Southern Scratch

Belated Blog Birth Announcement

2012-02-20T18:45:00.000-05:00

So it has been a while since the last post...mainly because of this little girl:

Who is now over 5 months old...

So just for the sake of documentation, Josephine Fite Filipiak was born at 4:42 am on Sunday, September 4th, 2011. 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/4 inches. Eventually we'll call her "Josephine" but for now we call her Baby Girl, Beauty Pie or Sugar Diapers.

Reid's Labor of Love

2011-06-22T18:22:00.001-04:00

I have tried a bazillion times since yesterday to post a picture of our finally painted nursery...so this is in high hopes that I can post them via the blog at least!

Below are the semi-before shots. It's not the complete "before" picture since by this time we had already cleaned it out completely once then filled it back completely with my moving boxes. This is also past the time I decided to start painting the guest room (notice the half primed walls in some places) then didn't get it finished by the time we had guests actually coming and had to quickly move a bed back in. Which has since been moved to the kitchen house and was replaced with two twin beds I had. So when these were taken a couple months ago we had a sewing project going on as well as had the printer set up in there (aka, another temporary office spot) as well as a ton of other stuff that has been moving around since we've been married.

And my favorite part of the pictures is Reid's 30 Alt 6 that is in it's "coyote hunting" strategic position (although he never actually shoots because our dogs get too close but yes the screen is cut away just for this purpose.) Can you hear Deliverance?

Guest/sewing/coyote hunting/Kat's closet/random stuff room. Look at that ceiling light too...

A better shot of my priming skills...no wonder Reid didn't want me involved in painting. The twin beds are covering up the floor where I got paint from lack of any kind of prep work like laying down newspaper, plastic, etc.

So...at first we wanted to completely redo the ceiling by taking down the drop tiles and sheet rocking it. But then we realized how good our hallway looked with the drop ceiling caulked, leveled and painted. Plus the main thing that made the ceiling look so bad was the huge panel light that was a little too reminiscent of the grocery store. After a couple trips to Lowe's we decided to change the ceiling lights and paint the existing ceiling. Then the next step was getting everything prepped to paint (which Reid insists is one of the most important steps...different from my "paint now clean later" philosophy). Finally the painting began along with wall repairs where the paneling had bowed a little, etc. Needless to say if I had done this room it would have looked pretty sorry because I would have just painted over everything and called it a "distressed" look.

And of course the first step was clearing EVERYTHING out of the room which has been nicely decorating the dining room for the past 7 weeks. So you can imagine how amazing it felt to come home to a room that was finally done! Painted, ceiling, great lighting, etc, etc. After over a year of trying to make slow but sure progress on the house (while also trying to run a business and work and get settled in the first place) we finally have a room done. It feels amazing to have a room done. I think we should host a dinner party in it.

Clearly, Reid removed the firearms from the baby's room.

A mattress for the crib and that's everything right?

I told Reid I am so relieved now-not completely prepared but not completely unprepared for a baby either. And word on the street is that if for some reason you don't have a car seat (because you are overwhelmed with the 50 zillion kinds that are offered) the hospital will loan you one until you do. So I feel like if I were to go into labor we would at least have a way for the baby to get safely home and a place to sleep when he or she gets here until my own mother can get here and take control of the "Kathryn doesn't actually know what to do with a baby" situation. (We are still hoping of course for another ten weeks to go...but that due date seems to be getting closer and closer and closer...)

Best Use of Zucchini Bread Ever!

2011-06-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

So I thought I was pretty clever last September when I made Reid a zucchini bread birthday cake lightly frosted with nothing more than whipped butter and a very scant amount of raw sugar. (Zucchini bread is his favorite but I also made a chocolate cake and pecan pie just to make sure I had all bases covered for our dinner guests...and because it was my first time hosting a birthday dinner for my husband and I felt like I had to have 3 desserts.)

But today at Athens Locally Grown, Eric showed me a picture that puts anything anyone has ever done with zucchini bread before to shame. He cut a mini loaf of my zucchini pecan bread he had ordered last week (made with some of Thomas MacFie's organic zucchini) lengthwise and toasted it first to make the base of the "strawberry shortcake." Then he topped it with locally grown strawberries tossed in a little turbinado sugar; dollop of fresh whipped cream and garnished with lemon zest and mint.

He was kind enough to email me the photo even though he should have known better than to torture a pregnant lady with pictures like these knowing a simple food suggestion can turn into a major craving at any moment. (Yes, I am calling Lazy Willow Farm first thing in the morning to see if I can haggle any strawberries out of them because I now must, must have this.)

I'm going to go eat my veggies now before I give in and try to talk Reid into taking me to the kitchen where I know I have a loaf left over from baking today and then go covertly pick strawberries in the middle of the night at the LeGette's farm....

Getting Around to Getting a Menu...

2011-05-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

I am not the most tech savvy individual. We don't own a TV (maybe the reason I hated babysitting growing up was because I could never get anyone's TV's to work unless the remote control had less than 12 buttons); I haven't changed my voicemail in over a year from my maiden name even though it's primarily a business phone now and my camera issues have a blog post dedicated to them (but then one of the camera's screen's got all fuzzy and I never posted it which should just prove the point of the whole post). My 12 year old niece brings her own ipod speakers to visit because I can't get the old tape player radio to work without Reid and she thinks it's too quiet in the kitchen. Chandler as well as the dietetic interns I've had also have commented on the silence even though it doesn't bother me and I kind of enjoy the focused work and thinking I can do all by myself cooking. (When I clean I have to have music though and was very proud of my "Cleaing Tunes" playlist I figured out how to put together on my laptop. It starts with Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?).

Anyway, thanks to my tech savvy older brother we have a website. And thanks to my brother in law and parents we have two new cameras which now thanks to Chandler I can actually get to take a picture most of the time. And now thanks to advice from Eric from Athens Locally Grown (who I have asked sooo many computer questions to already) we are one step closer to having online ordering through our website http://www.southernscratch.com/ . (Eric actually built the locally grown set up which is now used all over the country so every time I post items to the Augusta and Athens online farmer's markets it makes me think of how smart he is and also kind of how I feel like I know a celebrity. I also know Tink Wade of http://www.tinksbeef.com/ who I think is a celebrity too.)

So my goal for having our goodies posted online is that we can make shipping treats simpler but also local pick ups and deliveries a lot easier. Rather than having to order at the market or calling me, you can order online and just choose local pick up.

The way things are right now we sell on Saturday mornings at the Washington Farmer's Market, online via http://www.athens.locallygrown.net/, http://www.augusta.locallygrown.net/, and then post a local pick up menu in the News-Reporter here in Washington and (when I remember!) on our Facebook page and website for local pick up twice a week and then special orders any day of the week. Plus, for any shipping we just have worked via email or phone and done the old-fashioned "I'll mail your treats and you mail a check before or when you get them to this address."

We also have never gotten around to ever printing out a final "menu." Part of this is because it has taken a while to get to where I feel like I've got enough items that come out "perfect" every single time to want to put them on a definite menu. When I eat dessert I want it to be the very best thing I've ever had. I want it to be so good that I insist on making a fresh pot of coffee to enjoy it with- not eat some store bought cookie that was just "okay." Other reasons we haven't gotten around to any semblance of a "standard" menu is that for a long time I never really thought about a standard menu and just kept baking whatever I wanted for the market or cooking anything that sounded good for the "Weekday Gourmet" meals.

While just going in the kitchen and cooking whatever you feel like is kind of fun, it's (obviously) not really the best approach to having what people call a "streamlined business". And it's especially not good if you are selling in more than one place and have no standard price list which means you end up trying to do a bunch of math in your head while talking to customers on the phone driving.

My goal (pipedream?) is to narrow down our top treats (you know to the ones you just have to make a pot of good coffee for), breakfast goodies and cakes and have those available online and printed on cute paper on a regular basis. Then our food items (like individual homemade rustic pizzas with locally grown/raised toppings; Tink's Grass Fed French Dip sandwich, Savannah River Farm's roasted chicken salad, side dishes, etc.) will rotate based on seasonal ingredients and availability just like they are now. We'll also be able to do holiday specials, side dishes, etc. for families so you can order whatever you need to round out your menu.

Of course, at the Washington Farmer's Market, I still fully intend to show up with French macarons or chocolate eclairs or banana pudding with homemade vanilla wafers or a wedding cake or any other random thing that sounds like fun to make. (But if I somehow really hit the tech jackpot maybe we can set it up where you can reserve treats online for those who don't make it to the market until closer to noon...).

Anyway-I need some help finalizing this menu for when I finish asking all the tech smart people questions and am ready to get our online ordering up and running. Let me know what your favorite goodies, foods, etc. are so we can get this baby going!

(And if you have any tech, online sales, photography or nursery painting related experience, remember that I am a huge fan of the bartering system and love to trade food for help in doing things I'm horrible at. Which is also how I met Reid. Yard work for dinner turned into marriage for us).

Thanks so much-can't wait to finally get a real menu ready!

-Kathryn

Southern Scratch: One Year!

2011-05-01T21:39:00.002-04:00

Every Sunday morning before church Reid cooks grits (and sometimes eggs & bacon) for us and we get a chance to really catch up on everything. It is easily my favorite time during the whole week.  On Friday nights when I know I'm down to my last ounce of energy, I can just think of Sunday mornings and know that everything is going to be fine. My husband, good food, good coffee, our quiet farm, our conversation and knowing that God is to thank for it all make for complete, utter peace for me.

Well this morning we talked about Southern Scratch. It is probably one of the things we talk about most anyway, but today we kind of reflected a little on how much things have changed with our little business-what we've done well with, what was just a disaster (the kind you can laugh about now but probably had me in tears saying I just wanted to have a normal job and buy a TV and get our house painted instead of buying cases of butter at the time), what we should keep doing, stop doing and what we should start doing (like get better at taking/posting pictures). We also talked about how Reid makes the most perfect grits and how lucky I am that he married me which is pretty much a direct quote of myself as soon as I have the first bite of breakfast every Sunday. Food will do it for me every time.

So here are the best things that have come out of the past year:

1.) Our faith. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not an uber-organized or really business-savy person at all. Reid and I love each other, we love good food and we like feeding people. As far as any kind of overall business plan, that is about all we know. So I know for certain that if I was trying to pull all this together on my own I would definitely not be writing about celebrating a year of being in business. Constant prayer has easily turned out to be the best business plan ever. (I'm usually starting with "Dear Lord, I really don't know what I'm doing but I know that you do....")
We know that in the whole scheme of things, this little business is not really all that important because at the end of the day it is still temporal. What is important is that we make decisions that are in line with Christ; decisions that strengthen our marriage rather than separate us and that we don't lose sight of this bigger truth in life because we are caught up in the immediacy of filling cinnamon roll orders. (Not to underestimate the importance of a really good cinnamon roll of course...).
I had a biology professor who would say "Pray like it's up to God, but study like it's up to you." If you switch out "work" for "study" then you've got a pretty accurate description of what we've done the past year!

2.) Our relationship with each other. Things can still get a little tense but working long hours in close quarters together has definitely taught Reid and I a ton.  For my part, I've much better learned how to communicate what I need and to trust that Reid will do it without becoming a crazy, nagging wife covered in flour and butter who clearly has "snapped." (Which may have happened a couple few, oh say half dozen times on a late Friday night...).
Not only have we gotten to work together the stressful, long hours of starting a business but we've also gotten to celebrate it together. The very first market I texted Reid around 8:45 saying "Darling-I've already sold $8!!!". I was super excited about telling him and even now we always wait until we have time together to see what we sold at the market. I tell him about every single order and he tells me how much fun it is to hear customers ask for "Better Than's" by name since he came up with it. We're in it together and I can't imagine sharing the experience with anyone else.

3.) Our social life. Part of wanting to sell a few things down at the farmer's market was to get out and meet people. I was new in town, living out in the country with no really close friends or family within a hundred miles. I had met some great people already in Washington through showers and visiting but still felt pretty isolated out here.   Starting this business (which we didn't really know we were starting at the time) has opened the doors to so many incredible people. Our friends Pat and John who own Buona Caffe have a logo that says "Good things happen over good coffee." We couldn't agree more. Yesterday, when my brother and sister-in-law were helping us in Augusta they mentioned how warm and nice everyone seemed to be. There is always a bond that forms when people share good food and drink together.
I'm not sure how but we have the best customers ever. I feel like nearly every person I've sold something to I could call if I needed help. When I don't see someone at the market Saturday morning, it's like a good friend who couldn't make it to dinner so you can't wait to catch up with them the next week. Even though the Augusta and Athens markets are online, I've gotten to know them through email, Facebook and occassionally getting to deliver on drop off day.    I feel so blessed to know so many amazing, interesting, vibrant people who seem to like food just as much as I do.
Not only are our customers amazing, I have gotten to work with all these incredible growers and producers of food. Spending time at the farm where you buy all your beef, knowing every family member who grows your vegetables and hanging out every Saturday morning with the people you buy jelly, tamales, pita bread, flour, eggs, and produce from is one of the best social networks to be in!

4.) Our food. This morning for breakfast we knew where each and every bit of our food came from and had personally met all the people who grew it. We had grits from Freeman Mill, bacon from Savannah River Farms, eggs from our neighbor and coffee from Buona Caffe with cream from Southern Swiss Dairy. For lunch we made sandwiches from Tink's Grass Fed Beef sirloin on Lily Bakery and Cafe sourdough with radishes and lettuce from Harvest Moon Garden farm. Every bit of it was so good. And even though it was just me and Reid eating, I still felt a connection with all of the people I just mentioned because when you know who grew/raised/roasted your food, you can't help but think of them.
And also with food...practice makes perfect. I will say if we hadn't made chocolate chip cookies several times a week or started roasting 20 pounds of chicken at a time, we couldn't have gotten our recipes to where they are. We are always tweaking and trying to improve upon items...and one day I'll convert all my handwritten and mental notes to paper...

5.) Our house. Umm..we painted the hallway and Reid is putting new lights in the soon to be nursery? Haha-one day we'll get around to really working on the house...

Wow...it still doesn't seem possible that we've had a business for a year now. Maybe it's because we still don't really think of ourselves as "business owners" since there isn't too much pomp and circumstance around baking all night long or washing dishes. Or because the whole thing has really been a lot of fun (until it's really hard then we get some sleep and Sunday comes and everything is fun again).

Late last fall when we officially moved the kitchen into the Tignall house, one of my first ideas was to have a great party out there for all the incredible people we have gotten to meet (and feed!) on our "Southern Scratch 1st Anniversary." My plan was to host this on Saturday night, which would have been last night, on the eve of our "one year" and exactly 52 weeks from our first market. Instead of a party we were both passed out asleep from an incredibly fun but busy day at the Riverwood Localfest in Evans, GA. And the Tignall house (or our farm/house) isn't even ready anyway. So here's to aiming for a 2 year anniversary party? When we have an 8 month old?

In the meantime, we are going to have to come up with something fun to celebrate all around. Or maybe move our "1 year" to mean the day we actually decided that we should maybe "go for it" or the day we filed as an LLC or the day we moved from baking in our somewhat renovated basement to a bonafied commercial kitchen that wasn't attached to our house. Regardless, I love a party and so one day we'll have one!

THANK YOU for helping us reach this milestone!!!

Love,
Reid & Kathryn

the last bite

2011-04-10T22:56:00.003-04:00

Green onions before their buzz cut.

Tri-colored carrots (Some are disguised as beets.)

Pound cakes cooling.

Magnificently, perfectly shelled pecans, if this author does say so herself.

One of these sneaky seeds will surely end up in my teeth, but with freshly whipped organic cream ... who cares?

Cabbage patch.

****

Hello, Southern Scratch readers. I have the privilege to be your guest blogger today. My name is Sarah, and I am a dietetic intern. I had the pleasure of spending a week with Kathryn in Tignall, getting a feel for what it takes to start a small business. It was a wonderful, hands-on experience! Keep reading for a taste of what I learned....

****

There are several ways a person can take the last bite of food. There is one way in which one tries to make the cherished morsel last as long as possible, shaving away micro-bites with a spoon or fork. This manner seems a slow tortuous denial, where someone eats crumbs for so long that they are the same as someone who has actually eaten nothing. Then there is the way in which one simply enjoys the last bit of food, swallowing away the fear and uncertainty of not knowing when or if there will be another portion.

When Kathryn answers a question, she starts a story—stories that revolve around food, books, her husband, Southern Scratch (SS), or maybe a tale from her childhood. It’s more like a parable than a direct response. It’s perfectly appropriate when she regales you with a story, because in her reply, she unfolds the current dilemma surrounding food. She talks in sorrow about how we are distanced from our food while we unwrap unsalted butter from Southern Swiss dairies in Waynesboro, Georgia, how broken our current food system is while we crack eggs laid by hens about five minutes away, and how downright delicious local, sustainable, organic food can really be while pound cake batter is evenly distributed into two country blue baking dishes. We discuss food philosophies while sifting organic wheat flour milled down the road and brainstorm about ways to impact patients at the hospital and folks in the community to prevent them from becoming the former. The stories we tell and the conversation we have expose the complexity of the issue one layer at a time like the organic scallions I am slicing.

There’s intimacy in the close quarters of the kitchen, where we wash carrots, zest lemons, and plunge our hands into dough, all while talking, sharing, and laughing. It's an intimacy with the food we are preparing and in relating and connecting as women. The communal aspect of food is so often overlooked, but we pause in the kitchen to sit around a vase of daffodils, commune, and eat.

As we enjoy our meal, Kathryn talks about her customers. She recalls a number of details about them, their demeanors, their routine, their food preferences, and their faces. She is intimate and personal with the food she prepares, just as she is intimate and personal with the people for whom she prepares it. As our lunch comes to a close, I watch Kathryn brandish her spoon, gathering the last of the vittles, grandly enjoying the taste and texture of spicy sausage with apples and grains.

As we push away from the table, I think about the last bite with a simple understanding. There is no sorrow in the end of a memorable meal when-- just down the road-- hens are laying eggs, wheat is being milled, and vegetables are growing.

For Christina Groce.

2011-04-07T22:36:00.001-04:00

Monday night we had a bad storm come through pretty much all of the southeast. Around 2 am I woke up and asked Reid if we should head to the basement and by 3 am we had lost power and I was too tired to care too much at that point if the roof was coming off. Plus, I had let Reid convince me that we were fine (which now being awake I have no idea why I trusted my half asleep husband on tornado safety measures except that I really prefered my bed over the creepy basement bathroom). I will admit I did get up long enough between 2:00 and 3:00 to put enough clothes on so that if the roof did blow off the house I wouldn't be indecent when the television crew came to film what was left of our stick built vinyl siding home with our hound running around and me barefoot and pregnant describing the tornado as "a train." (I grew up in Alabama so I know all about proper post-tornado interview ettiquette).

Tuesday morning Reid rushed to get out the door for work since we had overslept. I immediately brushed my teeth because I had remembered a vague comment from Reid saying that if the power went out, we didn't have water either because of the well pump.

When I got to the Tignall kitchen to see if we had power there, the little town looked pretty bad. I went ahead and labeled the Augusta Locally Grown orders that were ready along with packaging up extra treats so that the customers who weren't getting their order would at least have a bit of a "consolation prize." (Even though I know hamburger buns and cookies or steak fajitas and granola aren't necessarily interchangeable, I didn't want anyone to get that sinking "I have no birthday presents to unwrap" feeling when they got to the market).

I had errands and a husband in Augusta so I decided to use the day to surprise Reid (after sending him to work with no breakfast.. had accidently left his portion of granola in Tignall), return horrible curtains, run errands and get to deliver my Augusta order in person (instead of sending it through the Wilkes County Delivery Train which happens to usually be the back of a Volvo or truck).

