Down Home, Athens-Style.

You may or may not be aware, but Athens is a pretty hip town.  The people here have some sass, and it reflects their style quite nicely, I think.  Although it is sort of a collegiate style.  It is down home.  You are not going to see this girl walking around:

but you would see her:

and definitely her:

she's around...

i see her all the time...

but if you're looking for these girls... you'll find them in New York!

{all gorgeous photos via the sartorialist}

More Fashionable.

There is a special giveaway coming around the corner on TwinYolks, something to turn you into a more fashionable version of yourself and so it is in this spirit that I'm going to post some outfits I adore by Nadinoo, a UK based boutique filled with dreamy ensembles...

1. stinkin' cute cape:

2. unique print:

3. simple + comfy dress:

4. and this one too...

(Minus the green socks?) Happy Tuesday!

Autumn Apple.

Don't these Autumn Apple Doughnuts look amazing?  I think that they are what we all need to rev up the old engine on a Monday. In fact, if some student was walking around campus eating one, I'd try to snatch it out of their hands and run away with it.  Away being, of course, to the nearest coffee shop so that I could finish it off with a latte... These are the weird scenarios I find myself fantasizing about on Mondays.  Why is it they always arrive so quickly?

{recipe + photos via 3191 Miles Apart}

Autumn Apple Doughnuts
adapted from this NY Times recipe 


Ingredients
1-1/2 C all purpose flour + 1/2 C more for dusting 
1 C spelt flour 
1 t nutmeg 
1 t cinnamon 
1 t baking powder 
1/2 t baking soda 
pinch of salt 
1/2 C brown sugar 
1/4 C butter, melted and cooled 
1/4 C buttermilk 
1/4 C apple cider 
1 C unsweetened applesauce 
1 egg 
safflower oil for frying 


Methodology
Buttermilk, cider, applesauce and egg should be room temperature so set those out a few hours before you want to make your dough. 
When ready, take all dry ingredients, except sugar, and mix them together in a bowl; set that aside. In another bowl combine brown sugar, melted butter, buttermilk and cider. Add egg and applesauce and mix. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix with as few strokes as possible. 
Generously flour a work surface and work with one small chunk of dough (about 1/5) at a time. Flour both sides of the dough and gently pat it out to about 1/2 inch thick. The dough will be sticky; use your flour to help you along. With a floured doughnut cutter cut out doughnuts as close to each other as you can (you're going to set aside the scraps so be mindful that you want as little waste as possible). Place the doughnuts on parchment paper on cookie sheets and once the sheets are full put them in the refrigerator to chill. Depending on the size of your doughnuts you will get anywhere from a dozen to two dozen doughnuts in total.

Turn on your oil (about 2 inches of oil in a stock pot or cast iron skillet is what you're looking for) and gently bring it to 360–375º. If anything the temperature should be lower rather than higher. Take your time to get the oil to the correct temperature and once it's there you can proceed. Take note: the oil temperature will drop between batches so you will want to take time to bring it back up every now and again. 


Gently drop the chilled doughnuts into the hot oil a few at a time turning them over and frying them for anywhere from 2–3 minutes. They should brown slowly. When done use a spatula or little mesh strainer to bring them out of the oil and let them drain on paper towels. While hot roll them in a cinnamon and sugar mix or sprinkle with confectioners sugar (I actually eat mine plain). And as ever my recommendation is -- eat them while they are warm! 

Mushroom, To Be Exact.

We had a cool morning today.  In fact, you might even say it was chilly.  While it was not yet light out, John awoke and took Mable to the great outdoor bathroom. When he returned, he placed his hands on my face, and his fingertips were icy.  This surprised me.  Lately I have been fretful about the warmer temperatures.  I worry that the leaves will change colors  without the accompanying cool weather.  After school I drive home, looking at the tips of trees changing over to bright orange and wonder if I will ever get to wear a cardigan.

That's fall in the South, a big slow-poke about showing up.  Always late, making everyone check their calendars. Yet when it arrives, it does so in a blaze of glory, making the trees sing with flair. I know I am making this announcement a little bit early, but I think we should prepare ourselves for fall with some soup. When it does finally get here, we're all going to want to mark the moment, and soup is really the only way. Besides, it is high time that here, on this blog, we had a bowl of soup.  And then dessert.  But first soup.  Mushroom, to be exact.

{photo & recipe via foodandwine}

Wild Mushroom Soup with Parmesan Toasts

         Ingredients

1. 6 slices bread, cut from a long country or sourdough loaf
2. Extra-virgin olive oil
3. 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4. Paprika
5. Wild Mushroom Ragout
6. 1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth
7. 1 cup frozen baby peas
8. Salt and freshly ground pepper
9. 1 tablespoon snipped chives 
   

   Methodology

1.  Preheat the broiler. Lightly brush both sides of each slice of bread with olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Broil for 1 minute, until toasted. Flip the bread, sprinkle with the Parmesan and a pinch of paprika and broil for 1 minute longer, until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden and toasted.
   
