This weekend I put together a surprise birthday party in honor of my mom’s 60th birthday. My goal was to gather all her brothers and sisters and get some professional photos taken, as her sister is in poor health and they’ve never had a professional photo taken all together. I knew I wanted the party to be intimate and simple, but at the same time elegant and feminine. With natural rock formations, lush vegetation and a bubbling brook, the garden of the Historic Eureka Inn provided the perfect setting for an evening celebration, and the innkeepers Kat and Blake went above and beyond to pull the event off. As luck would have it, we caught the tail end of the nastiness from Hurricane Harvey and were served a chilly 55 degree day, complete with nonstop rain and high winds, however the weather proved to be no match for the natural beauty of the gardens and thankfully we were tented from the elements.
My partner in crime, Robbie, put his talents to work and designed a stunningly romantic tablescape using a variety of flowers including roses, astros, carnations and lots of baby’s breath. Candles and mason jars wrapped in twine, and hand wrapped corsages at each place setting completed the scene.
I catered the event myself to try and cut costs. The menu consisted of barbecue pulled pork served on kaiser rolls, marinated chicken skewers, macaroni and cheese bites, mini loaded baked potatoes and assorted fruits and veggies. My mother-in-law contributed her delicious slaw and Robbie’s mother made the deviled eggs. The signature cocktail was a strawberry lemon sangria and I ordered the cake from my favorite bakery, Petite Sweets. Rachel, the owner, has now created cakes for my past 2 birthdays and my wedding and she absolutely did not disappoint this go-round. Strawberry cake covered in a delicate cream cheese icing and topped with a glittery gold topper and fresh flowers was the center of attention at the buffet.
Finally, my photographer April, was able to capture so many beautiful moments exactly how I wanted. As you will see, she really managed to encapsulate everyone in their natural element.
By the time the party started I had spent the majority of the day in the rain or sweating over the stove so I did not look my best. But all the hard work and stress was worth it to see the tears of joy and surprise from Mom when she walked out the back door and saw all her closest friends and family. It truly was an unforgettable night that couldn’t have happened without all these helping hands. I am extremely proud of the event Robbie and I were able to put together. Maybe we should do this for a living!!
Last night I made the most amazing dinner in less than 20 minutes! Totally worthy of date night, this dish would have cost at LEAST $15- $20 each at a restaurant. Between the cost of the wedding and the upcoming holidays the hubby and I are pretty strapped for cash, so enjoying each other’s company at home at a fraction of the cost is a great alternative to a night on the town! I stole this recipe from the “Relish” insert in my local paper. It sounded amazing and thank goodness the taste lived up to my expectations, actually even exceeded them!! I paired mine with butternut squash rissoto and a crisp romaine salad topped with cucumbers, blue cheese crumbles and balsamic. The risotto was the perfect partner to this dish, soaking up all that delicious white wine sauce. And the best part about it was how quickly it was prepared. Well, actually the BEST part was that we had an excuse to drink the wine that was left over in the bottle. Below is the recipe, tweaked a little to my own personal preference.
3 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves sliced thinly, crosswise
2 shallots sliced thinly, crosswise
1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half, lengthwise
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Cup dry white wine
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 lb medium-large shrimp, shelled and deveined, tails on (I bought the kind that are already cooked and frozen so I had to de-thaw them before cooking)
Heat olive oil in deep sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes. Add spices, wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Simmer and cook until reduced by almost half, about 3 minutes. Add shrimp and cook until heated through, about 3 more minutes.
And that’s it! You could even do this with pasta or plain rice. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!
Hey y’all! It’s been a hot summer day here in East Tennessee, and we’re finally getting some relief around these parts with one of my favorite acts of nature–the afternoon summer thunderstorm. To me, there is nothing more beautiful, calming and refreshing than a sudden downpour after the oppressive, sticky heat has built and built all day. Especially if you’re fortunate enough to experience from a porch. I also really love these so-called “frog floaters” because it means I don’t have to spend 45 mintues watering my plants and consequently raising my water bill.
I am so pleased with how everything I’ve planted this year has taken off. From my windowboxes and landscaping, to my vegetable and herb gardens, everything that has touched the dirt has flourished. I’d like to think it’s because the land here is still blessed from all the years of love and labor put forth by my grandparents.