Tuesday ended up being a really fun and important day. I had only delivered my orders to ALG once but had to drop them off and run. This time I got to stick around until customers came and learn how to be a "volunteer" by filling orders, running up to the coolers to grab gallons of Southern Swiss Dairy milk and of course offer meager brownies instead of a full dinner plate. As of this afternoon we still had no power and since I was on a "visit the market you're selling to" kick, I got to drive the Wilkes Co. Delivery Train up to Athens today along with Carissa of Tink's Grass Fed Beef. Again, it was so great to see this amazing online Farmer's Market operation up close and personal. (Athens even has iphones for all their volunteers to pull up/check off customer's orders eliminating paper...pretty awesome operation).

We just recently got word tonight everything was up and running in Tignall but will have to wait until the morning to see it with our own eyes. We very temporarily moved our base of operation back here which has reminded Reid and I exactly why we can't live in the middle of a business no matter how convenient the commute is. It also made us appreciate the stainless tables and three different specified sinks soooo much more. (I think whenever we redo our kitchen I'll insist on 3 sinks..handwashing/prep/dishes-it just makes so much sense).

We are looking forward to getting back in our kitchen tomorrow morning and incredibly grateful for the last few days of "inconveniences" since it has led to getting to know more of the people that we're sharing meals with. It was all worth it today when I drove away from "Weekday Gourmet" deliveries:

I got to see a mom, daughter and grandbaby from Thomson eating Southern Scratch meals on a bench in the town square while enjoying the view of downtown Washington. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and pride that visitors from the town over would purposely come and share in a meal that so many from our town have had a part in preparing. I thought of how we all meet up at someone's house on Tuesday or Thursdays and load a car full of produce, meat, plants, meals & treats and send our little Wilkes County delivery train to Athens or Augusta and how that kind of fills me with pride. I thought of how I have the best little job ever to get to do something like provide visitors in town with a meal that is not just from my kitchen but from the hands of a whole community.

And I thought about how I almost fell asleep writing this and that I better go put on my best post storm interview nightgown just in case another storm rolls in tonight...

It's About Time...

2011-03-23T11:40:00.000-04:00

The past month or so we have been busy. The good kind of busy though where by the end of the day you are so exhausted you can hardly let your head hit the pillow before you're asleep and then you're up and running again the next day with an equally packed day. The kind of busy where when you do get in bed you know you've spent all you could that day with no regrets of what you could have accomplished if you had just been motivated enough, etc. For example, here was my schedule yesterday:

6:15 am: Wake up in Columbia, SC on our surprise anniversary trip. (Front row tickets to Prince which made all things I had to speed through to do to get ready to go out of town on a Monday night so worth it!)
7:00 am: Breakfast in hotel (why do they always only have light yogurt made with artificial sweeteners?)
7:20am: Leave SC to drop Reid off at work in Augusta
8:30am: Leave Augusta to drive to Washington; finalize orders & details for brother's wedding this weekend
8:37 am: Stop by grocery store in Augusta for items I forgot (wishing I had brought tennis shoes instead of the cowboy boots I was wearing with yoga pants.)
10:00 am: Arrive at kitchen in Tignall
10-2:40: Make blue cheese green onion & grit scones; bake off Better Than's; make 4 dozen burger buns; make carrot cupcakes; pull pork & season; make sauce; wash/shred cabbage; make coleslaw; make brown butter cream cheese icing to ice cupcakes & tartlets; make blueberry filling and fill tartlets I had made Monday; make plates to send to Augusta; package treat orders; load coolers/car up.
2:40-3:40: Drive to deliver orders to Evans, GA for Augusta Locally Grown
3:40-4:00: Drop off orders; see friends/growers there like Pat Curry from Buonna Cafe Artisan Roasted Coffee & Tink/Carissa from Tink's Grass Fed Beef and Kim Hines, ALG market manager
4:00-5:05: Drive back to Tignall from Evans via almost accidently going to Washington and my lack of geographical knowledge adding about 20 minutes onto my drive; meanwhile call customers and make arrangements for home meal deliveries since I was running a little late for 5pm drop off. (So glad Washington is such a small town!)
5:05-5:18: Moving FAST at the Tignall kitchen, get Washington orders together; make treat tray to bring to class later.
5:18-5:45: Deliver meals (probably the most unsocial I've ever been at meal drop off time since I just left my car running!); fill up with gas
5:45-6:05: Drive home to change clothes, grab some food, update FB status & get directions.
6:05 to 6:57: Drive back to Evans, GA for an organic gardening class; meanwhile able to find a wedding cake stand as well as call my expert cake decorator cousin for some last minute tips.
6:57-6:59: Breathe. Amazed I am on time for the class; all orders/meals have been delivered and I actually have makeup and jewelry on.
7:00-9:00: Learn about organic gardening from Relinda Walker from Walker Farms; discuss plans for LocalFest at Riverwood Plantation on April 30th. (Reid and I are doing cooking demonstrations-so fun!).
9:00-10:00 Drive back home to Washington; call Reid and tell him how long the day was without seeing him; return a couple late phone calls for orders.
10:00 HOME!! Laid back in a chair; told Reid how wonderful he was; discussed with him the finer points of the Prince concert
10:25 Ate the best sandwich (okay, 2 of them)...on Thomas MacFie's pita bread with his lettuce and radishes; cranberry-chipotle cheddar from Happy Cow; mayo/mustard; and roast beef that Reid had fixed
10:45 Looked up Prince videos online
By 11:05 Shower, in bed
11:06 Asleep.

I used to think that "getting it all done" meant having to stay up until four, five or just not sleep at all. I've slowly been figuring out it's better to simply start each day with a good night's sleep and then hit the ground running in the morning. Actually following this realization pretty well is probably best time management "trick" I've ever learned.

Then a couple months ago I was listening to this sermon on the radio that had caught my attention because it was discussing time management. The just of the sermon was that we shouldn't be so worried about "having enough time" because if we are seeking to let God be in control of lives, then we trust that God will also provide us with the time that we need to accomplish what He has set out for us to do; basically trusting that God won't give us responsibility for something that He doesn't also give us the resources (time, money, skill, etc.) for us to take care of it.

For someone like me who does not have very good built in time management skills and a brain that goes everywhere at once, that provided a lot of comfort. I realized I have been on a long journey of coming from piling on way too much, saying yes to way too much and being a horrible procrastinator to now piling on a lot but knowing when/what to say "no" to and breaking everything down into small tasks that I just get done without agonizing over it first. I've finally been able to admit that a good night's sleep on a consistent basis is way more effective than pulling an all-nighter and even that preparing ahead of time, little by little, makes whatever project it is actually enjoyable as opposed to the last minute rushes. And of course, having faith that God will give me enough time to take care of what is really important even if that may seem different than what I think is important. (Like time to spend an evening alone with my husband even though I was sure I needed Monday afternoon/evening to prepare for orders/meals).

I have such a long way to go in all the little "management" areas of our business (which means in my life too!) like the "financial management"; "resource management"; "human resource management"; and of course still working on "time management."

I am sure in a few months that when we have a baby added to the mix I will look back on this time now and wonder what I did with so much leisure time! I also know that I will probably have only a vague recollection of what a good night's sleep is. (Or maybe my definition of one will just change from 8 hrs/night to maybe 3 hour stretches at a time!). I do know I am actually pretty calm and just excited about the whole thing because I know God will give us what we need to take care of our little one and everything else, including the time.

Well, I better get moving. Headed to see patients at the hospital first then a full afternoon of baking so I can be home in time to have some dinner ready...

Ten Reasons Why I Love My Husband

2011-02-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

I thought for Valentine's Day I'd dedicate a little blog post to Reid. I would have written "top 10" but I'm not sure I have the mental clarity right now to put these in order and I know I'm going to leave a lot out. (Please don't judge me that I've referred to our baby a couple times today as a little parasite who is draining all the energy and mental capacities right out of my body. Love this baby, not a big fan of the side effects.) So just listing ten of the many, many reasons why I'm still thrilled that Reid is all mine (you know, after almost 11 whole months) may be sufficient for now.

1.) First, he will eat anything at least once. I've never heard him say "that's gross" or "I don't like that" without first giving it a go. I love even more that even though he knows he hates raw tomatoes, he tries them at least once every single year just in case anything changes. I definitely could not have married a picky eater.

2.) He calls me "Sugar-britches." For the first two months of dating it made me giggle uncontrollably (mainly because I had never heard anyone say anthing like that and with such a Southern drawl). I would laugh so hard I was asked on one occassion if I was drunk (right before church, which I was not, thank goodness). Now all his coworkers and most of his friends refer to me by this little pet name as well.

3.) For my birthday this year he spent forever finding the perfect pair of boots for me because he knew my feet get really cold. It was the last thing I would have thought to ask for but now I wear my Mucklucks as often as I can and my toes stay so cozy, especially during the cold market days lately.

4.) He knows how to fix plumbing in our house.

5.) He built a two story dog/cat house for our pets complete with wood lap siding and a tin roof. (I told him we should get Leonard Jones to paint it.)

6.) He makes sure I have a glass of water before he gets in bed every night so I can have it as soon as I wake up...often a few hours after he wakes up and is already at work.

7.) Since we found out we were expecting he has completely withheld from tickling me or trying to scare me which has previously made up a big part of his entertainment. This is a big act of restraint for him and I appreciate it tremendously.

8.) He knows how to reload bullets which just sounds like it would be too hard, tedious and dangerous for me. Even better have been the little craft projects lately that have gone with it such as ducktaping random boxes and filling them with that insulation foam stuff to make bullet cases as well as cutting out target critters (so now we have cardboard squirrels, hogs and birds).

9.) This past Saturday morning before the market I had some major morning sickness, had banged my leg falling up the stairs, had no makeup on and had gone all night without sleep to get everything baked for the market. I looked pretty pitiful but he looked at me and said "You're so pretty darlin." It may have made me cry all prego-emotional style complete with sniffling but it was super sweet.

10.) Speaking of Saturday mornings...Every Friday night/Saturday morning since last May about he has stayed up late/gotten up early with me to help bake/prep for the market, load my car, make the coffee and then spend all morning with me "working" our little tables behind the courthouse. We joke around about our regular "Saturday morning date" but I really cannot think of anything more romantic than having a husband who supports my little dream endeavor so much that he'll give up all his Friday nights and Saturdays to help me. (Along with countless weeknights and middle of the nights too!).

11.) Okay I'm going for a couple more here...Every Sunday since we were dating Reid has been the one who makes sure we get to church. I'm so grateful our little baby is going to have a father who isn't quite as flaky as I am...(I'm also grateful our church doesn't start until eleven because the good Lord knows I am not naturally an early riser).

12.) Lastly, the thing Reid does that completely knocks me off my feet: He folds laundry just like he learned in military school. Am I the only one impressed at how flat/square this stack of t-shirts is?

If you've trudged through all my newlywed sappiness, thanks! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day with your friends, lovah or that box of chocolate that went on sale early... (And that any men reading this realize that folding laundry is waaaaay sexier than flowers.)

-Kathryn

Ham & Pop-Tarts

2011-02-07T00:30:00.001-05:00

No one in my family is what you would call a "finicky" eater. My mom cooked dinner every weekday and you just ate what was being served. (Except for Friday nights which was always pizza night.) Which was not a bad thing at all because my mom is a great cook.   I'm one of four so my mom would wake up around 4 or so to have time to cook dinner and have coffee/quiet time with my dad before we all woke up. Since dinner was "ready" by 6am every day, this means no one in my family has a weak gut either. See, as we got older we all had different schedules with practices, etc. so we would eat dinner with whoever was home and hungry at the same time. My mom was adamant we wouldn't find dinner if she didn't just leave it on the stove so food only got refrigerated a good 12-16 hours after it was done. Not a practice the Health Department would smile on, but all of us turned out to be pretty healthy and also pretty "adventurous" eaters. And like I said before, none of us have weak stomachs at all.

Which is why the way I've been eating lately is so strange to me. I've been an intuitive eater for a long time, so I am pretty good at eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and listening to my body for cues on what to eat. (That sounds kind of new age-y, but I promise it's not. Just imagine life without dieting, moving your body just because it feels good, and finding a natural, healthy weight without the food police around to tell you what you should and shouldn't be eating. If that sounds like a peaceful dream, it is. But it is also the way we were created to eat and is even backed up by some pretty good studies). So I'm not afraid to eat lately what really sounds good to me. The thing that is so strange though are all the foods that don't sound good to me. Such as...

1.) Coffee- I think an astute observer could have seen that my morning Southern Scratch Facebook posts went from mentioning sipping on coffee nearly every other day (even though I had plenty every morning) to absolute zero mentions of the stuff in January. For about 3 days after we found out, I was crushed at the thought of having to limit coffee to a cup or two a day.    I didn't care at all that I couldn't have a glass of wine with supper. But coffee, how would I go on? Then all of a sudden two days after Christmas it just had no appeal to me.   Now, I can't imagine how I ever drank it since the smell of it grosses me out.

2.) Most Vegetables- Raw carrots, steamed brocolli and a tiny bit of lettuce/tomato snuck on a sandwich are about all the veggies that sound good to me. Potato salad, french fries and onion rings with lots of ketchup are pretty amazing too but let's not count those as a "vegetables." I'm hoping I get over this aversion really quickly.
For example, a week or so after we first found out (right before Christmas) I picked up 3 pounds of raw spinach from Lazy Willow Farm. I knew how important folic acid was and I was psyched to be getting so much of it in this locally grown, pesticide/GMO free form which had been freshly cut and washed that morning. So picture me arriving home with the equivalent of about 9-10 of the washed "baby spinach" size bags in the grocery store. I had been so excited to sautee up some every day and had told Reid our "baby" was going to eat so healthy. Then I got it all inside the kitchen. I took one look at all that spinach and quickly realized baby was going to have to get it's folic acid somewhere else. Luckily, I'm eating fruit like crazy.

3.) Chocolate- This is more of a semi-aversion since I still like the stuff in icecream or chocolate chip cookies. I've mentioned before our stash of weird dark chocolate flavors which normally I love. Reid still thinks it's funny for him to be eating some and I'd prefer saltines. Chocolate cake also seems equally as awful.  So instead of eating any myself on my birthday, I just brought chocolate cake to the market for everyone to eat for me.

4.) Anything I cook- Luckily this one is starting to get a lot better but for nearly a month I could hardly bring myself to coo,k much less eat, anything I made. I am so thankful the worst of the nausea/funky food aversions happened during the slow time for the market, orders, etc. and the very worst week there also happened to be an ice/snow storm. The rest of the time I would go by TPS on the way to Tignall and buy a Mexican coke (made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup) in a glass bottle. Alternating between water and sips of coke I could get through the cooking.

5.) Reid's Sunday breakfast- This one is the worst for me! One of my favorite times to spend with Reid is on Sunday. Before, I would sip on coffee and watch him cook grits, eggs, bacon, etc. thinking how lucky I was. Now that any of that food makes me feel a little sick, we're stuck with trying to have a relaxing morning over...granola bars?

6.) Food I really liked the week before- Another weird thing is that for a week or for a few meals, I'll really be craving something in particular and loving it. Then all of a sudden it seems like the worst food in the world. This has included pizza, orange juice, apple juice, Nekot peanut butter crackers and Talk of the Town's Hello Dollie turkey panini. It happened briefly with this organic instant oatmeal (which I started eating due to the whole not liking anything I cooked thing), but now it's good again.

Foods that I haven't gotten tired of and cannot get enough of include fruit, ice cream, milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on twelve grain bagels and extra pickles on any sandwich I'm eating. (But not on the PB&J or with the icecream).

BUT, I think the oddest part about the whole food aversion/craving thing though has got to be my very, very recent Pop-Tart habit. It started the day I went to pick up antibiotics the ice/snow week. I felt more miserable than I had ever felt and pretty much all food except for oranges and saltines seemed like a full on assault to my senses and my stomach. Hot soup or any other good sick food seemed equally as horrible. Until I went to CVS and passed a package of brown sugar and cinnamon Pop-Tarts. All of a sudden I thought, "that actually does not sound I entirely horrible. I went on to run another errand but the little toaster pastries still sounded good, which was a good thing because I hadn't really eaten but I needed to. When I did get a box of them I definitely thought "What is wrong with me??" that I want processed breakfast pastries but good oatmeal makes me sick?

So for the next three weeks I ate nothing but Pop-Tarts for breakfast every single morning along with not a lot else during the day except for fruit, saltines, lots of water and the time I ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom and had Reid pick it up on his way home. Between my first two doctors appointments I had lost 8 pounds. I told Reid I was going to give up real nutrition for good and write "The Pop-Tart Diet."

Luckily, I've been feeling better all around the past week or so and am finally okay with more variety again as well as eating a much better breakfast most days. So while I'm glad the aversions toward EVERYTHING aren't as bad, the cravings are definitely starting. As evidenced by Reid and I driving to Athens Friday afternoon just so I could get a ham sandwich. It was so worth it.

-Kathryn

Homemade (but not really fast) Fast Food

2011-01-31T00:24:00.000-05:00

I was born in Atlanta and the current address on my drivers license* happens to be the childhood home of Robert Woodruff in Columbus, GA. So naturally, I don't think you can get much better than a Coke or a Chick-fil-a sandwich. Since neither Reid or I drink many soft drinks or eat much fast food either one of these is a pretty occassional thing. And since it seems you crave Chick-fil-a way more on Sundays than any other day, I decided to do a little "mock" fast food for dinner.

*This is due to my parents temporarily living in my uncle's house when they first moved to Columbus while he was in Namibia. He had restored the birthplace of the longtime President of Coca-Cola along with the Woodruff House. It just happened to coincide with the renewal of my drivers license in college and was the "permanent" address. Tomorrow, however, this will no longer be the case as a kindly Washington, GA police officer recently informed me that you actually only have 60 days to change your license, even if you did spring for the 10 year plan, you at least changed your name on your social security card and you dislike paperwork.

Luckily at Ingles, they had a great sale on organic chicken breasts. I also picked up a box of bread mix. I knew I could whip up some sandwich buns pretty quickly but I was kind of secretly curious about those mixes. And, since it was a "fast food" night I thought it was fitting as well as being way better than a bag of store bought buns or sandwich bread.

At home, I pulled out the Cuisinart breadmaker that Reid's cousins gave us for our wedding. I had used this religiously when we first got married and didn't have a working oven. (Along with a panini press we had eaten the best sandwiches in our limited kitchen. Plus it was kind of awesome to have Reid come home to the smell of freshly baking bread...definitely felt like a housewife extraordinaire). So I was psyched to use my long lost kitchen helper.

After it took me about 20 seconds to "make" bread by adding a cup of water, the mix and the yeast packet, I started on the chicken. I googled a few "mock" chicken sandwich recipes and the basic tip was adding powdered sugar to the flour/salt/pepper breading. It might have worked but I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand and it kind of sounded gross anyway. Just wrong to do that to organic chicken. I did add a tiny bit of raw sugar but decided I would be just as happy with paprika/sea salt/pepper batter than trying to match the fast food favorite perfectly.

I first cut the chicken breasts in half and then tried to pound them a little flatter which probably would have worked better with a wooden meat pounder than the back of a big spoon which was what I used. Then I let the chicken soak a few minutes in a cup of organic milk with an egg that we got at the market from Sandy Saturday. (She said technically they are Charlie's chickens). Then I battered them (did the process twice for that full on FF effect) and put them all at once in a cast iron chicken fryer. Covered it for 5 minutes; turned them and covered them again for five minutes. They came out pretty perfect.

Well...that didn't take very long and we still had about 2 hours left for the bread to finish. Since we rarely fry anything I always feel like I have to "make the most" out of it because you've got all this batter and hot oil assembly line going. I don't reuse oil (oxidation=not good for ya), so I did what any short order fry cook would do and sliced up an onion. About twenty minutes later Reid and I were feasting on homemade onion rings with plenty of ketchup. (My favorite is the Heinz organic ketchup...taste is really phenoemenal, but I'm still pretty happy with the "Simply Heinz" which is at least void of high fructose corn syrup).

