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Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

July 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Anyone that knows me knows I love a bold, dry, velvety red wine. Nothing pleases me more than to prop up my feet by the fire with a glass of Malbec or Rioja. But in the summertime in Tennessee I have no desire to sit by the fire. No, most of my weekend days and evenings are spent by the pool or on the lake and big glass of bold red wine just doesn’t quite fit. So what to drink? Here is a short list of my favorite and, in my opinion, the best summer wines - all $15.00 or under!

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

Rosé

I love reds so when I drink a cool Rosé that has been produced with my favorite red wine grapes (Pinot Noir, Grenache and Rioja), then I feel that they were made just for me! Rosé is one of the easiest wines to pair with food as it will go with so, so much. Try a wide variety of tapas when drinking this fruity spirit. My top Rosé picks:

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

Chateau Guiot.jpg

Pinot Grigio ( and Pinot Gris)

Same grape, different name. I love a crisp cold Pinot G on a hot day. Many have citrus notes which are perfect for a summertime afternoon. Try with a tray of oysters on the half shell and poached shrimp.

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

Vinho Verde

A lesser known white, Vinho Verde, is from Portugal and they are light, inexpensive and fun to drink due to the effervescent nature of the wine. Tiny bubbles in a crisp white make for a very refreshing wine that goes great with spicy foods such as Paella.

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

Gruner Vetliner

I only recently discovered this wine. Grüner Veltliner is a dry, white wine that grows almost only in Austria. It is tangy with hints of lime and orange zest. Serve with rich meats such as Weiner Schnitzel.

Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15
Foodie Friday: Best Summer Wines Under $15

What are some of your favorite summertime wines?

Cheers!

~Julie Stover, National Sales Manager, Maggie Bags

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Foodie Friday: Foraged Blackberry and Peach Crumble

July 11, 2014 By Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year again- mosquitoes, poison ivy, all sorts of stinging insects, sweltering heat and humidity - but all that can’t stop me from foraging for one of my favorite things ever… WILD BLACKBERRIES. We have some wild blackberry bushes growing all around our property here at the Maggie Bags’ headquarters, and when the opportunity arose to gather some of these delicious jewels, I did.

Wild blackberries tend to be a little less sweet and less juicy than cultivated blackberries, but that’s because they have more fiber in them. They are still sweet, but with a wonderful tanginess you don’t get with store-bought berries. I took them home and turned them into a yummy crumble to share with my family with some ingredients I already had on hand.

Foraged Blackberry and Peach Crumble

Ingredients (filling)

  • 1/3 cup of sugar
  • 1/3 cup of flour
  • sprinkle of salt
  • 2 cups blackberries
  • 3 medium peaches, sliced (another one of my summertime faves)

Directions for Filling

Mix everything but the fruit together in a large bowl.

Gently incorporate the blackberries and peaches.

Add fruit mixture to a greased 9×9 glass baking dish.

Ingredients (crumble)

For the crumble topping, again using whatever I had in the pantry:

  • 2 packets of instant oatmeal (my daughter likes maple brown sugar)
  • 1 cup of granola
  • ½ cup of chopped pecans
  • ½ cup diced cold butter
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • Sprinkle of salt

Directions for Crumble

Mix all ingredients for crumble together in a medium bowl.

Sprinkle and gently press the crumble mixture on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. When the blackberry/peach lava starts bubbling all around the edges of the dish and the top is toasty brown, it’s done.

Enjoy with or without your favorite ice cream! Do you have any secret hideaways for picking wild blackberries?

-Amanda Cox, COO

Amanda maintains longtime relationships with manufacturers to acquire surplus and rejected seatbelt webbing to feed our production of handbags. Passionate about recycling, her first goal is to rescue discarded materials and “upcycle” them into cool products. She has thoughtfully built solid relationships with responsible manufacturing facilities willing to work with non-typical materials.

On any given weekend you might find Amanda spending time in the outdoors with her husband and young daughter. When given the opportunity, she and her husband run to the river to spend some “quiet” quality time together.

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Foodie Friday: Easy Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag

June 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Summer’s best token is a heaping bowl of cool and creamy ice cream. Our family loves to stop at creameries in our area and try the local flavors.

Another fun treat is to make ice cream yourself, and you don’t even need a fancy ice cream maker to do it!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your homemade ice cream:

  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tablespoon rock salt
  • 2 cups cubed ice
  • 2 quart sized freezer zip bag
  • 1 gallon sized freezer zip bag

Directions:

  1. Pour half and half, vanilla, and sugar into the quart-sized freezer bag and seal tightly, but without much air. Place this inside a 2nd zip bag and seal.
  2. Place ice and rock salt inside the gallon bag, and then add the quart bag with the cream mixture. Seal the gallon bag tightly (but again, without much air to puff it up).
  3. Begin to massage the bags, squishing the rock salt and ice around the bag of cream. Try to make sure that all surfaces of the cream bag come into full contact with the ice mix. Tip: get out a pair of winter gloves as the ice mix will get incredibly cold!

