Summer of Salads

Mothers' Day keeps on giving .:)

I order Cobb salad a lot at restaurants and it never occurred to me until last year to make it at home. Crazy, right? It's super easy and just as delicious when you assemble it yourself.

Last Monday night we had Cobb salad from our Mothers' Day leftovers - some applewood smoked bacon (from the BLTs we had from lunch) and steak from dinner. Add some grape tomatoes, blue cheese and hard boiled eggs on top of romaine lettuce and dinner is done. Even Thomas ate it all (with a healthy amount of blue cheese dressing).

It was so tasty that I thought, hey, this should be the summer of salads. Keep the kitchen cool. Experiment with some new recipes. Eat a lot of veggies... It's a win-win. And I'll plan to share the best recipes here on the blog.

For inspiration, I set up a group pinterest board (let me know if you want to join!)

Follow Amy's board Summer of Salads on Pinterest.

Breakfast, Lunch and Hugs

I love this video!

Our Field Trip to the Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop

photo credit: Britain

Friday night a big group of us drove up to the Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop in downtown Thomasville. We started the evening by gathering at our house so we could carpool/caravan for the half hour drive. From the SGD website:

Our goal is source the highest quality products and take care to showcase the finest Southern producers whenever and wherever we can. We believe that every product has a story and by offering a limited selection, we are better able to share those unique elements with you. We present a never static menu with a variety of options to suit all of your needs. A small sampling of our menu includes cheese and charcuterie boards, hand crafted sandwiches, salads, small plates, and desserts.

As usual I will start with the food photos and then share pics of some of the friends who were with us.

The Traveler Platter

"Featuring some of our favorite meats and cheeses from near and far!

Psychadillic, Georgia Gouda with pecans, Smokey Blue with American Spoon Strawberry preserves, and Salame Nostrano" with whole grain mustard. Love the slate platter, too.

photo credit: Britain

Devilish Eggs

House made pimento cheese deviled eggs

"Kinda spicy and fun" reports Britain.

photo credit: Jessica

Top:  The Big Cheese Sandwich
Thomasville Tomme, Georgia Gouda, and Beechers Cheddar on a grilled ciabatta
Bottom: Taste of Thomasville Platter
"Featuring Sweet Grass Dairy! Lil Moo with Strawberry Fig preserves, Thomasville Tomme, Asher Blue, local pecans and SGD wildflower honey. [I love that Asher Blue!]

Adrea toasting the cows! What dairy would be complete without cows? 

photo credit: Britain
B and Tara! (and the cows again!)

The Cheese Shop was a great place to go with a large group because the servers seemed completely unfazed by us all mingling and moving around... which we did a lot! The food was great as were the wine and beer selections. Many of us came home with snacks for later - honey, pecans, and of course, cheese. 

Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop

106 N. Broad Street

Thomasville, GA 31792

http://sweetgrassdairy.com/cheeseshop

Publix Cooking Class

Saturday, we enjoyed an evening at the cooking school at our local Publix grocery store, featuring Cigar City Brewing Company from Tampa. It was a demonstration class, with the staff chefs showing us how to prepare each course and the guys from the brewery telling us about the beers used in each of the recipes and the beers paired with each course.

A view of the classroom. It's on the second floor of the store; the stairs are right inside the entrance closest to the pharmacy. Note the televisions mounted up close to the ceiling - the camera zooms in on the action so you can see exactly what the chef is doing from your seat. 

The view from our table. We were seated with two lovely women who work together.

First course: Beer Battered Conch Salad with Guava Grove Vinaigrette

(made with the Guava Grove Farmhouse Ale)

paired with Florida Cracker Belgian White (which will be available soon in cans!)

The salad was delicious, the vinaigrette light and refreshing. It was fun to see how to prepare and cook conch too. (Conch is a shellfish from the Bahamas.)

Second course: Spicy Andouille Gumbo Pizza

(made with Jai Alai India Pale Ale in the sauce and in the crust)

paired with Jai Alai as well.

This pizza was unexpectedly delicious: the crust light and crisp, the sauce and sausage flavorful and the beer the perfect counterpoint to all the spiciness. See recipe at bottom. 

Third course: Braised Beef Short Ribs (made and paired with Ligero Black Lager) served over Parsnip Puree. 

Another great course though this one was a little rich for me as the ribs were rubbed with espresso powder and cocoa before cooking and the parsnip/potato was chock full of butter and heavy cream. Tasty nonetheless. 

