’ll bring it all together:

Stay cool, stay sweet, and keep daydreaming,

XO

Charleston Spice Co.

 

Chai Ice Cream

Yeah.

mmmm, yum.

Words.

I’m at a loss here, but shoot, this ice cream is delightfully refreshing (all by itself or in an ice cream sammie, you can’t go wrong).

It’s creamy and cold and full of that lovely chai flavor. It’s best if you make the cream mixture a day in advance and let it chill and intensify in flavor before turning it into ice cream! Here’s what ya need:

6 rounded teaspoons chai masala

10 oz water

1 cup sugar

14 oz milk

4 rounded teaspoons black tea (optional, we didn’t use tea in the pictured ice cream)

2 cups heavy cream

Bring H2O and chai to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. Add milk and tea simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and steep for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Strain chai and stir in heavy cream. Chill overnight and then follow your ice cream makers directions to freeze ice cream!

If you want to make deliciously scrumptious ice cream sandwiches you can take the easy route like us. Instead of making our own cookies we went to our favorite cookie baker at the farmers market, The Cookie Chick, and bought a variety of cookies!!

Stay cool, stay sweet,

Charleston Spice Co.

Beautiful Blackberry Cobbler

Maybe you were a little overenthusiastic at the last couple of markets and bought a bunch of blackberries in a fit of excitement. Or maybe you saw all the blackberries and thought, darn, what the heck do I do with those?

Here’s a good option from Southern Living:

Here’s what ya need:

FOR COBBLER

4 cups fresh blackberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 large egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

6 tablespoons butter, melted

FOR WHIPPED TOPPING

chilled metal bowl

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons vanilla bean sugar (you can use less or more sugar depending on how intense you want the flavor and sweetness to be!)

Fresh mint sprigs for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 F. This is also a good time to place a metal bowl in the freezer if you plan on whipping up your own whipped cream.

Place blackberries in lightly greased 8 inch square baking dish and sprinkle with lemon juice. Stir together egg, sugar, flour, and ginger in a medium bowl until mixture looks like coarse meal. Sprinkle on top of blackberries and drizzle melted butter over all. Bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and let cool a bit.

While the cobbler is cooling you can make some whipped cream. Combine heavy whipping cream and sugar in your chilled metal bowl and whip it, whip it real good. Once you’ve beat that cream into whipped cream, chop up some mint to throw on top of your cobbler as you dish it out!!

XO

Charleston Spice Co.

 

Lavender Strawberries

We bought some lovely strawberries from Maple Ridge Farm last week and it was quite a challenge to not eat them all before we got home!

But we already had some vanilla ice cream so we needed something to top it off with and what better than with macerated strawberries.

 

Yum.

 

Here’s how you can make this simple but delicious dessert:

Start by cutting up your strawberries

 

Put the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle with two heaping tablespoons of lavender flower sugar. The more sugar you add the sweeter they will be so if you want super sweet strawberries add more sugar!

Place the bowl in the refrigerator and let sit for a couple of hours.

When you take them out you can add them to ice cream like we did or put them on top of scones, shortcake, or yogurt!

Happy eating!

See you at the markets!