Kids will enjoy passing the ice cream bag around and taking a turn mixing the ice cream. It’ll take about ten minutes for the cream mixture to begin to thicken into ice cream. YES! It’s that fast! When it reaches a good consistency, remove the cream bag from the ice bag, and dry off.

Use a spatula to scoop the ice cream from the bag into a bowl.

Makes 3 servings (about 1/2 cup each)

Serve immediately - either right out of the bag or in a bowl. Just eat fast, as this kind of homemade ice cream is more like soft serve.

If you like, you can dish the ice cream into a freezer safe container and put it in the freezer to harden a bit more (no more than 30-40 minutes or it gets REALLY hard and you have to chop it up!)

Enjoy! (This is a perfect activity for around a campfire!)

Julie is a New England family lifestyle blogger who loves partnering with her hubby to wrangle and entertain two inquisitive boys. She shares natural living, food, parenting, and educational ideas on her blog Happy Strong Home.

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Foodie Friday: Almond Blue-Banana Smoothie Recipe

June 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Smoothies have taken over as the new breakfast food of choice lately. I’m sure you haven’t missed their growing popularity!

When I first started making smoothies, sometimes I didn’t quite put together the right ingredients and ended up either with a chalky, tasteless mixture. Or else I overdid the fruit and merely had a fruity slushie! When making this smoothie recipe, I discovered the best way to make a good-tasting smoothie is to be sure you include the following three types of ingredients:

  1. Fruit - You can mix varieties here but 1-2 is best for optimal flavor.
  2. Protein - Usuually this comes from the milk base, but you can also throw in some nuts or almond meal.
  3. Healthful fats - Just a little bit goes a long way, but helps add a smoother texture. I like using coconut oil for a tropical flavor, but you could also put in a bit of avocado or whole milk yogurt.
  4. Sweetener - Some people choose to go without added sweetener, but I prefer a small squeeze of honey or maple syrup to bring out the flavors of the fruit!

Here’s my new favorite smoothie recipe:

  • 3/4 cup Almond milk
  • 1-2 T Almond meal
  • 1 frozen banana, slightly thawed, broken into pieces
  • 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1-2 T Coconut oil
  • 1-2 T Coconut flakes
  • 1 T Honey or maple syrup

Put almond milk, meal, banana, and blueberries in blender and blend till smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until well-incorporated.

 

Enjoy your smoothies!

 

What’s your favorite smoothie combo?

Julie is a New England family lifestyle blogger who loves partnering with her hubby to wrangle and entertain two inquisitive boys. She shares natural living, food, parenting, and educational ideas on her blog Happy Strong Home.

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Foodie Friday: Deviled Eggs with Candied Bacon

June 13, 2014 By Leave a Comment

TGIF! In today’s Foodie Friday post we bring you a twist on eggs and bacon. If you’ve ever lived in the South, you know that deviled eggs are a staple at almost any gathering - church potlucks, dinner at a friend’s house, and work luncheons. Deviled eggs are an inexpensive, quick, and easy alternative to many other finger foods. But how can you set your deviled eggs apart? With candied bacon of course!

I was surprised and how quickly this all came together. Deviled eggs are easy enough, but I wasn’t sure about the bacon since I’ve never made it candied before. It was as simple and spreading the candied paste on the bacon and baking it for 20 minutes - that’s it! I suggest starting the bacon making while your eggs are boiling, so you may want to read through both sets of instructions and then decide how you can save time. You can start with having your oven preheated to 350°F to get a head start.

Deviled Eggs with Candied Bacon

Ingredients (Deviled Eggs)

  • 7 eggs, boiled
  • 3 T. mayonnaise
  • 1 T. mustard
  • 2 T. sweet pickle relish
  • 1/2 tsp. celery salt
  • dash of black pepper

Directions (Deviled Eggs)

1. Boil eggs and peel. Cut each egg in half and scoop out the yolks - set yolks in a small bowl. Place egg white halves on a plate or serving dish. I always make 7 eggs in case I have one egg that doesn’t peel well or gets messed up.

2. Add mayo, mustard, celery salt, pickle relish and pepper to the egg yolks and mash together. This should give you a smooth, creamy consistency. If not, add either a little more mayo or some juice from the pickle relish.

3. Using a spatula, scoop out all the yolk mixture and put into a quart size sealable bag. Squeeze contents toward one corner of the bag and then cut off the corner of the bag. I like to use this method because it makes it so much easier to fill the eggs. Slowly squeeze bag with mixture to fill each egg white half.

