August Photos

It was another fun filled month and we really lucked out with some cooler than normal weather for August. We celebrated Birthdays, went to the botanical gardens, and did some festival going just to name a few of our August activities. Here are the photos!

Out take from our tank top shoot

Flying up the stairs

Outside No Mas in Castleberry Hills

Castleberry Hills

Living Walls

Living Walls

Living Walls

East Atlanta

Brunch in Buckhead

Picnic at the Botanical Gardens

Picnic at the Botanical Gardens

Picnic at the Botanical Gardens

At McCrackens in Marietta

Joanna and Milo

At McCrackens in Marietta

Art in the park in Marietta

Art in the park in Marietta

Support Beam For the Stairs

If you've ever walked up the stairs to our loft you know that they are really, insanely noisy. They also moved quite a bit, it was kind of disconcerting. Well as step one of a massive plan to build an elaborate storage and play area under the stairs Eric added a much needed support pillar to the corner of the stair landing.

  It's made of cedar, like pretty much everything else in our house, and Eric got a chance to perfect his mitering skills on this one. Eric is planning to do a more technical post about this on his blog in the near future. I don't know the details of how it's made, I just take the pictures :-)

It hasn't totally fixed the squeaking problem, although it is much better. The real improvement is how much sturdier it feels. It's nice to feel that the stairs aren't going to collapse under you when you go up them, and we are looking forward to working on the next phase of this project when we will have awesome built in storage and eventually a reading nook for Echo.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

I love love love tomato soup! Especially of the creamy variety. I got some lovely tomatoes at the farmers market a few weeks ago and decided to make up a tomato soup recipe using some fresh basil from my garden. After some experimentation I came up with this recipe and I think it turned out pretty well. It would probably be even better with cream instead of milk but I just used what i had on hand.

Ingredients
4 Large tomatoes
2 Tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup whole milk
1 Chicken bullion cube
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Handful fresh basil

Chop tomatoes in to large chunks. Arrange on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove tomatoes from oven and transfer to a large saucepan. Use an emersion blender to blend tomatoes until smooth, then add milk, basil, onion powder (and more salt and pepper if you like) and blend again until smooth. Add chicken bullion cube and simmer over medium heat until it dissolves.

This makes a fairly small amount, maybe 2 or 3 servings but Eric doesn't like tomato soup so it was the perfect amount for me. I think it would be even better with some grilled cheese or homemade croutons, maybe next time :-)

Irish Soda Bread

Maybe it's that hint of Fall in the air but I have been kind of crazy about baking lately. I have been working really to make all of Echo's snacks from scratch and to make all of our family bread at home. I feel so much better us all eating home grown goodies instead of store bought ones which are full of preservatives and dyes. It's been a lot of work to keep on top of but so rewarding and I am turning in to a decent baker if I do say so myself :-)

I had some buttermilk left over from my Mom's Birthday pie and jumped at the chance to use it in some traditional Irish soda bread. It always puts me in mind of the trip to Ireland that I took while in college so it is a warm, nostalgic bread for me. It's also an incredibly easy bread that requires no yeast and it slices thin so it's great for sandwiches. here is the recipe!

Makes one loaf

1 c all-purpose flour

1 c whole-wheat flour

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 c buttermilk 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray (or use a silicone baking mat like I did). In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in the buttermilk until just incorporated. Turn on to a well floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times. Shape in to a an 8 inch round loaf and place on prepared cookie sheet. Cut a 1/4" x in to the top of the loaf with a  very sharp knife. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Without opening the oven, turn the temperature down to 400 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving warm with butter. 

Buttermilk Blackberry Pie

 I don't typically make a lot of desserts just for us because, well, we will eat them all and gain a thousand pounds. Birthdays are a perfect excuse to whip up something special however! My mom is a huge pie person and loves buttermilk pies and blackberries so I decided to combine the two make this yummy confection for her Birthday last week! I was a little intimidated since I'd never actually made a pie before but it came out great and the pie pieces even held together in perfect little wedges when we cut them.

You can find the original recipe here, I just subbed blackberries for raspberries. I'll write out the recipe on this blog as well for anyone who wants to try it.

For the Crust

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter

• 1/4 cup water, plus 2 tablespoons

For the Filling

• 1/4 cup blackberries

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• Salt

• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 3 large eggs

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar and salt. Use a cheese grater to grate butter in to flour mixture (this is genius by the way! Such and easy way to make crust!), this works best if the butter is very cold. Using your hands, mix butter and flour mixture together until the butter resembles small peas in size. Add 1/4 cup water and mix with your hands until dough just holds together. Add the extra 2 tablespoons of water gradually if you need it to keep the dough together. Shape dough in to a disc and wrap in plastic, refrigerate for one hour. 

