You say potato...

Just in time for summer - a plethora of potato salads! Oh wait, it's not summer anymore? I know friends, I was just as skeptical as you when I saw that AVM had all these potato salad recipes in their October chapter. But, I made them anyway. Because I'm crazy like that. And I found that "potato salad" is a misnomer for half these recipes. Roasted potatoes and veggies are the perfect side for autumn. And they go so well with the mountains of chutney we have!

Unlike most of the recipes in AVM, I can tell you these are fantastic. Thatboy and I enjoyed each one.

"Fall" - roasted red potatoes with roasted veggies. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) Served with satay skewers and chutney. Thatboy loved the satay skewers, loved the potato "salad" and loved that I served the chutney on the side so he could ignore it.

"Summer" (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) - fairly traditional German-style egg salad...which could be why Thatboy and I loved it so much. It was the egg. The combo egg/potato salad would be PERFECT for summer barbecues and picnics. This will probably be my go-to potato salad recipe from here out. Served with pork chops covered in chutney.



"Winter" - roasted fingerling potatoes with roasted veggies. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) I have to say, this was pretty similar to the fall recipe. Which was fine, we liked that just fine. The difference would obviously be the vegetables that are seasonal. Served with turkey tenderloin cooked in chutney....can you see why Thatboy might be tiring a bit of the chutney?



"Spring" - boiled new potatoes with peas and mint. (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com) This was similar to the summer recipe, but we preferred the summer one. Although I like the fresh peas in this, and liked that I could boil them together. Made it very easy.



Pumpkin Soup (recipe available at animalvegetablemiracle.com)

While the potatoes might not have screamed "October" the pumpkin soup definitely did! Thatboy was so impressed by the presentation. Which is really the only reason to serve it in a pumpkin shell. Because it sure as hell doesn't cook better in there. Even though I followed the precautions, I still managed to scoop out the bottom of the shell - leaving me with a giant hole...just like the author got when she made it. Luckily the roasting pan kept everything inside the shell. I do love my roasting pan. I wasn't expecting much from this since the pumpkin inside kept scraping off really stringy. Even after pureeing it. But both Thatboy and I were pleasantly surprised by the flavor of this soup. It'd be a great, impressive starter to your Thanksgiving.

Straight from the bird

Why hello out there! Some of you may recall that this blog used to feature food and recipes. And then life got busy and I stopped being home to cook. Then I was home to cook, but didn't have the time to blog about it.

Well I can't say that life has slowed down at all, but I actually have some food and recipes that are back-piling up, just waiting for me to share with you. I know. It's exciting.

I don't know where the saying came from that "real men don't eat quiche." It's simply not true. Not only is Thatboy more than happy to eat quiche, but he'll even eat frittata and strata. And he almost knows the difference. What makes me even more sure that real men eat quiche is that Thatboy will even eat it for dinner. Well, frittata - but remember, he can't tell the difference.

Veggie Frittata (recipe available from animalvegetablemiracle.com)

Egg dishes are fabulous for two things - using up veggies you have in the fridge, and getting a non-veggie eater to eat veggies. And even AVM can't mess up a frittata too badly. It helps that the ingredients are eggs, cheese, and veggies and I love all three.

Spicy Turkey Sausage (recipe available from animalvegetablemiracle.com)

And to go with the eggs, I made the turkey sausage from AVM. These you could go wrong with. Even though they were nice and spicy, they were surprisingly bland - like a lot of the other recipes. I can't understand how a recipe can have so many herbs and spices and still be bland.

Hope your not sick of changing leaves

I know most of you get to see this stuff every year...but I don't. So I take a lot of pictures of it. And then I share them with you. Lucky readers.

Our last day in Atlanta we arose shortly after the crack of dawn to drive Thatfamily back to the airport. Thatboy and I had scheduled a later flight so we could do more exploring. After we dropped them off, we headed to breakfast, another one of Josie's recommendations, Ria's Bluebird Cafe.

Once again, because of our early arrival, parking was easy and we were able to secure a seat without waiting. We were offered a giant table, but since it was the last open table, and there were only two of us, we felt too guilty to take it. So we plopped ourselves up on the counter. Which was perfect, because Thatboy had been dying for a counter service restaurant.