In the front yard, we finally got around to doing a little landscaping. Thankfully Lowe’s had their spring black friday sale and I was able to get some incredible deals, doing my entire front yard with brick pavers, black mulch and garden soil for less than $100. I wanted something low maintenance, so we decided to thin out some of Momma’s hostas and transplant them here. I am shocked to see people pay $4 a pop for these things at Lowes and Home Depot, when all you have to do is find someone who has them and dig up a small root! They take off like crazy too. Each bush in front of the house originally was one small leaf. And just since April they have grown into full size bushes. Momma also brought over some of her day lillies and we planted those off to the right of the front porch for some color. Ferns dangle from the front porch in the shade and we filled the planters and some hanging baskets with brightly colored petunias. (Side note: I scaled WAY back on the petunias this year. I absolutely loathe dead-heading these things. Maybe if I were a stay at home lady it wouldn’t be such a task, but right now it seems like such a waste of time.)
Photo of front porch at the beginning of landscaping. Notice the pavers, lillies and hostas! Since this photo we have added more ferns and porch furniture though.ALL this for less than $100?? Yes please!
I also wanted low maintenance on my window boxes this year. So I did some research on shade loving window plants and went to town. I really wanted to achieve that “Charleston-style” window box, where things are just spilling over the sides. While I didn’t quite achieve that this year, I am tickled with the results I got for my first attempt. They’re full and lush with pops of color, which is just what I wanted in the end.
Obsessed with my window boxes and how little effort I’ve had to put into them.
I also planted a small herb garden for the first time and, as much as I love my vegetable garden, this little plot of heaven might be my favorite space in the yard. I put it right off the kitchen for convenience when cooking, dressed it up with some cute fencing that also keeps away pesky rabbits, and decorated with a beautiful bird feeder/bath and some decorative stones. So far I’ve only put out sweet basil, curly parsley, mint and rosemary, but it has all taken off. We’re using my mint at the pub for our classic cocktails and it’s really neat to be able to see something I’ve put so much love into being incorporated into tasty treats for customers.
A classic whiskey smash using mint from my garden
And now for the main event–the vegetable garden. Last year I only put out a 6ft raised bed with a few tomatoes and peppers and I was overrun. So this past autumn, someone told me if I threw out my decorative pumpkins and gourds into my garden soil and let them rot, then when I tilled it come spring, the soil would be extra rich and fertile.
They failed to mention that I should remove the seeds.
Within a week of Daddy tilling the bed, THIS was my 6ft garden.
I had a monster pumpkin patch on my hands. I threw more than 10 different varieties of pumpkins and gourds into that space and now they’re all blended together. So god only knows what is going to come out of it. Needless to say, we had to till a bit more soil. So Mitch’s uncle Joel came over and ended up expanding my garden more than 4x the original size, and gave me some corn and pole bean seeds he had saved from his crop last year. I’ve never tried my hand at either but thought, “what the heck.” It has exploded. in the weeks since May 5 my garden has went from this:
To this:
Cucumbers and squash halfCorn and beans half
It was too much to fit into one pic. Note the giant pumpkin patch in the middle of the garden. (it’s on the left side of the first pic and the right side of the bottom pic) I just started getting my first fruit too. All my little babies are so cute I can’t wait to harvest them!
Heirloom stripey tomatoes, cucumbers, jalepenos and yellow squash to name a few.
I’m fairly certain within the next month I will be making more salsa and marinara. and I’m so excited. I urge anyone to try their hand at gardening. It just tastes so much better, and it’s a really neat feeling to know exactly where your food is coming from and to be able to eat something you have put a lot of love and effort into is quite rewarding. Gardens used to be the only way a family could eat and unfortunately with my generation that has all but died out. I would love to see a revolution of young growers! Share your pics from your garden and let me know what you have growing! Til then I’ll just be here being fabulous in my field of dreams!
Hey guys! Another beautiful summer evening here in East Tennessee! I’ve been a busy bee all evening, playing with new recipes and I would love to take a second to share them with you guys!
This all started because I had a windowsill FULL of overripe tomatoes from my garden. These have been the first to ripen, so they’re a little small, some had a few spots on them…..they just weren’t SUPER great slicing tomatoes. But what to do?! I’m certainly not going to waste them! And I had 3 jalepenos that had just come straight from the little garden out back. As I started digging around the house I realized I had a bag of diced bell peppers that I had stored back in March in the freezer. I also had garlic and spices. A quick trip to the store down the road for an onion and a lime could mean one thing……SALSA TIME!!!
Now, I am as guilty as the next person about buying canned salsa, and I’m here to tell you right now, YOU DON’T FRIGGIN NEED IT! It’s just as cheap, a million times healthier and 548168416525 times tastier to make your own! Especially if you have a garden, like moi. Even if you don’t, buying a couple of tomatoes, peppers and onions will cost you next to nothing and make a crap ton of delicious homemade salsa. Store it in freezer bags and you can enjoy it all year long!
