Bust out the Grill!

It's so WARM OUTSIDE. This makes us crave grilled food. It just feels right, especially since it's so early in the season - you absolutely have to take advantage of this incredible weather before it reverts back to typical New England in April, when the temperature hovers somewhere in the 60s... So, with this in mind, we bring you a few of our favorite grilling tips as well as a recipe for some super easy and quite tasty chicken.

Grilling Tip #1: Don't go too crazy with the seasoning beforehand! We love marinades as much as the next gal, but slapping a soaking wet piece of meat on a hot grill leaves a little something to be desired. We like to brush our food with a touch of extra virgin olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper and brush the sauce of choice on after the meat is cooking.

Grilling Tip #2: Don't be a chronic-turner! You have to let your food sit on the grill for a couple of minutes when you first put it on in order to create a good sear. So, before flipping to the other side, resist the urge and let it sizzle! If you try to turn it to early, it will likely stick to the grates and create a big old mess! Nobody wants to deal with torn chicken or steak...

Grilling Tip #3: Create a medium heat space as well as a high heat space. Whether using gas or charcoal, creating two levels of heat is a great way to have some flexibility on your grill top to prevent burning once you've gotten things seared to perfection.

Grilling Tip #4: Keep it simple! There are not many things more delicious than a peeled Vidalia onion with extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper, wrapped in aluminum foil and let to sit on a hot grill. Our general food motto is 'don't over do it' - nobody wants to eat food that has been treated to death!

With those tips in mind, we want to share with you our recipe for Old Bay Chicken. It's exactly what it sounds like, and is a great way for any griller - novice or expert - to break in the Webber at the beginning of the season.

Old Bay Chicken

Start with split chicken breasts - VERY important to have the bone-in and skin-on!

Rub these babies down liberally with Old Bay Seasoning. THAT's IT!

Turn Grill on to medium-high heat.

When it's hot and ready go, turn the middle burner off and place the chicken directly on the grates.

If you're using charcoal, set it up with the coals on either side of the grill,

or maybe create a ring around the edges... you just need a space with indirect heat.

Close the lid and DON'T TOUCH for 45 minutes.

Voila! Serve with Salad and you have a fabulous Summertime Dinner...

drink it with a cold brew and call it a night!

In Celebration of Earth Day...

It's Earth Day.

When you think about it, it's a pretty significant event. What's more important than celebrating the world around you? We all know that people have been neglecting this fair planet for quite some time. So, we thought we would share with you a few ways that we like to give back to our lovely Mother.

Composting: A commercial kitchen produces more than its' fair share of waste. Egg shells, fruit peels, vegetable scraps... all of which we use to enhance our compost heap. We started this labor of love about 3 years ago, and have been able to use the nutrient-rich soil to fertilize our herb and vegetable gardens. Interested in trying this for yourself? www.howtocompost.org

Our Garden: Now that Spring has sprung, some of our more hearty plantings have been nestled into our garden and covered with our luscious compost from years past. Sugar snap peas, potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, spinach, arugula, mesclun, and nasturtiums are already peeking their cute little heads up from the ground, and we're looking forward to featuring them on this Summer's menus! Need a few gardening tips? Check out our favorite spot - www.finegardening.com

Recycling: Not only the usual plastic, cardboard, glass, and aluminum. We love to re-purpose our 'old stuff'. Not only do we keep our local antique and junk shops in business, we've used the same cut branches for many, many events and simply repainted them over the last few years. Want to know how your waste is impacting the planet? www.epa.gov/recyclecity

While all of these things are great and certainly worthwhile, we like to think of ourselves first and foremost as Friends of Humanity. When you're a friend to a human you are a friend to the earth, it's just that simple. This goes beyond just composting and recycling and growing our own produce. It's more about reaching out to fellow man - with our weekly local soup kitchen donations, volunteering, and community outreach - we hope to make this world a bit brighter for at least one person every day. Maybe today is YOUR day... you lucky dog.

Calling All Brides

Boy, we sure are busy these days! This Sunday we're participating in yet another cool event. This one is at the Crocker House, one of our favorite local venues in downtown New London. The event is geared towards the more Budget-Minded bride, and really, who isn't these days?
The event, aptly titled the 'Budget Minded Bridal Extravaganza' will be featuring hundreds of dress samples that will be selling for between $100 and $300! We'll also be showcasing our culinary prowess (if you can call it that!) and offering a steep discounts for day-of bookings.
Doors are open from 9-2, but it will all be on a first come, first serve basis and they'll only let 200 people in, so get there early!

www.budgetmindedbridalevents.com

A Very Exciting (and Tasty!) Event

We're so excited to announce our collaboration with Chamard Vineyards and True Event. We have been working hard to create a truly succulent and interesting tasting menu for this weekend's Wine Dinner scheduled at Chamard.

The wine will be flowing and you know the food will be great! We even get to work with those guys from Dinners at the Farm, since they're taking care of the cocktail hour!
Tickets are still available, but there are only a few coveted seats left! Hope you can make it.

For your Sweet Tooth...

We don't know about you, but we are absolutely addicted to Daily Candy.
Haven't heard of it? Well, you should have! Daily Candy is an awesome email news service thingy that sends fabulous snippets every day to your inbox. What better way to start things off than a tip about a sample sale at Bergdorff's or a sweepstakes to win a great vacation in Thailand? We love it! It's set up regionally, so you can get news specific to your locale - Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City.... and many many more great spots.
Want to sign up for this better-than-a-cup-of-coffee wake up?

www.dailycandy.com/subscribe

BUT the reason for our posting today is not simply to inform you of Daily Candy's existence... This morning, the theme was New York weddings, some of our most favorite things! And it was followed by the announcement of Daily Candy Weddings! A new venture, and a really, really awesome idea. We took some time to browse this morning and it is simple, stylish, and straight forward. We always love to find unique resources for our brides to help them with planning, and Daily Candy Weddings is certainly one of them!

www.dailycandy.com/weddings

An Excellent Bridal Event

We are so excited to collaborate with some of our most favorite vendors on this fantastic event coming up in May. Weddings - the Creative Process focuses on how to use the five senses to pull together all of your thoughts and ideas for the Big Day. The afternoon will feature opportunities to learn from some of our area's leading industry experts, and should be a great time. RSVP early, as since this will be featured on Style Me Pretty, we expect lots of interest! Hope to see you there!

www.weddingsthecreativeprocess.blogspot.com