Thatboy instantly fell in love with the place. The music, the decor, the coffee...

Check out the beans!

On the menu, we noticed that the pancakes were declared the world's best pancakes by the NY Times. It was a challenge Thatboy was happy to take. Especially when he saw he could get a side of real bacon - made from real pork! Now here's the thing that gets me every time. These pancakes were light and fluffy and perfect. I love light, fluffy pancakes. Thatboy claims to hate them. He never lets me make them. Instead he only will eat gooey thin pancakes. So I was all ready for him to hate these. Nope. He loves them. He just lives to make my life difficult.

I ordered the omelet special of the day. It came with enough food to feed a small family. The bacon - which I gave to Thatboy, the biscuit - which was fabulous topped with their homemade raspberry preserves, and a sweet potato cake.

The problem with it being early on a Sunday morning is that nothing was open. Which was okay by us, because it gave us hours to spend in the Oakland Cemetery. I'd been dying to visit, but I wasn't sure we'd make it over there. Lucky for us, Ria's was located directly across the street.



The Oakland Cemetery is one of those cemeteries that traces the history of America. It has graves dating back before the civil war, through modern day. It's gorgeous and the day was perfect for meandering through. Cool, and slightly overcast, and the week of Halloween.

It's fascinating to walk and read through the tombstones, many of them bringing a tear to my eye as it described short lives, and people who were obviously loved.

For me, the most famous resident of the Oakland Cemetery was Margaret Mitchell Marsh. I mean, everything I know about Atlanta comes from Gone with the Wind. (I know, it's not much - but really I grew up in Pennsylvania, so our civil war history focused a lot on Gettysburg.

There's something so romantic about this tree which covers two graves. It reminds me of the tree that was supposed to have grown up over Tristan and Iseult's graves.

The thing I LOVE about old southern cemeteries is that they used to be a place of celebration in addition to a place of sorrow. It was a place the families would go on Sundays after church for Sunday supper. I can just picture a family sitting on a spring day under this gazebo which would probably be covered in flowers.

There is an entire section dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who lost their lives in Atlanta.

This gorgeous statute represents all the soldiers who got somehow disconnected from their friends, family, and any identification. So sad when you think about the age of most of the soldiers in the Civil War.

It's not hard to believe that the section for Confederate graves stretches past the eyeline. If you saw Gone with the Wind, you'd know that Atlanta, and its inhabitants were devastated by the Civil War.


After the cemetery, we headed over to Virginia Highlands which had a cute little collection of stores, and some gorgeous houses. We seriously considered visiting an open house, but then thought that we'd each have to take another Bar exam had us just walk by and admire instead.

We made friends with the people in the gourmet food store (surprise surprise) and they recommended we check out Piedmont Park. We did, and I am SO glad we took them up on their suggestion.

Piedmont Park is Atlanta's version of Central Park. The weather was beautiful, so there were so many other people (and dogs) out enjoying the day with us.

Thatboy aptly named the bridge "The Fairytale Bridge." I'm sure it has a real name, but frankly, I kind of like "Fairytale Bridge."

The view from Fairytale Bridge. Gorgeous, right?

More of those leaves I was telling you about. We're seriously going to have to take a trip to the East Coast every fall.

Anyone know what kind of waterfowl this is? It was so unusual I had to snap a picture. One of those birds that was so ugly it was beautiful. (*Super duper thanks to Jen who has identified this duck as a "Muscovy duck")

Our last view of Atlanta before heading to the airport and back to San Diego.

Wedding in the Woods

Saturday morning we did not wake bright and early. At 11:00, Thatboy turned to me and said "Don't be mad...but it's 11:00" I wasn't mad, but it did kind of jolt me up. I called Thatmom and we decided we'd have to wake Thatbrother up too, since he tends to take a while to get ready. I volunteered to make the call. And sure enough...he was sleeping too. We showered and stumbled across the street to get some food before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

Although the weather in Atlanta has been wet wet wet, the skies cleared up for First's wedding, allowing us to really appreciate the gorgeous setting Mother Nature provided.

Thatboy finally understood what I've been saying when I tell him the leaves don't change color in California.

Even though he claims to be from the land of forests, he's never seen woods like this before.\

But enough of the scenery - it's time for First to get hitched!

