It is simply amazing the difference four short years can make. Just look at my baby brother's transformation from my high school graduation to his:
Ryan, you've grown from a spastic little ball of curls to a handsome, confident young man. I am so proud of everything you've accomplished and I cannot wait to see how the next four years of college life mold you even more. I have no doubts you will continue to get better and better with each year. I love you.
Aww Gramma. This past weekend my dad, brother and friend Taggart made the journey to Lake Hartwell to visit my Gramma and Pop-Pop and help out a bit around the property. It never truly registers that it's summer until my first trip to the lake that actually includes a boat ride. This was that trip for Summer 2012.
This is my grandparents' property. I wish I had thought to capture another angle or two because this photo just doesn't do it justice.
Ryan's grown a bit since we bought this lifevest, haha. I opted to use my dad's as a floatie (if you wear it like a diaper, it works like the perfect seat)- I mean you can't hold onto your beer and a floatie at the same time, right?
My gramma always tells us to "wear our seatbelts" on the lake. Above: that's the seatbelt. Taggart inventively made it into a water table.
My dad was hollering about his "Natural Light." Classy man, my dad.
The next day on the lake I decided to try something I've skirted away from for years... slaloming. I got into a bit of a skiing accident when I had just learned and I've been weary of being pulled ever since. Slaloming I have never mastered- it was finally time to get back on the... ski?
After many, MANY attempts, I did finally get up [Ryan almost captured it above]! Most of the time I spent eating wake though... [below]. Painful. But I DID IT, damnit!
Taggart skied too! Ry just stuck to photographing. Maybe next time.
As a stereotypical Georgia girl I have to admit that ripe peaches make my heart happy. I found this incredible peach and green bean salad recipe last summer and I've been on the prowl for some ripe fruits ever since the hot weather came back (i.e. too long).
Finally, while perusing the produce at Kroger, I found peaches!! And not only that- they weren't rock hard, there were ripe ones! Yeehaw!... However Kroger did decide to run out of fresh green beans so still no salad pour moi.
I wandered the aisles and picked up this and that without much anticipation of future meals for the week, I just looked out for yellow sale tags and a few staples. When I got home I was famished. Salmon filets had been on sale and I wanted a hearty lunner (lunch/dinner) to get me through yet another night at work. [At Kyma they're nice enough to procure a 'family meal' every night for kitchen staff and then us, if there are leftovers, but the meal is generally some strange combination of pasta, rice and gigantes with some form of lamb or chicken mixed in... Greek leftovers. Opa. I just couldn't force it on my poor tummy for the sixth night in a row.]
Let me start with mentioning that I have this irrational fear of cooking fish. Salmonella and all that jazz. So I NEVER buy it. Ever. Unless I'm at a restaurant in which case I almost always spring for a fishy dish. But a sale is a sale and I truly am trying to get over this silliness so- salmon time it was.
We don't have a grill or a wire rack so I opted for baking the filet. I still had a hankering for those peaches so I decided to incorporate them with my fish experiment. I found an idea for peach baked salmon online and, with a little ingredient alteration and a few additions, that fish was SUPERB.
Baked Peach and Pecan Salmon
Skinless Salmon filet
Fresh Peach
Pecans (shelled)
Salt
EVO
Agave (I used blue... I'm sure any would work)
Place the filet on a baking sheet (I used a shallow dish to keep the juices/sauce in) and slice horizontal lines into the flesh along the top. Sprinkle salt over the filet making sure to get it into the slices.
Cut up a peach (I liked the texture/flavor of the peach skin) and wedge slices into the horizontal cuts.
Break pecans in half and line them along the filet between the peaches (I like a lot of crunch so I added a bunch of pecans).
Mix EVO and the Agave together (no measurements, just eyeball it- more EVO for less sweetness, more Agave for more sweetness) and drizzle it over the filet; you don't need much... I probably used too much in the picture above.
Bake at 475° for 8 minutes (for one filet, add time if multiple). Then change the oven temperature to 425° and bake again for the same amount of time.
Optional: Move the rack to right beneath the coils and broil for 3-4 minutes for a bit of blackening along the top of the pecans/peaches. It doesn't need this step for flavor in my opinion but I had it both ways and I liked either so whatever floats your boat.
I've always been much more of a baker than a cook so it's truly exciting when an experiment actually goes right outside of the realm of sweets. This salmon dish was so tasty I made it three days in a row. YUM.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the hardworking, under-appreciated moms out there. On behalf of my fellow sometimes selfish and generally under-vocal generation of kiddies, please know how grateful we all are to have you in our lives.
Unfortunately, since I work in the service industry I didn't get to spend the actual day with my mama. Sidenote: Mother's Day is the bane of a server's existence... so please, tip well people. Instead my family and I celebrated the day before and we woke up bright and
early to head to a local Strawberry Farm- Washington Fields.
It was a perfect picking day. The sun hid behind the clouds and the humidity, surprisingly, was to a minimum. The skies opened up only when we were leaving with our two-bucket loot!
Once our fingers were stained red from picking we all went to the only place in Loganville open for brunch- the international house of pancakes, IHOP. Every time I go I salivate over the pictures in the over-large menu only to be completely sickened with myself after eating the rubbery eggs and too sweet compotes. They do know a thing or two about buttermilk though... I'll give them that.
Once we got home mama set to work separating the scrawburries into mushy/smoothie, perfect/individual, and small-but-ripe/jam categories. Then we set to work in good ole southern fashion and made... JAM! Well, I guess technically they should be classified as preserves since we kept bits of the pulp in there but nonetheless we made our own spreadable, canned sweetness!
We're still quite impressed with our homemaker abilities. So impressed that we've been continuously rewarding ourselves with a fresh strawberry daiquiri... or three.
Unfortunately my tardiness in logging my trip has led to some omissions and timing idiosyncrasies. Here's some insight into all of the miscellaneous fun, in no particular order:
Stephen took me to his pub's sister pub- Captain Cook- and we had a genuine roast dinner. Mashed potatoes, boiled veggies, english pudding, steak and marmite gravy (ew). Overall it was tasty... I just really despise marmite. At least that taste was generally concealed. Then we got dessert: Bailey's cheesecake and a fruit tart mmm. I'm a dessert fiend- can't(/won't?) have a meal without it. One of Stephen's bosses came around after we ate and bought us some drinks and we all played pool. I am unhappy to report that it took me a while to get used to English pool table/ball/pocket sizes and rules but eventually I did kick Stephen's ass :)
We spent a lot of time walking around the city and seeing bits and pieces of day and night life all around London. I have such a soft spot for the architecture in Europe. I know I sound like a broken record but truly I could just gawk for days. They also have stunning flowers which is another weak spot of mine. I guess since it rains so often the colors just become that much more vivid.
I'm still dying to see a Cricket match! I've heard they can last an eternity... due to this fact, and the fact that it's the UK, I secretly equate Cricket with Quidditch...
My love for Camden is unmatched. It's always such an adventure for the eyes.
Camden Lock- it's a club/bar that also hosts a Comedy Club on Friday nights. One of Stephen's friends works there and got us a free table and bottle of bubbly. It was a truly wonderful night, thank you Toonie!
Stephen's roommates are in a band called 'The MoonJets'. They filmed one of their music videos at the pub Stephen works at {above} while I was visiting and I got to be an extra of sorts :) Check it out! They're quite good, I think.
Also, I almost forgot!! WONDERFUL news... guess who scored herself a six month UK internship?!! This girl. It's with the company from the Manchester post!! Perhaps a 9-5 will give me more leeway with timely blogging?? Fingers crossed.
