Archives for August 2014

Sweet Potato, Kale & Black Bean Hash

August 30, 2014 by Mackenzie

Well week one of my senior year is over! It’s crazy to think how quickly this semester will fly by and then I’ll be on the downhill slide to graduation! This was a wonderful week of seeing all of my old friends, sharing stories from my wild summer, and celebrating my birthday! Libby and I will be baking an elaborate cake this weekend as a belated celebration – it should be fun! I’ll share pictures soon!

But today, I’m sharing this super easy, healthy and delicious sweet potato, kale & black bean hash. I made it several times last year and only just realized that I never posted it to the blog! So here you go – finally! This can be for any meal – it is hearty and filling for breakfast and quite satisfying for lunch or dinner too! You can eat it either warm or cold but I prefer it warm 🙂

I also love this meal because it is CHEAP. I think you can probably get all the ingredients for less than $5 – and it serves three!

Sweet Potato, Kale & Black Bean Hash

Recipe Type: Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Olive oil
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups kale, chopped
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
Black Pepper
Avocado

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread diced sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle well with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes until cooked through.
When sweet potatoes are done, coat a large skillet with olive oil and saute the sliced green onions for 3-4 minutes, until soft. Add sweet potato and sea salt and cook for another 3 minutes until potatoes have softened. Add the black beans and kale, folding it in gently. Cook it all together for a few more minutes until the kale has wilted.
Serve with avocado slices and enjoy!

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

August 24, 2014 by Mackenzie

One day… ONE DAY until I start my senior year of college! How in the world did that happen? I remember sitting in my dorm room in the spring of my freshman year deciding to start a blog and writing that first post thinking… what would I say? Well, after many iterations I am so proud of what this blog has become! A full-fledged food blog with followers, giveaways, life updates and more! For my family who has followed this blog since the beginning – thank you! And to my new readers, welcome and thanks for reading! I live a crazy, wild, exciting life and I’m thrilled to share it (and what I’m cooking) with you!

I got back to St. Louis on Wednesday and it was been a busy few days of unpacking, organizing, finding odd furniture and lugging it up three flights of stairs, struggling to drill screws into a wall to hang a shelf (how can it be so difficult?!) and now… it’s time to take a break and catch up on email, the blog and get ready for my classes tomorrow!

One of the things I was most excited to return to in St. Louis was my ice cream maker! So it is only fitting that my first post be an ice cream. While my roommate and I were reorganizing our kitchen we found dried lavender and I remembered one of my favorite flavors of ice cream – Honey Lavender. Naturally, I decided to make it and here we go! It is a perfect treat for this horribly hot weather – it has been 100+ degrees the last few days, with high humidity too!

It was a race against the heat as I was trying to take these pictures outside! The ice cream was melting SO FAST in the 100 degree heat!

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

From Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream Cookbook

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon finely ground dried lavender
Pinch of kosher salt

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk, until the sugar and honey dissolve. Just before the mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a shallow pan or a 4 cup measuring cup (my preference because it makes pouring into the ice cream maker much easier). Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until thoroughly chilled.
When the mixture is very cold (important!!), pour into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions (note: it may take longer than usual – I’m not sure why but each time I have made it, it takes a long time to reach the right thickness). Transfer to a plastic container and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Notes

It is really important that it is very, very, very cold before you churn it. Be patient and let it sit an extra hour in the fridge before churning it if need be! It will be worth it!

I’ve also joined a giveaway hosted by Juggling Act Mama! Head on over to her page and enter – who wouldn’t want $125 to start the school year!

Peach, Prosciutto, and Pistachio Pizza + [Life Update] New York, New York!

August 16, 2014 by Mackenzie

Before I tell you about this amazing pizza – I have exciting news to share!!! Drum roll please…

I’m going to New York!! In five weeks!! With the Clinton family and OBAMA!

