LIFE AT CONTENT: Summer Sauce

You know it’s summer in New Jersey when the hobby farmers start pawning off their veggies! My parents have kept a garden my whole life, and come early July, every meal begins to include some iteration of zucchini, squash or swiss chard. Sometimes pickled. Sometimes roasted. Often just steamed with salt, pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan.

Whether you want (or need) more, vegetables are inevitably showing up on your doorstep, so you better have a few tricks up your sleeve. That’s what lead me to create this recipe, that John affectionately refers to as my “Summer Sauce”.

Truth be told, there’s no real sauce element in the way of tomatoes (not till the end of July, at least), but all the garden’s bounty adds amazing flavor, texture and color which creates a mixture that can be eaten by itself, or added to any starch for a full meal.

The key to this recipe is the ribbon technique used to prepare the zucchini and squash. Think zoodle, but with a vegetable peeler. The ribboned veggies are quick to cook and keep their shape.

In the below recipe, we’ve added rigatoni and sour cream for a creamy finish!

SUMMER SAUCE

1/2 red onion chopped

1/2 cup sweet peppers

2 cloves garlic minced

Swiss chard (handful, stems removed, chopped)

1/2 lb Italian sausage (hot/sweet/mix)

1 zucchini (ribboned)

1 squash (ribboned)

Italian seasoning, chives, salt, pepper

optional - pasta, sour cream and butter

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Start by heating olive oil in a skillet, and begin to brown the garlic cloves, peppers and onion; add sausage and Italian seaononing to cook.

2. Then add the ribboned vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the swiss chard on top and gently fold into the mixture to lightly steam the greens. Season with salt and pepper.

STARCH

1. In a separate pot, cook 1/2 lb of pasta (substitute starch) to the package directions; al dente is best. Loosely drain the pasta, reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water.

2. Return pasta to pot, add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1/4 cup of sour cream. Stir to coat pasta, add chives.

3. Add all veggie sauce mixture to pasta pot and fold together to incorporate.
   

What do you think, will you try our recipe for Summer Sauce? Comment below!

LIFE AT CONTENT: 2021 Spring Project List

As many homeowners may experience, the list of property maintenance, renovations and upgrades can feel endless. In an effort to address this list, John and I sit in the Great Room each spring and come up with a list of projects to tackle here at Content.

The plans are lofty! We know that we won’t get to everything on the list, but these brainstorming sessions are a great exercise in creating a home that offers new experiences for us and our guests.

First, we review the list from the previous year and see what we didn’t get to. We assess our priorities and budget, and commit to a new set of goals, carrying over the ideas we haven’t tackled yet.

You can check out some of our past spring project posts below:

Interested to know what’s on our list this year? Here’s a sample of what we have planned around Content for the 2021 spring and summer season.

Love Thy Neighbor

The fences that line the perimeter of the property are owned by our neighbors on two sides. If you’ve ever visited Content, you may have been instructed to park along the “old fence”.

As any homeowner knows, the relationships you establish with your neighbors is ever changing. Homes are bought and sold, and maintaining communication with your neighbors requires effort.

Luckily, we love our neighbors!

The “old fence” is actually two wood fences installed back to back, with a wire fence in between. From what we can gather, years before we purchased Content, the previous owner and neighbors never communicated and, instead of discussing the shared property line, just did what they wanted.

After a great chat with our neighbors, we agreed to remove the “old fence” and leave the other fence intact. We’re thrilled and can’t wait for this fresh perspective on the property line.

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“I want to ride my bicycle”

-Queen

Content is located just 1.5 miles from the ocean and we have long encouraged guests of Content to head to the beach on bicycles! We have offered guests a selection of what we refer to as “vintage bikes” of varying age and condition. Truthfully, we’ve never had the budget to upgrade our fleet and have made due with hand-me-down bikes.

It’s been a long term goal (carried over year after year) to upgrade the fleet and we are thrilled to be partnering, as affiliates, with sixthreezero bikes.

Purchasing a bike during and after Covid has been difficult, but we were determined to upgrade this amenity and found just what we needed (IN STOCK) at sixthreezero.

The bikes we purchased are the sixthreezero Around the Block Women's 26" 7 Speed Cruiser Bicycle.

Though the bikes are categorized as {women’s}, we felt the frame function as a unisex design, that both our male and female guests would be comfortable riding. We also chose a fun teal blue and upgraded to the 7 gear style to help guests of varying fitness levels.

Even better, we got free shipping and will receive our bikes via FedEx in less than a week. We can’t wait to add a couple accessories like spoke reflectors, a mesh front basket and lights!

Head to sixthreezero to take their Find Your Perfect Fit quiz, and find out which bicycle suits you best! Or even better, book a suite this summer and enjoy these bikes during your next stay!

Around the Block

Easy-mount step-through frame

2” cruiser tires for smooth stable rides

Rear rack for easy portability

Ideal for casual to uptempo rides across multiple types of terrain

Not intended for high-intensity exercise

SHOP SIXTHREEZERO

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Plantings

If you know anything about John, first and foremost, he’s a naturalist at heart. He loves plants and animals, and here at Content he hones those skills into our landscaping.

When we purchased Content there was hardly any plants or shrubs except for a large Linden tree in the front yard and a ewe brush that covered much of the front of the house.

John made it his goal to create a yardscape including only native plants, or plants that are indigenous to our area and attract local insects and pollinators.

Over the past 7 seasons, we have little by little added perennials to the front façade of the house. Most of the plantings were purchased from a local nursery, Cicconi Farms in Jackson, NJ and this field trip is always accompanied with lunch at Checkers. Ha! I don’t know how that tradition started, but John never passes up an opportunity to eat fast food.

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Gold Curtain Rob

West Elm look alike!

On Amazon for $30

Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain

Available on Amazon for $39

Great Room Upgrades

John and I have struggled to agree on window treatments in the Great Room. The space is flanked on all sides with beautiful 40+ pane glass that let in a tremendous amount of natural light, which John loves! I also love the sunlight however wanted to add a bit more privacy to the space, and have been considering roman shades for the past year or so.

I recently decided on these linen curtains and gold curtain rods, which remind me of the West Elm set I love but are half the price. Excited to install them and show you how we compromised to let in the natural light and provide some much needed privacy.

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Room Keys

We’re very excited to elevate our guest room key experience with beautiful brass key tags. We worked with aVintageParcel on Etsy to create these custom tags which nod to Content’s rich history dating all the way back to 1884.

What do you think?

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Ice Machine

Back in 2019, I responded to a Facebook Market place ad for frozen yogurt shop that was closing and selling off all its equipment. From that, we purchased a counter height, commercial ice maker which will be installed in the laundry room.

We have always thought it would be great to offer guests access to ice. Like a real motel! But figuring out a solution that worked within our shred home wasn’t easy.

The ice machine still needs a couple tweaks from our plumber (oh and maybe we should finish the laundry room), but we’re ready to make endless drinks on the rocks ASAP!

What’s on your To-Do list this season? Comment below!