Day with Giselle

Two Sunday's ago we took Giselle for her day with us. We had a pizza lunch on the patio of Memphis Pizza Cafe. Then we went to the Children's Museum of Memphis. I haven't been since I was 10 and a lot has changed in the last 18 years. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I kinda was.


First we hoola hooped. Bryan needs to work on his hooping skills.


This was a fun addition. A little dance room.


I was glad to see the old climbing tower was still there. But it seemed not quite as large as it once did.
















After the museum we stopped at Yolo for some froyo!



We had some playtime at the house before dinner at Chiwawa.

Sunday afternoon musings

For the first time in a really really long time we have this Sunday afternoon virtually free. We went to church, had a leisurely lunch at one of my favorites, perused an estate sales (no good buys, but I do want to buy their entire backyard complete with screened in porch with pizza oven, pergola, and beautiful pool) and then came home to loll about. We both changed out of our church clothes and hopped on the bed. Bryan to take a nap and me with my laptop.

I'm considering some big BIG changes and I've been meaning to take some time to do some research on those changes. The only thing I took away today is that scheduling can be a bitch.

So the last few minutes I've been flipping through my blogs. Sometimes when I'm way behind I like to make it into a game. Today's game: get the top three categories (design, home furnishings, and food) where I'm way behind to 200 unread items. The food blog category was the most behind at 284, so I've been flipping through the food blog posts from the last week. Which got me thinking about cooking and food and recipes and what I've been digging lately...which is southern food. I've been thinking and craving Southern food lately. But not my grandmother's southern food.

Over the years I've amassed quite the collection of old Southern community cookbooks. You know the spiral bound kind. I love these and have cooked through many of them. But the Southern cooking I've been loving is more of the new chef driven modernized Southern cooking.

I added this to the collection most recently. And the majority of my more recently followed food bloggers have been Southern bloggers.

We are going to a new cookbook launch dinner at my favorite (See above) in a couple of weeks. I can not wait to flip through it and am sure that it will be a favorite in the collection.

What have you been cooking?

Tigger

Last weekend we struggled to get Tigger to eat anything. Monday Bryan took him to the vet and they decided to keep him to syringe feed him and do some tests. Unfortunately they found the cancer had spread and there wasn't much they could do for him.



We miss our handsome man a good deal.

On Wednesday Motley searched the house high and low for him. I think she's feeling it the most. They used to play together at night while we locked ourselves in our bedroom with Roux.

It was nearly 5 years ago we brought him home as our first.  He'll always be our handsome man.

Double Vision

It's pretty rare when both Tigger and Motley in close quarters and will stay friendly and still long enough for us to capture a picture.



But one night last week they allowed it.





We love these two and I'm so thankful that they get along.

Food Review: Tamp and Tap

A few weekends ago we were going Downtown to feed a cat and decided to try out the new Tamp and Tap.  It features high quality coffee and micro brew beer along with food. What could be better?! We had heard it was opening and had been dying to go. What I wasn't prepared for was how gorgeous the interior had been done. Lots of natural wood with orange accents, which sounds kinda 70s but it was awesome.


Bryan's sandwich with hummus as a side. He had the pickled onions that come on his sandwich put on the side so I could nibble on them.


My sandwich with orzo pasta salad in the foreground. The sandwich was good, the orzo pasta was just okay. Decent side dish, but wouldn't be enough on its own.



If we lived downtown this would definitely be a favorite hangout spot.

A Day with Vieve

This year we decided instead of presents that they probably don't want, need, or even like that we'd rather spend some one-on-one time with our nieces. So we set up dates and our first one was July 28th with Vieve. (I've been meaning to get the photos off my camera for a few weeks now. Sorry this is a little late.)

We took her to lunch at Hog and Hominy after church. She was super nervous to find out if it was kid friendly. But once we were inside and she found the secret door to the back patio I think it was cool.

We went to the Pink Palace museum for our first acitivity. I haven't been since I was in 6th grade so it was fun for me to go back.





After the museum we went to check out the newly completed playground at Overton Park.





It was pretty awesome.







We made pickle popsicles. Bryan and I were not impressed.



But Vieve loved them and that's all that really matters.

We finished up with dinner at Central BBQ for some real Memphis ribs.

Blackberry Smackdown

I have not been so diligent about uploading photos from my camera. I have several posts I'd like to write once I am not so busy and can upload them.

Until then, last weekend I took some time to tame the blackberry bramble.



Before: They had grown all willy-nilly without a bit of taming. It was difficult to find the few blackberries we did have this last season.



After: On the far left was a raspberry bush that had the most lethal thorns ever. So I just pulled those out and am attempting steaking a clipping. If the clipping doesn't work out I'll just purchase another bush. I'm thinking about taking out the bush to the far right. It's useless to me, especially in that location. No one can even see it from the street.

I watched several YouTube videos on how to prune blackberries and I'm excited to see how it pans out for next season. The idea of trimming the primacanes is that they will grow laterally next spring and produce more fruit. I hope this is the case because we got about 1/2 cup of blackberries this summer. But considering it was the first summer, I'm okay with it.

Officially Official

Someone is heartworm free and officially a Baddorf!