Fish

The downtown office where I do some consulting work is right across the street from Fish restaurant on King Street. I had not been there since college, and fortunately my palette has improved significantly and I can actually appreciate how ridiculously delicious the food is now. They are kind of pricey for dinner, but offer an awesome $10 lunch special where you get an entree, side, and drink. My go-to is the tofu moo shu wraps with ginger aioli and the edamame/lentil salad on the side. Someday I will attempt to replicate this at home, but for ten bucks it's totally worth stopping in and getting take out whenever possible. Can't say enough good things about this place!

Artisan Breads

Summer schedule is set and I'm signed up for Artisan Breads. I like that the focus is on rustic, homemade looking bread instead of perfectly sculpted loaves (not my strong suit). We started with some artisanal poolish corn bread, which looked really pretty, but quite frankly, didn't taste so great. But it was fun to use bannetons and practice getting the different lines and cuts on the bread.

Then we made mozzarella from scratch (I didn't even know that was a thing!), which involved sticking your hands in boiling water and trying to mold cheese curds into a ball and then putting it in a salted ice bath. We also made some pizza crust and baked that with a little bit of olive oil, fresh mozzarella, sea salt, and basil on top. Un-be-liev-able. Must do this at home soon!

Cookie Sammies

While preparing for a cookout at my Mom's house this weekend, I couldn't decide on a dessert. Cookies seemed boring and ice cream felt kind of lazy but when combined they make a special semi-homemade treat that everyone loves!

First I made some simple chocolate cookies that are generally flat, with a slight crisp. I omitted the chocolate chips since I knew the ice cream (Breyer's Reese's flavor) was going to be super rich and chocolatey.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 sticks of butter (softened)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
(1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Put butter, egg, and vanilla in mixer with brown and white sugar, mix until creamy and slightly fluffy.
3. Add in dry ingredients, mix until combined and add in chocolate chips, nuts, etc. if desired.
4. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet.

Makes about 3 dozen small cookies or 2 dozen large ones. Once cookies were cool, I scooped a nice blob of softened ice cream in the center.

Then came another cookie, which I twisted on to smoosh the ice cream down. I made these the night before and wrapped them tight in saran wrap. They held up well, especially if you let them sit for a few minutes the next day to soften up again slightly. Yum!

Grain Salad

I had a tasty little side salad at Heart restaurant last week and decided to get creative and make my own version at home. I started with some plain quinoa, which I cooked with garlic, sea salt and water. And I didn't burn it! I made 1/2 cup dry (1 cup cooked), following the directions on the package.

Then I sauteed up some CSA greens, which included kale, onion, and asparagus.

Next, I nuked a 90 second pack of farro grains (from Target) and mixed it with some plain canned beets.

I mixed in the greens and quinoa, then finished it off with fresh lemon juice, a touch of red vinegar, salt and pepper, and crumbled goat cheese. Gave it a good stir and it was all set!

Strawberry Fizzy

In my quest to give up diet soda, I've been trying to find substitutes that I like. Last week I made a pound cake with a simple syrup from our CSA strawberries to go on top (sugar, lemon juice, strawberries, basil). There was some strawberry topping left over, so I stirred it in with the carbonated water and it was pretty good! Not a Diet Coke, but pretty good. Going to keep looking for alternatives, but this was the best one so far.

Any Time is a Good Time for Breakfast

I love getting fresh eggs with our CSA, but some weeks we just can't seem to eat them fast enough. And this week we had potatoes to use up too. That can only mean one thing--breakfast for dinner!

Threw some cheddar and fresh basil with the eggs, a little Texas Pete, onion, and tomato with the potatoes, and heated up some frozen Grands biscuits in the oven and voila! Dinner is served!

Nature Time

While we were in northern Georgia, John and I were able to get a quick hike in at Raven Cliff Falls, just a few minutes from where we were staying. Even though it was a holiday weekend it wasn't unpleasantly crowded and it was nice and shady. The views were spectacular and it was really relaxing (see, don't I look relaxed?).

 

Okay, I was slightly winded and excited about the view, but John nailed it:

There were beautiful waterfalls and the trail was challenging but still well within my weakling abilities. We talk about going to the mountains a lot (because we always enjoy it so much when we're there) but never seem to get around to doing it. While we were flipping through a local paper we saw several cabins that were in foreclosure, so on the way out of town we drove by and checked one out.

This one was $50K and was on a super cool (5 acre) lot with a creek near by. There were others as low as $24K, and it got us thinking about how nice it would be to have a vacation home someday. We'd fence it in so the dogs could run around and then try to rent it out when we're not there to hopefully pay for some of it. Of course we're just daydreaming now, but it's something to think about for the future, especially if the in-laws end up retiring near this area as planned.