Weekend

Ahhhhh, the luxury of a weekend with no homework.  Yesterday, instead of either grinding at the books or feeling guilty because I wasn't, I savored a day full of pure, guilt-free (well, relatively, anyway; there were still lovebugs floating around on my floors) enjoyment, from one end to the other.  Morning consisted of some long overdue girl time with Becca.  You see, I spent nearly every day of the past two years with her, until she moved on to her new career as a teacher.  While I am thrilled that she has begun this new phase of her life, one gets rather attached, spending that much time with a person that one loves, and one suffers a bit of withdrawal when one is deprived of said loved-one's company for too long.

We started off with a visit to the Haile Plantation farmer's market in Gainesville.  Becca has developed an interest in the Paleo diet (and CrossFit. I'm scared of her.  But that's another story.) and part of that eating plan is to be more aware of the food that one consumes, including where it comes from.  She was thinking that perhaps a farmer's market would provide a source for some of the foods that she wants to eat.  I'm always on-board when it comes to natural, unprocessed, healthy foods, and if those foods are produced locally, so much the better.  That being said, I haven't been overly impressed with the offerings at the local farmer's markets I've visited, so my expectations were pretty low.  I must admit, though; I was very pleasantly surprised.  Granted, the market was pretty small; maybe 20 or 30 vendors, max, but their wares had some pretty serious cred.  (Leave it to Gainesville!  Say what you will, those college-town hippies are light-years ahead of the local pack in the gastronomic arena, anyway.)  Offerings included grass-fed meats, free-range eggs and poultry, seafood, cheese, coffee, produce, breads, cakes and pastries, jams, mustards, and honey products, all locally produced, not to mention a few quirkier items including Indian take-out, cashew cream cheese (perfect for vegans, raw food devotees, or the occasional Paleo fan) and positively delicious lemonade and mixed fruit drinks.  (I could totally see incorporating those fruit juices into my everyday life.)

(I know, the pictures are kinda bad.  I have to get over my embarrassment at snapping pictures of strangers...)

As we browsed, we both became more and more inspired to incorporate foods like this into our daily regimens.  How exciting to think of having delicious, healthy options, many of them organic, this readily available!  Granted, Gainesville isn't quite as close to home as we're accustomed to, and one does pay a little more to eat like this, but with a bit of planning and thought, a better lifestyle really is within reach.

What I'm thinking of doing right off the bat is joining a CSA (which stands for community supported agriculture).  One of the vendors at the market was offering memberships, and after giving it some thought, I think I'm sold.  For a reasonable fee, I'll get a box full of produce every week from October through June, containing whatever happens to be in season that week.  Everything is grown organically right in Hawthorne, which means that not only will I be eating far more healthily, what with all of the vegetables arriving in my kitchen every week, but I'll be able to incorporate more variety into my diet (yesterday's offerings included callaloo, hibiscus flowers and sweet potato greens among other things) AND support a local farmer.  All things that make a person positively glow with good feelings.

So, yeah, anyway.  We were pretty stoked.  We decided to grab lunch when we were done shopping, and, oddly enough, neither of us was craving a burger...  Funny how that happens!  We popped into Jones B-Side; after a morning spent soaking up the gospel of healthy eating, it somehow felt appropriate.  After browsing the menu and turning up our noses at the heavier, meat and carb-laden offerings, we both settled on the vegetable and chevre-laden omelet, served with grits and multi-grain toast.  Then we got to have some fun.  When our meals were served, Becca reached into her purse and pulled out her just-purchased jar of homemade, low-sugar pear-ginger butter.  Oh, we reveled in that!  No nasty Smuckers for us...  Lots of hilarity at our apparent food-snottiness.  (Don't worry; we both have enough junk food in our systems to remove any danger of taking this whole thing too seriously.)

