Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Things You Find For Sale On Craigslist

Check this out...very odd.

http://greenville.craigslist.org/atq/1801537823.html

Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Our mint plant has been growing crazy and we've been using it for all kinds of things. Last week we made real mint ice cream. Words cannot describe how amazing it was.
For those of you who wish to partake of awesomeness here it the recipe.

2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 (1-ounce) package of fresh mint sprigs
3/4 cup sugar
Dash of salt
2 large egg yolks
Small fresh mint leaves (optional)

1. Combine milk, half & half, and mint sprigs in a medium heavy sauce pan over medium-high heat. Heat milk mixture to 180 or until tiny bubbles form around edge (do not boil). Remove from heat; cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Pour milk mixture through a fine sieve; pressing slightly with a wooden spoon; discard solids. Return liquid to pan.
3. Place sugar, salt, and egg yolks in a bowl; stir with a whisk until pale. Gradually add half of hot milk mixture to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Pour egg yolk mixture into pan with remaining milk mixture; cook over medium-low heat until a thermometer registers 160(about 2 minutes), stirring constantly. Place pan in a large ice filled bowl until custard cools completely, stirring occasionally. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacture's instructions. Drain ice water from freezer bucket; repack with salt and ice. Cover with kitchen towels, and let stand 1 hour or until firm. Garnish with mint leaves, if desired.
(I did not repack mine with ice after it froze I just put it in a metal bowl, covered it and put in the freezer.)


Oh and the cute Pyrex tea cups I found at Goodwill for 49 cents a piece. :)

Try Some

I'm sure it's already been discovered but we stumbled upon it last week and it's quite tasty.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Asheville Part 3: Biltmore House & Gardens














Visitors

My sister-in-law Melissa and her youngest Lucie came up for the weekend last week. It was the third time Melissa had tried to get up here for a visit and they finally made it! We had a great time running around to all the places that people in south Ga only dream about.

Lucie pretty much looked at me like this the whole weekend...


...she LOVED Nathan, of course. By Sunday she was best friends with her uncle and still not so sure about me. Oh well, maybe when she's older I'll bribe her with baked goods or let her help me roll out sugar cookies.

On Saturday we went to our favorite antique store and we found lots of great things like this HUGE whisk that Melissa bought for me! I tried it out last night and it beats eggs like a wonder. Oh and we finally found some vintage metal lawn furniture! I'll have to save that for a different post but Nathans already finished restoring one of the pieces.

Monday, June 21, 2010

A Few Hours Late

Happy Father's Day


Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Asheville Part 2: Food, Food & More Food

Ok...here we go!

Mayfel's
This is the first restaurant we visited in Asheville on Saturday. We ate around 11:30 but they serve breakfast all day so of course we at breakfast!



I thought these juice glasses were supper cute.

Nathan had eggs Benedict...yummy

Spinach, sausage & cheese omelet for me


Jack Of The Wood/Green Man Brewing Co.
This place was great! The beer was wonderful (check Nathan's blog soon) and the food was yummy.


We started out with some wonderful Scotch Eggs. Unfortunately the pictures aren't great because I hate using a flash in a dark restaurants.

Nathan's lamb burger topped with blue cheese and a side of sweet potato fries.

I had some yummy shrimp taco's!

After dinner we stopped by The Sisters McMullen for a sweet treat.

Tupelo Honey Cafe
I've heard that this cafe was really good and we weren't disappointed. We sat at the bar and got to watch all the action.


What fun lights!

Nathan ordered Petunia’s Pain Perdu which is two pieces of New Orleans-style French toast made with local challah bread topped with cinnamon sugar, blueberry sauce, and toasted almonds
I ordered a Sweet Potato Pancake. It was huge! I could only eat half of it.

Salsa
This was another restaurant that I was told was really good by a couple people I know. They serve Mexican and Caribbean food. Neither one of us have eaten much Caribbean food so we were excited to try something different.

Mexican-Caribbean Plato: Jerk chicken, corn pimento relish, chipotle sauce, sofrito grits and beans. It was amazing!!



Molcajetes: A hot lava rock filled with yummy goodness. Nathan chose the Slow Roasted Pork with Orange-Fennel Sauce.

It came out hot and bubbly and continued to bubble through the entire meal. I've never seen Nathan nervous about food but he wasn't sure what to do with it at first. It was really tasty though once he dove in!


Early Girl Eatery
Out of all the places we ate breakfast this was my favorite. I think it was because it reminded me of the Sugar Magnolia.




Isn't this the cutest logo?
Buttery biscuit with egg, cheese and country ham.

Sweet Potato scramble...yummy

Monday, June 14, 2010

Asheville Part 1: Scenes Around Town

Hey everyone! We just got back from a wonderful long weekend in Asheville courteous of my mother-in-law (Thanks Polly!). We had a blast and I took so many pictures that I'm doing several different posts. This is the first installment. More to come!

The Biltmore

Street performer in downtown

Art gallery in the River Arts District

Local pub

Indoor shopping

Downtown shop

Friday, June 11, 2010

Symphony In The Park

During the summers the Charlotte Symphony does free concerts at different parks around Charlotte. Last Sunday was their first one in South Park down near where I work. Unfortunately bad weather postponed it so late that we could stay. Tonight their having the second one in Matthews. Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little better.

Pictures from our picnic :)