He looks a bit nervous, no?

First Child starting walking down the aisle so perfectly, but about halfway down she got stage fright, screamed "DADDY" and ran the rest of the way, leaping into First's arms.

Hmmmm it looks like First might have spotted something important. I know most people turn to see the bride, but I always love watching the groom's first look.



And what a look! How gorgeous does First Wife look?



Even though it wasn't raining, it was FREEZING out. I loved watching how First kept his arm around First Wife almost the entire ceremony.



My Great Aunt (First's Grandmother) gave a reading to the almost newlyweds.



And then it was time for the kiss!



I totally remember this move - it's called the "whee we're married" run down the aisle.



They settled down once we got inside where it was warm.



And the autumn leaves followed us in.



My favorite memory from my own wedding is the ceremony because it felt like Thatboy and I were the only two people in the world. I get the feeling First and First Wife experienced that feeling in their first dance.

Here's to many many happy years to First and my brand new cousin! (It's nice to have another girl since almost all my cousins are guys)

What we didn't do in Atlanta

We did not visit World of Coke. Thatboy vetoed it, and while I usually bypass his vetoes, I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through it and we were on a bit of a time crunch after the aquarium.

We did get to see all the Coke paraphernalia though.

And Thatboy found time to have a drink and convo with the founder of Coca Cola (who he found to be a little stiff)

Don't worry. He recycled.

Although we did visit Centennial Olympic Park, we did not visit the Children's Playground...

Mostly because of rule #1.

We did not visit CNN.



But I did get to experience one of the things I miss most about living on the East Coast.


All those things we didn't do worked up our appetite. Before heading to Atlanta, I consulted my local expert - Jyl from thepostitplace for all things Atlanta (including the weather). A couple months back she had blogged about a family tradition to visit The Varsity every time they made the drive into Atlanta.

The Varsity is to Atlanta what In-N-Out is to California. It's one of those places that you have to visit. Promising only fresh ingredients, and a special, select menu.

And boy is this place CHEAP! I think my hot dog cost a dollar and change. Cheaper than at a Padres game! And way cheaper than my beloved Nathans.

It's a total throwback to the old style cafeteria type places with plastic chairs and tables.

According to Jyl, the rumor is that the place goes waaaaaay back to those days. Started as a hot dog stand and now is a multilevel restaurant AND car hop that keeps people coming back.

Thatboy ordered a combo with a chili cheese burger and chili cheese dog and onion rings. The chili was really interesting - it had a dry quality to it which I wouldn't love as chili, but is perfect for topping a burger or dog since it doesn't sauce and leak everywhere.

I have a serious aversion to American cheese so I went with a slaw dog instead. I love the idea of coleslaw on a hotdog (or pretty much coleslaw on anything - burgers, sandwiches....).


After lunch it was off to the airport to pick up Thatfamily....and drive around the airport for an hour. Because that's how long it took for them to deplane. Thatbrother had called me while we were at The Varsity to let me know they had landed. So we headed out, expecting to reach the airport right as they grabbed their bags. When we reached the airport, they hadn't even gotten off the plane yet!

After finally collecting everyone, we headed to our hotel for a quick cleanup (and a much needed shower for Thatboy and I) before going to meet the cousins for dinner at TAP - a gastropub in downtown Atlanta.






The nice thing about a gastropub is you know you're going to get some good beers. Thatbrother went Belgian, while Thatboy and I stuck to some local brews.

Now eating with the cousins means a party of 11. And there was no way I was going to take a picture of all 11 meals. Besides, it was dark so pictures are horrible anyway.

I ordered what Thatmom calls "the typical Thatgirl meal" - tomato soup and grilled cheese. OMG can I tell you about this grilled cheese? Made with some kind of delicious ooey gooey cheese from Cowgirl Creamery I'm willing to bet was some kind of goat cheese. I literally passed this around the table for everyone to take a bite. And speaking of things we didn't do in Atlanta, I most definitely did not take a spoon to this sandwich to scoop out all the remaining cheese when I was too full to eat any more.

Thatboy had a trio of tacos - curry fish, fried chicken, and fire shrimp. You can take the boy out of California.......He thought they were alright, but we are very spoiled on the taco front.

