Thai Chicken Satay Salad with Peanut Sauce Dressing

If you don't know what Thai chicken satay is - look it up*! Because it is DELICIOUS!! Last night we ate it on skewers hot off the grill with a side of homegrown grilled eggplant and YDFM sweet potato. Tonight we enjoyed it on a bed of lettuce with home grown red peppers and tomatoes. Oliver's peanut sauce accompanied both meals. YUM!

*Yes, this is me losing patience with writing copy for meals I didn't cook (read: don't know how cook) but LOVED eating.

Sunday morning in the garden

By the time the Grant Park Farmers Market opens at 9:30 we've already been up for at least an hour. This morning we spent time in the garden. Our tomatoes are finally too tall for their stakes so we decided to cut them off at 10 ft. Pumpkin blossoms are appearing on the pumpkin vine. The leeks are getting fat. Green peppers are turning red and there are almost a dozen eggplants between two plants. While Oliver cooked bacon I ran down to the GPFM and picked up some goat cheese made Friday on a farm just 10 miles away. Breakfast was omelets with veggies from the garden, fresh goat cheese and a side of bacon. 


Dinner at Bone Garden

We interupt the regularly scheduled Fancy Beer Friday to bring you one of our favorite Atlanta restaurants: BONE GARDEN!



We have a weakness for well done Mexican food. (A big bowl of liquid cheese can brighten even our darkest days.) Heart healthy? Ehhhh...not so much. But one of the rules we live by is 'everything in moderation - even moderation'.  So rather then deny ourselves our favorite food we make sure that when we do splurge we do so on something worth it. If I'm going to be happily rolled out of a restaurant then I want every bite to have been ecstasy. Bone Garden is that kind of restaurant.
Hidden away in an industrial  park in West Midtown, Bone Garden, has cheerful day of the dead decor. (Described not-so-cheerfully on their website: We replaced the pinatas and sombreros with artwork that scares small children...). If the skull looks vaguely familiar it might be that you've seen a similar rendition on Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points (same artist/restaurateur). But forget the fun atmosphere - it's the wide selection of unique foods that keeps us coming back!
Just a few of our favorite menu items:
• Chorizo enchilada (Oliver's favorite)
• Pasilla Patron tamale (cactus and queso)
• Chicharron taco (fried pork rind)
• Barbacoa de chivo taco (slow-braised goat)
• Lengua taco (cubed beef tongue)
• Elote (grilled corn topped with mayo, chili powder and lime)
• Vegetable empanadas

 Portions are small so you're good to order two or three things before you're totally too full to take another bite. Love it!

Lunch & dinner, lunch & dinner

More dinners made from the London Broil we grilled on Monday: 
• Wednesday: London Broil on a big bed of red leaf lettuce with vinaigrette, homegrown tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles. 
• Thursday: London Broil stir fry with green peppers from the garden and baby portobello mushrooms from YDFM (side of baked sweet potato).

 Lunch (x5): stewed black beans with a dollop of Greek yogurt


250th post

This is And Topher Too's 250th post. It's taken almost a year (and about 20 posts a month) to reach this milestone. In that time we've earned a "blog of the month" award from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and grown our readership to an average of 75 hits a day. To all the people* who have helped along the way: thank you. We truly appreciate your support. 