   2. Meanwhile, puree 1 cup of the mushroom ragout in a blender until smooth. Transfer the puree to a medium saucepan. Add the remaining mushroom ragout, the chicken stock and peas and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Season the soup with salt and pepper and transfer to shallow bowls. Garnish with the chives and serve with the Parmesan toasts
   
   
   And maybe some of these, too:

   Mushroom and Fontina Crostini

   
   {photo & recipe via foodandwine}

    Ingredients

   1. Four 1/2-inch-thick slices of peasant bread, halved diagonally
   2. 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
   3. 1 1/2 pounds white mushrooms
   4. 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
   5. 2 medium shallots, finely chopped
   6. 1 large garlic clove, minced
   7. 1 teaspoon chopped thyme
   8. 3 tablespoons water
   9. Salt and freshly ground pepper
   10. 1/4 pound Fontina cheese, coarsely shredded (about 1 cup)
   11. 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 

   Methodology

   1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Arrange the bread on a baking sheet and drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Toast for 12 minutes, until slightly golden around the edges. Turn the broiler on.
   2. Meanwhile, thinly slice the mushrooms. In a large skillet, cook the butter over high heat until lightly browned, 2 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the mushrooms and cook undisturbed until the mushrooms are browned on the bottom, 2 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until browned all over, 10 minutes. Add the shallots, garlic and thyme, lower the heat to moderate and cook until the shallots are tender, 5 minutes. Add the water and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, then cook for 3 minutes longer. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
   3. Spoon the mushroom mixture on the toasts and sprinkle the cheese on top. Broil for 2 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Transfer the crostini to a platter, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Tortillas Para Mi.

{a cool study, via ffffound}

Over the past week or so, I've completely resigned myself to not cooking at all.  That's midterms for you, and mine have dragged on and on, almost taking up three entire weeks.  All I eat are bland turkey sandwiches, and to make matters worse, I seem to have befriended the vending machine in the basement of the English building.  Last night I attempted to get creative with a salad but it was not a rewarding endeavor.  Let's just say that there was some spinach, grapefruit and...garbanzo beans.  Don't ask me how they got in there.  All my creative energy has been funneled into writing essays and the result leaves me with harebrained ideas in the kitchen.  It is time for a proper home-cooked meal... after I get to the grocery store, anyway.

What I should have done before midterms began was find MattBites, an online foodie blog, and read his column, "Anything Inside a Tortilla."  With the ideas he comes up with, the student fare food of tortillas actually looks kind of exciting.  Also, surprisingly, his ideas would have ended up producing me with breakfast, lunch, dinner and even dessert.  Here are a few of my favorites - you better believe I'm stocking them up in my recipe files for when finals arrive!

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

Dessert:

All Good.

You know it's not quite fall when you put on too many layers and end up midday with unsightly armpit stains.  Lately I feel like this little guy...

{photo via ffffound}

...just hanging out, in my argyle sweater, waiting for some 60 degree temperatures to arrive.  It's all good.  I'll let you know when they get here... till then, have a happy weekend.

Jiggity-Jig.

Midterm week, midterm week, jiggity-jig.  Hope you'll bear with me while I'm not cooking much.  Although I did make a Banana Coconut Bread that was just the ticket to ring in October, that was on Saturday, and it is already gone.  So in the place of food and thoughts I thought I'd present some photos that I think are sweet.  Which one is your favorite?  I can't decide between the roses and the table.

{all photos via ffffound!}

Have a nice Tuesday!

Just Like This.

Well, John started his job at the hospital (I'm so proud) and is no longer around the house in the mornings.  He's up and at'em at a eye-crusting 5:45 in the morning, and has to be at work at an hour later.  Pshhh.  I don't know about this new arrangment.  I'm so used to making him breakfast in the morning that I don't know what to do with myself.  Not to mention, if I wake up too much later, then the coffee's cold.  Don't worry, I'm not complaining, I'm just processing a transition, so make note of the distinction, if you will.  Anyway, I think this means that weekend breakfasts should be extravagant affairs.  Maybe with a subscription to the New York Times.  Maybe, for winter, fuzzy slippers all morning.  The kind of breakfast where there is coffee, tea, and orange juice.  (Oh my.)  The kind of morning where you serve breakfast with pretty china.  I don't know.  Something magazine-quality.  Something just like this:

{photo via Design Sponge! }

Yep.  Thanks, Design Sponge!  You've got our weekend mornings all figured out for us!  I'll be making this Egg Sandwich as soon as I return from the Saturday morning market with the eggs and fresh baked bread.  Hope you all have a lovely Friday night and an extravagant Saturday morning breakfast!