While the eggs are boiling, I suggest working on your candied bacon.

Ingredients (Candied Bacon)

  • 4-5 strips of bacon
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 T. maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions (Candied Bacon)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. While your eggs are boiling, combine brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Spread paste over each piece of bacon on both sides.

2. Place a piece of parchment paper (or aluminum foil) on a cookie sheet, then place a wire rack on top of that. Put strips of bacon on wire rack and cook for 20-25 minutes. They should be semi-firm but not crispy. Once you take them out they will cool to a firm, crisp texture.

3. Once the bacon has cooled, cut it into 1/2″ pieces. I cut mine into something that ended up looking like a trapezoid and I like to think of them as “shards” of bacon. Place a “shard” on top of each egg half.

What do you do to spice up deviled eggs?

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

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Foodie Friday: Pimento Cheese Fritters

June 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment

FRIED CHEESE. How can you go wrong with fried cheese?? You can’t. A few weeks ago, my husband and I ate out and I saw pimento cheese fritters on the menu. I am a huge fan of pimento cheese (see my recipe for Pimento Cheese) and love using it as a standard condiment. After eating one of the restaurant’s fritters, I immediately thought “I will definitely have to try making these myself!”

My regular pimento cheese recipe is soft and spreadable, and I knew I’d need more firm cheese if these fritter balls were going to stick together. I figured I would switch out most of the mayo for cream cheese and then switch it up a bit by using a blend of pepper jack and cheddar cheeses for a kick. It’s easiest to make the pimento cheese balls the night before and then freeze them so they are easy to handle and you can quickly fry them the next day. This recipe yields about two dozen fritters.

Ingredients

  • 8 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
  • 8 oz pepper jack, shredded
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 3 T. mayonnaise
  • 5-6 oz of pimentos, chopped
  • 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 cups panko
  • 1 gallon of peanut oil (can substitute with vegetable oil)
  • Hot pepper style jelly for dipping

Directions

1. Pre-make pimento cheese balls by combining cheddar, pepper jack and cream cheeses. Blend well then add in mayo and pickle relish. I used my food processor which really blends everything well.

2. Once cheese mixture is well blended, add pimentos and pulse just a few times to get them mixed in.

3. Form pimento cheese into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight.
Foodie Friday: Pimento Cheese Fritters

4. Retrieve pimento balls from freezer. Set out three shallow bowls and fill one with flour, one with buttermilk and one with panko crumbs. Begin by dredging each ball in the flour, then the buttermilk, then the panko. Make sure the panko crumbs cover the ball completely (you don’t want cheese oozing out once you fry them.) If your ball doesn’t look completely covered in panko, then repeat the dredging process - flour, buttermilk and panko - until it’s completely covered. I found that I could get most of them covered in one pass. Set covered fritters into a bowl.

5. Put peanut oil in a large pot and set burner to high. Get the oil up to 350°F - but, if you don’t have anything to test the temperature with, you can put a wooden spoon handle into your oil and if it immediately bubbles up around it you are ready to go (this handy tip courtesy of our COO, Amanda Cox, who said she heard Alton Brown give this advice.) Put six fritters in at a time and fry for 5-10 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to put them in and take them out, placing them on a plate covered in paper towels to drain the oil after frying.

Note: If you want to, start by putting one in to make sure your oil isn’t too hot you could. If it gets too brown within the first 2-3 seconds, you will know and will smell that burnt smell. Also note that you may not need to leave your burner on high and will have to adjust if the oil gets too hot.

I served these with a red raspberry jalapeno jam, but you could use any hot pepper jelly or even ketchup, depending on your preference. These tasty fritters are ideal served as a hot appetizer as soon as you make them, but can be reheated and served. They freeze well.

Have you ever made fritters before? Think you’re ready to try out this recipe?

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

 

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Foodie Friday: Cheesy Ranch Jalapeno Stuffed Chicken

May 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment

TGIF! It’s Friday and you know what that means…Foodie Friday time! In today’s post we’re bringing you a version of jalapeno popper stuffed chicken that is to die for. It’s basically a chicken cutlet stuffed with a deconstructed jalapeno popper with the added yummies of bacon and ranch dressing. This quick dinner entree may quickly become one of your favorites, but beware - it’s addictive!

Cheesy Ranch Jalapeno Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

  • 4-6 chicken cutlets or two chicken breasts sliced in half (horizontally)
  • 3 jalapenos, chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 1/2 packet powdered ranch dressing mix
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Mix together cream cheese, cheddar cheese and ranch dressing.