 After much consideration I've decided that the end of August will also mark the end of regular, daily posting for And Topher Too. There are many reasons, among them: 
  • Photographing my food before I eat it, and then writing relevant copy before I post it, has become a chore. Plus I am disappointed in myself for rarely highlighting why/how each meal specifically fits into our heart healthy, locavore diet.
  • It feels like I'm preaching to the choir. I started the blog hoping to inspire change in people's lifestyles and eating habits; but I'm pretty sure the majority of our readers already live healthy lifestyles. The friends and family who think I'm a "hippy" or "fanatic" because of the way I eat (and there are plenty of them) just never read the blog (thank you Google analytics).
  • The politics of building a larger blog audience turn me off. Leaving comments just so you can get comments feels insincere. Even if I had time to do it I still would not. Besides, my favorite bloggers are BURIED in generic, repetitive comments only hours after their posts. That extreme sounds equally unappealing. 
  • I HAVE a full time, 9 hour a day job and 60 minute (roundtrip) commute. When I come home I'd really love to just relax with my husband. The time I spend on the blog is always borrowed from the time I want to be spending with him.
  • But really the biggest thing is: I don't feel like I've gotten through to anyone. 
Over the last year I've accomplished more then I would have ever dared imagine. I've lost 20lbs, earned a great promotion at work, lowered my blood pressure, completely given up artificial sweetners, lost my taste for overly processed foods, learned more about cooking, and increased my physical indurance to 60 second planks/15 mile fast paced bike rides/20 push ups/50 weighted lunges, etc. But as I said before, the purpose of this blog was never to document my (unexpected) successes. Now, after a year of trying to convince others to take better care of themselves I've come to accept something: only you can decide to change your life.

 And that's it. I hope every person who reads this will take a moment to sincerely consider the health of their heart and cardiovascular system. Oliver lost both of his parent's to heart disease. Losing them changed our lives. What will it take to change yours?

 Thanks for reading and sincere wishes for a happy and healthy life.
- Cullen 

*A special thank you to: Mandy, Sabrina, Amber, Clair, Lucile and Kathleen. 

Sunday Morning at the Grant Park FarmersMarket

Our cupboards were bare this morning so we packed up our bikes and headed to the park to find breakfast. At the Grant Park Farmers market we found and shared a flaky, delicious sausage turnover from Little Tart Bakeshop and a tasty chocolate croissant from H&F breads. After an hour we biked home, jumped in the car and drove to YDFM for our weekly groceries.  

 We impressed ourselves by spending only $57. The only things not on the reciept* (below) that we should count towards the food costs are a $1.75 container of dried black beans and a dozen eggs; both of which we already had at home.  $11 of the $57 is coffee. $5 is raw almonds (Oliver's favorite snack). Check back throughout the week to see how we make it work.

 $60 5 day, real food meal plan for two adults:
Breakfast - oatmeal (weekdays), bacon and eggs (weekend)
Lunch - black beans
Dinner - London Broil (on salad, on a sandwich and on it's own) with YDFM and homegrown vegetables

*click to enlarge

Fancy Beer Friday: Redbrick 17th Anniversary

It's not Friday but this beer was worth the wait. Believe me, I've been waiting all year for it.

 Over the past four years or so the owners/board of our favorite local brewery have been loosening the reigns on Brewmaster Dave McClure*.  The most pronounced result is the Brick Mason series (and Hoplanta). While it consists of some dynamite beers: Wee Heavy (yep), Vanilla Gorilla (duh). Double IPA (obviously); the anniversary series is world class.
Each anniversary ale is the Red Brick Brown aged in whiskey barrels. They started series with the 15th spending a little over a year on on Pappy Van Winkle barrels. It's become somewhat of  a legend around these parts. (In fact, a beer loving buddy of ours gave us two bottles as a wedding gift.) The 16th was the same base aged for six months in Jack Daniels barrels. I'm not JD's biggest fan and it was a little hot at 11% but I'm looking forward to pulling a bottle out of our cellar  to compare with this years. This years 17th though. Oh this years beer...

The 17th sat on Jim Beam** barrels and it is dynamite. It clocks in at a head leveling 8.5%. As it warms up, it is as complex as a good bottle of bitters. Don't tell my wife, but I'm buying a case of this.
*I don't really know anything about the politics behind the scenes at Red Brick, all I know is that Dave can crank out some stellar suds.

 **I may like Jim Beam as much as I like Jack which is to say, not at all. Luckily we're speaking beer, not whiskey.

 - Oliver

134lb by 34: UPDATE

It's been four months since my 34th birthday and the final day of my personal weight loss challenge. The goal had been to lose eleven pounds in ten weeks with the intention of lowering my high blood pressure. My final weigh in was two pounds shy of my goal but there was still a noticeable difference in my blood pressure. Since then I've continued to lose weight but at a slower pace. I've gone from a pound a week to a pound a month. This morning I weighed in 131.6lbs. My blood pressure is looking so good that I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor to discuss going off the blood pressure medicine. I'm not sure what she'll say but I promise to pass on the info. 


