Dates

My only prior experience with dates {pre Friday night} was the date tree that was in front of my grandmother's home. And that experience was limited due to the fact that it attracted mass amounts of buzzing bees. In Bread and Wine, Shauna raved about an appetizer that she swore would change the life of anyone who tried it. It was a bacon-wrapped date {stuffed with bleu cheese} ... broiled to perfection.

To be honest, I couldn't really imagine that a date had life changing power.

And then a friend brought bacon-wrapped dates to the dinner party for dad's birthday. I tried one, and then another ... and another, and another, and another ... and just like that, my life was changed.

I promise you, when you do try the above, you'll thank me.

Framed Foodie Memories

It was a perfect {rainy} weekend. We made steak au poivre with cognac pan sauce from Bread &

Wine and homemade sweet potato chips with blue cheese and cheddar. I'm not a French food fan per say {unless we're talking crepes and nutella or any pastries or hot chocolate from Angelina in Paris or dinner at Man Ray}, but this steak and pan sauce could change your life.

On the desk in my kitchen where I'm now typing, I have two frames ... one with different business cards of restaurants from various travels {similar to this picture}, dinners with friends or family that I love looking at it ... so many wonderful memories {dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in awhile at Buckhead Diner in Atlanta when I was in college ... cupcakes that we tromped halfway across Manhattan for at Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street in the Village ... a tiny little patisserie & café named Toni that I found on a business trip after running all around Chicago while it was raining and in true Chicago form, very windy ... a fun brunch with many a laugh in Charleston at High Cotton during MC's bachelorette weekend ... The Beauty Shop, because ... every memory I have of eating there while in Memphis ... is a happy one} and the other frame, my napkin from Angelina in Paris {my grandmother and I had pastries and hot chocolate there on my sweet sixteen trip to France}.

I keep matches too from different restaurants and want to frame those as well to add to my collected foodie experience. It's the little things.

In other news, Kate Middleton is in labor.

Happy Monday :)

What Does A Monster Say? & Other Random Tidbits

The days are long, but the years are short = my life ... and 2013 seems to be going so quickly that if I blink again, I'm pretty sure I'll have missed it! I started Hampton on stage 1 solids on Sunday and he is loving it. I am making his baby food myself {and freezing it in little cube trays}, so first up ... sweet potatoes and in a few days, bananas. In August I am going to plant for a fall harvest ... a variety of squashes and other vegetables that can be pureed and added to his daily menu. This week I started teaching Hampton to "raahhh" like a monster and moonwalk on the kitchen table {footie pajamas make baby feet very smooth} to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. Good times :)

Last night we made our favorite from Food & Wine: penne with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter. I like anything with balsamic, but this one is to die for ... really, so good. And, especially loved this post from Joanna Goddard on raising children in Norway. My great-grandmother's mother was born in the United States, after both of her grandparents immigrated from Norway. I loved the article because even all of these generations later ... I recognize traits in myself, my mother, and my grandmother that exhibit some Norwegian flair {i.e. "there's value to being able to 'tough it out' on your own"}. And some, that don't, haha {in preschool, the children only go indoors if it's colder than 14 degrees}.

A Few Things

A few things to note ...

Paul and I made mango chicken curry last weekend. It was a lot of chopping and a lot of fresh and we both loved it. First time for Indian food for both of us and it was delicious!

Hampton is being dedicated on Mother's Day and we're having a brunch at my mom and dad's house afterwards for a bunch of family and some close family friends ... we've been busy in the kitchen getting ready. Liza came over yesterday to help me bake heart shaped sugar cookies while Becca and my grandmother entertained the baby :) And today we're making berry scones.

We have gone to the grocery store and shopping a few times this week and Hampton has made friends with every little elderly person he has come across. They will stop to see him in his stroller and he smiles and "talks" to them. Sweetest ever.

So looking forward to all of the celebrating this weekend ...