After enjoying lunch (eaten on the patio, enjoying the breeze and the NICE, LOW TEMPERATURES!) and popping in at Alachua Farm and Lumber to assess firearms for Tyler (no, I am not panicked about this at all...), we headed home.  Becca had to get out to the farm, so the portion of my day spent with her came to a close.  But the day itself was young...  After a quick rest, I picked up Nat and Tune and we three headed out to Perry for Pickin in the Pines, a local bluegrass-fest.  It ended up being extremely small and low-key, but after weeks of non-stop craziness that left little or no time to spend together, it was pure bliss to have a couple of hours of chat time driving down the backroads of North Florida, and then an hour or two of just chilling, listening to music, browsing the jewelry booths (Nat and I both hit the jackpot), petting pooches, sipping milkshakes and munching on nachos, and spending time with two of my favorite people in all the world.  It really wasn't much in terms of an outing, and yet, I was left with a feeling of genuine contentment and satisfaction.  All in all, beginning to end, I really couldn't have asked for a better Saturday.

Such a gorgeous guy.  Sigh.

POTTERY 101 CLASS 3 OF 6

This, my friends, was the beginning of our Pottery Night.  A-not-to-bad-start really.  True, I'd rather be glugging a green drink (!), or brown, or red, but this was kind of fun.  And just so you know, I did thoroughly enjoy a warm, melt-in-your-mouth, straight from the piping hot oil, glazed in about a cup of sugary bliss, delish doughnut! It's been awhile.

And so did these two! I believe their count was....but who's counting????

And the smug one? Yah she ate too!  And I was counting!!!  Ha ha!

So we did make it out of Krispy Kreme, and put our evening back on track.  There were four wheels open tonight, so we gathered our supplies, and set to work.  The only really serious problem that was slowing us down a wee bit, was the fact that not a one of us was really sure as to what we were doing!  But when you have your hands on a clump of wet spinning clay, you just go and do. Which, right or wrong, we went and did....

Step one is to throw your clay unto the wheel.  The hope is that you actually throw it smack dab in the middle of the wheel. Snicker, cough, wheeze.....the chances of throwing it in the center? Well, lets just say, the more we practice, HOPEFULLY the better we'll get.

And when the clay refuses to be centered, you scrape it off and try again...and again...and again.

But the Care had success! Success means something to fire and glaze and take home!  Whoo hoo!!

Beautiful

The second step was forming the centered clay.  First you pulled it up into a cone, then kind of flattened it into a tuna can.  Becki couldn't seem to get off the tuna can step.  Is this a good time to interject, "It's all about the experience"?

Step three, once the tuna can is mastered, is to pull up the clay; creating sides.  Becki was having a little difficulty here.  Though to be quite fair, we each had to begin anew about the same number of times.  A lot of laughter and photos insued.

Starting again.  She's such a good sport!

Brianna, as usual, makes something you'd want to take home and use.

The pots of the night.  Our goal is to make mugs.  Something you would fashion a handle to.  Something useful for drinking out of.  I for one, am making something more useful in displaying flowers in.  Short flowers.  I was encouraged all night to pull my sides up.  I tried.  Really I did.  But my fingers had a mind of their own.  Three more weeks to accomplish this.  I think a good idea would be to sit and watch youtube videos on this whole process. Hours of it, maybe.

Enchiladas

So I am so stoked!  I was asked to bring a main dish to a dinner slash rehearsal the other night.  Our church is having a big fiesta weekend, complete with potluck, concert (hence rehearsal), church services and more.  Being the weekend has a Latin theme (Celebracion de la Vida), the dinner followed suit, and enchiladas was the word of the hour.  Time has of late become a commodity more precious than gold, so labor-intensive, high-falutin' enchiladas were out of the question.  I put in an emergency call to my mama (we, like most middle-American families, grew up eating enchiladas), but alas, she was temporarily out of reach; I was left to my own devices and my time budget allotted about five minutes to figure out what to cook.

Let me insert here, I don't exactly consider myself a food snob.  Let's face it, I just plain like to eat, and there isn't much out there that I consider beneath me.  That being said, there is something a little, well,...eh....about processed foods.  I don't refuse to eat them, but it just seems like keeping consumption of the contents of brightly colored cans and boxes and packages with labels full of impossible-to-pronounce ingredients of unknown origin to a minimum is just a good idea.  So, though I love Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup (and all of the lovely concoctions it contributes to) as much as the next guy, if I can find a decent (unprocessed) substitute, I'm all over it.