This made a pretty great appetizer because it was still a little over an hour before we could eat our "real" dinner, i.e. my homemade, "It's Sunday and we live an hour away from the nearest Chick-fil-a anyway" chicken sandwiches. When the bread machine buzzer finally went off, I ran over to see what this magical quick mix had done. Unfortunately, it didn't do a whole lot and gave us a loaf about 3 inches high as opposed to the picture on the package which looked more like a good 5-6" loaf. Oh well-the denser loaf turned out to be a little sturdier for our sandwiches. I was about to butter the bun then realized there really was no point since the bread had literally just finished baking and didn't need it. Plus, Reid wanted a little Duke's on his anyway. After then piling them high with pickles (two really isn't enough in my opinion), they were all ready to go.

Well, almost. I realized my little homemade fast food sandwich was missing one thing-an icy cold can of Coke. (And not that diet stuff either).

Now, I am a firm believer in not buying 2 liters of soda or cases of soft drinks to have on hand at your house. Diet or not, there is absolutely nothing of nutritional value in them. They are empty calories that do little to nothing to ease your hunger. Many people treat soft drinks as simply another beverage like milk or water, but believe me- it ain't water. Soft drinks really should be treated more as a very occassional dessert. And even though the "diet" drinks don't have calories, they do have artificial sweeteners (*GRAS) and plenty of phosphoric acid-which isn't good for your bone health and certainly doesn't compare to the benefits of water or green tea. (If you really need that fizz, try sparkling water, like Perrier, with a splash of lime, OJ and pomegranate juice...kind of amazing and more like a daytime "cocktail." Scandalous huh?)

So that being said, Reid and I didn't just have a Coke in the fridge to pull out to go with our sandwiches. We thought about it for a second and then deemed it totally worth it to jump in the car and drive to the nearest Coke machine. This just happened to be the one in front of Bobby Steven's store a few miles from our house. We grabbed some quarters and then set off on our little late night "Coca-Cola run." (Just one of our many romantic adventures). The best part is that we were completely right on it being "worth it" and I savored every sip.

And here is a pic (finally, right?) Reid took of our semi-homemade fast food meal (that took closer to 3 hours to make)...

Hope ya'll enjoyed your dinner as much as we did!

-Reid & Kathryn

Almond Butter Cookies

2011-01-25T23:03:00.001-05:00

I think pretty much everyone knows the super easy Peanut Butter cookie recipe which is this:

1 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.

My mom makes these and when I typed in "easy peanut butter cookies" the first handful of links were all pretty much this same recipe. Some versions call for a little vanilla and others add some baking soda. But you can get nice PB cookies with just the 3 ingredients although I bake mine a little longer because I like somewhat of a crisp cookie.

This morning before I made up a batch of these cookies I realized that a) I needed more than a dozen cookies which is what the recipe makes and b) I hate measuring out peanut butter, especially the all natural kind where the oil separates and you can never get it mixed completely right. I was also going to use evaporated cane juice instead of straight "white" sugar.

Evaporated Cane Juice is pretty much the same as sugar except less processed so you still get some trace vitamins and minerals. It is still 15 calories/tsp like fully processed white sugar but since it a) tastes better and b) is slightly better for you, I think it is the clear winner to bake with in most things. It is also slightly sweeter than sugar so you can get away with using a little less. It costs more but using gratuitous amounts of cheap sweeteners may be a good habit for all of us to break anyway...

But back to the cookies. Here was the recipe I used for tonight's dessert:

1 16 oz. jar of organic all natural peanut butter
1 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Nutrition Info: 36 cookies; 117 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 12 gm carbohydrates, 3 gm protein, 0.8 gm fiber and 39mg sodium.

I used the whole jar of peanut butter so I didn't have to measure anything out (it is the equivalent of 1 3/4 cups so I just did 1 3/4 cup of ECJ since it was a 1:1 ratio in the original recipe) and also so I didn't have to stand there and stir in the oil. When you just use a spatula and put everything in a bigger bowl it's way easier and the oil, ECJ and eggs mix up super easily. Some people are probably much cleaner about it that I am but whenever I'm first mixing the peanut butter I always have oil spill over the jar. Then it's all greasy and hard to open the next time. (Even when I store it upside down first before opening.).

An obvious solution may be to buy a jar of JIF but unfortunately most peanut butters that are already "mixed" have a lot of extra sugar, salt, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) added to them. And mixing up peanut butter is really not the hardest thing in the world.

Anyway, once I made the cookies it kind of hit me that they were inherently gluten free (like the flourless chocolate molten cakes I made last week) and lactose free, two more common food allergies/intolerances. Since peanuts are another big allergen I thought how easy it would be to substitute almond butter and make them even more allergy friendly. Also I thought the peanut flavor didn't shine through as much and the cookies could still be great with much less sugar or ECJ.

So when I ran to the store for those last few items I grabbed a jar of organic all natural almond butter. A note on almond butter-make sure you read the ingredients because there are several brands that have flax seed, wheat germ, etc. added to them. While this may taste great and add some more nutrients, it kind of defeats the whole gluten free thing. (Get it, WHEAT germ?) It's also close to $10/jar which is about twice as much as a jar of organic peanut butter.

But for a super easy, versatile cookie that could please anyone with or without a food allergy it's not that bad. (Ever seen the cost of a box of gluten free cookies? Non-wheat flours are expensive...) The brand I bought was straight almonds so no extra sodium either. Also, almonds are technically a seed so allergies to them are much less common.

Since these are so easy to make I thought I'd whip up an "experiment" batch right before Reid came home so he could have some warm cookies. (If they didn't turn out, he could still just have dinner with the peanut butter ones. And in the end he just had both. Research, right?) I might add a tiny bit of sea salt and vanilla to these but they are pretty good as is. So here is the almond butter/less sweetener version:

1 16 oz. jar organic almond butter
1 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 14 minutes. (For a super soft cookie you can bake them for only 8 or so minutes).
Nutrition: Makes 36 cookies (slightly smaller); 99 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 8.3 gm carbohydrates, 2.4 gm protein, 1.7 gm fiber, 4mg sodium

*Cookie baking hint: Use parchment paper to line your cookie sheet. This way you avoid gunking up your pan with baking spray which then turns the pan black. You also don't get any funny taste from the sprays. If you are making a ton of cookies this especially helpful because you can just slide the whole piece of paper onto the cooling rack and then re-use the parchment for additional batches. Slide on, slide off.

Enjoy! I think these are going to come to the Discharge Planning meeting with me on Thursday. A hospital is a great place to sample allergy free treats, right?

By the way..I'm still working on trying to figure out my new cameras so one day we'll finally have pics back on the blog. I'm such a slow technology learner...they should probably just give me an instant camera and then let CVS hand me a disk of pictures!

Why Even Our Little Business Needs a Plan B....

2011-01-17T21:21:00.000-05:00

Early last week I started to get a little cough and Reid said "Oh Sugarbritches, that doesn't sound good." I told him I felt fine and that I was sure it would go away. So along with pretty much the rest of the South we enjoyed Monday's surprise "snow day." We got to sleep in and our sweet neighbor even made homemade biscuits and had her husband bring them over while they were still warm!

Tuesday morning there was still so much ice on the road in front of our house (along with a mini skating rink at our entrance) that we decided to cancel meals for the night. We weren't sure of the condition of the roads to Tignall and the kitchen there is kind of off the beaten path so we were sure there was still a lot of ice there. I was glad we canceled it because by Tuesday afternoon I was starting to feel pretty bad but thought it just might be allergies/asthma from being outside. (Yep, I'm a dork who is allergic to oak trees and other random things and will have a full on asthma attack if I eat in too close proximity to exercise.)

Wednesday I went to the hospital to see patients. By the time I got home I literally fell into bed I was so tired. My chest hurt, my cough was worse which made my throat hurt and my head was just about to explode. All I wanted to do was lay in a hot bath for the next day until enough steam made its way through so I could breathe again. (Which made me wish someone would invent some kind of bath bed but I guess it's not actually good to stay in hot water that long).

Thursday morning I called my doctor who called in a Z-pack. I think half of Washington was already in line at CVS and I'm sure the other half were in line at Fievet's waiting on their antibiotics. After that I ran to the store and picked up a new shower curtain to complete the first of three productive things I have accomplished in the last week. When I got home I took my first dose cushioned with crackers and apple juice. (I never drink apple juice but it sounded more soothing than OJ-no wonder kids love that stuff, it is delicious and void of most nutrition.)

By this point I was in full-on misery mode. But I knew I couldn't recover without changing out my shower curtain first and scrubbing the tub-especially if I was going to take a bath. Plus, if I desparately needed someone to come to my aid, I couldn't very well have them see a messy bathroom.

I was so happy to see Reid when he got home that night. For the first time being really sick and married, I wondered how I ever handled being sick single. I was getting chills so he would take a blanket, stick it in the dryer and then when it was hot come wrap me up in it.  He was so great, peeling oranges and making sure I had plenty of water.

Friday we went and did the second productive thing all week which was to finalize the new insurance plan for the business post-Tignall kitchen. Poor Reid drove while I went through a roll of toilet paper sneezing and coughing the whole way. Luckily, his birthday gift to me had come in-a pair of Manitobah Mukluks. They have a fleece inner lining and then suede/leather/rabbit fur exterior. My feet haven't been cold since. I fully realized what a horrible outfit I was wearing in public with my layers to keep warm, no makeup, this fuzzy hat and furry mocassin boots but I really didn't care. (I even sported it in downtown Athens while running in to grab a bag of coffee at 1000 Faces-UGA students-you're welcome for the entertainment.)

I basically slept all day Saturday and on Sunday afternoon I accomplished my third productive thing which was to finish monogramming and sewing this really simple dog bed. I probably wouldn't have finished it if our dog Mattie hadn't found her way in the guest bedroom and "dug" through the block of foam that was going to go in it. This little excavation has left little pieces of foam ALL OVER the room. (Again I'm glad I scrubbed my bathroom-just imagine if someone had seen that AND a dirty tub?) I filled the the bed with an old pillow instead and soon will get all the little pieces up-probably when I'm more over this though. (For some reason the dogs have switched beds-so we have this 30# dog on a huge bed and an 85# dog trying to fit on a cushion the size of a standard size pillow).

So what does all this have to do with a Plan B? After canceling two meals and a market due to the ice and illness (and an order due to unexpected no propane at the Tignall house-which is being looked at tomorrow since we just had it filled), I started to think about what all could go wrong. From my experience managing kitchen employees in a hospital, I've known you don't ever want to only have one employee who can do a specific job. It's better to have people who can "crosstrain" and fill in when someone is sick, on leave, etc. Having an organized work environment where jobs can be broken down into simple tasks also makes it easier to hire and train employees. Now being a "business owner" (gulp!) I see firsthand what it's like when YOU are pretty much the only employee (except for your husband who already has a full time job).

So while laying in bed over the past week I've thought about how important that concept is even in our little business. My first thought was "How could I have made it so that someone else could have cooked & delivered the meals?" It is easy to get away with not being organized and exact when your business consists of you and your husband.   I think the best thing about being sick this week (other than the Edy's fruit bars) has been getting to see our little business from a completely new perspective.  Mainly from being sick (and we'll chalk Tuesday to the ice), we had to forego 2 nights of meals and the market-which in our little business is the equivalent of being "closed" all week long. Not very good if you plan on staying in business for very long...

Once I'm back to feeling-good mode and not getting-by mode, I'm looking forward to working (hopefully) a bit smarter in our little business. We're excited about a girl coming to help do prep work after school and finding out which parts of our business are good to delegate to others and which parts are best to do ourselves.  (It's always a good start when you realize you can't do everything, right?)

Hope everyone is feeling better (or doesn't get sick to begin with) around here! How many more weeks of winter????

-Kathryn

Washington Farmer's Market Still Open!

2011-01-06T18:32:00.001-05:00

Most Farmer's Markets have closed for the season and will open back up when the weather gets a little warmer...but not in Washington-Wilkes! As long as it's not raining we will be in the parking lot behind the courthouse from 9am-noon every Saturday. And if it is raining we will be under the awning to the side of the Chamber of Commerce.

The following vendors will be there for sure this Saturday from Wilkes County:

Tink's Grass Fed Beef-the most amazing tasting beef & pastured pork ever!

Lazy Willow Farms-sweet potatoes, garlic, spinach, homemade soap, (incredible) homemade sourdough bread, and really awesome novels

Harvest Moon Garden Farm- so excited the Carter's will be there! Rumor has it John has lots of homegrown tomatoes...yep, in January!

Southern Scratch-fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls, scones, Better Than's, homemade granola and more!

I'm also pretty sure Leonora and her made from scratch jalapeno & cheese or spicy chicken tamales will be there too!

Even though it's going to be cold come down and see us! Get ingredients for soup & stew with locally grown vegetables and beef or pork and some dessert to go with hot cocoa in case it does snow Sunday!

See everybody Saturday morning!

-Reid & Kathryn

And We're Back!

2011-01-02T20:14:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

Although it always seems you can't believe it is the New Year, I will say this past year doesn't seem like it could have fit anything else in it! What started as a busy year with the final stages of wedding planning ended as just as busy a time with filling the final Christmas orders and traveling all over the southeast to see family.

Since we knew we would start back up in January with a packed schedule, we decided we would take this week "off" as much as possible! Reid still worked all week and I started orientation as the new part time clinical dietitian at Wills Memorial, but overall we really relaxed. We ate out a lot, laid low at night watching movies and just enjoyed a week without any real deadlines.

Friday night we went up to Athens for dinner and realized that although a Japanese steakhouse is great in theory, the amount of margarine added to innocent rice and vegetables is borderline criminal. (Not to mention the couples beside us who added about two cups each of mayonaisse based "yellow sauce" to their plates which kind of grossed us both out big time. Atleast it did give me an idea to do a few posts centered around how good food can be turned bad so quickly...). I was in bed by about 10:30 and woke up right at midnight somehow to squeak out "Happy New Year." Not quite the exciting end to such an exciting year but it felt great to not be staying up all night baking for one of the first Friday nights in months!

Yesterday we continued our holiday theme with sleeping in. Since we had plenty of time, Reid cooked a big breakfast of grits, organic cage free eggs, some of Tink's pastured pork sausage, with some of Sandy's whole wheat sourdough bread toast and sharp cheddar. I think by far this was the best meal we ate all week. Maybe because he lived alone for so many years, Reid is a grand master champion at grit cooking. He doesn't add anything fancy to them, just salt, pepper and butter but they are incredible.

For dinner I cooked black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread in the cast iron skillet, and a little risotto. I overcooked the peas so we didn't eat a lot of them which maybe will indicate a little less change in 2011 than 2010 but you never know- I think we would both be happy just working on what is on our plate already!Luckily Reid did eat plenty of collard greens...

After dinner Reid taught me how to play gin. (And then I beat him in 2/3 games to 100). Between games Reid read out goals we had each written down for the year. He had told me Saturday morning he "needed my goals by the end of the day." So before he read them out he told me that since this was our first holiday together married and we were creating traditions, that he thought sharing our goals together should be one of our traditions. It was fun to see what we each put down and a lot of them were along the same lines. I even did a little separate section for Southern Scratch which I think I need to formalize some what to guide our decisions over the next year.

After a few more rounds of gin and a mug of Rocky Road for me (for some reason I hate eating ice cream out of bowl and just always eat it from a coffee mug-maybe because I like adding just a little milk on top to make those ice crystals form) and some dark citrus ginger chocolate for Reid (my sister's in-laws gave us this awesome gift bag of all kinds of artisan chocolate for Christmas addressed: To K&R, from K&R-loved it!), we went to bed pretty early again.

Today after church we decided to go to Heavy's barbeque in Crawfordville. I had never been but seen all the signs and heard all the legendary tales about the place including the filming of part of "Sweet Home Alabama." The food was definitely just good ole' barbeque and stew and fit into our "let's not cook so much this week" plan! I was so full we fell into a total fat-kid-coma and took a Sunday afternoon nap.

I (finally after nearly ten months of living here) made a primary appointment for annual check-ups tomorrow in Augusta. And in more eat-whatever-you-want-because-heck-it's-the-holidays confessions, I totally signed Reid and I up for a free Chick-fil-a spicy chicken biscuit in the morning. (Definitely not pre-doctor's appointment food). After our "morning date" Reid has to go to work and I'm going to do some shopping/errands in "the big city." Then maybe I'll save any Sam's errands for when Reid get's off work so we can hold hands and people watch together. Oh what an exciting life we lead.

Then Tuesday it is back to busy! I am loving the time I have spent so far at the hospital and looking foward to seeing patients in the morning. Then heading over to our kitchen in Tignall and getting dinner fixed for our first ever TUESDAY night Weekday Gourmet meal.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's! I think our "tradition" is definitely going to include the week after Christmas being our real "low key family holiday" time when we (and maybe one day our children) get a break from home cooked meals and get to eat out, sleep in and play games.

Well, I've got to hurry up and finish because Reid is fixing hot chocolate and then we are on for another gin match-up...

Thank's y'all for making 2010 so wonderful!

Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 5 (Finally!!)

2010-12-17T12:50:00.002-05:00

When Sandy mentioned their rental house in Tignall I was somewhat taken off guard. She told us it had a kitchen in it that had been approved once for commercial use when Ben had his catering business,but it didn't really register with me. I mean, the possibility of renting a little house complete with a commercial kitchen that was also great for entertaining in the next little town over was not in the hundreds of possibilities Reid and I had considered for where to expand our little business. I mentioned it to Reid when he came home and we both just kind of shrugged and said it was something to think about. It wasn't even until a few days later I decided I might as well look at it just in case. I really didn't get my hopes up too much. At the very least I'd get to see this house and maybe pick up a tip or two about arranging our basement kitchen better until we found our space.

I was picking up some vegetables from Lazy Willow Farm that week so I just jumped in the car with Sandy and we headed down toward Tignall to pick up some Tink's beef and then to see the house. (She was probably just trying to butter me up first by showing me how close I could be to a Tink burger at any given moment.) Once in the booming metropolis of Tignall, GA we went through a little neighborhood and onto a dirt road. All of a sudden we came up on this little house, with a tin roof, a nice front porch and a roundabout drive. Even though we had just gone through a bunch of houses, it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere except for a bunch of trees and a little house.

I kind of started to get excited and then we went inside. I wish I had some kind of noisemaker for when you just feel like the floodgates of heaven open and angels are trumpeting. That is how I felt when I walked inside the house. It was perfect. The most important thing that we needed (commercial kitchen) it had including an additional room that was certified as well so we could use it for dry storage or more fridge/freezer space down the road. The main kitchen itself was fantastic-all the sinks were there (3 compartment for dishwashing, 2 compartment for prep and 1 bay handwashing sink); an oven (which will eventually be replaced with our baby from downstairs); and a great big work table.

So even if the house just had the kitchen areas it would be well worth renting it. For the market and the weekday meals we didn't need any kind of retail space anyway. But incredibly, the house had way more than just the kitchen to offer. Two rooms (painted that "pool" color of our labels), two full bathrooms (painted the pink color of our labels), great closet space, a huge living area (painted that sage green color of our labels) with this really great wood burning stove/brickwork on one end and for the grand finale a timber frame screened in back porch with big ceiling fans and another oven for outside parties. Oh, and a fenced in acre pasture as well as plenty of outdoors space to landscape just waiting to be landscaped all cute.

I could have a real grown up office, a bathroom for customers to use if they are over planning a catering event, and a little place for Reid and I to stay when we're baking for the market all hours of the night or have a big order. (Or use it as our "guest house" when company comes!) Since the living area was completely separate from the kitchen, we had a ton of possibilities. So not only could it solve our kitchen problem, it also could solve our house problem.