Boxes & Soup

It has rained all. day. long. And (as a general rule) I love rainy days, but today's rainy day felt really long ... maybe it's because it will rain all day tomorrow too? And all day Saturday? Maybe it's because it's a lot harder to leave in the pouring rain when you have a baby (balancing infant carrier + umbrella + diaper bag? no thanks), so you settle for staying home. I don't know. Today did present perfect timing for my mom's decision to clean out closets, and because I now live in the same town, deposit many a childhood treasure to my home. Four large boxes sat on my dining room table and every time the baby went down for a nap, I had to figure out what to do with the contents of those boxes: trash, save and organize, donate. There were books, magazines from when Jackie Kennedy Onassis died, my original wedding files (which I began in middle school), family heirlooms, a tape recorder (?), poems from college (my poetry workshop class), leftover programs from our wedding, my journals from trips I've taken over the years, and on and on. A lot of life.

I made two of Shauna's recipes from Bread & Wine this week: the super-healthy (as it's entitled) lentil soup and the breakfast cookies. The lentil soup was delicious, the balsamic makes it. The breakfast cookies should also say super-healthy because the only thing that makes them "cookie", really, is the fact that they are shaped like cookies and bake in the oven. Here's what I have noticed in reading this book ... she wrote about the recipes in a way that made me want to make them. It wasn't necessarily the recipe itself or the ingredients that made me want to run to my kitchen ... it was the rich stories and descriptions she presented with the recipes, the stories of life around her table. The blueberry crisp that her mom made, the lentil soup that she makes after seasons of feasting (holidays, etc.), the gaia cookies from the little hippie restaurant in the town she lived as a twenty-something, etc. I'm mildly obsessed.

And speaking of recipes and cookbooks, a few of mine were recently published here :) Go order one and support two of our dearest friends as they bring home their sweetheart baby from Ethiopia.

Bread & Wine

Liss and I built a friendship on many things ... among them Ina Garten recipes, afternoons spent antiquing, cupcakes, the beach ... and our mutual (somewhat stalker-ish) love for Shauna Niequist. Before I left Memphis Elissa informed me that she had pre-ordered Shauna's newest book, Bread and Wine, for me. What a gift! I was so excited ... even more excited when it arrived on my doorstep last week and I began reading. Reading is a little different for me these days ... in the past I would devour a new book in one or two sittings. Now it's a few pages, maybe a chapter, here and there ... but that's okay. It almost seems sweeter this way. And this book might be my favorite yet (although everything she writes is amazing). I really am in love with it. Highly recommend to any and all ... and thank you Elissa for knowing me so well and for knowing I would need these words, recipes and comfort in this season of my life.

Waking Up To Delicious

I made Ina Garten's blueberry coffee cake muffins around midnight and this morning my entire kitchen smelled delicious. And they taste ... even better than they smell {which hardly seems possible!}. A certain baby in our family turned six weeks old yesterday and he is more alert with each passing day. Early mornings with him are so sweet.

One of my dearest friends had her first baby on Monday and another is being induced today. There is so much joy to be found in this season of our lives ... always something to celebrate.

The Food Diary Of A Pregnant Woman

It’s no coincidence that I just discovered this restaurant today. The Lord knew that I would be fat and penniless if I had known about it prior to a week before our move to Florida. I would have been here 3 times a week. Seriously one of the best restaurants in Memphis, and probably the best sandwich of my life at Hog and Hominy. I have heard others rave about it, and went with a bunch of colleagues for lunch today. And it was written up in the October/November edition of Garden and Gun in "Your Next Great Meal."

For the love … if you live in this city – you must go. This is the sister restaurant of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen and located across the street from it in Brookhaven Circle. It’s the less formal of the two, open for lunch and combines Italian and Southern in a very delicious way. I had a sandwich with shredded chicken cooked to perfection (think flavor, moist, slight crisp at the ends) topped with an olive salad like the ones found on muffalettas in New Orleans, melted fontina cheese … on a toasted roll. I swear – even if all of that sounds like disgust to you – you would still love this sandwich. We had sides of polenta and collard greens, but they said the house made potato chips were to die for … and they also raved about the parmesan gelato and the peanut butter/banana pudding pie, but the gestational diabetes kept me from those (SAD!). The lunch and dinner menus are different (lunch is more sandwich/pizza/etc.), but the dinner menu has the fig and balsamic reduction pizza and a slew of others that the lunch menu doesn’t have.

My new goal for this next week pre-move is to eat here as much as possible.

The end.