Anyway, so I had picked up this cookbook awhile back called The Cook's Country Cookbook.  It's put out by the great folks at America's Test Kitchen (Cooks Illustrated, The Best Recipe, etc.; I am in love with these people).  Its theme, so to speak, is all of that great, slightly retro food we all grew up eating.  Think everything from Party Mix to Layered Salad and Green Bean Casserole to Sloppy Joes and Lasagna to Strawberry Poke Cake and Seven-Layer Bars (I kid you not); all solid, hearty, no-frills food that screams pure comfort (to me, anyway).  The big difference with this cookbook, though, is that they do away with all of the crap that most of those dishes in their original incarnation depend on, while at the same time, refusing to compromise on taste or convenience (well, for the most part, anyway, on the convenience thing).

Being that enchiladas is the epitome of this particular genre of comfort food, I grabbed this book off of my shelf, checked the index and....PAYDIRT!  A recipe I could whip up (with some minor tweaks) in the few minutes I could scrape together between music class, work, meetings and dinner, that looked delicious, and best of all, did NOT contain those big yellow cans of "enchilada sauce" that most enchilada recipes rely so heavily on (which, for the record, I have absolutely no idea what they contain).  Straight to the store I went, up the next morning and tossed a few things into the CrockPot.  I came home an hour before showtime, threw the whole assembly together, popped it into the oven for a few minutes, and still had time to brush teeth and freshen the face before I ran out the door.  I shamelessly headed straight for my own contribution in the food line (hey, this was an experiment; there was a lot at stake).

Ladies and Gentlemen, I do believe we have a winner.

(Square photo courtesy of the new iOS 7)

Beef Enchiladas

courtesy of Cook's Illustrated, with revisions

2 1/2 pounds - chuck roast

2 tablespoons - vegetable oil

4 onions, chopped (I used two big sweet onions)

6 cloves - garlic, minced

6 tablespoons - chili powder

4 teaspoons - ground coriander

4 teaspoons - ground cumin

2 teaspoons - sugar

2 teaspoons - salt

28 ounces - tomato sauce 

1 cup - water

16 ounces - shredded Monterey Jack or mild cheddar cheese (I used colby jack)

2/3 cup - chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup - pickled jalapenos, chopped (the jarred kind)

18 - 6" corn tortillas

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat (I used my cast-iron skillet, which every kitchen should possess).  Pat meat dry, salt, and brown on both sides.  Transfer meat to CrockPot using tongs.  Return pan to stove (leave leftover oil in pan) and reduce heat to medium.  Add onions and cook until tender and golden, about five minutes.  Meanwhile, combine spices, sugar and salt in a small bowl.  Add to onions, along with garlic.  Cook until fragrant, about one minute.  Add tomato sauce and water and stir to loosen any bits at the bottom of the pan.  Pour over meat in CrockPot, cover and cook on low heat (I did this for about eight hours.  You could probably ratchet it up to high and do it in less time).  

Heat oven to 350.  Remove meat from CrockPot (I used a colander set over a bowl) and reserve sauce.  Place meat in large bowl and shred with two forks.  Add 2 cups of cheese, cilantro, and jalapenos; mix well.

Spread some sauce in the bottom of your pan.  (This is really up to you.  I ended up fitting about 12 enchiladas in one 9 x 13 and I did the remaining 6 in a 9" square pan; if you do this, put about 3/4 cup sauce in the 9 x 13 and maybe 1/2 cup in the square pan.  If you have a big roaster pan or something, you could fit them all in one pan; just put a little more sauce in the bottom.  You could also halve this but your pan would be a little more scant.)  Spread 1/4 cup beef mixture down the center of a tortilla, roll up and set in pan, seam side down.  (I lucked out and got some really fresh ones at Publix; if yours are a little hard, you can microwave them for a few seconds to soften them.)  Repeat with remaining tortillas and beef mixture.  Pour enough remaining sauce over enchiladas to cover and spread evenly.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over enchiladas.  Cover tightly with greased aluminum foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking until cheese browns slightly; 5-10 more minutes.  

