Stone Fruit & Pickled Cherry Salad

& living in my little bubble

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every week! Paid subscribers get even more weekly — right now I’m doing a 30-minute budget meal series! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

CATCH UP!

I’ve been in such a rhythm and routine these days, and although it’s great for my productivity and efficiency, it doesn’t leave me with many interesting stories to tell. I feel a little secluded from the outside world because I spend so much time at home cooking and doing bedtime routines. I’m content, though, so it doesn’t bother me too much. By the end of the year, I’ll be just about done with my cookbook manuscript, and then you’ll catch me booking an airline ticket to anywhere and everywhere.

I keep looking at my iPhone photo album, and I’ll go back to “this day in 2025" to see how different life was last year. It’s funny to feel so nostalgic and wistful looking at pictures from our newborn bubble when I feel so much more well-rested, grounded, and stable now. This past year has taught me that everything is temporary and fleeting, and although that can be a sad thing, it also has made me a much more present person. I’ve always been someone who stresses about the future, but I try not to look ahead as much. It’s a beautiful gift.

THINGS I’M LOVING

Many of my ceramic pieces are from Goodies, and I recently got these textured pasta bowls to add to my collection. I love a plate that is also a bowl. One that’s not too deep, and not too shallow—you can use it from everything to pasta, to salad, to eggs. Everything from Goodies is under $25, and I love browsing their brick and mortars in LA!

This mineral sunscreen from Emma Lewisham has become a daily part of my skincare routine this summer. Now that I’m using retinol again and spending more time outside, daily SPF is a must, and I love that this one does not leave a white cast and has a nice satin finish. The brand describes it as “suncare meets skincare” because it not only provides sun protection but also moisturizes and smooths. But really, I just love how it feels under makeup and even on my bare skin. It’s also designed to be refilled, which helps minimize product waste. Wear your sunscreen, people!

I made a Sticky Fig, Jam, and Mascarpone toast this week and drizzled some Kosterina Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top, and it was so delicious! I love when olive oil has that distinct, peppery taste, and it helped to balance out the sweetness of the toast. Their Original EVOO is made with olives that are harvested early, which means lots of flavor and extra polyphenols (yay to more antioxidants)!!

Instead of bringing wine, I’ll often bring a bottle of Kosterina over to friends’ houses as a thank-you gift when they host. Their bottles are so beautiful that they look really chic on the counter. Excited to share with my readers that you can get 20% off your first order, this month only, with my code GOODFOOD20

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RECIPE!

As many of you know, I’ve been going through a cherry obsession this year. A few weeks ago, Grant and I ate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Hatchet Hall, and we ordered a stone fruit salad that had pickled cherries in it. So, obviously, I had to recreate it at home.

We are nearing the end of cherry season, so this a great way to take advantage of the fruit before it’s gone. Stock up, pickle those bad boys, and keep them in your fridge for when a craving hits. I’ve been adding them to all of my salads, and they’re divine.

My biggest tip: get a cherry pitter! I have this one from Oxo, and it makes cooking with cherries a breeze.

I used peaches and plums here, but you could always do all plums or all peaches depending on what you like or what’s accessible to you. And if you don’t feel like pickling cherries, then you can just use regular cherries. I would add a splash of vinegar in this case, since you’ll be missing the acidic component.

Stonefruit & Pickled Cherry Salad

Ingredients

Pickled Cherries

• 1 1/2 cups pitted and halved sweet cherries

• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

• 1 cup white vinegar

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

Salad

• 1 large peach, sliced

• 1 large plum, sliced

• 1/4 cup pickled cherries

• 4 oz burrata

• 2 oz prosciutto

• Handful of basil leaves

• Extra-virgin olive oil (use your best bottle)

• Flaky salt

• Fresh cracked black pepper

1. To make the pickled cherries, add the halved and pitted cherries to a pint sized jar. Top with the peppercorns.

2. In a small pot, bring the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir until everything is dissolved, and then pour the liquid into the jar. Let the mixture cool before sealing the jar and transferring to the fridge. I like to give it a little shake to make sure the cherries get evenly coated with the pickling liquid. Pickle for at least an hour, but for best results, let sit overnight.

3. To make the salad, add the sliced peaches, plums, and pickled cherries to a large plate. Spoon the burrata over the fruit. Roll the prosciutto into little bunches and add to the plate along with some basil leaves. Top with a good drizzle of olive oil, some flaky salt, and freshly-cracked black pepper.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

This week, paid subscribers received a recipe for Sardine Tacos with Mango Salsa Verde! This is a budget-friendly way to get in those omega-3’s, and with a recipe that takes only 30 minutes. And the mango salsa verde is to die for — it fuses a Mexican-style salsa verde with an Italian-style salsa verde, and the result is herby, fruity, and refreshing.

As a reminder, anytime you become a paid subscriber, you get access to ALL of the past recipes in the archive. You can always do a free 7-day trial as well!