An Unshakeable Day.

Sometimes, it happens.  Like lightning, or a flash flood.  Like a cake turning out unexpectedly perfect, or a hairdo that is impenetrable to the wind.  Sometimes you find exactly the dress you were looking for, sometimes you wake up smiling.  Sometimes birthdays are wonderful.  This, my friends, is about as rare an event as can be.  It is like about as rare as the flying dream, or finding twenty bucks in a jacket you wore a year ago.  But it can happen, and for me, two days ago, it did happen.  I think I had a perfect birthday.

{photo via le love}

Of all days it happened to be on a Monday, and there was a paper due.  There was rain and there was homework but there was also a lot of happiness.  It was a day of realizing how good it is to hear the voices of family on the phone, and learning that your husband does have something up his sleeve after all (even though you thought the dog was your only gift) and that you have amazing friends.  Also, when you realize that you have a voicemail box full of people, one after the other, singing "Happy Birthday" on your phone, including your grandparents (who have perfected the song as a duet over the years)... I don't know....no present can beat the good feeling that comes... thank you all for making it an unshakeable day.

The Week At End.

The weekend is upon us!  Time for some fun. Hopefully the weather will be awesome, Mable won't get too carsick on our drive to Chattanooga, the Dawgs will win and I'll manage to squeeze in some studying.  How about you?  Whatever your plans, hope you enjoy yourself and these pictures of some of the best houses in Athens. 

A Slice Of Heaven.

Because today is quickly becoming a day where nothing goes as planned, I want you all to know that there is a recipe out there that will make life better.  This is the kind of recipe that works as a iron-plated shield to guard  you from all the migraines, tests, bills, disobedient pets, slow post offices and automated voice messaging systems. 

 This recipe will help protect you from the bad by reminding you of so much heavenly melted blue cheese goodness.  Also, it will surprise you with its ease.  So if your day is completely sucking and you have to go to the grocery store on top of everything else: pick up some Wild Turkey Figs, a slab of blue cheese and some pancetta (from the deli man).  Then, go home and stuff those figs with blue cheese, wrap them with pancetta, drizzle with olive oil and slide them into the oven immediately:  pull them out when the cheese has melted and the pancetta is crisp and tune out the world.  This is it.  You are enjoying what they call a slice of heaven.  

Mable & Me.

  Well, we did it.  After much begging and pleading with John, combined with searching far and wide: we finally got a dog.  It took some effort to find her, but she was worth it.  We drove over two hours to a town called Barnesville to meet the breeders who showed us all their puppies, and in the midst of all the wriggling and playing we found our girl.  We picked her out of the group because we thought she had the most adorable freckles on her nose.  (Also, she was the best snuggler in the bunch.)

Her name is Mable.  When we took her to the beach she wanted to make friends with everybody she saw and we received a lot of feedback about her name.  One lady said she liked it because it was "old timey," and I think I would agree.  When I think of a woman named Mable I think of a lady who is brassy, but fun to hang out with.  So far, the name fits.

This girl gets up early, which means that I've been getting up early.  This isn't a problem on the beach, but now that we're back in Athens seeing the sunrise isn't quite as glamorous.  She's still a keeper.  And so is this photo.  

Happy Tuesday from Mable & me!

Winner.

[photo via fffound!]

Congratulations, Gracie, you are the winner of the photography giveaway!  Email me your address and the photo of your choice and you'll receive your photo!

[photo via fffound!]

John and I are headed back to Edisto this weekend, so I'm wishing you all an early happy weekend.  Hope you all get to enjoy some of the cooler weather and some of the new fall foods!  See you next week with another fabulous giveaway!

Photography, A Giveaway! (Closed)

We all need a little something to get us going on Mondays, don't we?  Hopefully a giveaway will do the trick!  My friend Jill is a very talented photographer and offering the winner of this giveaway a choice between two of these gorgeous photos:

Macro photograph of a pink lily. Print size is 4.5x6 inches, printed on matte finish archival photo paper. The photo is mounted in an 8x10 inch black archival window mat with sturdy acid free foam core backing, ready to frame.

Macro photograph of a lovely pink cactus. Print size is 4.5x6 inches, printed on matte finish archival photo paper. The photo is mounted in an 8x10 inch archival window mat with sturdy foam core backing, ready to frame.

Ooh la la! I think both of these photographs are so beautiful. I would have a tough time choosing one, but either would look awesome in my house and on my walls :).   Also, to eliminate confusion, I am leaving specific instructions on how to win:  To enter to win, please visit Jill's ETSY and view her incredible photos and then return to TwinYolks and leave a comment on my blog.   The winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday.  So good luck to you all and have a happy Monday!

The Mick Jagger Of Snacks.