If you really want to rock this out, serve with a flavored sour cream (these are best made in the food processor).

Cilantro-Lime: Combine 1 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 1 teaspoon grated fresh lime zest, salt and pepper to taste

Avocado-Chile: Combine 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 mashed avocado, 1 chopped fresh jalapeno, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste

For dessert?

Acquire a friend like Tunie, who brings a person fresh, homemade shortbread.  

Have I ever mentioned that I love her?

Update....

You may be wondering where the Tune went.... She started teaching art classes! This is tremendously exciting. Gainesville trips suddenly involve lots of stops at art stores. Texts include things like this: 

Yes, the creative juices are indeed flowing. Stay tuned...

Labor Day Weekend

Soooo!  How was everybody's weekend?  I look forward to holiday weekends with great anticipation. Lately, the question has become "where can I GO?"  This last weekend, the answer to that question was Atlanta.  The Kate who has been previously mentioned on this blog recently relocated, and this lovely holiday weekend felt like just the right time to pop in.  Now, first, before I go one bit further, I must make something clear.  Brother Andrew (Kate's other half) loves food at least as much as I do.  It would follow that a description of a holiday weekend spent in his presence will include lots and lots of food.  Prepare yourself.

I left a little later than I anticipated (exhausted from the previous evening spent in the stimulating company of nine of the people I love best in the world, also known as my babies), so I didn't get up to Atlanta (well, Alpharetta, actually) until mid-afternoon.  Andrew and Kate were out doing some prep work on our new church there, so we didn't hook up until near dinner time.  (Fitting.  First things first, let's eat.)  Andrew's sister Sarah and her family were visiting at the same time, so we decided to go out for sushi.  (I was so totally good with this.  Andrew and Sarah are the owners of three more of my favorite people, also known as Cason, Lily and Parker.)

Ok, I have to come clean here.  I like sushi.  Love it, actually.  But I guess I tend to see sushi as more of the sort of thing you eat with a crowd - lots of people order lots of rolls, and with sushi, variety is good.  It follows, being I tend to fly solo quite a bit, that I don't go out for sushi much.  Therefore, sitting in a nice sushi restaurant with a bunch of old pros, I felt a little bit out of my depth.  Even Parker handled his trainer chopsticks with ease, while I bumbled through with my fork.  Suddenly my long-time prideful determination to remain true to my utensil heritage felt a little misguided.  No matter; open eyes and closed mouth work wonders when out of one's depth.  I learned much.  And I ate well.  Something magical about rice, seaweed and raw fish - the sum is so much greater than its parts.

See the volcano one in the top right corner of the middle plate?  Seriously good, people.

Cason and Parker and the kid plate.  When I was a kid we ate burgers and chicken nuggets.  Just saying.

Lovely Lily

Look at those mad chopstick skills...

We called it a pretty early night; after a bowlful of snickerdoodle ice cream we all turned in.  Why?  We needed to get up early so we could hit the Buckhead Bakery for breakfast.  (This is going to get embarrassing pretty quickly, I can tell.)  You see, I went to Atlanta with a deep need to experience a cronut before I came home.  (To the uninitiated, a cronut is a cross between a croissant and a donut. Yeah. I know.)  But before we did the cronut thing (Buckhead Bakery calls theirs a doissant; same difference) we of course had to eat a "real" breakfast, which, in my case, consisted of smoked salmon benedict served over potato blini.  It was better than Andrew's corned beef hash, which was saying something.  Oh, and I had to establish myself as undefeated tic-tac-toe champion, much to Cason's chagrin.  (Thank goodness for "the trick".)  The verdict on the cronuts/doissants?  I would be totally ok eating one every day for quite a long while.  (Croissant, deep-fried, filled with vanilla pastry cream and frosted - do the math!)

Yo Cas! Who's yo momma?