Reindeer Cake

I went to Muddy's Bake Shop today with some colleagues and as I was standing in line, I noticed a small sign for "Reindeer Cake" ... turns out it's a gingerbread cake with a caramel glaze over the top. If there is anything I love in this world, it's pumpkin and gingerbread-anything.

The Reindeer Cake is crazy delicious. The end.

What's New

I have a new favorite restaurant in Memphis {it’s a close tie with my other faves: Beauty Shop, Acre and Las Delicias} … specializing in “elevated” comfort food made with fresh local and regional ingredients from sustainable farms … you must try The Elegant Farmer. I haven’t been for dinner, but I’m going for lunch for the second time today and I love, love it. About 12 of us went last Friday and there was nothing left on anyone’s plate – not a crumb. And then we started ordering desserts because we heard they were made in-house that morning … and then there was nothing left of the desserts. Kind of like how I dream of the warm mozzarella salad at Acre, now I dream of braised greens at EF. Just amazing, get there.

Anna stopped by last night to drop off all three books in The Hunger Games series. I did not read Harry Potter or Twilight or any other wildly popular series in the last decade, but so many people {from my 11 year old cousin to many of my friends} have been raving about this series … and with the movie coming out, I decided to start reading. We shall see!

My brother planned a road trip to Tennessee for his last spring break {next week} and is stopping in Memphis for a few days before he goes on to Nashville for brother time and camp outs. I am not too sad that he's leaving me for tents and camp outs, however, because he's bringing a tag-a-long in the form of my mother ... who will stay in Memphis with us for nearly an entire week. Cannot wait!

Hummingbird Cake

I made my February cake this afternoon … the hummingbird cake. I chose to make the 3-layer hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting {all from scratch} because it’s one of my all-time favorites, it reminds me of my grandparents {also lovers of the hummingbird} … and it reminds me of Mary’s bridesmaid luncheon and those scrumptious hummingbird cupcakes we all had for dessert at the Mockingbird Café last summer.

This recipe came from Martha Stewart’s website and the fine print made me laugh out loud. Here was Martha’s take, “some say this Southern layer cake earned its name because each otherworldly bite makes you hum with delight. Another theory is that it’s as sweet as the sugared water used to attract its hovering namesake. Note: this recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen.”

Yep. Even Martha “good thing” Stewart knows that if you’re going to make the best of Southern cakes, you better call up the Southern woman herself.

The recipe received five stars on the website and I have to agree. After I finished the frosting, I had to sit down in the nearest chair to lick the spoon. Sometimes savoring the moment means giving yourself to the moment.

Chocolate Layer Cake

As part of my "be purposeful" in year twenty-nine and because life is too short ... I am vowing to bake cakes this year - and box mixes and runs to the french bakery are out of the question. We are talking from scratch. I began today with Ina Garten's "Beatty's Chocolate Cake." A rich layer cake with the secret ingredient of 1 cup of hot coffee poured into the batter. My kitchen is a disaster as is the decorating kit that I received as a wedding gift {and used for the first time tonight}, but be assured ... twenty-nine never tasted so good.

New Orleans Love

The last time I was in New Orleans was the

summer of 1992. I remember 3 things from

that trip: the beignets, the river cruise and the

hot-hot-hot, humid air. Upon pulling up to

the Parkview on Saturday around noon, I knew

with this trip -- I would remember more.

 This was our room for the weekend. So fun!

...after check-in, the three of us set off on a 12-block stroll

through the Garden District, where just about every

house we passed by looks like this one...beautiful.  

We stopped for lunch a few streets over from Magazine

where we spent the afternoon shopping. We had delicious

gruyere and carmelized onion sandwiches at St. James

Cheese Company...

 ...and then dessert at Sucre. Macarons and coffee and a little

gelato! The King Cake mac was my fave :)

Macarons. If you have never had one before, you must

try them. They kind of just melt in your mouth ... 

On Saturday night we went out on the town. First stop was

Arnaud's where my boss told me that we must try the

classic "French 75" ~ 

So we did :) 

 The bar was actually named the French 75, which the

original owner named after the steelest of the magnolias,

Scarlett O'Hara.

Next on the foodie list was Bayona. 

 Complete with delicious cream of garlic soup

and a band outside our window playing

Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal.

 There is an amazing energy and

vibe in New Orleans. It really is one of the

most interesting and unique cities that I have

been to ~

Happy Birthday to us :) 

On Sunday morning we headed out bright and early for a

full day ... 