Well, I called Reid when I got back in my own car and told him how perfect the house was for Southern Scratch. He warned "You didn't act this excited in front of Sandy did you?" I replied, "Umm no...kind of...yes, Reid, of course you know I did!" (I have never known how to "barter" and prefer to live in naiive bliss that everyone sets a fair price on what they sell based on the quality of the product and what they need to make a living. So in my feeble mind bartering could be forcing someone to take less than what they really need to get by just so they could have some cash flow and stay afloat. But I guess it is the whole perceived value angle that is a main determinant in deciding prices? I wasn't really worried that Sandy was waiting on my response to give me a lease amount so of course I told Sandy immediately about feeling like the angels were singing because the house was so perfect! Later on anyway we let the men play hard ball with each other while Sandy and I were still jumping up and down excited!)

Like most things, my mind had already raced to planning how we could offer a really nice, cozy Valentine's dinner at The Tignall House (that's what I had started calling it...) rather than think of all the logistics and paperwork that may be involved. So while I was ready to uncork a bottle of champagne and celebrate finding a kitchen, Reid of course wanted to see the house first for himself and you know, discuss, what all it would entail.

Reid and I went and looked at the house together and he kept trying to keep me on track saying "Remember, only take the kitchen into consideration." (Then he even scared me saying things like "this back porch is big enough for us to live in," causing horrible flashes of us living in what would probably be Reid's dream home of a little one room timber frame shack down by the pond with nothing but love, a gun and fishing poles to our name). Reid admitted he liked the house but told me we just needed to be careful and figure out all the steps it would take first.

So against my nature, I sat down and tried to really work it out on paper. How would moving from our home (where the business didn't pay it's own electric bills, etc.) to an outside location (where the business would have to start paying for everything) work out? Although I love spreadsheets (and can put some algebraic formulas to calculate estimated daily calorie needs with the best of them) I didn't have a great idea of how to merge all the variables that would go into having a real business. So like any smart idiot, I took my scribblings (which I think I would have brought the work I had done on Quickbooks but this was around the time my laptop decided to go on the fritz for a few weeks) over to Bambi and asked her to look over them. I laid it all out on the line and she helped me make it all make sense. Along with great advice, she gave me encouragement that we could actually take this next step (without sacrificing our grits & coffee of course!).

Just a few minutes after leaving Bambi's office, I called my older brother to ask what it would take to turn Southern Scratch into an LLC. He had just gone through the process starting Deals for Schools (like Groupon but with proceeds going to the school of your choice, in any city you want including Washington!). That night I recounted my meeting with Bambi to Reid and we decided we should at least go ahead and file as an LLC. So that night Reid and I filed everything online. (We felt like such grown-ups!). When we got confirmation of our "Southern Scratch, LLC" status we headed to the bank to open up a dedicated business account. (Well after having to go print out our forms at the library due to our computer issues...so professional. But at least now I have my library card!)

With our now legit business name, account & a call about our business insurance we were ready to take the next step. We had let Charles & Sandy know we definitely wanted to rent the house and while they started doing some work to get it move in ready we started to get ready to move everything out. Our goal was to move everything in the kitchen the weekend after Thanksgiving and try to get it inspected that week.

So in true Bussey woman fashion, I tried to pack in making Thanksgiving food deliveries, family time in Decatur, AL for turkey day, cook for the market Friday night, do the market Saturday morning and pick up the keys and start moving in all in a 4 day span. Surpringly we got most of it done but still had a long way to go. Sunday evening Opie came over with his truck and we moved the major items like the two refrigerators and some furniture. (Have I said often enough how awesome our next door neighbors are????)

That week, Carissa came and helped me set up all the racks that we had to tear down to move and put back up as well as get ready for a big festival we had planned on attending. (You know you've asked the right woman to help when she shows up with breakfast, a pocket knife, a truck and tools.) She also "initiated" me into Tignall with lunch at the KumBack Cafe.

Also going on that week was trying to get our website up and running, order forms for Christmas ready and baking for the festival. When we first started out, my brother helped me register the domain name http://www.southernscratch.com/ but we hadn't done anything with it. I told him at the very least we just needed a page with our name/contact info on it for the upcoming weekend. That way we could go ahead and start printing the address on our labels. Well Ben is kind of awesome too and designed our site so that I could go in and edit the words pretty easily from my end. So rather than have the site "go live" only half finished we both worked hard getting it finalized before the weekend.

My original plan was to ask the Health Department inspector to come out as soon as we got the equipment moved in but then decided it would be better if we had everything set up first. I may have mentioned this before but I really appreciate and kind of enjoy all the certification visits like The Joint Commission, CARF, Health Department, etc. Although it can be nerveracking for some to get ready for an inspection, the inspectors and you are all wanting the same thing. It doesn't benefit your hospital or restaurant to have an unclean work environment. It's not good for your customers, your patients, your employees or for you. So seeing these agencies as a source of information and accountability to help you acheive your goal of a safe and sanitary work environment is good for everyone.

So I thought if I had everything set up how I planned to use the kitchen the inspector could better pinpoint any problem areas he saw. I would also be able to play around and see areas where I could be more efficient and how I wanted to use the workspace. Then when January came we would be completely ready to go for Weekday Gourmet meals. My ServSafe certification along with my experience in both retail and hospital kitchens had helped tremendously from day one. It was so exciting then to put what has amounted to about 8 years total of "foodservice" experience (not counting all the time I got to spend going to work with my mom at the Susan Mott Webb Nutrition Sciences building at UAB growing up) into my own real commercial kitchen!

Maybe that is why last week I joyously scrubbed the kitchen down and spent hours going through food prep scenarios in my head to make sure there weren't any chances for cross contamination. So when the Health Department inspector showed up last Thursday afternoon I felt I had everything ready to go but was of course ready to make any changes. He was a great help in offering some suggestions and would approve the facility pending some more paperwork for the permit.

I was so elated but still wanted to obviously wait until we had the permit in hand before making any kind of official announcement. I had started these "Kitchen Evolution" posts about the time we started to move into the kitchen and have been spacing them out in anticipation of our final granting of that super imporant piece of paper. I got a call Wednesday to bring by my menu, etc. to the Health Department and after a little review was given our permit and initial inspection score, which was a 100!

I got in my car and just tried to concentrate on driving I was so excited. We had done it!!! After so much prayer, so much work, so much celebration paired with plenty of times of doubt, we were now officially a real business! I was more grateful than ever at that point for Reid's "not yet." He persevered through my eagerness to do everything at once and and helped me wait on God's plan for our little business. I would never have imagined we could have taken our little earnings from our yard sale and be able to grow that into being into a fully licensed commercial kitchen with equipment! I also love how God has shown us time after time that it takes Reid and I working together, not apart, to build this.

Also I can't believe all the people God put in our life to help us and encourage us along the way. I tried just now to start writing it all out but realized it would be ten pages long. Even though we have had some crazy setbacks and at times have thought we were in the middle of a disastrous romantic comedy with all the car & house parts that have broken in our less than a year of marriage, God has always provided a solution.

We have no idea how our business will look in a year from now but even with this step have faith that we can still enjoy our grits & coffee on Sunday morning without worrying about Monday!

Once I get my pictures organized we will do a before & after! Hope to see everyone tomorrow for our last Farmer's Market of 2010!

Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 4 (Don't worry there are only 5 parts total)

2010-12-15T13:47:00.001-05:00

Once we had finally gotten everything hooked up, cleaned up and set up in the basement I couldn't wait to start cooking down there. The space was three to four times as big as the little kitchen space upstairs (or the same size if you take into account we used the whole living/dining area as well during full market prep mode).

I definitely realize the easiest way to keep something clean is the whole "a place for everything and everything in it's place" approach. We had more space on racks to put hot pans to cool, a dedicated stainless table for the mixer & food processor and another dedicated prep table. Plus we had a rack for storage of the paper goods like treat bags and compostable take out boxes,an ingredient rack and a rack for baking pans, cake pans, etc. The organization made baking more fun and the kitchen easier to take care of.

Which was good because we had houseguests coming. This was in August and we had just started using the basement. A couple who used to be my next door neighbors in Warm Springs were planning a road trip to the lake and then to see Washington, Madison and a couple places in between. We were so thrilled about their visit. I missed my friends from my old "cute little historical town" and couldn't wait to show them my new "cute little historical town." The plan was that they would meet us at the market Saturday and then spend the night with us before leaving early to see Madison on their way home.

So even though our new kitchen was easier to clean, we cooked late into the night (sometimes all night) and then early in the morning so there were always dishes to finish when we got home. Unless Reid stayed behind and did all the dishes while I was at the market, we would be bringing our houseguests into a less than company ready home. I had already been secretly dreaming of hiring someone to do dishes so we discussed finding someone to go ahead and clean the whole house while we were at the market that Saturday. That way we could focus more on getting everything arranged better to have company and then someone could come behind us and do a good scrub on the house.

Well that Friday I was making Better Than's and noticed that my dough was really sticky, almost wet. It didn't make any sense because there isn't any water in them. I added some more flour and finally got it to a consistency where I could roll them up to slice. Well they baked up really funny looking so we tossed them. Then I tried making pound cake and had a similar result. Instead of crust forming the top looked almost wet even when it was fully baked. I finally had an "ah-ha!" moment and figured out it was the humidity. Rather than have everything I baked turn out off, I moved my mixer back upstairs. (I definitely got a great workout running up and down the stairs every time I forgot to bring up the baking powder, etc.)

At this point, I was soooo grateful we had already called Bertie Mae. She had assured me she and her sister would take care of everything Saturday morning and the house would be spotless when we came back home.   So Saturday morning while we were loading up the car with treats, the two most wonderful ladies who I hadn't even met yet in the world drove up. They could have been riding a white horse. They walked in, gave me a great big hug and told me not to worry at all. I felt like a little girl who had gotten herself in way too deep and they were swooping in to rescue me.

Reid came to the market with me for a couple of hours and then went back home to put any final touches (I say final but I mean interim touches...I'm not sure our house will have final touches on it for a while!) on the house. He called me and said "Oh Sugar Britches, let's see if they will come every week. You won't believe this. Our house looks awesome." Those might have been the sexiest words he's ever spoken to me. Of course I wanted them to come every week! The thought of our house getting a fresh start every Saturday, especially while we were in the middle of trying to still move in and run a little business was beyond awesome.

When I was single the best thing I did for myself was have someone come and clean on a regular basis and before any dinner parties. I learned that even though I could "technically" (i.e. stay up all night) do it all myself, I enjoyed having company over a lot more when I just focused on the parts I was really good at and let someone else do what they were really good at. It also helped me keep my house in order because clutter never looks clean no matter how much you dust it. When we got married and I moved, I missed Ms. Betty dearly but I didn't want to seem like a high maintence wife so I tried doing it all myself again. (I loved Martha, one of the Green Overalls Club members, for reminding me at the market to know what you do best and let others do what they do best!) So when Reid called to say how great it was, I was beyond thrilled he was just as enthusiastic as I was about having some help!

The weekend with my neighbors ended up being so much fun, not the least part of which was coming home to a transformed house. They had brought a convertible so Reid showed them all of our gorgeous Washington homes riding around with the top down. We called some of our new neighbors over to eat dinner with us (which is when Ricky taught me how to fry onion rings-drop them in at 350 and take them out when the temp gets back up to 350) and had a great time catching up. (And a couple week's later Katy sent me the cutest apron monogrammed with "Southern Scratch" on it along with a list of bible verses that related to the "entrepenuer!" It was so sweet!)

That next week I went to Poss hardware and bought a hygrometer to measure the humidty. With that little tool and our dehumidifier we were able to bake a lot more wisely with better Better Than's and crusty pound cakes. A couple times we still had to run upstairs but for the most part we were able to do all the cooking in our "new" dedicated kitchen. We could keep the upstairs a "Southern Scratch Free Zone" which lent a lot more peace and order to the house even though we still felt some of the strain of having a business inside our home.

One issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that we still actually needed our basement. There was a wood burning stove which we would have loved to have a little den around, Reid would want to start working out again (and maybe drag his wife along with him!) and also give us a place to work on other household projects like the furniture I wanted to paint or the doghouse Reid wanted to build. There was already a built in work bench ready to go but of course we didn't want to risk doing any kind of non-food related work down there. So even though the space we used took up half the basement, it really took up all the basement.

The other issue with having the kitchen in the basement was that it would still need some renovations which a plumber & electrician would have to handle to be a fully certified kitchen. We just weren't sure if doing any kind of commercial overhaul on our house was wise. We had talked to one of my uncles who had recommended if we wanted the kitchen on our property to just build a new building (like one of those steel ones) that could be moved which made a lot of sense.   (But didn't really want a steel building you could see from the road.) Then we went back to maybe building a little house for us closer to our pond and making the entire house the business (hey, it already had those gorgeous drop ceilings right?). But then we would be taking on a huge project and being in even more uproar than we already were. Or what about renting a cute place on the square? Well we didn't really need a "storefront" or full service restaurant so that would be kind of unneccessary and also force our little business straight into a "make it or break it" mode.

Another thing we had to consider was that Reid and I were in reality incredibly blessed. Like I mentioned earlier we had our "good car" as well as Reid's "red baron" (oh what a disaster...but a paid for disaster. If you see him at the gas station, yes he is using a claw hammer to get the fuel door to open since the lever broke off. And yes, it kind of makes you laugh and cry all at once if you are riding shotgun). We inherited this gorgeous farm and comfortable house and didn't want to make any risky business decisions that could compromise that or fall into what Reid calls the "I'd trade it all for just a little more" syndrome. So even when I would lie awake at night trying to convince myself (and sometimes waking Reid up to try to convince him) that if we just "went for it" and built our dream kitchen our business would grow, Reid would be the voice of reason and tell me "not yet." At times I thought he was just being too frugal or couldn't see the "big picture" but come to find out, his nearly decade more of life experience comes with some more wisdom too.

We wanted to try to be responsible in growing our business so that we didn't give up the peace we had when we went to bed at night. Our view of "financial security" meant being able to sip coffee & make grits and eggs on Sundays before church without worrying about Monday. Starting the business from our yard sale profits and putting everything back into it had meant nine months of me not bringing in a paycheck but we had everything we really needed with Reid's job (but you better believe I sometimes mentally translate how nine months of me having a "real" job could have translated into painted walls and custom drapes!).   Luckily Bambi held my hand and helped me with the numbers I'm not so great at and showed me what to do to keep us, our business, God and the government all happy. (She also informed me that enjoying coffee & grits on Sunday morning was not inherently exclusive to growing our business!)

We had been praying every night for our marriage and business and that we would make wise decisions regarding both. (I know our families were doing the same, probably in overdrive!) In the last months I felt like I was finally learning that "waiting on God" didn't mean "sitting around doing nothing" and that surprisingly, God didn't need me to "just help him out a little." (Oh if I had only learned this years ago...but then I wouldn't have half the stories to ~~tell~~ hide from my children one day.)

Anyway, back to the basement kitchen and us scratching our heads trying to figure out if/where/when we needed to move to a fully bonafied kitchen. A little over a month or so ago I happened to be at the LeGette's house one evening picking up vegetables from Lazy Willow Farm and mentioned to Sandy I would be glad when we got a more permanent kitchen figured out, so for one we could then focus a little more on getting our house ready to be able to entertain.   I told her Reid and I decided we had given up for the moment to figure out our next "move" but thought we may know after Christmas and would just be patient until God led us in the right direction.

Well, the next time I was over there, Sandy said to me: "Hey, I'm not sure if you would even be interested in this but we have this house out in Tignall that is great for entertaining..."

Next and final (I promise) post on this kitchen stuff: Three compartment sinks and a very important little piece of paper...

Locally Grown & Easy to Cook Beets!

2010-12-13T18:28:00.000-05:00

Reid and I bargain with beets in our house. When we were dating I roasted beets for him and he has been hooked on them ever since. So if I really want something I'll say "Well how about if I make some beets this week for you...?" (I know, who else on earth would that persuade?)

Made right, beets can be beyond delicious. Some sugar comes from beets so they've got to be good, right? (But plopped out of the can they are not so delicious). A month or so ago when the LeGette's at Lazy Willow Farm told me they were growing beets I got so excited. I couldn't wait to surprise Reid with them and was already trying to figure out what I could bargain for them. I was lucky enough to get some of the second batch of beets they pulled. (The first batch they thinned out went to their lucky goats). The beets were still small but the leaves are just as good which I added to some soup.

I usually roast them (recipe follows) but last week with our beets from the market I tried something new. We had thawed out some of Tink's ground beef to make burgers and there was some beef fat left in the pan. I decided to make "scalloped beets" so I peeled and thinly sliced them. I added those along with some arugula to the pan and let them cook down. Then a little flour, grass fed milk and blue cheese. Although it looked pretty horrible (blue cheese + pink creamy sauce=not appetizing), it tasted pretty awesome. (I sent the leftovers with Reid to work the next day and he said he got a lot of questions about what the heck he was eating). So although I would probably never make this recipe for a meal night, it does show you they can be a versatile vegetable.

But this is how I usually cook beets which is super easy and always turns out:

Ingredients:
Fresh beets (preferably with leaves on)
Walnut oil (or olive oil but walnut really adds more flavor)
Fresh thyme (or any fresh or dried herb-but stick with just one)
Coarsely ground sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice beet root away from leaves. Peel and cut into quarters or eighths depending on the size of the beet. Arrange on baking tray and drizzle with oil, add a tiny bit of sea salt and black pepper to taste. Top with fresh thyme. Toss together and put in oven for 20-30 minutes until they can be easily pierced with a fork.

For the beet leaves, you can chop these up and cook them as well. Add about 2 Tbsp walnut or olive oil along with the zest of an orange and a minced garlic clove in a skillet. Heat slightly to crisp the zest a little then add the beet leaves. Meanwhile, peel and chop the orange and add the fruit to the skillet as well. When the leaves are cooked down slightly (but not totally dead), remove from heat.

Enjoy!

Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 3

2010-12-12T23:54:00.000-05:00

To begin with, there was already a small kitchen in the basement. Reid's granddad had some twin beds and a little game/fish kitchen for his hunting buddies. On one wall there was an old oven (which didn't work), and a 2 bay sink and stovetop area with built in shelves that had curtains for doors on top and the bottom. So it wasn't a huge stretch to think of putting our Southern Scratch kitchen in the basement. And, our original "dented" oven (which worked great besides it's cosmetic defect) was already down there just waiting for a chance to get an LP line connected to it.

We were downstairs a couple nights after the "lasagna week" and were just kind of staring at everything and thinking of where we should start. Reid's workout equipment was down there as well as his motorcycles, some tables, and still a ton of my moving boxes. We decided the shelves above the stovetop/sink area needed to go. I think they were made of particle board to begin with and weren't very strong. So we thought we'd tear down about 3 feet of them so there was just a little area above the sink left.

Well...it kind of turned out to be what happens when you try to cut your own hair. Just a little bit more to make things even ends up with no top shelves at all. We just kept saying "Well, it will be better to have hooks there and hang things instead."

The next night or so the stovetop came out along with a few more feet of built in countertop. The wiring was shot underneath and even if we got it fixed we knew it wouldn't pass muster that close to the sink in a commercial kitchen. Once we finished tearing everything out, only the sink and a little counterspace around it remained with the storage space underneath for cleaning supplies.

For a few days after that I started to make a pile of things that could safely be stored in the barn until we had room for them/cleaned out the barn. (Who knows what kind of treasures I'm going to find in five years...) Opie & Reid hauled everything out to the barn one night and we finally looked like we were getting somewhere.

The next project was Reid's "weight room" It took up a quarter of the basement and was in the half we planned to use as part of kitchen storage/Southern Scratch office area. Before we (actually just Reid-no way I can lift 80 pound dumbells. Oh how I love his country boy biceps...) could move all that we had to find a place for the two twin beds I brought to our union. In Warm Springs I had a dormer room which fit my grandmother's two white twin beds just perfectly. Here though we really didn't have a great place for them. The guest bedroom had my queen bed already in it along with a desk/printer for Southern Scratch (and still more boxes).

