Sunday Southern Days

The Captain and I have been on a pretty solid roll of healthier eating lately (just disregard my 10/1 post about the Southern Ground Music & Food Festival). Tonight for dinner, I started with a base of a Stone Fire Flatbread -- pre-baked and found in the bakery section of Jewel grocery store ( stonefire.com/our-flatbreads/pizza/ ). Here is how it piled up: (from the bottom) - Stone Fire Flatbread (whole wheat) - 2 T EVOO - 2 t minced garlic - 1 red pepper, cleaned and diced - 1 lb. of frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze out all of the water - 1 diced 6 oz. chicken breast (I used the Market Pantry pre-cooked frozen chicken breast from Target) - 1 container (6 oz.) Athenos herbed crumbled feta - 1/4 c low fat Mexican shredded cheddar mix Top with 2 T drizzled EVOO on top, then bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Enjoy!!

To honor the recent passing of our koumbaro (a best man in the Orthodox wedding ceremony), I wanted to bake prosforo to be donated for our church's future services in his name. Of course, I referenced by trusty Norfolk church cookbook for Presvytera Goumenis' recipe. As this is the preparation of a religious article, you open with the following prayer: Dear Lord, this bread that we are baking represents each one of us. We are offering ourselves to You, our very life, in humble obedience and total commitment to You. We place ourselves on Your holy altar through this bread to be used by You in any way that You feel will help enlarge Your kingdom. Accept our gift and make us worthy to receive the greater gift that You will give us when You consecrate this bread and give it back to us as Your Precious Body. modified for 4 loaves 5 lbs. Bread Flour 2 t Salt 3 packs Quick Rise Yeast 5 cups Water Add 3 packs of Quick Rise Yeast with abo...

For a little Fall getaway, we headed south to Nashville for the Southern Ground Music & Food Festival, featuring our faves, the Zac Brown Band, and many, many special guests. After checking in at the fabulous Gaylord Opryland Hotel on Thursday, we grabbed a nap, then headed downtown to Jack's BBQ on Broadway. Upon seeing they had SIX different BBQ sauces to try, I had no choice. In the interest of research, I had to get the ribs. So I could try every.single.sauce. On Friday, we headed to Southern Ground for dinner and the evening shows, which included the Zac Brown Band with guest stars Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Kenny Chesney, among many more! The food at Southern Ground was Fantastic. Delicious. Creative. Pick your Awesome. Set up as food stalls like you'd see at your typical county or state fair, these vendors went much further than funnel cakes and hot dogs. F. Scott's Restaurant from outside of Nashville had me at "gyro" (typi...

After our awesome day apple picking at Jonamac Orchard in Malta, Illinois, we had LOTS of apples to use for today's marathon baking day. The term 'marathon' is a little misleading, because the two pies we made took less than 45 mintues total with two of is working on the pies. This recipe is for the Apple Crumble Pie (see tomorrow's post for the Snickers Caramel Apple Pie recipe!) 3 cups peeled, cored, sliced apples (we used Early Fujis for their sweetness) 3/4 c flour 3/4 c sugar 1/2 t cinnamon 1/8 t nutmeg Toss all of the above together and pour into a prepared pie crust (we used a frozen Sara Lee pie crust). Topping: 1/2 c flour  1/2 c brown sugar (packed) 1/2 stick salted butter (sliced, do not melt/soften) Combine the above 3 ingredients with a for to creat a crumble. Pour over the top of the pie. The butter will melt as the pie baked. Cover loosely with aluminum foil. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, r...

We have had an awesome time this weekend with our great friends Kira and and Nat this weekend, who are visiting from the D.C. area.  While the boys started football round 1 (Redskins game), Kira and I headed west to Malta, Illinois to the Jonamac Orchard for apple picking. Talk about a great First Day of Fall activity. Chicago lent us a gorgeous 67 degree fall day. Ripe for the pocking were Early Fuji, Gala, Thompson, and apples. Based on their sweetness and our desire to bake pies this afternoon, we stuck to Early Fujis for baking, and some delicious Thompson apples for snacking at home. We though a peck of apples would do it for our dining purposes. We totally overestimated this. A peck got us 57 smallish apples. After making 3 deep pies, we still have 31 apples left over.  It was our first visit to Jonamac Prchard and it was pretty fabulous for a family day. In addition to a great store with gifts, jarred goodies, and kettle corn, there was a line 50 deep for their donuts. ...

When starting my new job with the Chicago Marriott Naperville , we decided to beef up our photo portfolio for marketing purposes. I got to gather with some great business partners at Tamara Hair + Makeup , Just Love Me Photography + Design , and Andrews Garden to pull together all the components of our day. We had three fabulous ladies, Ashley, Carol, and Julissa -- real women -- model for us. They let our crew tease, poke, prod, and twist them all day to get some of the most amazing shots highlighting the work of everyone involved. Here are some of my favorite shots of the day: