Embracing Life as a Southerner

My body has not yet adjusted to the hot and humid weather. My nerves have not yet adjusted to the frequent and terrifying thunderstorms. My stomach, however, is happily acclimating to the abundance of southern food. Every time Ethan and I go out to a new restaurant, which for those of you who follow all of our check-ins on Facebook know is very often, I am constantly saying to myself “I need to learn how to make this.” Having southern roots, as diluted as they may be, I grew up eating fried okra, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and grits. I mastered Frying 101 (a family specialty) at an early age and wanted to use my skills to tackle some new favorites.

Dish 1: Fried Green Tomato BLTs

I love fried green tomatoes (the movie and the food) and thought it would be great to use them for a BLT. I added a little Swiss cheese, because honestly I am a dairy addict, and ended up with quite a delicious sandwich. I don’t know how many calories are in this sandwich (nor do I want to), but it is worth every one of them. Side note: apparently southerners don’t care about their health since none of the fast food chains here post the nutritional information of their food. Maybe it’s better that way when they serve dishes called “the fat boy combo” (no exaggeration, that was literally on a menu).

 

Dish 2: Fish n’ Grits

As I mentioned, I grew up eating grits, but only as a breakfast food and only prepared as you would prepare oatmeal. They were usually sweetened with brown sugar and had dried fruit and nuts in them. Not until I arrived in Atlanta did I realize that grits can be savory or filled with cheese (again my dairy addiction draws me too food with words like “cheesy” in the title). I also learned that grits can function much like potatoes or any other dinner starch in southern dishes. So, I made one of my typical dinners, fried fish with roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes and replaced the potatoes with cheesy grits.  I had heard of fish and grits (ok, in a rap song), but this was my first time making them and it was great. Really though, what is not delicious when you add a bunch of cheese to it?

 

Dish 3: Southern Breakfast with Homemade Biscuits and Gravy

This is not a new dish for me. I love biscuits and gravy. My dad is famous in our family for making the best biscuits and gravy. It is the dish I alwyas ask him to make when I am visiting home and every time my family gets together for a holiday, he makes the gravy. When I moved away from home, I realized that if I wanted biscuits and gravy I was going to have to learn to make it myself (restaurant gravy usually disappoints). I have watched my dad make it a million times and understood, in theory, how to make gravy. My first attempt, however, was laughable. I was eager to impress Ethan with one of my family’s traditions but instead made gravy so over-floured that I could flip it with a spatula. I did not attempt gravy again for several years. I am happy to say that my most recent batch of gravy was much better. It was slightly over-salted but had great flavor, texture and color. This meal’s real gamble was the homemade biscuits. I used a recipe from Paula Dean and figured who knows southern food better than Paula? I should have suspected that something was wrong when her recipe did not call for any butter. A Paula (per-diabetes) recipe without butter? When I pulled them out of the oven I was disappointed to see flat little cookies that looked more like hard tack a colonial soldier would eat than the light fluffy biscuits I was expecting. Needless to say I am looking for a good biscuit recipe if you have one.

On Moving to Atlanta Part 2: The Daily Adventures

In an effort to keep Raz from eating everything in our house, Ethan and I have been taking her on daily adventures. Each morning, if it’s not raining, we explore a new park or neighborhood; this tires out the dog and gives us a chance to see the town and scope out possible places to buy a house (a dream that may came true in the near future). I already have some favorites.

Candler Lake on the Emory Campus

Atlanta is a large metropolitan city and can feel like Los Angeles or New York in some places. You drive through downtown and are surrounded by tall buildings and the public rail system. You drive through the neighborhoods and see beautiful houses and shopping centers. Then, you turn a corner, and completely unexpectedly you are in the forest with hiking trails, birds and lakes. This particular trail and lake are part of the Emory University campus, a 10 minute walk from our apartment. The trail is hidden behind the veteran’s hospital, but it leads to a cool suspension bridge that takes you over a small stream and then leads to Candler Lake. Raz was totally unaffected by the ducks but very interested in all the woodland smells.

