Its sad to say that this was the last weekend of summer for me. I start back on Monday with Communities In Schools of Atlanta training and then it will be Atlanta Public Schools pre-planning days before I know it. Kinda excited about going back to work and get back to a schedule, but I certainly will miss being able to go sit by the pool and sleeping late.

Spent the last week of vacation catching up on doctor appointments. Went to the dentist and the orthopedic surgeon. Learned that I do in fact have Plantar Fasciitis, which means lots of physical therapy in my future in order to get better and get rid of the pain in my feet. Not exactly looking forward to making those trips to Emory 2 times a week for the next month or two. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

Spend Friday night with Rian, we went on a movie date to see the new Harry Potter movie. Neither of us were too impressed with the movie. I thought back to the book and tried to remember, since I read it so long ago, but really did not gain much from that. Seems as though there is a lot left unexplained for the last two movies.

Saturday night we were going to go out to Nava for dinner, but decided to stay in instead. Andre and his cousin came over to hang out for a while. While getting the corn hole game out of my car, Rian realized that my car battery was entirely dead. We jump started my car, and charged my battery for a while. Have to wait to see what happens in the morning. We played corn hole and ate some amazing burgers with bbq sauce and grilled pineapple and went to bed full and happy.

Looking forward to hanging out and relaxing today after I finish sorting through the office and dealing with my car battery.

Trying to compete with Rian

Seems as though living with Rian has spurred a competitive edge in me, so I decided to try cooking some summer recipes myself and see what I could come up with.

Grilled Georgia Peach with Blueberry Crumb Cake Filling and Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients
6 Peaches
3 pint Blueberries
½ cup Granulated White Sugar
½ cup Light Brown Sugar
5 tablespoons Butter, softened
¼ cup cinnamon
10 whole Graham Crackers, crushed
Whipped Cream
12 sprigs of mint

For Sauce:
1 cup Cranberries
2 tablespoons Honey
1/8 cup Granulated White Sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
¼ cup Riesling wine
¼ cup Cranberry Juice

Procedure:
1. Cut peaches in half and twist to separate the halves, much like an avocado. With a spoon, remove the pit and fibrous center of the peach to form a pocket.
2. Drizzle olive oil over the flesh of the peach halves and slightly sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Reserve in refrigerator until ready to use.
3. Place a sheet of foil, shiny side up, on flat surface and put a coffee mug in the middle. Fold the sides of foil up around the mug forming a cup shape with the foil. Then remove the mug. Repeat this to form 4 foil cups.
4. Wash the blueberries. Separate evenly into the foil shaped cups.
5. In a separate bowl, combine butter, 1 tablespoon of honey, granulated white sugar, graham crackers, and ¼ cup of brown sugar, cinnamon and mix with a fork. Mixture should be clumpy, like coffee cake topping.
6. Evenly spoon sugar mixture into each foil cup, reserving ¼ of the mixture for later use. Pinch edges together tightly to close.
7. Put blueberry foil filled cups on the grill and cook covered for 5 minutes.
8. Lightly grease grill, put peach halves skin side up to grill-mark the flesh of the peach. This should take about 2 minutes in one direction, than 2 minutes in the opposite direction.
9. Remove peaches and foil cups filled with blueberries. Let rest for 5 minutes.
10. To make the Cranberry Sauce, combine all listed sauce ingredients in a food processor, and mix until smooth.
11. Transfer sauce from food processor to sauce pot and let cook over medium-high heat until the sauce reduces by half.

Assembly:
1. On the bottom of the skin side of the peach, slice off a sliver, so the peach sits flat on a plate.
2. Add the blueberry mixture to the formed pocket in the center of the peach. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top of each blueberry mixture.
3. Pipe out some whipped cream on top of the blueberry mixture and garnish with a sprig of mint.
4. Drizzle Cranberry Sauce to the side of the peach, and then serve.


Makes 12 servings

Busy Weekend

Lately is seems like our weekends are just, if not more, busy that the work week. This week Rian taught a class at the Cook's Warehouse in Decatur. He did a great job, although he has already thought of many places he would like to improve. That is a great store, I really enjoyed walking around the store looking at all the unique cooking gadgets and wines.

Saturday night we went to Chef Jennifer Booker's birthday party out in Liburn. Quite a drive! We had a good time, but stayed out way too late!

Rian played in two soccer games on Sunday, good thing that we slept all day.

I cannot believe that my summer is almost over and I will be back at work on the 27th. Where did the summer go?!

New to Blogging

Okay, I guess since I have finally joined Facebook, it was time to start a blog. Suzie has been trying to get me to start one for a while now, and I guess since I am off for the month of July, I finally have had time to start it up. I am not sure how often I will be able to post once school starts, but I will see.

Just got back from a week long vacation in New Hampshire, Matt and Andre spend the week with us and we had great time. Andre experienced many firsts during the trip, including flying, tubbing, etc. Rian also had a book signing while we were there, it was a success, he sold 20 books as well as signed a few that friends has already purchased online.

Busy rest of the month with both of us in training at the end of the month and with schools starting back up in August.