Wednesday is brewday

Wednesday is local-brew-day; or at least it used to be. In 2006 I was working at Carters (on 14th and Peachtree) and the (then*) Atlanta Brewing Company's brewhouse was just a few blocks to the west. My friends and I had a standing engagement to meet every Wednesday after work for $4 drafts. We'd sit on the loading docks and watch the sunset. It was perfect. 


Six years, several miles and a couple dollars later the operation is still going strong. The brewery now operates on the other side of town and the brewtour prices aren't quite as thrifty they used to be. A handful of new microbreweries have opened around town but they have been unsuccessful at breaking our loyalty to ABC/Redbrick*. (Sweetwater be damned - we're Redbrick folks.)


Those friends from the loading dock drinking days are the same ones that introduced Oliver and I in 2009. No matter how much everyones' lives have changed we still know we can count on weeknights at Redbrick for great beer and friendship.  Suffice it to say:  I love my local craft brewery. Thanks Redbrick. 
*ABC vs Redbrick:. The brewery recently rebranded, going from "Atlanta Brewing Company" to "Redbrick". It's been a lively transition, full of design work and new catch phrases, but who cares about the name as long as the beer is awesome. With the rebranding, they've given the brewer a lot more freedom (and that's a great thing). 
**Visit our Facebook page for photos of the old brewery.

We're back!

You may have noticed we didn't post much over the weekend. It was a busy one for us here in Atlanta. Friday night we saw a great show at the Center for Pupptery Arts and then rushed over to Antico for pizza. Saturday we biked to Candler Park for the Sweetwater 420 Fest and then had dinner at the home of our friends Laura and AJ (of the LB Collective) before biking home again in the rain. And Sunday was the Piedmont Park Dogwood Festival! Lots of time outdoors and on bikes - not a lot of time in the kitchen. 


But now, a new camera plus a week's worth of YDFM groceries later and we're back in business! We've started this week off right too. Breakfast: steel cut oatmeal with golden raisins and coconut. Lunch: turkey sandwiches (YDFM's own smoked turkey with pepper) on fresh whole wheat bread with homegrown arugula, a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and shavings of Parmesan. Dinner: London Broil* with a side salad of homegrown arugula and baked potato with Greek yogurt and chives (and two glasses of pinot noir). 


We've also happily given away many of our lettuces! (We even convinced the mailman to take two.) They're looking good but they're starting to fade. I don't mind because that means we're finally sneaking up on my favorite garden time of the year - TOMATO TIME! Of the three tomato plants currently in our garden the heirloom just won the award for "first fruit" of the season. Tomato season has begun! 
*Not a true London Broil because it was dry rubbed rather than marinated. Long acidic marinades make the surface mealy and don't penetrate a dense cut enough to really tenderize. 


Spring Garden 2012: Week Eight



I took pictures of the garden just before I picked salad greens for our party on Saturday. Our lettuces are at their peek. We have so many that I think we're about to start giving them away to our neighbors. (If anyone wants some free organic lettuce give us a shout!) If you compare the photos of  arugula from two weeks ago with those taken today you'll see that the plants grew a foot and bloomed. I just pulled out two and bagged the leaves for salad later this week. In their place we added more eggplants and peppers. The cabbage are still a big source of pride for me. I showed them off to every party guest that would humor me (thanks you guys). They're just so unexpectedly BEAUTIFUL! They've certainly added a new level of interest (to me) for cool weather vegetable gardening.

Backyard dinner & a Braves game



Saturday we invited friends over for dinner, drinks and a Braves game. Oliver made jambalaya and a salad from our garden greens. Guests brought side dishes and dips. After a couple of hours of eating and drinking in the backyard 15 of us walked the one mile to Turner Field and watched the baseball game from the Bud Deck (that patio bar behind 2nd base).  It was there that I dropped and broke my camera. Opps. Oliver was able to retrieve my photos by putting the memory card into his laptop but it will be a few days before I get my hands on a new camera. Until then, no new food photos...

What's for dinner? Carrot, Ginger & Sweet Potato soup



My New Year's resolution was to learn to cook. And like most New Year's resolutions I did it once on the third day of the year and then went back to my old ways (ie: letting Oliver cook every meal). In my defense I had a lot going on: I lost 10lbs in six weeks (which required extra evenings at the gym) and I got a promotion at work (which requires overtime at the office). Making time to learn to cook got pushed to the back burner. 