Fourth course: Flourless Chocolate Cake with Caramel Maduro Sauce and Chocolate Ganache, made with and paired with Maduro Brown Ale.

Super rich and super delish. It was fun to see another way of making caramel too. 

One of the best parts of the evening (besides eating all this great food) was learning more about the brewery, what they have planned, and their commitment to sharing a bit of Florida and Tampa history by putting fun facts on their packaging (also see their website here for more on the history of brewing in Florida).

Class took just under three hours. Tickets were $45 apiece. Plans are underway to host a brewery once a month this fall; sounds good to us! Our new friends at our table have been to other classes and enjoyed them -  wine pairing classes in particular got high marks as did the hands on sessions. The schedule is here. 

As promised here are the recipes for Gumbo Pizza:

Enjoy!

Twitter Dinner out at Sahara

Our monthly Twitter local food gathering was May 31st at Sahara Greek and Lebanese Cafe. I'll share some food first, and then pictures of friends.

My dinner - Chicken Shawarma and Gyro plate with Greek salad, hummus and pita. I gotta tell you, this is not my favorite combination. The gyro meat is so flavorful in comparison to the chicken that it makes the chicken seem bland, when it really isn't. I recommend eating one then the other. And don't miss the tzatziki sauce, it's really good! 

Abe's Chicken Shawarma with the Greek garlic fries everyone raves about.

Barb's Kufta

The gang (thanks Paula!). We missed Jenn and  Marc (Jenn had to work). #sadface

the gang take 2 (thanks, Paula!)

Bill caught smiling. Nice work, Britain

Our server was very accommodating of all our questions and our different arrival times (some of us were late due to a crazy thunderstorm late Thursday afternoon that knocked down trees and closed Thomasville Road). It was a yummy dinner - many of us are already regulars at this Tallahassee institution but I have a feeling more of us will become regulars after our good experience this week.

Last month I mentioned some places opening soon that we are looking forward to trying. Backwoods Bistro  did not open around June 1st but they're currently hiring so perhaps by July 1. According to Urban Tallahassee, Vertigo Burgers & Fries remains on track for a July 1 opening. Added to our list to visit is Sweet Grass Dairy, which now has a retail shop in Thomasville with beer, wine, snacks and, of course, their wonderful cheese.

Sahara Greek and Lebanese Cafe

1241 East Lafayette Street

Tallahassee, FL 

http://www.saharagreek.com

Food Revolution Day

Saturday May 19th was Food Revolution Day, a celebration of eating, cooking and learning more about food and where it comes from. Right up our alley, right?

To prepare, Friday night T and I made granola and berry swirl for yogurt parfaits for Saturday breakfast. T was inspired by this recipe he saw on Tyler's Ultimate last week. We used Tyler's berry recipe and our favorite granola recipe.

 the finished product - yogurt granola parfaits with berry sauce

Golden Granola 

(adapted from 3 Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery) 

dry ingredients

3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup soy flour

1 3/4 cup raw almonds

1/2 dry roasted sunflower seeds

wet ingredients

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup honey (we used local Tupelo honey, yum)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup canola oil

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

1 cup dried fruit (we used raisins, golden raisins and cherries)

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Combine the dry ingredients well in a large bowl and make a well in the center for the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well. 

Spread mixture out evenly on a large baking sheet and bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until the granola turns golden brown, about 30 minutes total. 

Remove from the oven and pour the granola into a large bowl. Stir in the dried fruit and let cool. After it cools, store in an airtight container.

granola in the oven

finished product - makes about 8 1/2 cups

Berry Sauce

(adapted from Tyler Florence's Berry Swirl recipe here)

2 cups fresh berries (we used 1/2 strawberries and 1/2 red raspberries)  

juice of 1/2 a lemon (we used a whole lemon and it was too much lemon!)

3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Mix the ingredients together in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat until syrupy, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. 

To assemble parfaits, layer granola, vanilla yogurt and berry sauce until your glass or bowl are full. 

Enjoy!

Brunch with the Twitter Local Food Gang

Sunday morning we enjoyed a great brunch with our friends from our Twitter localtarian food group at Kool Beanz Cafe. 

everyone there (except Jenn who took the picture, thanks Jenn!)

 I forgot to take pictures of our food before we ate it but left overs are good too, right?

Grilled andouille sausage, fried grit cake, poached eggs, hollandaise 

 

Buttermilk-tabasco fried chicken, sweet potato-pecan waffle, honey-chile syrup

I've been seriously slacking on the friends photos the last few months so I might have gone a little overboard this time. Bill, John and Abe.