First stop was the legendary Commander's Palace for the

jazz brunch. 

The balloons reprensent birthdays and were tied to the back of

our chairs. 

I ordered this creole turtle soup to start and we finished up

with the creole bread pudding with bourbon whiskey sauce,

a dessert that Southern Living has right near the top of the list. 

We concur.

The trio played us the birthday song as well as Tuxedo Junction

for the Birmingham resident in the mix :) 

 This 1833 cemetery was right across the street.

When given a choice between old and new,

I will {about 95% of the time} choose the 

old. With the old, there is always a story

worth telling.

After brunch and more Garden District, we went down the

Great River Road toward Oak Alley Plantation.  

The trees that looked out toward the Mississippi River were

said to be about 100 years older than the mansion...making

them around 300 years old, to date.  

We toured the mansion... 

 ...and stopped for a lemonade mint julep or

Virginia juleps as we like to call them.

Loving Louisiana. 

 The famed Oak Alley.

We ate dinner right on Jackson Square and 

watched the sun set over the St. Louis

Cathedral. Softshell crab po boy for me and

muffalettas with olive salad for the sisters :) 

...after our celeb sighting {Darrell Hammond, SNL} we

went to hear jazz and have a few beignets :) 

Pre-departure on Monday morning, I had beignets {again} 

from Cafe du Monde with Mary Caroline and Jackie O on

the steps overlooking Jackson Square. The weather was

perfect and pigeons weren't too rowdy.

We walked along Royal Street and visited a few more

shops before it was time to say good-bye. Sniff.

New Orleans, it's official.

You are one of my favorites.

~

Spread The Love

I was paging through my new Martha Stewart Living mag at the gym last night and came across two {good} things, ha, that looked different and tasty, so I thought I’d share … 1) earl grey tea steeped in hot cider (which was described as slightly sweet + a bit tart, a school night hotty toddy, if you will) and 2) a baked sweet potato filled with roasted brussel sprouts + a sprinkle of bleu cheese & dried cranberries.

Weekend Round-Up & More

We had such a wonderful time this weekend…on Friday night we celebrated the birthday queen with cupcakes {from Dreamcakes – my fave was the banana cake with strawberry frosting, oh MY} and champagne. For each of our 30th birthdays we’re taking a trip, so we surprised Holly with a map of … New Orleans!! Beignets and Magazine Street, here we come :)

On Saturday we met Page for lunch at La Paz, shopped til we {quite literally} dropped and then had dinner at Nabeel’s {named one of Southern Living's best restaurants in the Southeast} … an amazing Greek café with delicious baked feta and eggplant parm.

Good friends, good times.

The sparkly 30 in the photo above was made by my sweet {and crazy talented} friend, Natalie. When she’s not doing trade shows for Lilly P in New York {can someone say dream job?}, she is designing and creating some suh-weet soirees here in Memphis. If you need party-planning assistance or a custom invite, give her a ring.

My cousin is a stylist for Stella and Dot and mom sent me a little treat in the mail from one of her shows. Here it is: the layla stretch bracelet. I’m not really a jewelry person … I wear pearl studs, antique ring and wedding rings on a daily basis, but I do like some pizazz to spice things up once or twice a week, and I love everything on the Stella and Dot line. Cute, cute, cute!

And last but not least, going to see The Help tonight. Cannot. Wait.

With Each Pin, I Gain Ten Pounds...

 ...pinning is a delightful hobby, albeit a

non-skinny one...as my recipe folder has become

chock full of hummingbird cake {as shown above}

lemon chex mix {which sounds dangerous as

well as delightful} 

the above is called banana cake with brown sugar

butter cream frosting {I mean, HELLO} 

 ...blueberry lemon cupcakes which I was daydreaming

about during a meeting this morning...

...and a little something called a s'mores

cupcake...I never knew there was such

a thing, but now that I do...

~

Lord, help me.

Violette's & Sweet Home Carolina

I flew to Atlanta today just in time for a lunch date with Julie. We lunched at Violette's, a way chic French cafe right off the interstate {and my subsequent route to South Carolina}. And I just have to say how much I adore, flat l-o-v-e Atlanta restaurants. It seems there is no shortage of swanky, tasty eats and treats in that city. We both had the chicken grapefruit salad with a sort of mustardy-citrusy vinaigrette. DE-lish.