 

 

 

 

2. Add in chopped jalapenos and crumbled bacon. Mix well.

 

 

 

 

3. Tenderize chicken to make it flatter. The flatter it is, the easier it is to roll up.

4. Spoon cream cheese mixture into center of chicken piece, roll up and secure with toothpicks. Repeat with all chicken pieces.

 

 

 

5. Place on cookie sheet (I used parchment paper) and bake for 20 minutes.

 

I thought that the cream cheese mixture would ooze out the sides when it baked but instead the high temperature kind of gelled the mixture together quickly and it pretty much stayed inside the chicken roll. My husband isn’t usually a big fan of leftovers but he took all the remaining chicken for lunch the next day. This recipe is a keeper!

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

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Foodie Friday: Grilled Chicken Kabobs with Island Soyaki Marinade

May 23, 2014 By Leave a Comment

We’ve made it. Memorial Day weekend. We’re grilling out. But what marinade to use? This marinade is probably one of my very favorites because: A) it’s from Trader Joe’s which just has a lot of great food and B) it contains preservative-free soy sauce and other fresh ingredients. This TJ’s sauce really tastes good with any meat but my favorite way to use it is with chicken. I am not joking when I say that these were the best tasting kabobs I’ve ever made!

Grilled Chicken Kabobs with Island Soyaki Marinade

Ingredients

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped coarsley
  • 1 pkg baby portabella mushrooms
  • Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki Sauce
  • Skewers

Directions

Marinate all ingredients in the Island Soyaki Sauce for 30 minutes then grill.

We used a piece of aluminum foil under our kabobs to keep all the marinade from dripping down into the grill. These were literally the tastiest, juiciest kabobs and now that I’m out of Island Soyaki Sauce that means another fun trip to TJ’s!

What are you grilling this weekend?

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

 

 

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Foodie Friday: Spicy Vegetarian Chili

May 16, 2014 By Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I had scrumptious cup of vegetarian chili at a local deli. It was flavorful and filling without being too heavy. I looked online to find a similar recipe and ran across one that looked great, except it had several weird ingredients I would never put in chili. This led me to try out my own recipe and I was surprised - I hit the nail on the head with my first try!

I was shocked at how tasty this was! I ate this everyday for lunch for four days straight, if that tells you anything! I made one pot of this and froze half of it. You can adjust the below to your level of spice comfort. The cumin in this recipe really gives it a Southwestern vibe, but if you’re not into that then you can reduce or eliminate the cumin.

Spicy Vegetarian Chili Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 T. minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup carrots, grated
  • 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
  • 1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles
  • 1 small jar pimentos
  • 1 can pinto beans, undrained
  • 1 can navy beans, undrained
  • 1 can red beans, undrained
  • 1 can northern beans
  • 1 can light red kidney beans, undrained
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 2 T. chili powder
  • 2 tsp. oregano
  • ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp. pepper

Directions

  1. In a large soup pot, sauté onions and carrots in 1 tsp. olive oil until onions are clear and soft.
  2. Add in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.

Do you have an idea for a Foodie Friday blog post? Tell us by leaving a comment!

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

 

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Foodie Friday: Cheesy Sweet Potato Cakes

May 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment

It’s our favorite day of the week - Friday! That means we’ve got another amazing Foodie Friday recipe for you: Cheesy Sweet Potato Cakes. I whipped up this savory side dish one night when I got tired of making my usual baked sweet potato fries. My husband loved them so much he finished off the entire batch of them with supper!

Ingredients

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes (or one large)
  • 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1/4 cup sharp cheddar
  • 1 egg or 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 tsp. of rosemary
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder (optional)
  • pinch of salt and pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
  2. Peel and grate sweet potatoes into a large bowl.
  3. Whisk egg and add to bowl. Mix well with sweet potatoes.
  4. Add Parmesan, cheddar, rosemary, chili powder and salt/pepper. Mix well.
  5. Use a large spoon to scoop out a portion and shape with palms. Place on parchment paper. Repeat.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and turn each one over, bake for another 10-15 minutes. If you don’t flip them over they tend to get burned on the bottom side.

The first time I tried making these I actually used a wire rack to try to cook them and it was a complete fail. They just fell through the wire rack onto the cookie sheet below. I found that flipping them halfway through really does work the best and gets them nice and crispy on both sides.

Do you have any favorite savory sweet potato recipes?

~Laura Owens, Maggie Bags

If you have ever posted a Facebook comment, retweeted a Maggie Bags™ tweet or seen one of our super cute sets on Polyvore then you have “met” Laura. Laura is all things social media for Maggie Bags™. Her passion is to connect with our customers in interesting and creative ways. When she is not connecting at work she is connecting with her family, relaxing with yoga or blogging from her cat’s point of view.

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