After dinner, I packed our car up with all the cousins who were under the age of 30 and we headed to a ghost tour I had booked for us. It was supposed to start at 10:30, but we didn't get started till 11:10. It was supposed to be 90 minutes, but it didn't end until 1:30 am. It was supposed to be spooky, but instead we wandered around downtown Atlanta, watching drunk people stumble out of bars and hoping the homeless people wouldn't bother us too much. As we reached the turnaround point of the tour, UDubb was convinced we had already walked in a circle and MUST be back at the starting point since we had already walked so far and for so long. Our super late night kind of ruined all our plans for the next day. But stay tuned anyway, because we all managed to wake up in time for First's wedding!

The return of the garibaldi

Last weekend was First's wedding weekend. So Thatfamily packed up our gear and headed to Atlanta.

Thatboy and I went first. Last year I took Thatboy to NYC for his first time ever. Because we had a limited amount of time, we red-eyed it. Popped some sleeping pills and slept the way over which gave us a full day once we arrived. We decided to do the same thing on the way to Atlanta. The problem? The flight was only 3.5 hours. We landed bleary eyed and far too soon.

I had asked for breakfast suggestions on my cooking board and wifeplzak and josie both recommended "The Flying Biscuit."

Josie informed me that Emily Saliers of the Indigo girls was a cofounder of the restaurant, but now it's a chain found throughout Atlanta. They opened at 7, just 10 minutes after we arrived in their parking lot. Perfect.

Thatboy was a little disappointed with the menu. The bacon was turkey bacon and the sausage was chicken sausage. He gets enough of that stuff at home and likes the "real versions" when we go out. He had the special with white cheddar, chicken sausage, eggs, mushrooms, and carmelized onions.

As usual, he preferred my breakfast - black bean cakes with over medium eggs, goat cheese, and tomatillo salsa.



But the surefire winner was the namesake Flying biscuit. These things were SO good. I kept thinking of them all weekend and almost convinced Thatboy to swing by so we could take a bag home. SO GOOD. They're reason enough to visit.

One of the primary reasons Thatboy and I headed to Atlanta early was to visit the Georgia Aquarium. The largest aquarium in the world! We heard the ticket line can be a zoo so we ordered our tickets online for the first entrance time. And after breakfast we drove over and slept in the parking lot until that time came. Nothing like a good car nap!

The aquarium had two exhibits I couldn't photograph. The first was a 4-D show where we got to meet the mascot of the aquarium. In case you didn't pick up on it from the title of this post, it was a garabaldi fish!!!!!! What are the odds? This is truly the year of the garabaldi. And it made me smile to think of them swimming practically in my backyard.

The second exhibit was Planet Shark - an inside look at the facts and mythology of sharks. And I mean inside - they had more shark jaws and teeth than you would see in a lifetime. And full screen movies of sharks. It reinforced my belief that nothing will get me on a surf board. Poor Thatboy.

The Birch Aquarium had 2 lionfish.......this aquarium had a gazillion.

This guy was one of my favorites of the day. We bonded. So much so that I literally got him to pose in a bunch of different positions for me. When I put down my camera, he turned and swam away. We're friends.

The aquarium is divided into several different sections - the rainforest, the artic, the tropics. There are gorgeous colorful fish in each section.

I decided I was the fish whisperer after the turtle experience. I kept trying to get these pirranah to show me their teeth.

Did you have a fish tank as a kid? With a castle, or treasure chest, or a plastic scuba diver? I couldn't resist taking a picture of this because it reminded me of my childhood fish tank on a much longer scale.

Look! Buddys!!!! These Asian sea otters were all over each other. They were cuddling, grooming, and rubbing something all over themselves. Thatboy thought they were given some kind of drug and some of their actions definitely made it seem like they were on E....or so I've heard. But regardless they were SO cute!!! I love Buddys. They're my other animals of the year.

There were tons of these giant crabs. Each larger than my head. Which made me hungry. I'm not the only one - someone evidently ate my favorite part of this guy.

These cuttlefish were amazing! We watched them change color right before our eyes to match their surroundings. As they moved from one area of the tank to another, their color changed. Thatboy swore their texture changed too. I had a bonding moment here too, but not with this cuttlefish. With another one who kept sticking his tongue out at me. But based on the behavior of a couple of his tankmates, it might not have been his tongue.