 Marc and Jenn with Jenn's prize. John and Bill brought a bottle of wine they won at a fundraiser Saturday. Jenn won for coming the closest in guessing the population of the city of Tallahassee in the 2010 census. She guessed 180,000 and the answer was 181,000.

 Britain and Chris

Paula and Jon, we missed you both! For our upcoming get togethers, we talked about Backwoods Bistro (opening around May 1st on Tennessee Street, a new location for the Sopchoppy eatery) and Cypress' new burger joint, Vertigo, which is slated for a June opening in the original Loopers location on Lafayette Street.

Food Truck Thursday Night Out

Two Thursdays ago, I met up with our localtarian friends for dinner and fun at Food Truck Thursday. If you haven't been, it's lots of fun! We went for the first time when Mom was in town in October and almost couldn't stop ourselves from trying everything.

This time, my goal was to try a few of the places I missed in the fall. The area where the trucks gather has a nice shady section in the middle with big trees and lots of spaces for chairs, picnic blankets, etc.

These pictures (above and below) from the FTT facebook page gives an idea of the space.

Food Truck Thursday turned out to be an ideal place for a large group of friends to meet - it was easy to mingle and get to talk to everyone. I apologize for not getting pictures of everyone but I'll make up for it with lots of food photos:

my dinner - combo 10 from Lasang Pinoy Philippine Cuisine - was a great choice, lots of different flavors, textures and levels of spiciness, all of it delicious.

Chicken and waffles (Red Velvet waffles to be exact) from Cravings Truck were a big hit. These are Marc's but several of us ordered and enjoyed them. 

Sara's Shepherd's Pie burrito from Street Chefs was also popular.

I enjoyed a Pan-Asian fish taco from MoBi (even though it took them a long time to make it!). I thought it was even better than their fun southern taco which has bbq pulled pork and macaroni and cheese on it. 

 Bill and Wayne (and others?) had pizzas from the Fired Up Truck. I had them last time and they are amazing. You can't beat a truck that has a wood-fired pizza oven!! Photo from FTT.

I was too full for dessert but some of us enjoyed treats from Big Easy Snow Balls (if yours is too sweet, just ask and they'll add more ice) and Lucy and Leo's Cupcakery. It was another great evening with friends! We liked it so much, we might go back in April.

Lollihop

For the holidays, my friend Dawn and I bought each other subscriptions to Lollihop. The plan was we would each get a box of healthy snacks once a month. It turns out they are changing the whole idea of Lollihop but we received our January boxes on schedule and I thought I'd share the fun goodies we received.

Even the box is fun!

Lots of goodies in the first box 

 Two Degrees Bar "is good/does good"

For every bar you buy, they give a meal to a hungry child,

This was tasty (if a little sticky) with big pieces of cherry.

so tasty!

This all-natural grain-free granola from Paleonola was completely addicting.

Eggies

I admit I have not seen these advertised, but we received Eggies "As Seen on TV" as a holiday gift and thought it would be fun to test them out and report on how it went.

The idea behind Eggies is you can make hard boiled eggs without the shell. It's not quite as fast and easy as the packaging would have you believe. First you wash all the pieces-parts. Each Eggie has 4 pieces times 6 Eggies equals 24 pieces-parts. Next dry and then coat the inside of 2 big pieces-parts with oil. Last you assemble the parts, leaving off the cap. 

Finally you're ready to put the eggs in the Eggies. It takes a little skill to get the whole egg inside the hole without breaking the yolk. After putting on the caps, you put the filled Eggies in a pot of water, deep enough to float them, and turn on the heat. There are specific instructions on how long to cook them (the count down starts when the water starts to simmer). 

The interesting thing is the Eggies are pretty big so there is a lot of air space. That means the yolk can float to the top - which means it has less contact with the heat - which means it takes longer than you expect it will to completely cook through. It also means they look interesting when they're cooked!

Like half a giant egg, right?

We had some egg whites leftover after making custard the day before so we tried making hard boiled egg whites. They were supposed to take less time to cook through (whites cook faster than yolks?) but we had the same trouble - where the top center of each one could have been cooked longer. We also had a small leak that sealed itself once the egg started to set up. It looked pretty cool though:

Overall it was a pretty interesting experiment - and the no-peel eggs tasted fine. If you really hate peeling eggs, give them a try. Otherwise, they are probably more work than they're worth!