So remember back in March when I had the opportunity to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University conference at Arizona State? You can read about that incredible weekend here and about my Commitment to Action, The Social Kitchen here. Well, along with CGI U, the Clinton Foundation also hosts a conference for philanthropists and world changers to come together for an Annual Meeting in New York. I heard about an opportunity to volunteer at the event and after an extensive application process (to be a volunteer?!!!) – I sent in my application and waited patiently to hear if I would be selected.

And I was!! The night before leaving DC, I was sitting in my bed looking at my packed bags and reminiscing about my incredible summer. I went downstairs, heated up some leftover pasta, got a couple pieces of watermelon – and returned to my bed. With my plate in my lap I opened my email and saw an unread message saying I was chosen to volunteer! EEEEK!

So in five weeks I’ll be headed out to New York – to volunteer at a conference with some pretty phenomenal, world changing people. Along with President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton – President Barack Obama will be speaking along with Matt Damon, Jack Ma (Alibaba), Molly Barra, Muhammad Yunus, the Prime Minister of Denmark… and 44 other super cool people (no kidding 44 other super cool speakers!!). I know I’m obviously volunteering and won’t be attending the conference but the opporunity to be in the vicinity and to hear some of these people will be tremendous!! I cannot wait!

Now the funny part, as I told my mom later that night – is that the only things that were left unchecked on my DC bucket list – were 1) Seeing Obama and 2) Going to NY for a weekend. Ha! Well, would you look at that! The night before I leave DC BOTH of those doors open! Wow…

On another note, we had a fun family dinner tonight and made a bunch of homemade pizzas!

My mom bought this Sur La Table The Petite Pizzeria LD-902SLT for my stepdad last Christmas and this was the first time I had been around to try it! What a blast! It is SO easy – you make your pizza, use the wooden paddles to slide the dough onto the stone and then it cooks for five minutes and you’re done! We made several yummy pizzas tonight – sausage and jalapeño; pepperoni, black olive and mushroom; and my favorite, peach, prosciutto and pistachio. This pizza was fabulous – the sweet peaches melted into the mozzarella, the pistachios toasted while in the oven and became fragrant and flavorful and the prosciutto became crispy and balanced out the sweet peaches.

Peach, Prosciutto, and Pistachio Pizza + [Life Update] New York, New York!

Author: Mackenzie

Serves: 2-3

Makes two pizzas Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

1 lb store-bought pizza dough, divided in two
4 tablespoons olive oil + more if needed
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, shredded
2 peaches, sliced
6 oz thinly sliced prosciutto
2 oz shelled and coarsely chopped pistachios
1 cup arugula, roughly chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons honey

Instructions

Preheat oven (or pizza maker) to 500 degrees and lightly dust work surface with flour.
Take half the dough and roll it, or gently stretch it into a circle. Brush thoroughly with olive oil and top with mozzarella, peaches and prosciutto. Sprinkle pistachios on top. Bake for 5 minutes or until crust is golden.
While baking, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, arugula, basil and salt and pepper in a small bowl. When pizza is finished cooking, remove from oven and top with arugula mixture. Drizzle with honey if desired.

Mackenzie is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. All opinions are Mackenzie’s and she is voluntarily linking to these Amazon products.

[Life Update] A DC Summer…

August 12, 2014 by Mackenzie

Well friends, another adventure has come to a close! As you read this, I’m probably on a flight from DC to St. Louis or catching up with my dear roommate after 3 1/2 months apart! I thought I would take a moment to share some of my photos and tell the stories behind some of my experiences – because what a summer this has been! I really didn’t think I could top last summer in Indonesia – but honestly, this summer has come pretty darn close 🙂

I know I have shared a lot of these photos on facebook and instagram over the summer – so I’m sorry if you’ve already seen them! Hopefully I can share a little more behind each photo and give you the big picture of my time in DC! There is also a lot I won’t be sharing to the world over this blog! So if you see me in person – ask me for more stories!!

So… I arrived in DC at the beginning of June – after spending a month in Madagascar (see this post for that update!) The photo below is from my first morning – I went for a run through the National Mall and couldn’t believe I had been in the bush of Madagascar just days before!