*Fancy Beer Friday is still on the way! We're having some trouble procuring the beer we want. Check back tomorrow! 

Dinner from the garden

Thursday night Oliver made dinner from ingredients we had on hand. An onion, garlic, olive oil and box of pasta from the pantry. Plus three tomatoes, a green bell pepper, a red chili pepper, basil, oregano, thyme and parsley all picked fresh from the garden. 




*Fancy Beer Friday will be posted tomorrow (Saturday)! Check back to read about Friday night at Redbrick Brewing Company and their soon to be released 17th Anniversary Ale.  

Heart disease and oral health

For all my talk about living a heart healthy lifestyle there is one component that I overlook every single day. Any guesses? The answer is a little embarrassing... FLOSSING! I brush at least twice a day and I waterpic several times a week but flossing is such a chore. (Especially for someone with a permanent retainer cemented to the back of my lower front teeth.) My excuses are the same everyday: in the morning I'm too rushed to get to work and in the evening I'm much too tired and just want to get to bed. 


My laziness wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't showing early signs of gum disease - but I am. It is most likely a symptom of taking over a decade's worth of oral contraceptives - but regardless of what is causing it it is something I need to get under control. 


The dental hygenist had a suggestion: don't wait until bedtime - instead make it a habit to floss immediately after lunch or dinner. I'm taking her advice to heart. I've been able to change my eating habits, lower my blood pressure, lose almost 20lbs and make exercise a routine part of my week - daily flossing is just the next step in living a truly heart healthy life. I can do it!



• Those with adult gum disease may have increased risk of stroke
• Bacteria from the mouth may cause clotting problems in the cardiovascular system that lead to an increased risk of a fatal heart attack. 
•People with type II diabetes are three times as likely to develop gum disease then are nondiabetics.

Look honey, I baked! (chocolate cake by Cullen)











Pardon the pun, but this really takes the cake for procrastination!! This treat is officially Oliver's 32nd birthday cake (his 32nd birthday was in September of last year). For almost a year he has been asking when he is going to get his birthday cake - and since I find no joy in baking I have spent a year telling him to forget it! Well honey, I finally did it. I baked. Happy belated birthday!

The Recipe is from the Country Living website.

Bad Tomato

For all my talk of perfect homegrown tomatoes you'd think I'd be able to spot an impostor. Well, it turns out I cannot. While at YDFM today I picked up a few seemingly ripe tomatoes, grown in the bordering state of North Carolina. My plan was to make Oliver the gazpacho he'd missed out on last week. You can imagine my disappointment when I cut into them and discovered this:


These tomatoes are my definition of CRAP TOMATOES! Ick. I threw them in the trash. If I'm going to go through all the trouble of making gazpacho then I'm going to use the best tomatoes possible. 


The end.

Fancy Beer Friday: Lagunitas' Undercover Investigation Ale

It's five o'clock somewhere and you deserve a beer!


Lagunita's Undercover Investigation SHUT DOWN Ale is a hoppy, bitter, high gravity ale with a great back story. It commemorates what the brewery refers to as the "Saint Patrick's Day massacre of 2005". 


In the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929  two prohibition era gangsters, dressed as police officers, opened fire on members of a rival gang in a Chicago garage. The bait? Whiskey.


76 years later, during the Lagunita's "massacre", eight California Alcohol Beverage officers, dressed as regular people, busted the brewery for "disorderly house and moral turpitude". Their actual offense? A few beer drinkers in the beer garden were lighting up doobies (does anyone still say doobies?). The citation led to an attempt to revoke the brewery's license - which eventually led to this fantastic fancy beer. For more details about the bust watch the following video (but fast forward to the 30 second mark everything before that is intro).