Also, I'll be honest, I have a motivation problem when it comes to cooking. I rarely come across healthy dinner recipes that inspire me to make a mess in the kitchen. Oliver's cooking style is so effortless. He doesn't follow recipes! He just throws ingredients into a pot and BAM - they're delicious. I want to cook like THAT. But getting to that level takes practice (practice, hmph). And that brings us back to my New Year's resolution...


Last weekend, while in Louisiana, I came across a recipe in a magazine that seemed tasty and easy. 'I can do this' I exclaimed to Oliver's grandmother. I copied the recipe down, brought it back to Atlanta and on Tuesday night I braved the kitchen alone for a Carrot, Ginger, Sweet Potato soup.


It went - okay. The actual recipe tasted  boring (meaning: what I made wasn't that good) but Oliver swooped in with a dash of paprika, the juice from one lemon, a second sweet potato and the recommendation that next time I use half a box of chicken stock combined with water instead of the full box the recipe called for.  


The good news is: my meal made a great lunch for two days. The more time it spent in the fridge the tastier it became (mixed with Greek  yogurt and chives it was actually good). Plus, I learned about adding acid (lemon) to recipes lacking brightness and I used the immersion blender all by myself (awesome).  I believe my New Year's resolution is back on track! 

Guest Blogger: Amanda in Philadelphia - Sugar Junkie

It's been three months since our guest blogger, Amanda's, last post; that post remains the third most popular on And Topher Too (so go back and read it)! She recently committed to improving her overall health and today I'm very happy to be sharing a few of the challenges and successes she's faced along the way. Thanks Mandy! - Cullen

Sugar Junkie by Amanda D
September 2011 was when I made a conscious decision to be healthy. Not to diet, and not to lose weight, but to change my habits. Though I walk or bike every day as a means of transportation, I wanted to make sure my body was strong so I joined a gym. And while I ate relatively well, with lots of real foods and fresh vegetables, I regularly indulged in full fat local yogurt, humanely raised local beef, and many, many home baked goods.

Cutting back on red meat was easier than I expected. I choose chicken sandwiches or vegetarian options when I eat out, but don’t deny myself a cheeseburger when all my friends want to go to Five Guys. After a few months I found my body craving beef less and less, particularly when I upped my intake of kale, spinach, and other leafy greens. Habit #1 broken!

My next challenge was sugar. I spent the first month of this new lifestyle staring at my flour and sugar canisters in the kitchen and thinking of a million tasty ideas - Millet muffins! Banana chocolate chip bread! Chocolate orange cookies! It wasn’t these individual items, which I made with cage free eggs from the farmer’s market and half the sugar in the recipe, that were my downfall. It was my addiction to sugar, to having treats in the house all the time, that was the habit I needed to break. And much like the beef, I found after a few months that I no longer craved sugar. An orange or some berries in the evening were all I really needed. Habit #2 broken!

Until about a month ago - when I noticed a big bowl of discounted Valentine’s Day candy on my friend’s kitchen table. I mindlessly began snacking on them. Little did I know that with those little hearts I would awake my sugar addiction. I found myself buying candy bars, baking small batches of cookies and muffins, and eating cupcakes for lunch. I have simultaneously been dealing with a torn rotator cuff, working with a trainer and a therapist to strengthen and heal my muscles. My body has ached horribly and I have been very down on myself. It wasn’t until yesterday that I put it all together.

I came across this tidbit on the internet: “We are most often addicted to the foods we are allergic to.” A quote from Dr. Mark Hyman that rang loud and true in my ears. I’ve been living with this injury a long while, but over the last month I feel the aches and pains everywhere. And I really believe that with every bowl of ice cream cake I have been eating, I have been making it harder on my body to get healthy and heal itself. I have no scientific proof, I have no doctor’s opinion behind me, I just know that I felt better, slept better, and had more energy a month ago, before my sugar binge began.

So today is the first day of breaking my old habit. Again. And I won’t see this as defeat, but a lesson in what healthy really looks like for me. Wish me luck!