I’m proud to say that I became a very consistent runner during my time here! I ran pretty much every other morning, waking up just before 6am to beat the heat and humidity and take in the breathtaking views of the National Mall without the throngs of tourists. According to “my fitness pal” (PS – awesome app), I think I ran 95 miles this summer! Yeah!

I did plenty of exploring – I had quite the bucket list and checked off just about everything! This was day 1 as I was exploring the Hill and trying to figure out where my office was so I wouldn’t be late on my first day of work 😀

Okay, so then I actually started working! Here’s Martha and I working hard! 😀

The next big question you probably have is, what exactly did you do in your internship? Well… a Hill internship is…a Hill internship. There are plenty of hilarious buzzfeed articles – and they are quite accurate! I highly recommend reading this one if you want to laugh. Anyways, I worked 9-6 and every day would answer phone calls from constituents, give tours of the Capitol Building to constituents, do research on policy for staffers, attend briefings and Committee Hearings (I went to some really cool hearings – one on International Violence Against Women, Campus Sexual Assault etc), go to Intern Lectures (with awesome speakers – I have some pics below), and just do whatever anybody asked of me!

Martha and I would accidentally match at least once a week – so awkward since we were always together

I was outside the Supreme Court when the Hobby Lobby Decision was announced – it was insane!

Another fellow intern and I exploring the Capitol Building! Our badges could get us just about anywhere – so this is just off the Senate FloorChuck Todd – Chief White House News Correspondent – one of the Speakers at the Intern Lectures

Fairly typical sight inside the tunnel connecting the Senate office buildings and the Capitol. The press would wait here for Senators to come off the floor and attempt to interview them before they got on the tram back to the office.

Newly elected House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaking at the Intern Lecture – he was hilarious!“Puppy Day” at the Capitol – yeah, that was a great day 😀One day we were walking around the Capitol and befriended one of the Capitol Police. He showed us the Press Room off the Senate Floor and so I gave an eloquent speech on… well… yeah.Okay, this was definitely the best intern lecture – I got to hear Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speak in the Supreme Court! And she called on me to ask a question – it was certainly a highlight of the summer!! I asked her what has been her proudest moment as a Supreme Court Justice and what was the most challenging. She first said “Well, that’s like making me choose which of my four grandchildren is my favorite!” But then said that the US vs. Virginia case (made the military academy accept women) was her proudest. And for the difficult ones, she said “when we’re divided 4-5 and I’m on the 4 side” 😀Weekends were filled with exploring the sights and sounds of DC! First up, the Jefferson Memorial

The White House at dusk – absolutely beautiful.

Martha and I went to the Congressional Women’s Softball Game – a charity softball game with female Members of Congress versus the female Press!

We also went to the Men’s Congressional Game – this one at the Nat’s Stadium!

I flew home for a quick weekend trip to see Spencer graduate from BCS!The 4th of July – Martha and I camped out at the base of the Washington Monument and had a lovely picnic and enjoyed the incredible firework show with THOUSANDS of people!

We went kayaking on the Potomac River one Saturday night – that is one of my favorite memories of this whole summer!

Martha and I attended the Make Progress Conference for Millennials…That was a fairly epic week but you have to ask me for that story in person 🙂They had fantastic speakers like… Vice President Joe Biden
One of my favorite Senators… Elizabeth Warren (Former Speaker of the House Nancy Peloisi and Senator Kristin Gillibrand and many others were also there!)
Went to a National’s Game!

Went up to Arlington National Cemetery… this is the view from General Robert E Lee’s mansion at the top of the hill in the center of the Cemetery

Had to share this – the longest escalator I have ever seen!!!
On one of our last nights – enjoying ice cream on the steps of the Capitol!Met Senator Parry Murray (the other Washington Senator)Got to sit down and talk with Senator Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakorta!
REALLY wish I could have met Senator Elizabeth Warren… but I at least got my book signed! Another beautiful night at a baseball game!Drove up to Baltimore for the day

Met up with Chesna – a woman I worked with at Standard Chartered Bank in Indonesia last summer! It was so fun to see her again!Got to be in the live audience for a news broadcast for the 2014 Africa SummitChesna somehow made some phone calls and got me connected with the Indonesian Ambassador! I got to go out to his (beautiful) residence and have breakfast with him and his family!