Somehow I made space for them in the guest bedroom and with the help of a ton of underbed storage boxes managed to ~~hide~~ store everything in the boxes out of sight. I also made space in our bedroom for Reid's antique armoire and my other grandmother's Lawson (which at the beginning turned our bedroom into our "den" once we propped the laptop up with DVD's of The Beverly Hillbillies and Clint Eastwood movies. I think for about three weeks we made no progress on the basement at which point we realized definitely could not get cable or we would never get anywhere).

Finally we had everything we could moved out, moved over and cleaned up. I bleached the concrete floors and shop-vac'd everything, multiple times. Then we started painting.

It started out as kind of a fun job. The change from cinderblocks to white changed the whole look. It could see it being transformed from a dark basement to a white washed Grecian island abode (a la the set in Mama Mia!). After about an hour of painting, and going over the blocks several time since the paint seemed to just soak in and disappear, I stepped back and looked at my job. And realized I had painted maybe 3 square feet in all. I couldn't believe how slowly it was going but I guess since the cinderblocks had never been painted before they just soaked up the paint like a sponge.

Meanwhile my mom asked about the twin beds and possibly using them in her house. They were also redecorating and thought they would be perfect for a grandchild room. She knew we were struggling with where to put all the furniture and I gladly told her she could come up and haul everything except our toothbrushes away if she wanted! I was so sick of not having living SPACE. (At one time i think I even contemplated just moving everything out to the barn and slowly allowing things back in one at a time. I think I didn't because I was afraid we would love having nothing in the house too much and end up being uber crazy minimalists with no TV and no couch). They also had the fridge from my Warm Springs house in the warehouse to bring to us. I told my mom to just pretend she was doing missionary work and come on up.

So I did what every sneaky little daughter does and bought a couple 5 gallons of Kilz white primer and extra paintbrushes/rollers for their visit. I made sure there was plenty of food on hand and by the end of the weekend Reid and my dad had finished the walls of the future kitchen. They left the fridge with us and disappointingly only brought the rug back with them which was not the big furniture purge we had hoped for. (But looking back probably good we didn't just up and give away everything we had to sit on or eat off of in our house).

The following week the guys from South Star came out and ran the LP line. With a sink, an oven and a fridge all ready to go we were almost ready to start baking. We moved my desk back downstairs (this mammoth white thing I built in college when I got my first power drill) as well as a china cabinet (repurposed as a ribbon & gift packaging storage area) and shelves (that I built from old cabinets also repurposed as a cookbook/display containers storage area).

After another oh-so-romantic trip to Sam's, we had a couple more stainless rolling work tables and some storage & stainless baking racks. It was finally beginning to look like a real working kitchen! Luckily it was just in time for our first non-family houseguests...

In part 4: Housekeepers, humidity & hygrometers....

Grown Up Christmas Gifts & Vacuum Cleaners

2010-12-07T09:51:00.002-05:00

This is kind of "off-topic" in the sequential kitchen development posts but I thought it was too funny. I got an email from my ~~parents~~ santa last night sent to my siblings and me about ideas for Christmas gifts for us this year. I love my family. They make me belly laugh just like my friends do. (So this may not seem quite as funny as it did to me!). Anyway, here's the original email:

Santa would like to bring some surprises to the Bussey children - this is
what Santa is considering:

luggage (light weight and easy to pack like what he brought Kathryn and
Reid last year)

new mattress and box springs and/or bedding

vacuum cleaner

ski attire

do any of these ideas get you excited? Are there other items that Santa
should know about? Please help Santa by responding to this email with your
preferences

I guess you are officially a grown-up when "necessities" become exciting. (Actually all of these items are really luxuries in most cases just kind of more utilitarian luxuries).

And if anyone is looking to buy a vacuum cleaner, do as my mother told me and only buy a really good one. I took her advice: I borrowed a friends and used a broom until I could go to the Oreck store and pick out my beauty. The way I see it this is good advice on three counts:

1.) You have a lifetime guarantee and annual "tune-ups" are included so you will never have to buy another vacuum cleaner again.

2.) If you haven't been using your vacuum cleaner as much as you should have then you can just set it out when company comes over. Then your company is pretty sure you are really serious about housekeeping but just got tied up cooking dinner for them or saving small children.

3.) When the luster of the new vacuum wears off and your company figures you out, then you can hire a housekeeper who will enjoy getting to use an awesome (instead of poorly crafted and powerless) vacuum cleaner and make your home look as nice as your cleaning supplies.

On that note, I'm going to go start baking cookies...and put aside some for Santa.

What is Santa bringing to you this Christmas?

Our Kitchen Evolution: Part 2

2010-12-06T10:23:00.002-05:00

So the very first market we baked everything in our home kitchen with the dented oven. The first batch of cookies I made in it burned, which I think is some kind of universal law of using a new or unfamiliar oven. I still so clearly remember that very first morning. I was going by myself to the market because Reid was going to stay here for the yard sale (i.e. combining 2 houses into one, so pick the better one of each and sell the other sale. Conveniently most of my stuff was still in boxes and not sold.) I had only been down to the Washington market once the previous summer before the 4th of July party and wasn't completely sure what to expect. I also wasn't completely sure what time it opened so I thought my 6:30 am leave time from the house was really late for a Farmer's Market.

We still had basically the same kitchen set up for the next market except by this time our new oven had arrived. By then I knew the market didn't officially start until 9am and Reid went with me which was way more fun than being there alone. I had more ingredients than I normally would have on hand in my own kitchen but everything still fit just fine in the pantry (which was another big clean out-repaint-repurpose back to pantry from closet project). After the second market, Reid and I realized the big thing we were missing down there was hot coffee. (Well, we missed not being able to sip on coffee Saturday morning so we figured everyone else must feel the same way!)

So after the second market we went on our first "Southern Scratch" shopping trip to Sam's. As a card carrying big box club shopping member since high school (on my parent's membership) to being single with my own card (justifying it because of organic spring mix and individual portion size containers of half and half), I was super excited to finally be shopping for a kind-of-sort-of-almost real "small business."

Oh what fun was to be had. All the commercial boxes of things like 3,000 feet of aluminum foil and 1,000 count sheets of wax paper were finally something I would feasibly need for the market. I threw some more half sheet baking pans in the cart along with a box of a hundred or more coffee cups and I think a box of 500 coffee lids. The trip was even more fun when our joint fascination with people watching was indulged over a piece of pizza and big 32 oz. cokes analyzing (judging) the contents of shopping carts. (Kind of hypocrital but we called it "food anthropology research" on what was really "date night" instead.)

I tried making space for the boxes in the pantry but then it made it harder to fit all the bags of flour and half gallon of baking powder on the shelves too. I also had pulled out extra pink tulle ribbon, glassine bags & labels leftover from our wedding to the dining room table for packaging up treats. Pretty quickly the entire upstairs had a little Southern Scratch on it.

So I went to Fred's and was super excited to find big plastic totes in turquoise. Ah-ha! These would be perfect. I bought five of them and then ran home to label them (so organized, right?) by category of all the things we needed to bake/set-up for the market. The boxes were labeled:

1.) Ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, etc.)
2.) Coffee cups & lids
3.) Cake plates
4.) Gift packaging (ribbon, bags, scissors, etc.)
5.) Tablecloths, spatulas, etc.

My plan was to keep everything in the boxes stacked up neatly at the foot of the stairs and then bring them upstairs on Thursday or Friday when I started baking for the market. Then after the market Saturday I would make sure everything was in it's right box and it would be out sight again.

Well, remember what I said in the last post about organizing things then not following the organization system? Case in point here. It ended up that I did manage to get things back in their boxes, but the boxes always stayed upstairs. And the gift packaging supplies moved to our guest bedroom where I had set up a desk and my printer after another order from Nashville Wraps and Sam Flax. And our dining room table (thank goodness for those thick mat things that go over them) was constantly overrun by flour bags and things like 3,000 foot aluminum foil rolls.

At this point Reid put up with so much from me. (He still does). Here he had married this girl who had said she was going to take a little while off work "to get the house set up so we could live happily ever after with home cooked meals and clean laundry" and now he is coming home to the inside of a bakery/office upstairs and his man basement covered in this girl's furniture and moving boxes. To top it off, I'm asking him to do things like wrap brownies up individually or put pink labels on pound cakes and stay up all hours baking on Friday nights instead of him relaxing after a long week at work. Oh, and the amazing number of dishes he has washed for me instead of going fishing.

We both knew we couldn't cook from our house forever but also knew we didn't want to take a huge risk and open up any kind of storefront until we a) knew where we were headed and b.) knew where we were headed. Still, living inside my biggest project yet was overwhelming. Even though the "facilities" were adequate to do the comparatively small amount of baking and cooking we were doing, it invaded our living area. We slowly started to realize we might really be able to build up a little business if we stuck with it, but we had to find somewhere else to do our little business.

In mid July was when I think we reached our peak of craziness.

Reid's "second mama" Angie was putting together a benefit which included selling tickets for meal plates. We were so excited to be a part of it and get to make the plates up which included from scratch lasagna (noodles, sauce from locally grown tomatoes, etc.), salad with homemade dressing, yeast rolls and brownies. The benefit plates were for Saturday afternoon so we planned to do a small market in the morning then head over to the benefit.

I did the brownies and made up ranch dressing on Thursday. Friday I started on the lasagna. Anyone who has roasted forty or fifty pounds of tomatoes, then made sauce from them knows you are bound to get some everywhere. And with the flour of rolling out noodles and mixing up big bowls of ricotta cheese, organic spinach and cage free eggs, we had quite an operation going on. We set up all of our folding tables plus a baking rack (that we had traded for meals) in the kitchen with the sofa pushed back against the organ. (Because everyone has an antique organ in their kitchen, right?) So once the lasagnas were completely assembled we brought those, the salad fixings, and the brownies over to Lori's house close to where the benefit would end. They would be out of town and had a great big refrigerator so we could fit all the pans, etc. in them. (We still just had our one fridge and otherwise would have had to skip the market and just make lasagna all morning...which it's always better anyway if you let the flavors kind of ripen together first so it worked out perfectly).

That morning we went to the market with cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, scones, cakes and other goodies we had baked in the midnight to 8am time frame from dropping off lasagna and start of time to set up for market. I left early around 10ish to head back to our house and make yeast rolls for the plates. We had the rack still set up (tables were at the market) and all the sitting furniture pushed up against this organ save for one chair that swivvles that someone could turn and squeeze into. The oriental rug (which never even had a chance in this house before I sent it back to my mother's house after having a year long love affair with it in my little cottage) was still rolled up against the wall too. Laundry was left in a forlorn pile in front of the door to the laundry room. Dishes that didn't make the Friday night cut-off to get washed were (somewhat) neatly stacked in those plastic dish bussing tubs closer to the other side of the room. The dining table was covered in cellophane, tulle,a stack of receipts and display containers that didn't make it to the market. If they didn't know better I'm sure a passerby would have probably called the police and reported a break-in.

So by 12:30 I was deep in yeast dough with some dough resting, some rising, some baking and some still letting the yeast mix with warm milk and sugar first. One thing I learned working at the donut shop in college was that you shouldn't be stingy with your floured surface when working with yeast dough. So stingy I wasn't and thus had flour covering my stainless table and the floor around my stainless table which fell off when you rolled out dough. On one hand I felt like a half crazy housewife who had gotten herself in way too deep, but on the other hand I felt kind of like an accomplished baker who could make fifteen dozen yeast rolls at once.

Watching the clock I thought "Wow-we are really going to be able to pull this off! After I get home and get a nap I'm going to spend the next few days getting my kitchen back to normal and maybe then we could invite some friends or neighbors over."

Well, as if she had been somehow psychic summoned with my wish to have company over eventually, my neighbor showed up. And not the ones from next door who had been in and out of our house and loved us anyway. But our neighbor from a few houses down on an adjacent street who I had only met a couple times pre-wedding when she helped us do our registry in town at Bee Southern. I heard the car pull up, realized it wasn't Reid, and froze. Then the knock on the door. I quickly calculated that it was too late to just duck down and hide and thought "Well, to heck with it." I opened the door and just said "Hey, welcome to our craziness!"

Pam re-introduced herself, gave me a hug even in my flour covered clothes and asked if I needed any help, darlin? She had heard I was doing the benefit plates and also wanted to do a donation. Since she just lived around the corner she came over to put in her order and just check on us. I didn't need any help at the moment (and wasn't bold enough to put her to work washing dishes!) so just invited her to come sit for a while, apologizing profusely for the house. She found the only chair, made herself at home, and made me feel a million times better about the whole state of affairs going on. She actually made me feel more comfortable in my own home and for that immediately endeared herself to me. It was like my own mom telling me "everything would be fine and that it takes years to set up your house the way you want it." (A month later her husband would teach me how to fry onion rings properly and endear himself to me too! Pam still gets the award for being in our house at "peak crazy time," and like our other neighbors Opie & Michelle, I think she still loves us anyway!)

Late that afternoon, across town, Reid and I ended up getting all the plates ready on time with piping hot lasagna, fresh yeast rolls and even some homegrown veggies from the market that morning with the salad. Although we were pretty exhuasted, Reid and I kept saying to each other "We did it. Now we know the two of us can make 120 lasagna plates from scratch. We did it!!" It was definitely a fun moment and great learning experience for us. And one thing we learned was that we had to get Southern Scratch out of our kitchen/living room/dining room as soon as possible!

After getting some rest we got the kitchen cleaned up but left the furniture as it was. On Monday we started ripping things off the wall in the basement for our new dedicated Southern Scratch kitchen...

Next: Priming cinder blocks, August humidity & more stainless kitchen equipment...

Our Kitchen Evolution: Part One

2010-12-04T21:40:00.001-05:00

Reid and I met on a Monday night. He came over for a dinner party I was having two days later on a Wednesday night. And on that Friday night he called me Kathryn Bussey...Filipiak.

So on my first visit to Washington a month or so later I had no qualms to go ahead and get started on what we were both pretty sure was my future kitchen. I am not the best at what they call "home maintenence" but I do love a big home project. (I think they probably have some diagnosis for people who really like organizing things but then don't follow their system so it's still...unorganized?). And his kitchen was a really big project. Luckily Reid trusted me because he willingly took five trash bags to the dump of things I deemed not fit for the kitchen without even asking questions. This included the usual like going through the fridge and pantry and tossing anything expired. It also included a massive plastic elimination-I hate anything plastic in a kitchen. (You shouldn't heat things up in them or use them scratched so I just use glass for any storage containers/leftovers like Pyrex or Anchorware). And all the butter tubs and yogurt containers? Tossed.

I then ran all the surviving dinnerware through the dishwasher (many loads) and separated them. After a good ShopVac on the remaining space we had made great progress. Reid eventually finished the job after I had gone back home and it was a big step in the right direction.

A few months after that I decided to host a Fourth of July party at his house. I ended up with a five day weekend so we had fun getting everything together for the party. I replaced some of the things hanging above the cabinets with patriotic flair which was another improvement. (This is also the trip when I put the first coat on the bathroom to cover up the wallpaper because as they always say "If you have a clean bathroom and clean kitchen people will forgive everything else.") The only caveat to planning the menu for the party was that I couldn't make anything that would have to go in the oven. Because Reid didn't have a working oven. (He said he would just dig a hole in the ground if he needed to bake anything..you know, like squirrel.)

Well a little while later on Labor Day weekend we got engaged and any of my kitchen/house renovating projects went on the backburner planning a wedding.

So when Reid lifted me over the threshold into ~~his~~ our house, we had no oven. For the first month or so I cooked using a plug in skillet and a toaster oven. Luckily we had gotten a great bread maker and a panini press for wedding gifts so we pretty much just ate fancy sandwiches for dinner most nights.

We started looking at ovens as soon as I finally got everything moved in. After a couple romantic trips to Lowe's and hours searching online we found exactly what we wanted: 5 burners, warming drawer, gas, professional level but not a huge commercial range. We ordered it from a place in New York and I was sooo excited when it finally arrived. Then bummed when it had a dent in it and the warming drawer didn't work. The people told us to just start using it and they would send a replacement.

So we did. And this was the first oven we used to bake for the very first market!

A few weeks later, our replacement oven came. When the delivery guys from New York dropped the new one off, they conveniently didn't take the other one. We were ecstatic even though we were still pretty sure someone would show up at the house to get it but after seven or eight months I don't think they're coming for it...

Next stage: Crazy upstairs kitchen and Southern Scratch in boxes...

Why I Have Four Bars of Artisan Chocolate in My Glove Compartment.

2010-11-29T23:14:00.001-05:00

Reid always says he doesn't like sweets. He is mostly telling the truth. Of the breakfast goodies I bake for the market he always eats a blue cheese green onion and grit scone (which I put off to the side for him) but turns his nose up at a cinnamon roll. He doesn't really eat ice cream (much to my dismay) and, sin of all sins here in Georgia, he prefers unsweetened tea.

So I was really surprised when, after several months of dating, Reid got back into the car from the gas station with a Hershey's chocolate almond bar. I'm not even sure if I knew then that he even liked chocolate so was of course really excited to find out Reid had a little bit of a fat kid inside of him too.

Last Wednesday before Thanksgiving I had to drive to Athens to find a few organic ingredients I couldn't get in Washington. I needed to get in and out of Earthfare quickly (dodging the other customers carrying their free range turkeys) but I also felt I needed to make the trip "worth it" for more than my few items. Since we would be driving a little over five hours I thought I'd surprise Reid with a little chocolate sampler for the trip.

Neither one of us eat a ton of fast food so we usually pack up little gourmet picnics for the trip. This trip we just started out with coffee, some yogurt/granola for breakfast and of course, my secret chocolate stash. A few hours in we did a preliminary sampling: a Black&Green organic hazelnut/currant/72% cacoa; an Escazu pumpkin seed and guajillo chile/74% cacoa; an XOXO dark chocolate & crystallized ginger and lastly a dark chocolate coconut truffle bar whose brand I can't remember.

We agreed the coconut truffle bar was the best on the first tasting. On our way back we had a little bag of brown butter pecan shortbread from the treats I brought to Thanksgiving and then tried all the chocolates again along with fresh coffee at the first Starbucks we found across the Georgia line (which happened to be in a Target on Black Friday...). From that I leaned a little toward the pumpkin/chile. I like ginger/chocolate combo in cookies or scones but not so much straight up like the bar.

Today I drove up to the Happy Cow Creamery for butter (delicious, big rolls of grass fed butter), milk and cream cheese. On the way home I started to look around for a little something to eat in my car thinking I may have a Larabar left. (We were introduced to these in Boulder and love them!). Then I remembered the chocolate bars we had left. (The benefit to buying weird flavors of chocolate is that a little bit really does satisfy you so they last a long time). I gave the hazelnut/currant another try and it was perfect this go round.

Anyway, I think when it stops raining I'm going to bring the rest of the chocolate inside. Luckily it's nearly December and not August or we would have an odd hazelnut/guajillo/pumpkin/currant/coconut/ginger melting pot on top of the car instruction manual, insurance info, nail polish remover and the extra napkins.

I think the next time the two of us are on the road will be during Christmas...so if anyone has some great chocolate suggestions to add to my fancy chocolate compartment collection let us know!

My Favorite Food Network Celebrity and Her All Stainless & White Kitchen Appliances.

2010-11-23T20:05:00.001-05:00

So I just saw that Google's doodle was done by Ina Garten today. I've strongly considered getting a TV solely for the purpose of watching Barefoot Contessa. I know favorite Food Network celebrities can trigger hot debate, but who doesn't want to live in the Hamptons in the middle of their kitchen garden, be best friends with a chocolatier and have their friends over for lunch on their yacht every day?