Easter with friends

We spent Easter Sunday in Baton Rouge with Oliver's best friends from high school (it works in our favor that they married one another). Mandy's* Easter goodies were impressive as always (her baking and cake decorating skills are second only to my cousin Amber, a full time cake decorating professional). Pictured here are Mandy's hollow Rice Krispie Treat eggs filled with M&M's, coated with white chocolate and individually decorated. Just below them, in those perfect clear take out containers, you'll see traditional Rice Krispies, coated in dark chocolate and each uniquely decorated. There were also very cool ostrich eggs made of white chocolate, filled with pudding and topped with a cake ball to look like egg yoke! 


As a person who barely cooks and never bakes Mandy's skills impress me. Add to that that she did all this with two little boys and a five week old girl and I am speechless. AND she goes back to her full time job at a biology lab next week. High five to super woman!


One of the couple's several sister/sister-in-laws** also made half a dozen of the ever-impressive silk tie die eggs. Except to make this fun decorating technique even better then usual - they filled their eggs with cash! Way to up the intensity of the same old egg hunt! Thanks again to our friends for making us feel like family on the holidays. We'll never be able to find the words to tell you how much it means to us. 

*For anyone at our wedding, Mandy made the mini Whoopie Pies that disappeared in seconds after the dessert table opened. 
** Shout out to Sam's sister Stephanie!
***I also had the pleasure to finally meet Kari and Stewart, of www.raringstogo.blogspot.com. Kari is Mandy's younger sister as well as a fellow blogger. Check out their blog soon - they'll be moving from Texas to India later this month!

Good Friday in Louisiana

My apologies for the lack of posts over the last week. I aim to post at least every other day but I also do not have a smart phone, iPad or laptop so when we travel - I don't post. And yes! That means we've been traveling! We left Atlanta at 4pm on Thursday and jumped on the road for the annual Boudreaux Family Good Friday Reunion in Reserve, Louisiana. 


Boudreaux is a BIG, very common, last name in that part of the country so I should specify that this particular reunion is for Oliver's grandfather's 12 siblings and their countless descendants. ("Pops", Oliver's grandfather, and his wife, Aimee', have 7 children - multiply that by Pops' 12 siblings and you get an idea of how many people we're talking about). 


I consider myself "East Coast" and not particularly "Southern". (This surprises some people because I was born in, raised in and after college returned to - Atlanta. I know my parents consider me "Mid-Western" and my college friends see me as "Southern"... but once I leave Atlanta all surrounding culture is quite foreign.)  My husband's home state of Louisiana is VERY SOUTHERN (read: foreign). I am still fascinated by everything I've married into - including, but not limited to: THE FOOD! I'll let the reunion food photos speak for themselves with promises to return to normal posting ASAP. (After a quick Easter update tomorrow). Things to note: the crawfish in the galvanized steel tub are alive (as are the ones in the nearby purple mesh bag), both casseroles have shrimp and the freshly shucked oysters were huge and delicious. 

Sadly, the rest of our quick trip was taken up with repairs on our rental properties so we weren't able to see the other side of Oliver's family. Our apologies to the Rivets with a promise to see them all next time! So sorry we missed you!
 


Busy, busy, busy

It's been a very busy work week for me. 14 consecutive hours yesterday. 12 today. Needless to say, I have not been to the gym and meals have been harried (but healthy). I'll even admit to eating two Rice Krispie treats in one moment of design studio meltdown. Tonight I got home at 9pm (earlier then yesterday) and Oliver whipped up a dinner salad from our garden. Not our prettiest meal - but delicious none-the-less. And it always makes me happy to eat something we grew ourselves. 

Now back to work!

Spring Garden 2012: Week Six






The spring garden is growing like gangbusters. With daily inspection and removal of worms the cabbage have bounded back from their pest infestation. The lettuce and arugula are growing faster then we can eat them. Spinach is starting to look like spinach. Actual strawberries are appearing and we're becoming more certain that the leeks are leeks (and not chives). Two weeks ago three tomato plants were added: Beefsteak, Phoenix (like the symbol of Atlanta) and an heirloom. As well as an eggplant and three types of peppers. Dinner for the rest of the week will be lettuce from our garden with soft boiled eggs!


And while the plants love the springtime sun for growing.... it seems Topher loves it for something else - napping.





Crock pot pork dinner

It's been a crock pot pork week at our house. On my birthday we splurged and ate it as nachos (paired with Coca Mole beer by Lips of Faith). The night before it was paired with homegrown kale and homegrown arugula (and Oliver's really impressive IPA homebrew). Tonight it goes into enchiladas with Oliver's delicious tomatillo sauce (and perhaps a margarita!). 