Thatboy spent a good 20 minutes in front of the jellyfish tank. He kept taking what he called "abstract jellyfish" pictures. Me? I like actually being able to identify what I'm taking a picture of. But maybe that's why he's the artist in our relationship.

While Thatboy took his 20 minutes in front of his tank, I entertained myself by snapping pictures of these jellyfish as the light in their tank changed colors.

I get these fish confused with the lionfish. It's the spines. I'm fishist. All look same.

Can you see the fish in this picture? He's hiding, right out in the open. It's that pink thing in the middle!!!!

And then we found Nemo!




The aquarium has a giant shark exhibit. It takes up rooms and rooms and rooms. It goes over your head and there are vantage points from all angles. There are a ton of different sharks, some I've only seen in books.



This hammerhead swam right over me. And I wasn't even scared. Which is a big deal for me.



This is Spot. When he was just a little ray he found this little corner of the giant tank with big boulders and decided it would be his little corner. And even though he keeps growing, and he's too big for the space, he still wedges himself in there. The aquarium guy called this place "Spot's spot."

The star of the Georgia Aquarium is the whale shark. Or whale sharks. They have 4 of them! The largest fish in the world at the largest aquarium in the world! I loved these guys and took a million pictures of them.





For size comparison, here's the whale shark with a giant manta ray. Not helpful?

Is this better?



How bout this? Yes, the manta ray is the size of 3 adults. Now scroll back up and see how much smaller the manta ray is compared with the whale shark. SO cool.

Recipes for Disaster

After that first canning experience I knew I had been beaten. But since I don't give up easily I armed myself with better tools and determined to forge ahead.

First - I went out and got myself an actual canning kettle. One that was made for pint jars because honestly, I don't see myself canning quarts anymore.

And because my timing is always dead on, the day I bought the kettle, I got a call from Thatmom saying she found all of Thatdad's canning gear.

Second, I started all my prep the night before. With the right gear, and all the tomatoes pureed, onions and apples chopped, I figured this canning process would be a breeze.

I was so wrong.

Now, I know that it is completely a sign of a poor cook to blame the recipe. But honestly? There is something completely wrong with the recipes in AVM. I know I've said it before, but as I stood in tears in Thatmom's kitchen I knew there was nothing I was doing wrong. I am fairly positive that no one ever tested or made these recipes.

The first obstacle I ran into was the amount. Seriously - do people can in the bathtub? Who has pots big enough for this nonsense? And I really don't think the Kingsolvers really ever made this recipe whatsoever because really - the amount of tomatoes they call for does not match the number of quarts produced and the number of quarts the recipe calls for makes WAY more product than they claim it will.

The only pot I had big enough for all the ingredients was the new canning kettle I had purchased. And even that was a little on the full side.

The next problem was that NOTHING thickened. Ever. The barbeque sauce never got thick after HOURS of boiling. Now I'm a science girl. I understand the properties of heat, liquid and evaporation. There's no reason why the sauce shouldn't have thickened. But it didn't. And the peach sauce? Sugar, water, fruit. I've used this combo time and time again for filling and it always thickens. And yet, this recipe refused to thicken. Which gave me three different "products" that were all liquidy sauces.

My third problem proves to me that no editor went through and attempted these recipes, because the second part of the recipe has a list of ingredients that AVM fails to tell you what to do with........as in, there are no directions telling you when to add the garlic and tabasco. Do you add them to the peaches? The peach "syrup" (or in my case peach water)? The sweet and sour sauce? This is pretty much when the tears started.

The final issue was the amount of product created. The recipe calls for 14 pint jars and 7 half pint jars. After filling these jars, I had SO much chutney left over. Into tupperwear it went and Thatboy and I have been having chutney for dinner every night. And probably will for weeks and weeks to come. Roast chicken with chutney, Roast pork with chutney - tomorrow night's dinner is chicken satay with chutney. I'm lucky Thatboy is so easy going with dinner. Although it helps that I've promised never to can again after this last debacle. And the amount of product I have will last me pretty much until we die. (and maybe a week after that)

Barbeque Relish, Sweet and Sour Sauce, and Chutney (recipe from animalvegetablemiracle.com)