Lord, have mercy.  Ever since discovering this phenomenal salad, John and I have since learned that we have a little problem.  A bacon problem.  As in, I'm coming home from class needing a snack and tossing bacon into the frying pan.  It is a real problem, because bacon is not a snack food.  I repeat:  bacon is not a snack food.  Or a refreshment.  Or a suit.

On the drive back from our Labor Day retreat in the mountains, John looked over at me with a soft look in his eye and said, "Annie, I think we need to stop buying bacon."  All I could do was stare at my shoes and nod.  He was right.  We were abusing bacon privileges.

The obvious thing to do at this point was purchase a vegetable instead.  And as fall is creeping upon us, I decided to get into the spirit and buy some sweet potatoes.  Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?  A big orange vegetable?  With this rationalization at hand, the sweet potato chip has now entered into our repertoire of delicious, unapologetically bad snacks.  For some reason, my subconscious was unwilling to yield to hacking up these potatoes, frying them in canola oil until crispy and then tossing them all in their greasy glory with crumbled blue cheese.  

 

I can't tell you how good these are.  Honest, I can't.  Because there are no words to describe their deliciousness. I can, however, tell you how bad they are.  Readers, they are baaad.  And yet, I declare, you will make them and love them anyway because they are good/bad.  Perhaps the Mick Jagger of snacks?   The Bill Clinton of Presidential chips?  A little sleazy, a little greasy, yet lovable?   Anyway, careful not to fall in love and get your heart broken.  Also be careful not to wear anything resembling a sweet potato suit.  These chips have some kind of crazy-making potential.  You've been warned.

Mick's Sweet Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Crumbles

-1 medium sweet potato (good for 2 people) sliced lengthwise (can be performed with a mandolin, we use a swissmar peeler)
-blue cheese crumbles
-canola oil, as needed
-(*if you're feeling fancy, you can also top with chives)

In a medium sized bottom heavy saucepan, heat 1/2 a cup of canola oil on high heat until slightly smoking.  Add sliced potatoes and cook until the edges begin to curl slightly.  Using tongs, pull out potato and dry on paper towels, they will crisp as they cool. When the batch of potatoes is cooked, add to a bowl and toss with blue cheese crumbles and/or chopped fresh chives.  Enjoy!

Sweet Like That.

Summer,

You always go by too fast.  Somehow, just a little bit too fast.  Even though we complain about your heat and the ways in which you overstay your welcome - we still miss you when you fade into the background.  And even though you drive us all crazy and restless with your high temperatures, you bring a lot of good into the world.  We like you for that good.  We like you for the way you make the days long.  We like to see you bring fruits to fruition and flowers to bloom.  You're sweet like that.  You were good to us this year, Summer, so come back soon... but not too soon.

Respectfully yours,

Annie

Labor Day Recipes.

Labor Day weekend is upon us!  Soon we may no longer be able to wear white, but we can use up the remaining summer bounty:  corn, tomatoes, basil and the like. 

John and I are headed to the mountains for some much needed R&R, and we can't wait to make lamb burgers, baked parmesan tomatoes and grilled corn.  The best part of these recipes is that they are easy and delicious. Which is important, because I really want to relax.  I want you to relax too, so enjoy these recipes and have a wonderful weekend!

 Baked Parmesan Tomatoes 

[from eatingwell]

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, halved horizontally
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Place tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

When Worlds Collide.

Those of you who know and love Athens know it and love it for what it is: a town with many layers.  My favorite layer is the food, my husband's favorite layer is the football.  Yet whatever you are into, you can find it, somehow, in this town.

Here's one of the reasons I love Athens:  my friend, LA, works for renowned chef of 5&10, Hugh Acheson.  Hugh recently opened a new restaurant in Atlanta, Empire State South, which sounds just plain awesome: it boasts libations, bocce, Tiffins and more.  Recently Hugh was featured on Design Sponge for a Southern Supper, photographed by none other than the talented Rinne Allen.  

Can anybody say "small world"?  Or, for that matter, "small town"?  To add even more talent into the mix, I have to make the connection between a UGA grad and friend of mine, Rachel Halvorson (you know her from NestEgg) who is featured on the August cover of Garden & Gun magazine for her interior design work.   

In Garden & Gun's newsletter Tastes and Tunes she lists her favorite Tunes right alongside chef Hugh Acheson's recipe for a Southern Pimm's Cup.  

Phew!  It's an intimidating amount of talent, I know, but that's the fun of Athens:  anybody can experience these joys.  So my hat is off to all of these individuals who simply do what they do best: work to beautify the place where they live.  Oh, and if the stunning pottery in the first photo caught your eye, you should know its by another artist in Athens, R. Wood, and available for purchase here.  Don't you love it when worlds collide?  Go Dawgs!