In one of the aforementioned times of inwardly debating the "TV for news and Food Network purposes" issue, I just googled Ina instead. (I'm pretty sure deep down if I didn't have a "real job" AND had a TV in the house I could very quickly own only mu-mu's, develop a serious potato chip habit and be sucked in to every daytime soap & telenovela that was on air). I ended up finding an interview with her about kitchen design. Dreaming of someday having a dream kitchen someday, I took copious notes while thinking what a genius Ina was. (I like saying "Ina" as if we actually know each other in real life. One can dream.) Now, I have no idea where those notes are, if they survived the move, but I do remember having a ton of "ah-ha!" moments. But when I've finally got my laptop back and am somewhere other than the middle of the country with sketchy at best internet service (but improved today by our fixed transformer box), I plan to re-watch the interview.

I have been thinking a lot lately about good, functional kitchen design both for the Southern Scratch kitchen as well as our home kitchen. The great thing about the interview was that Ina's advice works for both a commercial kitchen where baking and cooking are going on all the time or for the home cook who wants a streamlined space to get dinner out fast.

One of the most memorable thing she said was how she only uses stainless or white kitchen utensils and appliances. She noted that colorful spatulas and mixing bowls may look pretty but if you have twenty different colored items, it can make a working kitchen (i.e. when you're getting ready for a dinner party) look cluttered and messy. If you stick with one color (and you can find nearly everything in white or stainless), the room automatically looks "put together" even if you've got a floured work surface, pots on the stove, caserolles in the oven, the mixer going and guests walking in the door. Genius Ina. Just genius.

I try to remember that tip whenever I'm drawn to turquoise spatulas or pink handled whisks for the Southern Scratch kitchen to go all matchy with our Waste Not Paper labels. And while I did give in and register for lemongrass colored Fiesta for our everyday china, we got rid of any and all other plates, mugs, etc. so we still have a monochrome look in our home kitchen. (Which is really important since the eager home renovater I am took off all our kitchen cabinet doors the day we got back from our honeymoon and haven't made good progress on getting them back up or painted like I had planned...oh sigh.)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you live in Washington, plan to come by the market Saturday morning between 8-till we sell out right behind the courthouse. We are going to have a good little selection of our best breakfast items for anyone that wants to get out of the house before the football games start or bring your kids by to come pick out a freshly made cinnamon roll! (We totally allow footie pajamas at the market).

Another Reason Why I Love Reid and a Weight Loss Tip All in the Same.

2010-11-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

I realized yesterday that Reid and I had been married a grand total of eight months on Saturday. So basically we know squat about being married. And really, we know squat about each other too. In that time though we have both learned to enjoy the little quirks each of us have that we didn't notice when we were all love-struck, thinking "let's get married and live out a John Prine song."

Today I had made up a bunch of brown butter pecan shortbread for gift box orders and like a good wife, saved some extra cookies for Reid. After I told him they were his, he took a little nibble then said "Oh wait, these need coffee." So we made a pot of fresh coffee (roasted less than a week ago from 1000 Faces in Athens) just so he could have the "perfect pairing" with the shortbread.

You would be right if you thought the above was a boring little anecdote. But what I loved was that Reid had the patience and appreciation to enjoy his shortbread to the fullest. As he was eating them, all nestled in his chair, he said again how great the two went together. (Our eyes met and this shared passion for really good food just made my little newlywed heart all a-flutter. Oh, what a sophisticated man I married, ripped blue jeans, threadbare t-shirt and discussing the nuances he could taste in non-overroasted coffee. Rwroarr...).

But on a more practical and less lovey-dovey note, the weight management/enjoying life without counting calories aspects were there too. How many people mindlessly eat store bought cookies? Or mindlessly eat even really good cookies without truly enjoying them? Reid wasn't "dieting" but he avoided eating five or six cookies standing up in the kitchen without mentally "registering" them and instead had two small ones sitting down with coffee which he ended up calling dinner because he had enjoyed it so much.

I think having a deep appreciation of food may be the cornerstone of maintaining a healthy weight and building a good relationship with food where it nourishes you physically, emotionally and mentally yet doesn't abuse your feelings, invade all your thoughts or harm your body. I am not a fan of any kind of diet advice during the holidays (or diets ever actually) but Thanksgiving is a great time to practice the art of savoring food for all it's worth. Not the "how much food can I get away with eating this year?" but "how amazing is this homemade butter crust?" Take the time to really taste your family's good food Thursday instead of just chewing your food.

And when it comes time for dessert, definitely make a fresh pot of coffee.

Country Heads to Town this Holiday Season! Delivery Dates & More!

2010-11-21T21:34:00.005-05:00

It seems like just yesterday I was packing up all my Christmas decorations into big plastic totes and labeling them "X-Mas-->Reid's House." Soon after we got engaged and firmly settled on living in Washington after we were married (I did my fair amount of begging and scheming to try to get Reid to work at Roosevelt where I lived but Reid's farm outweighed my little cottage), I started to pre-move. I packed up everything I thought I could live without until the wedding (which you can live without most of the stuff you have apparently) and sent Reid back with boxes every time he came to visit. We still ended up with a massive moving truck a few weeks after the wedding so I'm glad I had started early even if it did mean I still have a lot of random boxes in the barn. (I did spend one last night in my cottage alone after the wedding curled up with my dog, Myra, indulging in Hulu episodes of 30 Rock and Ben & Jerry's knowing it would be the last night ever of living alone. Cherish it single friends. Marriage is awesome but so is not having anyone judge you when you're halfway down a pint without plans to stop too.)

Anyways, it is now the holiday season again. Since our hallway is the only fully painted room in our house, I'm considering setting it up as our sole holiday vignette. Maybe I'll even pull a chair or two in there and make Reid pretend we just live in a 4 x 12 cottage that is decorated to the hilt. Or as if we're celebrating the holiday in a Paris hotel room all romantic-ally. Or like we're struggling grad students living in a tiny dorm room together. (Sidenote to the Lipscomb University student dorm assistants present during the 2003 annual door decorating contest: You know that our "Christmas in Dixie" life size aluminum foil mobile home and clothesline decoration complete with original self portraits in our finest denim cut off skirts and genuine LU parking tickets was the best and Kaitlyn, Steph, Liz and I still kind of hold a grudge against you for awarding us a bag of pork rinds and case of RC cola instead of the $300 gift certificate the girl that decorated with a felt cut-out nativity scene got. And besides, everyone knows that only moon pies, not pork rinds, go with RC cola. That was poor taste all around ladies.)

So instead of making our house a winter wonderland, I am going to holiday up our Southern Scratch booth! (Oh and the pink (or is it lime green?) Christmas tree I'd never thought I'd get to put out again will be on full display). We have a lot of great things planned as well as a BIG change (we'll get to announce that hopefully in just a week or so when everything is final!!) so I've listed out a schedule for where to find us.

You can order by calling (706-505-0698 or 7442 in Washington (I love a town that is small enough where you only have to give the last 4 digits of your phone number because everyones starts the same way-in this case it's 706-678-7442); email at scratchbaking@gmail.com ; post/message on Facebook or visit us at the Farmer's Market Nov. 27th/Dec. 11th/Dec. 18th or Festival off Main in Thomson (Dec. 4th/5th)!

You can either order "off the menu" (Thanksgiving is posted already and Christmas will be by posted Friday) or call for custom items. If you live close you can also bring your serving dishes or platters for us to fill up with your order. (We won't even tell if you pretend you made it!).

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010:
-Dropping off side dishes, pies, rolls, and more in Washington, GA. Check out the menu here and order by tomorrow night (Monday, November 22nd).

Saturday, November 27th, 2010: Washington Farmer's Market
-We plan on setting up a booth at the market early Saturday morning located behind the courthouse. We will have cinnamon rolls, scones, chocolate croissants, Better Than's and plenty of coffee. We will be there around 8am until we sell out. You can reserve fresh cinnamon rolls, etc. for your family by calling (7442 in Washington or 706-505-0698). This is a perfect way to start off your Small Business Saturday, show your in-laws a little piece of Washington, or take back to the house before the games start!

Saturday, December 4th-Sunday, December 5th: Thomson, GA Festival Off Main
We are sooo excited about this event! We will have a booth on both shopping days, Saturday and Sunday. Our menu is focused around cakes (large and small), custom gift boxes and pans of breakfast items like our blue cheese green onion and grit scones and grass fed butter cinnamon rolls.
I am most looking forward to our gift boxes: We will have different sized & shaped boxes available along with a wide variety of individual serving treats (Better Than's, homemade caramel chocolate nut popcorn, truffles, brown butter shortbread just to name a few items). You pick your box, treats, and color ribbon to match. We package them up for you along with a menu card with treat names/ingredients either on the spot (for early gift giving) or shipped/delivered to you closer to Christmas. You will be able to give a completely custom gift to your friends and family based on what treats you think they'll love.
We will also have super cute gift certificates in their own fabulous packaging that will make great stocking stuffers.

Saturday, December 11th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market, OPEN LATE!
Even though it is cold the market will still be open! We are so lucky to have several Wilkes County farmer's with green houses so the vegetables are still coming. (Thomas MacFie even showed up with kiwi Saturday...we were all duly impressed). The downtown shops are adorable and with the Tour of Homes this is the perfect weekend to spend in Washington.
We plan to have our usual full assortment of breakfast items, treats, cakes and coffee along with the gift boxes & gift certificates mentioned above. We plan on getting there around 8:30 (or when the last pan of cinnamon rolls come out of the oven) and staying down there until 5pm/dark.

Saturday, December 18th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market
Our usual spread! If you are ordering teacher gifts or headed out of town early to visit family it is a great day to pick up your treats. We will be there around 8:30 until a little after noon. (Then I'll be headed over to Bee Southern, Cost Cutters, Petal Pushers (Christmas Shop) and Talk of the Town along with all of our other cute downtown shops for last minute holiday shopping!!)

Tuesday, December 14th and Tuesday, December 21st: Deliveries to Atlanta and Athens
We plan on making mid morning-afternoon deliveries to Atlanta and late afternoon/evening delivery to Athens. We will offer custom gift boxes, cakes, and breakfast treats as well as a holiday menu (to be posted soon!) for side dishes, appetizers, entrees, etc. made primarily from Georgia grown and organic ingredients. These delivery dates are right in time for teachers and end of the year corporate gifts!

Wednesday, December 15th and Wednesday, December 22nd: Deliveries to Thomson and Augusta
If you've ordered at Festival Off Main you can pick which day you would like your treats, gift boxes or holiday food delivered fresh! If you missed the festival you can still be able to order Southern Scratch goodies!

Thursday, December 16th and Thursday, December 23rd: Deliveries in Washington, GA
Our usual delivery day! We can do any time of day deliveries on the 16th and morning/early afternoon deliveries on the 23rd just in time for Christmas guests!

Friday, December 24th: Birmingham, AL Deliveries
We are thrilled to be able to do deliveries all the way back in my hometown! Perfect chance to have treats delivered to your door on Christmas Eve!

Saturday, December 25th-Wednesday, December 29th: Vacation
Reid and I plan to soak up time with our families and not lift a finger in the kitchen!

Thursday, December 30th-Friday, December 31st:
We will have New Year's appetizers and treats ready to be picked up or delivered in the Washington, Thomson, or Augusta area. Catering also available-book by Dec. 11th!

I still can't believe the holidays are finally here but we are so excited about being able to deliver to the awesome "city folk" we've met in Atlanta, Athens & Augusta in addition to our wonderful neighbors in Washington and more distant neighbors in Thomson!! Also just thrilled to be at the Festival Off Main and even make deliveries over in Alabama! Reid and I cannot say enough about how much fun we have had meeting all of you and how much you have enriched our lives! We are so thankful this year for so much!!

Boulder Farmer's Market & a 9 Volt Battery Taste Testing

2010-11-17T22:24:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning Reid and I decided to walk down into the city after breakfast. The time change was great because we could feel like we were sleeping in but actually be awake pretty early. We bundled up and with a map headed down the mountain on foot. (I usually look like a bagwoman in cold weather so if you see me at the market Saturday don't be surprised if I have six coats on.) We didn't have anywhere we needed to be except to eventually find the Whole Foods and pick up grits and a few things we needed to make blue cheese scones. (Reid had a special request from the Colorado resident but Southern raised groom to fix him grits before his big day).

So on our walk, my doting husband stops at a massage place (not the shady kind) so he could find some aromatherapy lotion. (He definitely had the store employees convinced he made sure to rub my back for no less than two hours every day. Oh, people in Colorado must believe anything. Actually Reid was being really nice since we were on our second honeymoon in less than a year and all. I didn't even mind when later my back was on fire and I read the container that had "capsecin" listed as an active ingredient.) While we were there, we said we were just walking around town and they told us we had to go check out the Farmer's Market, especially since it was the last day it would be open for the season.

The market ended up being right behind the store and they let us out the back door to walk right to it. The first stand we came to had grass fed cheeses which were absolutely incredible. We knew we couldn't buy a ton of stuff because, obviously, you can't haul heads of cabbage no matter how pretty they are back in your luggage. Luckily we remembered that we had at least forty or more people we could possibly feed back up at the main lodge with the groom's family and friends. And since my favorite thing to do is feed people and I was staring at the biggest farmer's market I'd ever seen, I said we should do some kind of wine and cheese thing for everyone. Reid agreed and we set out trying to find everything we needed for our "menu."

There was everything from a non-GMO popcorn stand to at least five gluten free baked goods stands to several grass fed milk and cheese vendors. We picked up several types of cheese, baguette, sourdough, raisin walnut bread, radishes, cabbage (so sweet we just ate them raw), roasted poblano and anaheim peppers, artisan chocolates and of course apples. We also found freshly milled flour to use in the scones, locally roasted coffee and a bottle of artisan chai mix that had a little cayenne pepper in it for breakfast the next morning. The market also had a dedicated "food court" with a pizza stand to die for...homemade heirloom tomatoe sauce on a stove with fresh market vegetables and cheeses being used as pizza toppings on homemade dough.

I realized for us to be able to taste everything this market had to offer we would have to vacation here for a couple weeks every year. We then daydreamed walking back about planning all of our vacations around really great farmer's markets. Our poor children one day-we will have to let their grandparents take them to real vacation places and let them watch plenty of TV at other kid's houses so they aren't completely socially awkward.

About halfway through the market a little lady popped out from her booth and held out a bag of cocoa powdered chocolate covered almonds. I ate the little piece of heaven and the lady disappeared. Before we could turn around though a man popped up to us and told us we had to try his buttons. (What???) He walked over to a little cloth napkin and uncovered a bunch of tiny little flower buds which he called Szechuan buttons. Reid and I were slightly nervous but the man, who liked he may have lived another life as a Tibetan Monk dressed in a Northface coat was convincing. (He convinced Reid by saying it was like putting your tongue to a nine volt battery. Later I found out that was a perfectly acceptable method of testing a battery.)

He tore off a little piece of the flower bud (looked like a marigold) and gave it to each of us. We put it in our mouths and after a few seconds you could feel not only your palette being cleansed but also a kind of little jolt of energy...like the little flower shocked your mouth alive. We were both wide eyed at the feeling when the lady with the almonds popped back up again. She handed the bag to her husband (I'm assuming) who then gave us each other chocolate covered almond. He encouraged us to eat one so we could see what the button did to our tastebuds. I put the chocolate in my mouth and was overwhelmed with how intese the flavors were. I felt like I was at some high end weight loss center going through an exercise to help you become more aware of your food and had just had a major breakthrough. I thought, "So this is what chocolate could really taste like."

We bought several of the buttons and the man gave us two more so we could each keep one in our mouths. If you held the button in the side of your mouth and just bit it slightly before taste testing, the flavors would of course intensify. And perhaps this is why we could not stop buying food at the market. Everything we tasted of course was "the best ever" since we had a constant stream of palate cleansing battery voltage current.

We left the market with a bookbag and our hands full of our spoils and started to head back to the lodge. Someone on the street told us the Whole Foods had closed (later we found out it didn't and just took a car there instead) so we headed straight up the mountain. I felt like a true hunter/gatherer or any other kind of handy mountain woman type "hiking" the sidewalks back up the mountain, provisions for the crew in hand. (I especially felt like this because of the burning in my quads. I had forgotten the what goes down must go back up rule of physics on our breezy downhill journey).

Back at our little cabin we unloaded our finds and made veggie platters, cheese and apple platters and paired the different breads and cheeses along with some radish, grass fed butter and baguette bruchetta. We also broke the dark chocolate and sunflower butter chocolate cups. It was so much fun-I'd get a plate ready and Reid would run it over to the main lodge since we didn't have enough space in our cabin to get everything prepped at once.

Once we had finished we joined everyone with a glass of wine, talking about all the great things we found at the market. Later on, we shared some of our precious Szechuan buttons with a select few and conducted our own "chocolate button tastings." (Which of course was awarded a "street name" once we told our story of tasting it for the first time but possibly inappropriate to mention here.)

Monday afternoon one of the other guests and first people to try the button with us, a photographer from New York, was on our flight with us. We told him we had plenty of chocolate and button left. So mid-flight the three of us had another little tasting session with the chocolates we were given as wedding favors. (Unfortunately for Ken, he missed finishing off the last of the sourdough batard and the snowdrop goat's cheese brie with us before the flight attendants cleared the aisle. But very fortunately for Ken, he missed our pre-flight lunch at an airport steakhouse that served "mountain oysters." They tasted exactly like you think they would. Never again. That is not food.)

Tomorrow night I think we are going to have our last chocolate tasting with Reid's dad after dinner. He is always up for a good food experience and needs a good meal for taking care of our dogs for us (and letting us borrow his truck the past few weeks). I've already been looking online to see if I can order some more Szechuan buttons and make some kind of tiny cookies or a sorbet with them to cleanse our palettes and give us a little charge. Until then, we will just have to stick to batteries.

No Pictures to Prove It, But We Had a Great Time.

2010-11-16T23:36:00.001-05:00

The past few days, Reid and I have had one of the best weekends we've ever had together (in the entire 20 long months we've known each other). We flew out Friday morning to Boulder, CO to see one of Reid's closest friends from his highschool days at Riverside Military Academy get married to a gorgeous girl he has been in love with since he graduated from highschool. With the time change we still arrived at Chatauqua before noon. The wedding was on Sunday morning and we got back to Washington around 1am this morning. (Sidenote: If you work at a particularly popular coffee shop founded in Seattle off I-20 between Atlanta and Washington, please don't close at 10:30 when tired people driving home are counting on you to be open until 11:00 like the Garmin and your sign says. A cup of coffee would have meant a whole lot more to me than closing early would have meant to you last night, okay?)
At Chatauqua, we had rented one of the little cottages which were all in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was breathtaking. The people were incredible. The wedding was beautiful. The food was outstanding. I think this trip will be something Reid and I reminisce about when we're old. And I hope our memories stay sharp because we forgot to take any pictures.

That said, I'm really actually even more grateful now than I was before we left that my laptop had totally gone kaput on me. I brought my camera but forgot to use it except for a couple shots of some vegetables we found at a great Farmer's Market (I think food is the only thing I take pictures of anyway). We pretty much kept our phones on silent. And we didn't even have a TV in the room (which is really good for us because we don't have a TV at home and would have probably missed the wedding because we were too sucked into watching Friends reruns like little entertainment deprived junkies).

Basically, we had no choice but to be with only the people that were actually there in person.

Luckily we ended up amongst some really great people. We didn't really have anywhere we "had" to be except for dinner or the wedding (or the bachelorette party which I was thrilled to get to be a part of even though I had just met all of the girls including the bride who all turned out to be awesome, super fun, belly laughing with them even though you just met them type of girls). It was just four days in complete vacation mode. Not the camera-strapped-around-your-neck and check-the-next-attraction-off-your-list kind of vacation. The "let's just go on a walk and see where we end up" type of vacation along with a little "why not have a glass of wine with breakfast?" mixed in with a little dice playing, hiking on a snowy mountain, spontaneous wine and cheese parties and most adorable three year old little boy who could high kick and jazz hands to the Rockettes better than any 5'10" ballerina could ever dream of doing.

