José, Can You See??

This weekend Charlie & Courtney invited us to tag along on the tail end of their 5 Year Anniversary ATL weekend . . . to the BRAVES GAME on Sunday!!! I think I’ve been to 2 or 3 Braves games (the last one about 6 years ago), but nothing like this. Our seats came with access to the 755 Delta Club where we ate lunch overlooking the Outfield (BTW, the “Knucksie” was the jam!!)

But nothing has ruined me for watching a baseball game like these seats!!! 4th row, behind home plate!!! These were seriously AWESOME!!

The Braves ended up losing, but we had a great time. And I felt like I was 8 years old. Charlie & Courtney, thank you for the best 5 Year Wedding anniversary present a boy could ask for!!!

In true narcissistic fashion, when we got home, I promptly checked the TV guide to see when the replay came on (luckily, the game was blacked out live).

We watched a little of it tonight after the Bachelorette (OMG!!!!), but got kinda bored after 10 minutes. You can only say “Hey, there we are!!!!” so many times.

Do you see me taking the picture that I posted above???

PS – Who knew there were so many Detroit Tigers fans in ATL??? I felt like it was split 70/30??

Shawty

This post goes out to a dear friend . . . my trusty old fratagonia* shorts!

Remember last year, when I said I should come up with a book of items that “I can’t wear anymore”???

I bought these at Kinnucan’s (?) in early Summer 2003 (I’m pretty sure it was during summer term at AU). For shorts they were pretty expensive (I think they were in the $50 range), but I liked em, and looking back it’s been a pretty good investment. I bet I’ve worn these over 200 times (at least 5 times a month, 6 months out of the year, for the last 7 years), and I know you can’t tell, but they used to be dark olive green.

Over the years, they’ve started to fray and the last few months have seen some pretty bad rips/holes in the “knees” (yes, I know shorts are already cut-off at the knees, but work with me here). Well, last weekend, I decided to pull the plug and turned these into cut-offs. I can’t show you the after picture (this is a family blog) as they are even shorter, and the LOML has made it clear they should not be for public consumption. I still think I can mow the (back) yard in them, but we’ll see . . .

I love you Patagonia shorts. You’ll be missed.

* If I haven't already, remind me to tell you my "Beta" story the next time I see you. It's the LOML's favourite!

Blogger Street Café

When I was in high school, I worked (so did Harden!) at a bagel shop that made THE BEST chicken salad in Memphis. I don’t know if they were ever actually awarded that distinction, but it was a HUGE seller and seriously tasty*. Lucky for me (and you), I was able to get the recipe and it’s been a personal favorite ever since.

Since this is the first week of the LOML’s summer (permanent) vacation, we did a little meal planning on Sunday, and thought we’d whip up some of this tasty chicken salad to munch on all week.

TMF’H Chicken Salad (adapted from anonymous Bagel café)
4-5 lbs chicken breast
1 C sliced almonds
1 lb sliced (halved) grapes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder (we were out, so I used 1 tsp fresh chopped garlic)
2 tsp thyme
1 C (light) sour cream
2 C (light) mayo

So I used these five MONSTER chicken breasts (from a local meat distributor) that probably weighed about a pound each, and poached (or boiled, rather) them until they were cooked through. After letting them cool off a little bit, I chopped/shredded the chicken, and then let them cool some more.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “That is a **** ton of sour cream and mayo!!!!”

I know. It looks a little much. But here’s what I’d do. After the shredded/chopped chicken has completely cooled off, I’d mix in the sliced almonds and grapes and then combine all the other ingredients in a separate bowl. Then I’d fold in the mayo/sour cream mixture in small batches until you get the consistency you want. When you’re finished, throw it in the fridge and you’ve got chicken salad GOLD that should last you (at least!) a week.

In addition to having this for lunch most of this week, we had this for dinner with the LOML’s homemade pita chips and organic baby carrots (on sale @ Publix). The LOML can make some mean homemade pita chips.

* For comparisons sake, this is probably closest to Birmingham’s O’Carr’s chicken salad vs. a Zoe’s or some other sub-par version.

If You Like Swiss Chard Frittatas and Getting Caught in the Rain

These 2 week breaks are becoming familiar, aren’t they?? Oh well, I’m back and I’ve got tasty produce to share:

Week 5’s CSA Bounty (picked up and photographed about 10 days ago)

'Panisse' Lettuce
Mixed Head Lettuce
Rainbow Chard
Strawberries
Snow Peas
Cilantro
Bok Choy
Baby White Turnips

Week 5’s selection was awesome! I think my favorite items were the snow peas, but my first experience with rainbow (Swiss) chard was pretty fulfilling, too. When I searched for a good rainbow chard recipe, frittatas seemed to be a common suggestion, so I thought “Hey Family, let’s get classy and make a Sausage, Mushroom, Feta and Rainbow Swiss Chard frittata for dinner!!”

After cooking some Italian sausage (about a pound) in our skillet (sadly, we didn’t have a cast iron skillet handy. . . R.I.P. Great Smokey Mtn skillet – thanks, Colton!), we set the meat aside and sautéed the chard stems and mushrooms in the sausage drippings (flavor!) with a little extra olive oil. So colorful, right??

After a few minutes, the LOML threw in the chard leaves and cooked those down (much like spinach, the leaves cook/shrink down pretty nicely). Here she is admiring our sweet baby girl (in her bouncy seat) while managing the skillet. 2 days as a S.A.H.M. and she’s already a pro at multi-tasking!!

After all the veggies were cooked, we added the sausage back to the pan, added some feta cheese (not much was in the fridge) and 6 beaten eggs. In my mind, I thought the 6 eggs would fill this pan up to the side, but as you can see, the pan looks pretty empty. Kinda pitiful looking, isn’t it?

Well 30 minutes in the oven at 375 though sure puffed everything up! I will say that since there wasn’t that much egg, 30 minutes was WAAAAAAAAAY more time than necessary and the egg formed more of a crispy (browned) crust. If I could do it over, I’d pick a smaller pan, double the eggs (or halve the filling) and then check it around 20 minutes.

Either way, for my first frittata, I thought dinner was a success. And we stayed classy . . . Where are my cuff links and boat shoes??