After doing some set-up work at the church, Kate, Andrew and I spent the rest of the day in a pretty relaxed fashion.  I would like to go on the record right now and say that I love my brother-in-law.  There are not many dudes who would be willing to haul wife and sister around to the tune of pedicures and outlet malls, or I miss my guess.  He did both and was a terrific sport about the whole thing.  He even put up with lame Varsity hotdogs when we got hungry (and yes, they were really, really lame).  Sitting in the pedicure chair, enjoying the spectacle of my brother getting smeared with green and pink goo, I gained a whole new appreciation for his coolness.

She is not as relaxed as she looks...

Oh, and he makes a mean green smoothie.

Being in Atlanta over the weekend also provided a terrific opportunity to attend service at our newest satellite church, which just opened.  I will go on the record and say that I absolutely loved it.  The church I attend every week at home is truly the most wonderful in the world, but it is very big.  This was an entirely different experience.  Even though the exact same message was preached, there was an intimacy and closeness that was unlike anything I've experienced in a church service setting, and somehow, those words found their way into my heart in an entirely new way.  I left feeling refreshed, recharged, ready to make great strides in my walk with the Lord.  And that, my friends, is what church is all about!

We three decided to forgo Taco Mac with the gang in favor of Vinnie's and by golly, am I glad we did.  We ate some pretty decent Italian food, but more importantly, we met Mr. Rich, (BAH!) who was one of those waiters that make dining less a meal and more an experience.  Kate and I instantly fell in love; I think we were pretty much ready to adopt him as our grandpa on the spot.  We left with promises to see him in church and every intention to visit him on a regular basis.  (BAH!)

So the next morning, what's on the agenda?  Breakfast!  (I love hanging out with us.)  Original House of Pancakes, where the apple pancakes and omelets are huge, with prices to match.  I finally experienced a real apple pancake.  It was...fine, I guess.  I like buttermilk pancakes better.  

Look who we found!

You should have bought me that chandelier, Sarah!

That's my girl!

After breakfast, we cruised around town; we hit the Ferrari dealership (for some reason,we don't have a lot of those in my town), Dick's Sporting Goods (I am now motivated to work out like a maniac and probably do some hard-core camping), the mattress store to pick out a guest room bed.  It was really cool to get to know the area a bit; I found all sorts of things I want to do on future trips.  (Plus, I discovered that there is some decent white-water rapids a couple of hours north.  Get ready.)  My time was quickly waning; I had a long drive ahead of me and didn't want to leave too late, so we had to decide what to do.  After much discussion, we decided to head downtown for the last of our time together.  We hit a juice bar (where Katie discovered that she does NOT like kale, celery, apple and ginger juice) and wandered Centennial Park, savoring the sunshine, the sights and sounds of families playing catch on the lawn and squealing kids in the water fountains.

It was time to wrap up the weekend, and what better way to do it than by enjoying one last meal together?  Now, this trip was especially fun for me, because for as much as Andrew and I both love food, we are drawn to completely different things. K & A tend to eat in more large-scale, trendy places than I do.  Think sushi bars, cavernous Italian restaurants and sophisticated steakhouses.  Me, I gravitate towards the nerdy places, with tattooed and pierced servers, quirky decor and hand-written menus containing whatever whim struck the chef-proprietor that day.  I really loved experiencing dining out from a different perspective, trying some places and things I wouldn't normally try, and broadening my horizons.  The country girl spent some time in the city, and was the better for it.  But I couldn't leave without dragging Andrew and Kate through more of a Carrie experience, so we went to Wisteria in Inman Park for dinner.  It was pretty darn tasty, all that soul food.  Oh, and the six desserts were magnificent.  (That was NOT my idea.  Then again, I didn't discourage anybody, either.)

Yep, six desserts.

Like I said.

 Fully satiated and probably in need of a serious juice cleanse, I knew it was time to hit the road.  For the first time, we parted ways; I drove south and they drove north.  (I envied them their quick 30-minute drive home.)  What a great weekend, though.  I spent three days with two people that I love very much, resting and relaxing and enjoying each other's company.  I headed home rejuvenated and ready to face the madhouse that is life this season, grateful for the wonderful family God has blessed me with, and with every intention of returning.

I love my sister.  What more is there to say?