I think over the next few posts I'll talk about the amazing Tea House we had dinner at Friday night or my new fascination with Szechuan Buttons. I'll definitely have to include a post on the mother of the groom, who has to be the most superb hostess I have ever met in my life. And about fifty other things about why Reid and I think we should vacation in Boulder every year now. And how we really hope the couples who were dating at the wedding get married and invite us so we can hang out with all the same people again in one place...

Perfect wedding, perfect weekend. Congratulations Zach & Stacy!!

Don't Judge a Book by its' Fantastical Creature Content.

2010-11-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

     I definitely enjoy getting into a good book. It seems the past several years though, I've mainly been reading dietetics oriented books with a thick bibliography section or more how-to type things like How to Keep an Organized Home when you have a Disorganized Head (it was something like that.) But an amazing thing has happened in the past seven months and that thing is me becoming a housewife. And housewives that don't have kids yet get to do woman of leisure type things like read books all morning with really good coffee and dark chocolate biscotti while their husbands are at work. If they play it right and have a nice dinner on the table when husband comes home, husband usually doesn't ask too much what you did all day.  So the book before last I read A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, which is by far the greatest romance novel ever written. It is not actually a romance novel but a non-fictional memoir. I promise it rivals "The Notebook" anyday.   By a long shot. It is tear your heart out, sobbing on the pages, make you want to tell your husband he is the most wonderful person in the world and you are so grateful he goes to work all day while you read in your pajamas kind of good. Well that was several months ago...

     Either wisely or unwisely, I gave myself a job as owner/employee/dishwasher/cook/marketing director/driver/financial advisor and errand girl of my own little business and now my days of not having to be anywhere are getting fewer and fewer. Which is great and exciting and good. But also kind of terrifying and rushed. So Monday, in a great moment of "seeing the silver lining of every situation," I realized that having my laptop down meant that on our trip this weekend I couldn't do any "work."  We have a lot coming up with the holidays (we'll have exciting news to share in a few weeks here!!) and our trip can really be a great time to rest up before keeping the oven going full speed the next month or so.

     Our friend is getting married at Chataqua in Boulder, Colorado so we booked a little cottage there for a long weekend. We've got an early morning flight and then of course I'm sure typical delays, etc. so I started looking for a good book to read. Reid and I briefly contemplated buying "dueling" books such as "Trickle Up Poverty" and "Dreams of My Father." (Or my new food processing book and "In Defense of Food.") I figured if I wanted to make my head spin though I'd at least read something useful like "Small Business for Dummies." I finally decided I just needed to find something for pure enjoyment. Not deep. Not useful. Just a good page-turner I could curl up with on the flight or surrounded by snow (thanking the good Lord I live in Georgia).

     Luckily for me, a Washington, GA local just released her second novel and it is the perfect vacation book.

     I feel I need to preface how I came around to reading her first book "The Unicorn Girl". In January of this year I was up in Washington visiting my future husband and town. We had coffee at The Fitzpatrick Hotel and I noticed there were novels on sale in the lobby titled "The Unicorn Girl." I (correctly) assumed they were written by a local author. I passed over them because a) I was busy planning a wedding and b) I'm not really into unicorns.

     Months later, post wedding and early market, I noticed "The Unicorn Girl" on sale at one of the Washington Farmer's Market's vendors table. I assumed the vendor either knew the unicorn author or was the unicorn author, but I didn't ask to find out. Honestly I didn't really want to inquire when I really had no intention to buy a book about unicorns. I thought it may be weird and I didn't want to be put into a situation of not liking it and then avoiding whoever the author or author's friend was for the rest of my life so they wouldn't ask me if I liked it.

    Months after that, I got to know Sandy, "the unicorn book vendor", and found out it was her daughter Melissa who was "the unicorn author."  Even though Sandy was completely normal I still tried to avoid asking any questions about the unicorn book. I honestly did not think any book about a mythical creature would be anything I would be the least bit interested in.  But finally last month, on a spur of the moment whim probably caused by lack of sleep, I bought the unicorn book. I felt kind of brave for doing it especially with the whole possible social awkward interactions it could cause.

    But instead of not liking it I was absolutely captivated. I started the book Sunday afternoon and read it late until the night along with a package of our leftover "Better Than's" (cheese straws) from the market and a glass of wine. Then I stayed in my pajamas all morning and into the afternoon Monday reading it with coffee. I kept thinking "I'll stop at this chapter and get some laundry done" until I finally just decided I had to finish it before I could do anything else. It had been such a long time since I was that sucked into a novel that I literally couldn't put it down.

    I think "officially" the book is targeted toward adolescents but I'm 26 and kind of really loved it. It is about this young girl growing up in a huge castle that becomes friends with a (nice) witch woman who had been best friends with the girls' deceased mother. A rival cousin is involved as well as a king, a prince, a (mean) witch stripped of her powers, a mysterious illness, and of course some unicorns. After the mysterious illness she runs away from her home and embarks on an epic journey to fulfill whatever her calling is that is associated with her illness. It is a book that has unicorns in it but I swear to you it is good, not weird.

    What I really enjoyed is that I never felt like I should be "getting" the real meaning behind the characters and plot. It was just fun to read. On one hand Melissa's writing style is really straightforward. She doesn't make you do mazes in your head trying to figure out what she's saying or get you lost in a five page description of a tree which I loved. But on the other hand she has a fantastic ability to not reveal too much so that the plot really isn't predictable.

    I think maybe she accomplishes this by really keeping the reader "in the moment." Reading it is like enjoying a really great dinner with friends where you are so happy just to be where you are but the conversation is still moving forward with building interest. (I feel like I'm reviewing a book for AP English writing this..."the reader.")

    Instead of using fifty adjectives to describe an everyday object, she creates a new object. For instance she came up with this bag called a "Replenisher." The replenisher is an old tattered burlap sack that belongs to the good witch. It works by the person just thinking of what they want (like to eat, drink, etc.) and pulling it out of the bag to replenish themselves (get it?). The young girl takes it with her on her journey so throughout the novel you get to see what she eats.  After the "repelenisher" was first introduced I thought, "If this is a fantasy novel it hit the nail on the head for a ton of people. I would totally fantasize about a bag that contained 10 year sharp cheddar and grapes and probably chocolate cake whenever you wanted it." (I told Melissa I could definitely tell a "foodie" wrote the book because the girl pulls out some pretty delicious meals for being stuck in a forest.)

     But back to the book I'm taking on our trip out west. (I just checked and it is going to be 23 degrees tomorrow night. Oh how I love Georgia.) I saw on Facebook where Melissa had just gotten her shipment of her newest book in and thought, "Yes! This is perfect-no political downers, no business books about the hundreds of things I should probably be doing and nothing that is going to make me go into deep reflection on my life." And oh so luckily for me I was planning on being at the LeGette household (one of the most fabulous places on earth) early Tuesday morning to go with Sandy to that pickling/hypochloride class. Early Tuesday morning I was excited to get one of the first copies-signed by the author with "To Kathryn: May you make almond toffee. -M.L.LeGette" (I'll be interested to see if toffee is in the book or if is a Southern Scratch order in which case I'll have to find out how much she wants).

     By the time I get back from Colorado I'll have finished "For the Kingdom"  and then jump right back in to baking! I think Melissa is doing a booksigning at the Mary Willis Library (oldest public library in the state of Georgia I believe right here in Washington, GA!) December 9th from 3:30-5:30. Sandy will also have copies of it at her booth at the market (along with the now "not so weird" unicorn book). Don't be afraid of asking about it because Sandy is not weird and the book is really good I promise. I've already peeked at a few pages of this new one and I think it is going to be really good too.

    Melissa said she is working on a third book so maybe we'll plan our next vacation around it's release date...

    Hope everyone has a great weekend!! We (obviously) won't be at the market Saturday but will be back the morning of the 20th! There should be produce year round (possibly even tomatoes in December thanks to a wood heated green house) so you haven't missed it for the season. Next Thursday's meal (the 18th) is our last one for 2010 and then we will be doing 2 meals/week starting in January (a family friendly night on Tuesdays and the Weekday Gourmet on Thursdays).

A Class on Pickling That Didn't Even Mention a Single Cucumber.

2010-11-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

     A month or so ago, Sandy LeGette asked if I wanted to go to a "pickling" class with her at UGA. They had such an abundance of okra this year and she thought it would be a good idea to get certified in processing acidified foods.   Since I had only made pickles twice in my life and they were the kind you kept in the fridge rather than in the pantry for ten years, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity for some continuing education.   This "Better Processing" class is required before you can then go through the steps (about fifty bajillion of them it seems with a dozen different agencies) of actually putting a product on grocery store shelves along with a cute little label. Other than homegrown tomato sauce for meals, I didn't have any product in mind to actually sell but I thought "why not?"

     Although Sandy had warned me the class covered not only small canning operations (like anyone who grew up on a farm did with the season's bounty for the winter) but also the huge massive canning operations (like Hunt's) I still thought it would be more of a "how-to" class. When I got the "textbook" in the mail and it was filled with words like hydrostatic retort and diagrams of the seventeen parts of the anatomy of a glass jar, I briefly considered ditching it. Luckily I had already paid and was looking forward to a trip with Sandy who always has these great "food system" insights.

     So at 6:30 yesterday morning we were on the road to class at the Food Sciences Department.  And for two days we covered everything from breakthrough points for chloride treatment of cooling water to the lug v. continuous thread designs of jar lids. We both learned a lot and I think went away with knowledge of safety & record keeping procedures that we will definitely use. We also learned a ton about things we will probably never use such as names of valves for 300 head filling systems and juice box factories that run through a thousand cartons of juice aseptically within less than a minute.

     In our last session yesterday we learned all about keeping a high concentration of chloride in the cooling water so that the surface area of the can won't have any bacteria on it. When processing such a huge quantity of cans or jars in a plant, there are so many additional steps and checkpoints to make sure there haven't been any product defects, everything is sanitized, etc. And pretty much this just meant lots more chemicals and/or higher temperatures.

    As soon as we left the classroom we just stared at each other with our eyes wide. I mean, how can that much hypochloride be good for you? What is really left of the food once it's been completely "sterilized?"

    I am by no means a microbiologist or a chemist. I'm not even going to pretend like I know which chemicals are bad, worse or ugly because I am not an expert. The goal of the class (with food science & technology staff from UGA and FDA guys there) was to help people SAFELY process these jarred/canned acidified foods. This means how to keep it free from microorganisms while it sits on a grocery store shelf to be sold to the public and then at room temp in your pantry. It was to make sure that nobody starting a small acidified foods business was risking the public's health by not having jars sealed properly, etc. It was to inform us of proper recording procedures so that if the FDA visited your kitchen you had documentation of temperatures, pH levels of your products, etc. for every batch you made. We knew that this was the goal and I think the course did an excellent job of meeting that goal.

    But it made us think: "Can food really be responsibly processed on such a mass scale?"  What, if any, sacrifices to our health have been made so we can have the convenience of canned vegetables year round? How far have we gone into the direction of processed foods that now we eat them nearly every single day? Sure, families have "put away" food for generations but weren't pickles and dried meats usually reserved for the winter when you didn't have the abundance of summer produce or more fresh milk?

    We really did enjoy the class and are glad to have passed our exam and be able to get processes certified, etc. I think it made me see a good "big picture" of food processing on both a large and small scale. I've always found that the "inspection" agencies are really not bad to work with. (For some reason I always got kind of sentimental about the hospital's Joint Commission visits, thinking about how great it was we could all work together to help our patients get even better care). The USDA, the FDA, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the Health Department, independent or land grant university process authorities and even the Bioterrorism Agency are all involved in some way or another in the process.

     It will be a while before I put my Better Practices certification to use (not planning on overseeing a canning plant anytime soon) but I am definitely glad to know I am now qualitifed to proceed to the next fifty steps of paperwork required to produce a jar of pickles. I just wish that they would have at least given me a recipe.

A Short But Long Lasting Post Mainly Intended for Women Who Shave Their Armpits

2010-11-09T21:29:00.000-05:00

I am not by any stretch of the imagination an "Earth Mother." Long flowy skirts do not look good on me. To be honest, short skirts don't either and I'm sure we can all be grateful for cooler weather and me in pants. I have long hair because long hair is a lot easier to pull back in a ponytail than short hair. I am all about getting rid of unneccesary chemicals & pesticides but I have no problems pulling out the hairspray for special occasions that will involve my mother or grandmother (then I bask in their approval of my big hair all day and wonder why I don't take their advice more often and consistently wear make up and fix my hair). And while I really love, love my Muck boots, I've had my pearls a lot longer.

That said, I wanted to quickly write a post about my great new deodorant. My earth-mama-loving-aluminum free-deodorant. Of all the recommendations for cancer prevention in the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life, by far the easiest one to follow I think is for women who shave their armpits (like me) to switch to an aluminum-free deodorant.

I found my stick of Tom's Natural of Maine (in lemongrass) at Bi-Lo here in Washington and I'm sure Ingles has it too. (The stores in our neck of the woods). I tested it out and it passes a baking all day in the kitchen test and an entire morning market test. It costs about the same as other brands so it really is one of the easiest things to do to take away another little factor that may contribute to breast cancer (shaving your arms leaving tiny little cuts and immediately putting aluminum on it so it can get into your body). So check your brand for aluminum and make a simple switch. (Unless of course you look good in long flowy skirts and don't shave your pits in which case deodorant may not be something you bother with anyway.)

Technical Difficulties

2010-11-08T21:32:00.000-05:00

      When Reid and I were in pre-marital counseling, we were given a "homework assignment" where we each listed twenty expectations we had for our marriage. During the next session we exchanged sheets and "graded" each other's list with a "Definitely," "Maybe," or "Never Gonna Happen." In my top twenty I listed "Reid will deal with any and all car issues and major home maintenence." Luckily, Reid graded that as a "Definitely." Also luckily, neither of us are "car people" which basically translates to "we don't really care what we drive as long as it gets to point A to point B." I'm definitely a house person but can be satisfied with a nice dining table and good china while we work on our humble abode.

     So when I hit a deer coming home from the market in the beginning of the summer and totaled the car I had paid cash for, I didn't worry because that was Reid's domain and we were covered. And when his car died about a month ago I didn't worry. When our AC shut off all summer and I exchanged HVAC repair for pound cakes, I didn't worry.   I didn't worry about the time the hot water heater was on the fritz and just knew it was an opportunity for Reid to impress me with his man skills by fixing it.   I don't worry about the broken tractor or the down on it's luck 4 wheeler. In the past seven months I've gotten really good about not worrying because nearly EVERYTHING in our house seems to have broken at some point lately. But we're newlyweds, all those things are part of life and there's really no good reason to get upset over them and ruin our fun.

      When my laptop died last week, however, I definitely had a little come-apart. (Which may or may not have included me shouting at the piece of wired plastic in between bouts of prayer that went something like this: "Lord, I know that you created the man who created this computer. And I know you have the power to miraculously fix it even though I did not use the brain you blessed me with by backing up all my files like I should have.")

       Wednesday morning my laptop was taking a really long time to start up and then wouldn't connect to the internet. Our service isn't that reliable to begin with so I just assumed it was the rain. By Wednesday night it wouldn't start up at all. When Reid got home he hooked his desktop back up. (I had unplugged it a few months ago when we were converting the basement into the kitchen.) That is when we found out it would not turn on either and then figured it had probably been hit by lightning the same time our wireless router had been hit.

     By mid-Thursday morning I had gotten so frustrated with it I just resolved to pull a Scarlett and just think about it another day. Thursday night Reid brought his laptop home from work and we optimistically plugged our internet cord into it. Of course, then we realized we had to have the wireless hooked up and since our router was shot, we would have to get a new router first. Luckily, RadioShack in Washington had them so by Friday afternoon we were back in business. Since it was his work computer, I had none of my files with recipes, labels, or menus but at least it was something.

     Now we have to figure out how to get files off my computer so I can use the little reboot disk it comes with and hopefully have a functional machine again.  It is going to take a little work and I'm going to have to deal with it as soon as we get back from our trip. We're not able to update as often or do play by plays on Thursday about how dinner is going. But at least I have resolved not to worry about it and instead be really grateful that this happened early on in our little business rather than later.

    Thanks to everyone for being patient with us as we get it all figured out!

And from now on I am going to use the brain God gave me and back up everything!!!

How Can a Registered Dietitian Sell Pound Cake and Still be Able to Sleep at Night?

2010-11-02T14:42:00.000-04:00

The very first time I set up a booth at the market (exactly six months ago yesterday!), I had no real intentions of being a market regular. Like I said here, it was simply something to do to get out of the house and use any earnings from what I sold to contribute to the "DCRF" (Drop Ceiling Replacement Fund). Since the photo below was taken today you can tell we've had less progress on the ceiling and more progress on the market.

Our ceiling and the place where curtains used to be. (I'm bad about doing the demolition work without a plan for what is going to go in it's place.)

When I baked for that first Saturday, I stuck to things I had made often. I used a good quality butter, King Arthur flour and plenty of white, brown and powdered sugar in all it's refined goodness. I didn't feel the least bit guilty because it was Saturday. Saturdays are on the weekend and in my very strong, educated opinion, Saturday mornings are the day for a homemade cinnamon roll or a family trip to a really good bakery. I was also still several steps ahead of most things you would buy in a store. I never have and never will use any man made trans fat (partially hydrogenated oil), high fructose corn syrup or add any kind of preservatives to make a cinnamon roll last for three months on a shelf. I also started with organic milk and cream (that's what we bought and I didn't see why you would ever give your customers something that you wouldn't eat yourself). So not too bad of start...

I love decorative packaging.

Since then, our stand has undergone a lot of changes. I may have a bona-fied dietetics degree, but I can't say enough about what I've learned about food from the vendors and customers down at the market. My view of adequate nutrition has certainly shifted from a sharp focus of calculated "protein, calorie and fluid needs" estimates to a much bigger picture of how the land, animals and people can interact in a way that sustains all three. From this perspective I've changed a lot of recipes as well as tried to improve packaging methods (using 100% biodegradable to-go boxes for meals, cups and the cellophane cake wrapping and kraft recycled boxes).

A blurry photo of the label on the box that says: "Compost this container!"

In changing my recipes I've tried to focus on:

a.) What can we do to make it taste even better?

b.) What can we do to make it better for us (land, animals and people)?

Following these guidelines, some of the improvements we've made include using all grass fed milk, buttermilk, butter and cream cheese. We also use all organic cream, half and half, yogurt, sour cream and cheese made using sustainable methods. (Except for the Better Than cheese...so if anyone knows of a really, really, really extra sharp grass fed or organic cheddar let us know). I've replaced all the "white sugar" with evaporated cane juice, agave nectar or molasses in the majority of the baked goods. (Even used fresh beets in a chocolate cake that turned out pretty scrumptious!). In meals and in baked goods, we of course try to use as much local, organic and sustainable grown produce as we can find.

100% organic chocolate birthday cake sweetened with agave nectar and grated beets-yum!!

This has resulted in a continually improving quality of what we make. (And we don't say it tastes better until we get "market confirmation" from ya'll even if Reid and I love it). Below are things that have passed our taste-health improvement test which I'm pretty happy about:

Whole wheat scones-so much better than plain white flour.

Ginger molasses cookies with dark chocolate chips ("Snaps")-delicious.

Whole wheat crust for tomato tartlets-tender, flaky, savory.

Whole wheat vanilla wafers-why not make banana pudding with no refined flour or sugars?

Whole wheat puff pastry-success. Melt in your mouth good success.

Even chocolate croissants turned out to rave reviews using a whole wheat flour.

I am clearly all about making a treat better for you as long as it tastes better too. A treat is still a treat and even a dark chocolate cake sweetened with freshly grated beets isn't a replacement for the vegetables, fruit, and other good stuff in your meals. (Which is why I have never found any good reasoning for diet cookies). A Southern Scratch whole wheat apricot cream cheese pastry is still a treat, but just not one that is going to leave you with major eaters remorse.

So while I'm thrilled with the above, I wasn't so thrilled about what I did to pound cake last weekend...