And finally, my own Senator, my Boss and a woman I greatly admire and respect – Senator Maria Cantwell. It was an incredible summer and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to come out here and try out this DC life 😀 I loved it and hope that returning to DC is in my near future! So exciting!

Thanks for bearing with me through this long post – hope you enjoyed this snapshot of my summer! I also cooked, baked and blogged a ton! I made…

Blueberry Basil Grilled Cheese

What a fabulous summer!!! And now, you might ask – what’s next? What did you learn? What is your career path? Well, honestly I have no idea. I can tell you that I have many more realistic, exciting options than I did at the beginning of the summer. But we’re not there yet – and I can’t speculate that far out. First – I have to catch a plane to St. Louis in a few hours. Then tomorrow it’s off to Seattle for a week! I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends and family and then jetting back to STL.

This school year is already promising big things! I’ll be working on my thesis, taking 18 credits (of classes I am pumped about), and madly applying to any opportunity I think may be a good fit 😀

But… I’ve got another big announcement! Stay tuned because it’s BIG and I’m SO EXCITED! Subscribe to my blog (see the link on the right near the top of the page) to be one of the first to hear!!!

Blackberry Brownies (+New Website!!)

August 6, 2014 by Mackenzie

What do you think?! How does the new website look?

I am SO excited about the new site. It has been a work in progress over the last month as I decided that I really wanted to grow my blog, my followers, and transform Never Skip Dessert into it’s very own self-hosted website! In the last few weeks I bought the domain (www.neverskipdessertblog.com) and migrated my old site over to this new self-hosted site on Bluehost. I want to thank Katie Clark over at www.clarkscondensed.com for helping me with the migration – she was very helpful and I didn’t have to worry about a thing!

So now that the big process of migrating and setting up the new site is done – I’m ready to begin posting recipes again! If you want to stay up-to-date on what I’m cooking and where I am in the world (lots of changes in the near future!) I’d love for you to subscribe to my site so that you’ll receive an email with each new post. You can also follow Never Skip Dessert on facebook, instagram or twitter! All the links are on the right hand side of the page.

But back to the kitchen… luckily, I have been able to cook a lot lately! It’s fun to have a whole office ready to eat whatever treat I bring in – and last week, it was these blackberry brownies!

It is HOT and HUMID in DC. Ugh. It’s quite miserable during the day but thanks to the underground tunnels connecting all of the Senate office buildings and the Capitol, I am rarely outside in the middle of the day. But one hot, sticky walk back from work I was craving chocolate and thought about how I could incorporate something summary and refreshing into a classic chocolate treat. For whatever reason, I immediately thought of adding blackberries to brownies and thought – wow, now this is an idea I have to try!

I used a recipe I already had on my blog for Salted Caramel Brownies and omitted the salted caramel and instead added fresh blackberries to the batter just before baking – crushing a few to get blackberry juice swirled into the batter. They turned out fantastic – a sweet surprise in every few bites!

My coworkers loved them and actually asked me to bring them again – so I did! I brought them in two days in a row and they were quite the crowd-pleaser!

Try them out and let me know what you think! Also, I would love a comment if you have one on the look of the new site! (Or any glitches if you can find one!)

Blackberry Brownies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Mackenzie (Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Serves: 18

Ingredients

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 6oz (small) package of fresh blackberries, washed

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
Melt chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over gently simmering water (double boiler) or melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between. Stir until smooth. Beat in the sugar, then the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and salt. Add flour and mix until combined. Finally, stir in the blackberries (don’t be afraid to crush a few and infuse the batter with blackberry juice)
Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool and then cut into squares and serve!

Notes

PS – if you’re short on time/ingredients, you can also use a store-bought brownie mix and just add blackberries to the batter! But shhh – don’t tell anyone 😀

Archives for August 2014

Mackenzie

A Look Back