Ok, so yeah, I don’t have an exact recipe really. The beauty of salsa is that you can make it exactly as you like it. Chunky or smooth. Spicy or sweet. Cilantro or no. (NO WAY for me. I HATE cilantro. yeachhhh!!!!) It’s your prerogative. For me, I used what was around the house. The amount of tomatoes I ended up having after removing the stems and bad spots came to around 2 1/2- 3 Cups. Because I had 2 different kinds of peppers, I only used about 1/2 cup of bell peppers and 2 whole jalepenos ( seeds and ribs included!) If you don’t like things too spicy, definitely only use 1 and remove the seeds (that’s where all the heat is.) Also I should mention that mine were small as they came from my garden, and the ones in stores tend to be larger. Try your best to buy organic or homegrown. The difference in quality is unquestioned. And I swear, knowing exactly what went into these beautiful veggies, digging the hole with my own two hands and being able to pick them a few months later to enjoy really takes taste to a whole other level. Anyway, back to the recipe.
So you’ve diced up your tomatoes and peppers. If you’re going to make a chunky salsa, make sure you dice your stuff up pretty uniform in size so one flavor doesn’t outweigh another. I used a food processor (God bless my Ninja) so I just chunked it up without thought. Next comes the onion. I used about a 1/4 of a large onion. Since the flavor is so strong I didn’t want it to over power, just compliment. Then the garlic. I used probably 2-3 good sized cloves. I frickin LOVE garlic. I could probably eat an entire bulb like an apple, so again, go with your own taste. Finally I added sea salt, ground black pepper, and since I didn’t have cumin on hand, I improvised with chili powder. Juice of 1 lime and I was ready to process! Remember, as tempting as it is going to be to eat your salsa immediately, it’s best if you let it marinade overnight. All the flavors mix together and it will taste completely different. So that’s that. If you like cilantro, throw that in. If you want something sweet and different, substitute mangoes or pineapple for the tomatoes. Add some corn and black beans if you want a heartier salsa.
I swear to God, I have made some pretty delicious things in my life, but this was by far one of the easiest and most delicious things to come out of my kitchen. So fresh–UGH!!
(**side note, I ate mine with some simple sea salted pita chips, but you can use whatever you like. I just didn’t want a strong salt flavor to take away from the beauty of the salsa.)
Fresh from the garden salsa ingredients, minus the bell peppersThe finished product, after a quick spin in the Ninja.
Another happy surprise I got tonight was finding a way to curb my craving for mashed potatoes! Here in the south we love LOVE our taters. Smashed, mashed, hashed, fried, baked or loaded…you name it, we’ll eat it. Unfortunately that is part of why the south has an obesity epidemic on it’s hands, but that’s a rant for another blog. So tonight I gave mashed cauliflower a whirl. SO glad I did! The consistency was perfect and after the right flavorings, you NEVER would have known it was simply steamed cauliflower. This is yet another recipe that can be tailored to your individual taste, or altered by what you have laying around the house. We’ll call mine “Garlic Ranch Parmesan Fauxtatoes!” I chopped up one head of cauliflower, removing the core and any remaining leaves, then tossed it in a large pot, covered it with water and turned it on the stovetop on high. I also threw in a few garlic cloves because, like I said earlier, I have a garlic fever and don’t wanna be cured. Also I’m a huge fan of garlic mashed potatoes, so I thought, what the hell. I threw a lid on the pot and let that sucker boil and steam on medium high for about 15 minutes, til it was really tender. Then I drained the water and threw all of it in my Ninja. (I told you I love that thing. Best $100 I’ve spent in my kitchen.) Sea salt, black pepper to taste, then I started adding light ranch greek yogurt dressing. This is where things get custom. I used Marzetti’s Simply Dressed & Light. I added probably 1/4 cup initially, pulsed and added more. All told, I used maybe 1/3 of the bottle??? I didn’t really pay attention. I just added until it was the right consistency and had the right amount of ranch flavor for me. OMG it was AMAZING! This is a recipe I intend to make several times a week. Did I happen to mention that 1 cup of cauliflower has 25 calories, compared to 1 cup of potatoes, which has 116?! That means I can have 3x as much….right?
Grilled chicken with a spinach and cucumber salad and MASHED FAUXTATOES!!! Try them! Don’t be scared!
Guys I hope you try these recipes and it inspires you to create some of your own. The best meals are made of simple, fresh, wholesome ingredients. Remember that and you can’t go wrong! post me some of your favorite healthy recipes and I would love to re-post them to share with others!!
Until next time, stay happy and southern and enjoy the little things!!
Appalachian Barbie 