Basically, there are some things that can be made with whole grains and taste really good and there are other things that just aren't the same without refined white flour. This later group definitely includes that pound cake. We put out samples of our whole wheat experiment Saturday morning and everyone pretty much had the same reaction: "It's good, but it's not pound cake."

Reid and I couldn't agree more. The ones that I added blueberries and a fresh lemon glaze to were a hit. It was more like a rustic coffee cake and the whole wheat enhanced the flavor and texture. But the ones we left plain tasted more like a slightly sweet yet totally uninspired blend of flour and butter in the shape of a cake pan. And while I love a good pound cake variation which may work with whole wheat flour, often you just want a really good plain pound cake. (May my North Alabama grandfather please forgive me for this temporary lack of good Southern judgement in messing up pound cake).

So we've settled it:

Southern Scratch Rule: Pound cake should and will remain a white flour, white sugar cake. No apologies.

Pound cake is not health food.
(It will still have grass fed butter and buttermilk along with organic extracts and cage free eggs-those ingredients always pass our "taste better, better for you in this recipe" test).

Luckily, good health isn't an all or nothing thing. Good nutrition is made up of a lifetime of consistently good habits along with a warm cinnamon roll on Saturday morning or a slice of really good pound cake for company. With this in mind I don't have any problems sleeping at night and I hope you don't either.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the market this Saturday where there will be plenty of whole wheat scones AND pound cake!

Anybody else have a 6 pound slab of bacon in their fridge?

2010-11-01T11:53:00.001-04:00

Could there be anything more delicious than bacon? Growing up we didn't eat much of it save for holidays. My mom is also a dietitian and I'm sure figured that all the nitrates and nitrites saturating a piece of meat that really counts as a fat isn't something you promote as a "healthy breakfast option." Instead, we grew up eating high fiber cereal or oatmeal for breakfast (or gourmet homemade flax seed muffins, fresh squeezed juices, fruit salad and egg white omelets whenever the TV station showed up to film). In high school I moved on to eating "The Mix" alongside my parents and in college I worked at a donut shop (which is in no one's definition considered a "healthy" breakfast but still didn't sell anything with bacon.)

So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that when I met Reid, bacon still wasn't a staple in my fridge. After a couple months of dating, and many meals he had eaten at my house, he asked/stated: "So, I guess you don't eat bacon?" I was shocked at such a preposterous statement and replied adamantly, "Of course I eat bacon. I love bacon. Who doesn't love bacon?" "Oh," he said, "I just have never seen you buy any."

Reid and I after a few weeks of dating. I still have that totally enamored, trusting look on my face. "Sure, let's go ride motorcycles. That's the smartest thing I've ever heard."

That was all the green light I needed to go out and buy a big package of bacon. Not being educated on the finer points of pork (yet), I chose some center cut bacon which claimed to have 30% less fat than normal bacon. (Also at this time I had no idea what part of the pig bacon came from except that it was probably closest the delicious bone.)

Slowly but surely I've moved from buying the cheapest bacon to packaged reduced fat bacon pieces to center cut bacon to only buying nitrite and nitrate free bacon to organic, nitrite and nitrate free bacon. Now I've got my hands on pastured pork bacon. When I first heard about pastured pork, I thought the meat had gone through some kind of pasteurization process like milk. Actually it means the pigs get to go out in the pasture (alongside the cows in this case) and graze if they want to. Yep, they eat grass like their bovine neighbors or are free to root around on the property for acorns and such. Some breeds can only eat grass with a little whey or slop supplemented. This translates into bacon that ain't that bad, as long as it is processed in an acceptable manner too (as in you don't go add all those nitrates/nitrites ("pink salt") or go soak it in trans fat shortening).

Anyway, a couple months or so ago I found out Tink's Grass Fed Beef also had Grass Fed Pork (or pastured pork). Since my relationship with sausage is similar to that of bacon, I got excited that a "forbidden food" could actually be okay for you and tried out the sausage. (So incredible, you don't even need to put mustard on it if you don't want). So a couple weeks ago I asked Carissa, Tink's daughter, if they had any bacon. (I didn't know when I asked that "bacon" was a finished product, not the cut of meat.) "No, she posted, "but we have some pork belly to make bacon with. Just let us know if you're interested in making it." My stream of consciousness immediately went something like this:

Was I interested in making homemade bacon? Had one of my deepest fantasies actually come true? Of course I wanted to make homemade bacon. After I got tired of eating it three meals a day and for snacks, I would use it to win friends and influence people by feeding them homemade bacon. Company would love to come over because the smell of homemade bacon would make our home on par with the Robert Toombs House instead of our current ~~bachelor house~~ love nest. Then I would open a food joint where all we sold were grits, eggs and homemade bacon. The tourism industry would skyrocket because we would exclusively sell Washington's finest homemade bacon from Wilkes County's finest pastured pork. People would put in orders years in advance for their Washington bacon like they do for ham. Deer hunters would swear that the only way to season venison is by adding a few slabs of Washington bacon on it. It would open the floodgates to commerce. I can't believe I'm getting to make homemade bacon. Homemade bacon is probably the most fantastic product in the world. I love bacon.

Robert Toombs House-Washington, GA

Our House-Washington, Ga

So at the market Saturday I asked Carissa about the bacon. "Here it is. It takes a couple weeks to cure then you probably need to smoke it. Let us know what works." I have never cured meat besides letting some freshly cut vacuum sealed beef sit in the fridge for a week (which I was told meant "curing" it) before cooking it. And now I have a slab of future bacon weighing in at 5.83 pounds sitting in our fridge. I'm going to take the Wade's advice they got from an old rancher (as Tink said, "When old men talk, listen closely.") and salt the meat for 7-12 days, keep it in the fridge to cure, then figure out a way to smoke it.

5.83 pounds of pastured pork belly..aka BACON!!

I'm thinking of cutting the slab in half and doing one side ground pepper and kosher salt then taking the other side and doing a sweet salty cure with some of the Carrol's local honey. (Which I've got to go stock up on for granola anyway). The possibilities are endless and I've got at least a week to find someone with an outdoor wood smoker for the first batch of Washington bacon...

An Amazing Dish You Can Make from a Farmer's Market Located in a Town of About 4,000 People.

2010-10-29T20:59:00.000-04:00

We eat a lot of wheat in this country. And a ton of corn. And a good amount of rice. These grains are staples worldwide and offer great nutrition when eaten in their whole forms (not totally refined of all bran, germ, etc. which produces "white" flour). But c'mon...we need a little variety! Would we know what to do with millet? Or quinoa (pronounced keen-wah; I totally messed that pronunciation up for a while)? Or whole barley? Well, I've got just the thing...

So one night I was making dinner for some friends and ran out of arborio rice for risotto. I had a box of a multi-grain pilaf mix and since some of the grains looked about the same size as the rice, I threw it in the pan. It turned out fantastic. So the next time I went to Your Dekalb Farmer's Market in Decatur, GA (Atlanta) I stocked up on a ton of different whole grains. Monday night for dinner I just happened to have some kale from Lazy Willow Farm, a pound of pastured pork sausage from Tink's Grass Fed Beef, and a few extra dried figs. (Also some organic spring mix that didn't get eaten for salad but next time I would probably just use more kale). Since it turns out Tink's Grass Fed Beef will be a the Washington Farmer's Market and Sandy from Lazy Willow will be back I thought I would share what I did. (And just to make it even easier on everyone, I'm making up some pilaf & spice mixes you can get at our booth since not everyone has 7 types of grain on hand...)

Step 1: Become a crazy person who buys up anything edible.

Some of my spoils used to make this meal.

Step 2: Prep your veggies first. Slice and peel a small head of GARLIC. (Do garlic first so it can rest about 10 minutes to fully mobilize it's anti-cancer properties). Chop an onion (I used red). Wash KALE from Lazy Willow Farm. To slice, stack the leaves (an inch or so of the bottom stem cut off) and kind of roll them up a little. This makes it more like slicing celery then a bunch of loose lettuce. You can also get thinner slices this way.

Step 3: Grab the grains (or a pre-measured & pre-spiced one from our booth tomorrow at the market) and "eye it" with some of each into a large skillet drizzled in olive oil. Turn it on medium heat and stir the grains so they get a little oil on them.

White and black quinoa, bulgur wheat, amaranth, cracked wheat, oat groats, pearl barley.

Step 4: Add the onion and garlic and let everything toast around in there a couple minutes. Add water, starting with about a cup. Stir then add raisins, dried figs and walnuts. After each addition of water, stir to mix and leave alone for a few minutes. The water will be roughly 2x the amount of grains (so 1 cup of grains=2 cups of water). You will keep slowly doing this until all the water is absorbed and the grains are softened but not mushy. It is a very forgiving recipe since you can stir and leave it alone a few minutes. (And those who are multi-tasking know how much you can get done in 3-4 minutes).

Step 5: While you are adding the liquid to the grain mixture, grab another pan (I used a wok shaped thing I had because it was tall) and brown a pound of Tink's Grass Fed Beef pastured pork sausage. (FYI: The sausage is pretty lean so you are only going to render a small amount of fat. If you want, a dab of olive oil in the skillet helps it cook up great)

Adding spices to the simmering grains, nuts, and fruit.

Step 6: While the sausage is browning, add whole coriander, turmeric, black pepper and marjoram (or dried basil or oregano) to your grain skillet.

Step 7: Once the sausage is cooked thoroughly, add the meat to the grain skillet. Then immediately add the kale to the sausage skillet so it can pick up some of the flavor. Cook it until it wilts and softens slightly (5-10 minutes...we're not completely sucking the life out of them like we do collards). Then add the kale to the grain skillet.

Left skillet is kale and the right is the browned sausage just added to the grain mix.

Step 8: So now you have a ton of stuff all in one bowl (grains, nuts, dried fruit, spices, onion, kale, garlic, pastured pork sausage). Taste it to see if you need to add more turmeric, black pepper or a pinch of salt.

Step 9: Enjoy! You can also pair this with another market vegetable like we did! And add mustard...I love mustard.

What I love about this "recipe" is that the proportions don't really matter all that much. You can add a TON of vegetables in this (I think celery, carrots, more kale, even spinach or spring mix, etc. would all taste good) and still have a really hearty "non-salad" plant based meal. Add spices at will. Add whatever dried fruit or nuts at will. Think of this as a method and add or take away to make it your own.

If you want to try out this recipe more exactly like this post, I've made up some bags of the grains, nuts, fruit and spices. Visit a couple more vendors to get the kale, garlic and sausage at the market and you'll pretty much have everything you need except olive oil and onions.

(Eventually there will be a more comprehensive grain nutrition post, but not tonight and I'll be way too tired to think straight in the morning. And eventually we'll offer more than just wheat based baked goods but tonight we're settling with whole wheat organic blueberry and raw sugar lemon butter glazed pound cakes.)

Okay..back to baking now! Who all is coming down in the morning? Or wishes they got to live in a cute small town too that had a cute little market behind the courthouse every Saturday?

How to get eggplant not to taste like mattress foam.

2010-10-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

Up until this summer I had never been a huge eggplant fan. I would eat it but it wasn't something that I intentionally went out and bought. Perhaps because the stuff I did make always ended up tasting like a block of foam. An herb roasted, balsamic vinegar drizzled block of foam. The big purple stuff had pretty much been knocked out of my cooking repertoire. Enter the Washington, GA Farmer’s Market.

A few weeks ago I asked around to different growers at the market what would be in season so I could plan the Weekday Gourmet menus around it. (When you cook meals from vegetables picked fresh out of a garden you get a major head start in the taste department). Sandy LeGette, of Lazy Willow Farm, replied, “Eggplant. Lots of eggplant.” Blast nabbit!

Since her eggplant was really pretty and looked like a thinner, more manageable piece of foam, I took the plunge and planned meals this fall that included eggplant. (Neither Reid nor I are the type to ever completely give up on a food anyway. I didn’t eat fish until I was twenty-two but a salmon dinner was put before me and now I love it. Reid hates raw tomatoes, but every year he tries to eat them just in case his taste buds have done a 180.)

Can you figure out which burger isn't Reid's?

This is how I got serious about learning to cook eggplant. Although the spicy paprika eggplant fries I thought were amazing, the following recipe is super simple. (And a lot easier to clean up than a pan of oil).

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)

2 long Japanese eggplant

Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt or kosher salt

Lemon, cut in wedges

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.) Wash and slice the ends off each eggplant. Split down the middle lengthwise.

3.) Score (cut little diamonds with a knife) the fleshy (white) side and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

4.) Drizzle the eggplant with olive oil.

5.) Place with fleshy side down on the baking sheet. Bake until tender (30-45 minutes).

6.) Serve with lemon wedge to squeeze over eggplant.

Upper left hand corner-super simple eggplant.

Does anyone else have a great eggplant recipe? Or has also tried some of the heirloom varieties down at the market and noticed the difference?

There is definitely going to be some locally grown eggplant available at the market! Saturday morning 9-12 behind the courthouse in Washington, GA!

The Joy of Squirrel

2010-10-27T14:34:00.000-04:00

Future James Beard Winner

   Even with all the cookbooks available and entire television networks that I am sure have covered every cuisine and dish imaginable, less and less people cook. One would think with all the extra tutorials and resources available that more people would be cooking now, not less. I think what may be happening, unfortunately, is that all this talk about gourmet food has driven people into two groups: Fast Food Fallbacks and Fanatic Foodies. The middle group, the home cooks who put a balanced dinner on their table every night, is disappearing. Since I have always really loved and appreciated food, it is hard for me to completely understand the “Fast Food Fallback” mentality, BUT-I think I can relate:

   A couple of years ago my mom got me a subscription to “This Old House.” Behind my cottage there was an “in-law” house and an unfinished basement. Since I was bound and determined to live there forever with my dogs she thought I would be interested in learning about how to do renovations. To a degree she was right. I had slowly amassed some power tools, enjoyed painting and had built and recovered some furniture. The magazine though, which is meant to inspire the DIY spirit in old home owners, only crushed mine. What the heck is a lathe? How do I go to Lowe’s with this magazine and find all 23 tools and 67 pieces of materials needed to properly repair the door to it's historic origins? (And in my imagination drive 45 minutes back to Warm Springs only to find I had forgotten something).

I resigned myself to the rest of the issues to just flipping through and looking at the pictures, applauding the homeowners from my comfy, non-Victorian period sofa. I decided that when and if the time came to really renovate I would hire someone that already had all 23 tools and 67 pieces.

   In the same manner, I think some of the “foodie” movement has crushed a lot of would-be-cooks' spirits. When I go into a bookstore and see the rows and rows of gorgeous cookbooks, I think "Well, it looks like this is pretty well covered already. I guess the only subject left would be a tutorial on how to cook squirrels and other random animals your husband brings home."

A romantic squirrel dinner for two.

The more we see of perfectly dressed women pulling out perfect meals to a perfectly set table; or see renowned chefs shouting orders so they can get a ten course meal on the table for 200 in an hour, the less attainable family dinner for four (or two) seems. In the same manner, the “quick meal solutions” that are advertised are full of processed flour, sodium, preservatives and pretty low on flavor. The result is a lot of eating out, a lot of fast food, and a lot of convenience items from the grocery store that add up to little nutritional value.

My hope through this blog is to help translate those “foods you should be eating” into "meals you are actually enjoying." As a registered dietitian, I firmly believe that all of us can cook healthy meals for our families every single day without magically becoming kitchen experts first. As more of a confessed “fanatic foodie” I believe all those meals can be incredibly delicious. And as someone who is not a total stranger to the drive-thru, I can definitely understand those days when all you want to eat is anything you don’t have to cook. (Squirrel included)

Don't get crushed, I don't cook this much every night. It was just a good vegetable picture.

What group do you lean toward more? Do you get overwhelmed when you hear chefs talking about all the spices they are adding in a recipe or excited to go try it? Are you one of those people ~~I read about~~ whose picture I look at that have actually restored one of the gorgeous Victorians or Antebellums here in Washington or elsewhere?

Tell me about it! (It's a small town so if you don't talk about yourself somebody else will).

Coming up: The next couple posts will be centered around recipes based on locally grown produce that is going to be available at the market this Saturday, October 30th! So far I’ve heard there will be kale, sweet potatoes, garlic, peppers, eggplant and Jerusalem artichokes (Don't worry-I've never had one of those last things either).

Not From Washington

2010-10-26T19:02:00.000-04:00

Just over seven months ago, I married a country boy who lived in a town I had never heard of before meeting him. At a bridal shower hosted by my future mother-in-law's good friends at the Washington Woman’s Club, I met several girls who introduced themselves as “NFW’s.” This is how I learned that I too, was an NFW: Not From Washington.

This is the summary of what all took place as soon as I said "I do", packed up my life and moved to the country:

Job as a clinical dietitian with lots of great co-workers to being a housewife in the country
Cute, historical cottage I had spent the last two years decorating to a bachelor pad with drop ceilings and faux wood paneling
Close to my family to close to his family
Friends within walking distance to "I know I've met them but what was their name again?"
Gym, tennis courts, and hiking trails on a gorgeous historic campus to an overgrown farm with a broken tractor, snakes and coyotes.
"My dogs are like people" to "Dogs belong outside"
My own bathroom + guest bathroom + utility bathroom to “Oh my gosh I didn’t know men lived like this!” bathroom +creepy basement bathroom that I’m sure hasn’t been used in a decade
Hosting eight course dinner parties to hosting a yard sale

This November will be six months since Reid agreed it could be fun for me to bake some things to take down to the Washington, GA Farmer’s Market. I think sensing my surprising loneliness (we were newlyweds, right?), Reid knew it was a good idea for me to “get out of the house." I was sick of trying to unpack boxes and a little more than overwhelmed by everything I saw that needed to be done in my “new home.” I felt myself becoming really, really homesick for my little cottage in Warm Springs where everything was how I wanted it- right down to the china closet and dormer room. I missed how the sheriff would bring my dogs back if they wandered off and how the ladies at my favorite antique store would leave me a note on my door whenever they got some milk glass pieces in. I missed my neighbors stopping over every day to go on a walk or cook with me. I missed my family history there, my community there, and my place there.

Bolstered by Reid's support, I tried thinking of a little business name and ideas for what to bake. I mentioned it to my so creative and oh so awesome older brother who immediately designed a logo for the extra labels I had leftover from my wedding. Then my, "all the marketing you would ever need in Washington, GA" mother-in-law e-mailed half the town that I would be at the market. Reid stayed up late with me, keeping the dishes washed and wrapping all the treats late into the night. We loaded up the car early in the morning and I headed off to town to sell scones, pound cakes, brownies, cookies and yeast rolls from a folding table. I had never actually sold anything I had made in my life and was so nervous. I was only comforted by the fact that if I didn't sell a thing then at least I would have plenty of simple carbohydrates for the emotional eating that would follow while I searched for another clinical job.

Instead, I came home from the market that first Saturday exhilarated. I got out of the car and was literally jumping up and down, hugging Reid, saying "Oh my gosh! Honey, people actually bought stuff!!"

That very first Saturday I had gotten to do things I loved all morning long-meeting other vendors, talking to market customers about ingredients, and enjoying the feeling of accomplishment you get when you work hard. Over food, I found that sense of community and place in Washington I had missed so much about my life in Warm Springs. The market has since continued to provide that connection that sharing a good meal together always brings.

Since then, “Southern Scratch” has become one of the most fun and challenging endeavors either of us have ever undertaken. We are learning to work together in everything from our farm to our family as friends, spouses & business partners. I pray every Friday night not to "snap" when I'm trying to get everything on my order & bake list filled. Slowly but surely I'm making the bachelor dream home into a comfortable farmhouse so we can welcome friends and family. We look around at all there is to do on the farm and are overwhelmed (this time in a good way!) by how much God has blessed us by giving us so much work to do.

And while Reid may have grown up here in Wilkes County and I will always be “Not From Washington,” I couldn’t imagine a better town to live in when you’re starting from scratch!