South Peachtree Creek Trail

We were not expecting to find this amazing walking trail when we visited our neighborhood park. The back end of the park runs along the edge or our apartment grounds; although, due to the dense forest area, it still takes about fifteen minutes to walk to the trail. The trail is a little over two miles and goes through cute neighborhoods, but you would never know that since you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. We have noticed that these wooden walkways are very common in Atlanta, since we have seen them at almost every park we have visited.

 

Piedmont Park

Piedmont Park is not one of our cute little neighborhood parks with hidden walking trails. The beautifully landscaped park is one of Atlanta’s largest and sits adjacent to Buckhead (the Beverly Hills of Atlanta). Piedmont has one of the largest and nicest dog parks in the city, a public pool and event hall, soccer and recreation fields, a well-reviewed restaurant and great walking paths. There are always tons of people at the park– playing with their dog, working with their trainer, reading, attending one of the many events held at the park. (I did not confirm but I am pretty sure the kids in the photo on the right are Brewers. Who else goes to a beautiful park to FISH?).

And if we did a good job adventuring, the drive home hopefully goes like this:

On Moving to Atlanta Part 1: The First 48 Hours

I arrived in Atlanta several hours before Ethan and Jeremy (and the moving truck and my car). One of Ethan’s colleagues picked me up at the airport and took me to get lunch at Yeah! Burger, a great local burger chain, where I scarfed down one of the tastiest burgers I have ever eaten (I was starving and, in spite of being upgraded to business class, was coming off of a horrible flight). I then went to the management office to sign my lease papers, and that is where the real trouble started.

Ethan and I had made it very clear to the engagement office that we wanted a unit with gas appliances, and we were assured that they would have a gas unit for us. Within the first few minutes of my move-in inspection, I spotted the electric stove in the kitchen and electric dryer hookups in the laundry room (not compatible with gas dryer I hauled out from California). Both Ethan and I expressed our disappoint with the managers and I was assured that they had a gas unit that would be available in four days. Thinking that we had no other options, I accepted this offer. When Ethan called later to get more details, he was told that the upcoming gas unit was already promised to another person but they could get us into a gas unit in October.

While all of this back and forth was taking place, I was sitting in our apartment sitting on the floor waiting for Ethan to arrive and to hear the latest offer from our managers. I was surprised when several members of the maintenance crew came through the door and started asking me about cockroaches and spots that needed to be painted. Since we had only completed 30 seconds of the move-in inspection, I had no idea what they were talking about. Soon I saw the problems they had mentioned. Not only were there cockroaches in the dishwasher and cupboards, but later that night, my kitchen counter was taken over by 20 to 30 large ones. I inspected the place on my own and found that the carpets had not been cleaned (I actually didn’t realize that until the next day when the carpet shampooer stopped by and wanted to clean around all of our boxes) and the bathrooms and kitchen and not been wiped down. Additionally, the front door lock was jammed and we couldn’t lock it from the outside, forcing us to use the also jammed but slightly-less-so sliding glass door and back stairs.

Finally Ethan and Jeremy got to town and we discussed our options, or rather lack of options and realized that we were pretty much stuck in the apartment they gave us unless we wanted to spend a couple thousand dollars to move again at the end of the month (we have a 30-day no penalty for move out clause). We got ready to unpack the truck when a thunderstorm started. The three of us sat on the floor of the apartment watching baseball on Ethan’s iPhone and waited for the storm to pass. When it became evident that the storm was going to continue through the night, we realized that we were not going to be able to unpack and were definitely not going to be able to get to our beds that we packed at the very back of the truck. Facing the possibility of sleeping on the dirty carpet, using dirty clothes for pillows, possibly having cockroaches crawl over our bodies in the night and not being able to shower, we checked into a hotel.

The weather was more cooperative the next day (meaning it was 100 degrees but at least not raining) and we were able to unload the truck. Wanting to take advantage of the moving truck, we raced over to IKEA to pick up a new sofa and some other very large and essential items. We had just enough time to unload the truck for the second time that day and make it to an evening baseball game where our new home team lost to the Cubs.