Enjoy your weekend! Be happy and healthy!

134 by 34

Tomorrow is my 34th birthday. That means it's the last day of my personal ten week challenge to lose 11 pounds. (For heart healthy reasons - I needed to lower my blood pressure. You can read more about that here.)


Cue Tim Gunn "Designers, its time..." 
Cue Regis Philbin "Is that your final answer?"
Cue high school teachers "pencils down, heads up..."


FINAL WEIGH IN SAYS...136.2 lbs! That's good enough for me! Of course tonight is also the night my phone doesn't seem to be sending data. So this is a photo of my phone. (My rule has been that weigh ins do not count if they are not photographed).


I feel really good about this. I feel even better about entering my mid-30's. This is going to be a great year.


Thanks for reading our blog. And if you haven't done so yet, please "like" our Facebook page. It'd make my birthday! 

Good things are good


 

1. Avocado on whole wheat sour dough toast with a drizzle of olive oil, squeeze of fresh lemon and sprinkle of red pepper flakes; it's one of our favs. We first had it at The Jane Hotel in NYC while staying there two Aprils ago. (It was breakfast the day he surprised me with a ring at MOMA). 
2. Our beautiful homegrown Bibb lettuce. Picked just before dinner and made into a salad. I'm so proud!
3. Toasted chick peas with cinnamon and chili pepper.
4.  My new favorite Chocolove bar: dark chocolate with almond and sea salt. Bite size squares that you can make last all week. Perfect alone or with a glass of red wine! 

New bike and chicken salad on a biscuit

I bought a new bike! After test riding both a Trek and a Specialized I went with the Trek because it's what Oliver already rides and I hoped having the same brand would make tunes up easier on him. To break it in we took the same ride to Piedmont Park on which my last bike blew it's tire. Back home I checked our ride into the website www.VeloRoutes.com to see how far we rode (about 9 miles round trip). It's cool website that I recommend for anyone interested in knowing the elevation, hill grade and distance of their bike trips. 








Lunch was chicken salad on a homemade biscuit (from yesterday's breakfast). After lunch we added a few more plants to the garden: two types of peppers, three types of tomatoes, eggplant and parsley. Now we're resting up before the much anticipated Mad Men premiere! Since we don't have cable we're heading up to the neighborhood pub to watch it on their big screen. Can't wait!

Homemade biscuits on a Saturday morning & other random things


While Oliver made biscuits this morning I went straight from bed to the garden. The early bird gets the worm and I had some worm getting to do. By the time he called me in to eat (bacon, eggs and biscuits) I'd squished another dozen cabbage worms of varying sizes. 


Also, this morning, the Beekman Boys responded to my plea for cabbage worm help with two ideas: "make a spray using real soap (must have lye) or use row covers". The soap spray idea led my Google searches in a new direction and I found several sites that suggest masking the cabbage scent in an effort to hide them from the white cabbage moths (who lay the eggs on the leaves that then hatch into the worms that are eating the plants).  My new plan is to make a lye soap spray as suggested by the Beekmans AND refertilize with a second round of fish emulsion. The fish emulsion is so pungent that it will hopefully overwhelm whatever natural scent is attracting the moths. 

The photo on the left is the view from my garden into my neighbor's front yard. Like I've said before, this is the most beautiful springtime I have ever seen in Atlanta. EVERYTHING is blooming at once! And there haven't been a string of violent storms to knock down the fragile blooms. Azalea, hydrangea, dogwood, cherry blossoms, jasmine, Bradford pears, daffodils, irises - all blooming together and they're everywhere! I'm loving it (it helps that over 29 years I've developed a total tolerance to Atlanta's pollen).

The photo on the right is Topher getting ready for his shower. "Get out MOM!" Ok not really. I'd just finished cleaning the bathtub and he jumped in to lick the faucet. The light was so pretty that I grabbed the camera. He's a little cat version of a Vermeer painting!

And last for today: when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. When life makes your eggplant explode on the grill... make baba ganoush! Earlier this week Oliver grilled dinner in the backyard. Whenever he does this he throws an eggplant on the grate afterwards and lets it bake while we eat. Well during that night's dinner an unmistakable burp erupted from the grill! Oh no! Eggplant explosion! No matter though, it still makes a delicious snack.