New Orleans without the Kid

Last week Bryan and I were able to get away just the two of us. My mom was kind enough to take Charlie off our hands so I could accompany Bryan to the Crescent City. He had a few events and a sales call to make, which gave me some much needed alone time.



We stopped at Brent's Drug Store in Jackson on the way down. It's an old pharmacy soda shop. Best decision ever: getting a banana nutella shake to go.



Bryan had to make a sales call at 5 pm, so I did this. Glory!

Once he was finished with his meeting he came back for me. We decided to walk around the Quarter and get a bite to eat before our dinner reservations.



Gotta have the Southern Antipasta plate at Sylvain. I think this is the third or fourth time we've had it. Always a winner.



Pro tip: when you see a couple taking a selfie offer to take their picture for them. Nine times out of ten they are willing to do the same for you. We have about two pictures of just the two of us so far this year.



We had dinner at Peche the first evening. We ordered a sampler dozen oysters. They offer oysters from five different areas and it was fun to try them all and decide which was our favorites. Mine: Champagne Bay, Louisiana.  Bryan: Daulphin Island, Alabama.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was delicious. After showers and getting dressed at our own pace we headed to St. Roch Market.



This market reopened in April of this year, although it was originally opened in 1875. They had 15 different vendors selling various things you could consume.



We consumed these and boudin from Skank.



And the shrimp egg rolls and fried gulf shrimp tacos from Koreole.

Bryan had an event and was busy most of the afternoon. I read in the hotel room for a couple of hours then took the streetcar down to the Garden District.



No trip at New Orleans is complete without a trip to St. James Cheese in my mind. And also a meal at Cochon where we had dinner.

It was a great trip. A little walking, tried a new place, but also visited our favorites. Most importantly we had our first trip away from Charlie.



Don't get us wrong, we love this kid and missed him. But it's good to get a break too.

Garden update Monday

The garden is at the sweet spot of late summer. Finally producing tomatoes and peppers! The heat has eased up a little bit which enables me to spend some enjoyable time exploring and playing. And doesn't require a constant water vigilance. In other words things are pretty great right now. Here are a few photos. 

Roma's 

Sweet peppers

Can you spot the cucumber hanging from the tree? 

North Mississippi Day Trip

Last week Bryan needed to call on a store in Oxford. Charlie and I decided to accompany him because a) we needed to get out of the house, b) we love Oxford, and c) we could use this as a little test to see how Charlie does in the car for long periods.  Once Charlie was up, changed, and fed we hit the road.

Oxford is just over an hour from Memphis and is one of our favorite places to visit. They have great shopping on the Square and amazing food for such a small town.



First stop was breakfast at Big Bad Breakfast. Charlie tried a few bites of my grits and didn't hate it! Bryan declared that they had the best bacon he's ever eaten.



After visiting with Matt at Full Motion Running and Cycling, Charlie had his lunch on the Square. It was a rainy day so we stopped under an awning to wait out a rain shower and feed Charlie. Not a bad way to kill some time.

The rain and cranky baby didn't stop us from doing a little shopping. We got our first Christmas present at Nielson's. Bryan also got some swanky boat shoes there 70% off! Then we went to Square Books, Jr. to look around. Charlie got two books and I picked up another Christmas gift. Tis the season! My only regret is that we never made it into the original Square Books. Probably better for our wallet.

Bryan and I were still feeling full from breakfast so we drove to Water Valley, MS to check it out and have lunch. After last month's feature in Garden and Gun we were intrigued. It was about a 25 minute drive from Oxford along back country roads.



We had lunch at BTC Grocery.



I ordered the daily special which included a garden salad, crawfish ettouffe, fried squash, and tea. Ya'll, the garden salad was truely a garden salad. It had fresh blackberries (not pictured because I ate them all), cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers from a local garden. I loved the addition of grapes and the homemade dressing. Mmmm... The fried yellow squash was also really good. I didn't eat much of the etouffee because I was still full, but we brought it home and Bryan enjoyed it the next day. The locals were super sweet and doted on Charlie.

Charlie did okay in the car. On the way back I moved to the back seat mid ride to help entertain him. He napped twice for thirty minutes. Not great when he normally naps for an hour and half two times a day. But he did pretty well and we can't complain too much.

Charlie: 6 months

Ugh, how do I have a six month old?!  For some reason when I thought about life with a baby, I sort of pictured him always staying pretty much a baby. Everyday he's growing and changing and it's starting to not be as baby-ish. He can sit up mostly on his own now. He can drink from his sippy cup on his own, if he wants to. Which usually he doesn't. He's wearing 12-18 month clothing. He owns shoes. He eats a variety of vegetables and fruit. He can, but doesn't always, sleep through the night.

Here are a few favorite photos from the last month:





This was the time he tried water for the first time. More came out than went in.







That one time when he won a race and made the paper.



At his six month check up. Weighed 22 lbs and 27" long.



We mostly eat in the high chair now.

Monday Garden Update

We had a low humidity weekend and I was able to get out and actually do some work in the garden! The last few weeks its just been too hot to do anything other than water.

I cleared out the remnants of edamame plants and added some compost. My hope is to plant some beet seeds there in the next week or so. I also dumped the buckets of potatoes to disappointing, but not surprising results. And cleared out the lettuce pots which had gone to seed.

I'm finally starting to see some fruits (literally) of my labor. Cherry roma tomatoes are starting to turn. I've picked three already. Maybe soon we'll see some larger tomatoes!

Monday Garden Update

It was a not so terribly hot morning so I went out to snap a few photos this morning. 

It's currently a waiting game for tomatoes and peppers to ripen up. 

There are a ton of green cherry tomatoes on these. Ripen already!!!

Roma's I can't wait to make into sauce. 

Delicata squash blossom. 

The beans in the back bed a pretty sad. 

We have had a few harvests, though, this week! 

We've had two servings of edamame like above. Not much, but a nice little appetizer while we fix dinner.

And some potatoes! These are from the garden bed. I haven't checked the buckets yet. 

I'm starting to think about planting for the fall. Will use the leftover beet and spinach seeds from last year. 

Wine Bottle to Glasses Class

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I went to a class at 5 in 1 Social Club. It's a local business here in Memphis that sells artisans goods but also gives glasses several times a week. They say they are like "kindergarten for grown ups." Sign me up, please! For my mom's birthday I bought her and I seats at a recent Wine Bottle Glass class.

We prepped ahead of time by taking the labels off our bottles. Some people didn't do this step and they wasted valuable cutting and sanding time.



The first step was to use this bad boy to cut a line on our bottles. The black thing at the bottom left was a cutter. We twisted the bottle around so that there was a line all the way around our bottles.



See the lines?



The next step was to alternate pouring hot and cold water on the line. We did this over a bucket and it requires two people. Hence no pictures of this step.



And then you sand. For a while. Probably about 20 minutes a glass.

It wasn't difficult, but it was more intensive than I thought it was going to be.  We both really enjoyed the class and the experience. I'm pretty proud of my two wine bottle glasses I came home with.