After lunch it was back to the grind and I put the pedal to metal to get to Clemson. I went straight to the university and did some work and it wasn't until later that I realized what county this city sits in ... Pickens County ... which happens to be where the Hagood family landed {and lived for years} post crossing the Atlantic. It's probably a good thing I didn't realize this small fact pre-trip or I might have been tempted to track down tombstones in random older-than-dirt cemeteries while here .... which I have been know to do ... on occasion.

Two, Worth Sharing

1. For the People Project … the note cards and journals are hand painted by individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction --- you can read more about the non-profit here, but as someone who has seen first-hand what recovery and recovery organizations can do for a person, it gets two thumbs up from me!

2. The Chinese Sub Shop located near the U of M … there aren’t any amount of words to describe this new discovery of mine … I have heard people rave about in recent weeks … and just yesterday decided to give it a try. It’s located in a dingy strip and is not really called the Chinese Sub Shop, but that’s how it is known to locals. Inside you’ll find dimly lit, 1970s décor with a menu featuring both Chinese food and sub sandwiches … I have been told that no one ever orders Chinese food there, but if you try the subs – you won’t want to! They make their own bread in the back and when they ask you if you want soft or hard, say soft! They put a special seasoning on their subs too … no idea what it is, but it’s the best sub in this city! One last thing … cash only. But for $6 bones you can get an 8” sub, chips & a drink. Ah, nothing like a sketch looking sub shop with delish food. I live for these types of establishments :)

Comfort Me With...

Do you have friends who love to cook? I do. When I count my blessings, I count these friends twice. Having friends who cook, and cook well (and try new recipes) is a blessing for many reasons ... 1 - you know you will be well fed when you go to their homes (grin) and 2 - they can test recipes, post them and/or email them and voila, because you already trust their taste buds ... you have a new staple.

This week has been a difficult one. I was naive enough to believe that saying good-bye over the course of many years would make the final good-bye easier ... and I was wrong. Throughout the day I often think of my sweet little grandmother and when I think of her ... it's as if I'm happy and sad in the same exact moment. Happy that she is free from the bondage and ills and suffering of this world, sad because ... with the loss of her earthly presence comes a large, irreplaceable void. A void I couldn't have known would exist ... until she was gone. But ... loss (as we all know) is like this ... ebb and flow.

Anyway, because it has been a hard week ... I turned to kitchen therapy and comfort-me-with-food coping mechanisms. And thankfully, cooking friends have come through and I didn't need to rummage through recipe files or any well-loved, dog-eared cookbooks. I made a dinner that Julie recently made ... (grilled) fish tacos with cumin, black beans, corn, sauteed onions and asparagus (I also added a squeeze of lime, sauteed red pepper and avocado to her recipe) ... SO (so, so, so!) delicious. And, Liss ... if you know Elissa, you might as well know Ina Garten ... last week (before leaving for Florida) when I was sad and feeling far from family, Liss made dinner for us ... and for dessert she made these berry scones {scroll down to "Cherries in Winter" post to get recipe}. Listen up .... because I will be the first to tell you that I am not a scone fan .... I have often found that scones tend to be hard and dry in consistency (and taste a twinge like cardboard) ... but not these. These scones are moist and cake-like (Liss substituted buttermilk and ricotta cheese for the cream and I swear on a stack of cookbooks that the cheese is the secret ingredient!) and have blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. The recipe calls for 1/2 a cup of berries, but I poured those suckers in like there was no tomorrow because where raspberries and blackberries are concerned, there is no such thing as too many. If you eat these berry scones right out of the oven with just a tad bit of honey ... smile & wink & thank your lucky stars for friends who cook.

Holiday Baking

...nothing like a little Sunday afternoon marathon

of Christmas baking...Darby's recipe for ginger

snaps make a slim million...and they are

snappy & tasty. I recommend...

Liss found a fool proof way to roll out cookie

dough and is demonstrating how great it worked out

for us! The real secret is the freezer :)

...we got a little delirious by the end of this cookie

marathon and the above is the result of the very

best of our Martha Stewartness. Smile.

The End :)