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on a well floured work space until you get a roughly 14 inch round crust. Roll up on your rolling pin and unroll on to you pie tin to avoid breaking the crust. Trim the edges and crimp with your fingers. Chill crust in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Score the bottom of the crust with a fork and line the pie tin with foil. Add dried beans or rice to weigh down the center of the crust. Bake the crust at 400 degrees for  15 minutes. Remove the foil and beans and bake uncovered for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to come to room temperature. 

Meanwhile, you can start making the filling. Heat the blackberries in a small sauce pan with sugar for about 10 or 15 minutes, mushing with a spoon as you go, until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. Combine eggs, salt, flour and buttermilk, and whisk until smooth. Pour the buttermilk mixture in to the cooled pie crust. Add blackberry mixture to pie filling in dollops and use a bamboo skewer (or something similar) to swirl the blackberries, making a pretty design. Be careful to keep the pie level as you put it in the oven to avoid messing up your pretty design. I also find it helpful to put foil around the edges of my crust to keep it from burning. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to forty minutes, allow to come to room temperature and garnish with fresh blackberries before serving. 

I thought the crust would be hard to make but it was actually pretty easy if a little time consuming. That trick of grating the butter worked wonderfully and I would definitely use it again. 

Living Walls 2013

Living Walls is a really awesome public art event hosted in Atlanta every year. I usually try to go to it but missed last year due to being very tired and pregnant :-) This year I was back with baby in tow! 

Living Walls consists primarily of a great many murals painted around the Atlanta area, generally clustered in a certain are each year. This series of events and art displays also includes lectures, gallery shows and block parties each year to celebrate and raise awareness of public art and urban renewal.  This is a very picture heavy post but there is so much amazing art to be seen at these events! Here is just a small sampling of the work featured in Living Walls this year. 

These first photos are of us going to the main event party which included gallery shows by the featured artists and lectures on urban renewal, Echo was a trooper to tag along!

The main event party was hosted at the Goat Farm again this year (I'm told it was held elsewhere last year). The Goat Farm is such an amazing space, I'm always in awe of it! I particularly love the the way the design events, especially the lighting. Everything took on a really magical feel thanks to the way this was handled. 

Above you can see the stage where the lectures took place and bellow is a painting by one of the featured artists.

The main event party really left us wanting more and we couldn't wait to see the murals around town. Today was my mom's Birthday so we decided to take the morning to do a tour of Living Walls murals and then grab some lunch, here is some of what we saw.

Most of this years murals were in the Grant Park and East Atlanta area (some of the ones I have pictured are from previous years as well though. For more info on Living Walls or for a map of the murals check out their website http://livingwallsatl.com/.

After all that sightseeing we worked up quite an appetite and headed over to East Atlanta's Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand. This place is fantastic but that should come as no surprise as it was opened by restauranteurs of The Porter in Little 5 Points and The Flying Biscuit, both Atlanta staples.

I enjoyed a chicken chorizo taco plate and an ice cold Coke and Echo enjoyed playing with the salt and pepper shakers :-) My mom and dad got a chili cheese sausage called the Hot Mess and a Philly cheese sausage respectively and everyone loved their meal. You can check out the menu on their website here http://www.thesausagestand.com/. I will definitely be going back when I can take Eric :-)

What a fun way to be a tourist in your own city, I love that Atlanta is such a big supporter of public art and that we can host such an exciting even as Living Walls every year.

Easy Cardigan

 I absolutely love sewing clothes for my baby girl. They are so easy and cute! I haven't had too much luck sewing things for myself yet though. I Recently made this cardigan from one of my new sewing books though and I am reasonably happy with how it came out. I'm still getting the hang of sewing stretch fabrics but I was pretty pleased with this little number. it's probably the most ambitious project I've taken on as far as sewing my own clothing goes (baby steps). This project is from the book Sewing in a Straight Line and it's a pretty great project for beginners.

I'm always in need of short cardigans so i have lots of occasions to wear this. I got my family to snap these photos for the blog while we were eating lunch at No Mas in Castleberry Hills. They have a great retail store with beautiful Latin American pottery, jewelry and art in addition to serving pretty decent Mexican food.

After completing the cardigan I felt it was a little plain so I added this scotty dog applique. I didn't get a great photo of this detail but I feel it adds some interest to the garment. I may try this pattern again in a different color or fabric, all in all it was very easy to make and a good staple to add to my wardrobe.