Smyrna Food Truck Tuesday, July 24th

The popular trend has finally hit Smyrna...the food truck craze that is! And oh, how excited was I.

It started 3 weeks ago, but tonight was our first venture out to the Smyrna Food Truck Tuesday in Taylor Brawner Park. Have I ever mentioned, how much I love my little town! If not, let me divert for one second to tell you how awesome this little place I call home is.....

Smyrna has not only put together a food truck event, but they encourage people to walk and bike there. This is one of the reasons we fell in love with Smyrna - it's a city that works on projects that reflect community such as widening sidewalks and creating pedestrian bridges that make it easier to be mobile in something other than a car to get to great events like Food Truck Tuesday or the various festivals in the Market Village.

Ok....diversion over. Back to important stuff like Food Trucks and the food coming out of these kitchens on wheels.

On tap tonight...we opted for Ibiza bites and King of Pops.

Ibiza bites was something of a southern latin fusion that included (from left to right in the pic below):

• Waffle fries with a lemon sauce and maple syrup...yes, I said maple syrup, and believe me the combo may not sound complimentary, but it worked!
• Lobster Mac 'n' Cheese with grilled corn....need I say more. 
• Coconut Fried Chicken with Slaw and Coconut Mango Rice...a little piece of paradise. (Just needed a pina colada or mai tai to top it off!)

And of course the June bug was there to do a little begging....and drooling.

King of Pops...these craft popsicles are pure frozen fruit fabulousness...flavors of choice this evening included Raspberry Lime and Apricot & something...we forgot.

 

Overall, a very enjoyable first Food Truck Tuesday for these Smyrnites and the June bug. We braved the 90+ degrees, but we got to spend some quality time with our neighbors and their new baby; plus we walked there, so the indulgent food was guilt-free...at least that's what I'm telling myself.
 

This weekend we head out to the Food Truck and Craft Beer Mecca...Portland, OR.

Stay tuned for Our Portlandia moments.

-Mo

Apples, Apples, Apples

It feels like fall. It's cool enough to sit around the fire pit and drink wine comfortably and without being dinner for the mosquitoes.

So as fall begins...one excursion to the mountains already down. Last week we went hiking with the June bug and then off to pick Apples.

Here's a few highlights from the hiking and Apple picking:

Tree huggers

BJ Reece Apple Orchards

So the question is...what have I done with a half bushel of apples since last week?

Well, we've had lots of apples.

-We made french toast with stewed apples (cinnamon, sugar and butter all included of course!)

-Apple chips (which I've decided I don't have the patience for, or the time...but if you want to try, you can check out this blog cupcakeproject.com. I highly recommend adding the cinnamon and sugar, but be patient and don't forget to spray your pan before letting those puppies bake for several hours...it's not pretty, and don't worry about having cute little shapes. I cut mine in thin slices and let them just bake. They will taste the same and be just as pretty with the cinnamon and sugar on top)

- Apple pie/tart (which I just finished making and our whole house smells of butter and gooey apples...yummy! Recipe below.)

-But my favorite, or at least Juno's were the homemade apple treats I made for her in cute bite-sized apple shapes. (Mouth watering for your little pup, I promise. Recipe below...just incase you have some spare time on your hands. Note....I pretty much spent my whole weekend baking and cleaning up after myself; but it was a change of pace and enjoyed.)

Doggie Apple Treats (June Bug approved)

For original recipe click here to see cdkitchen.com, but I modified slightly

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached flour (I used all purpose flour)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 apple, chopped or grated
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used half the amount of oil)
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
3/8 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with vegetable oil spray.

Lightly dust work surface with flour. Blend flours and cornmeal in large mixing bowl. Add apple, egg, oil, brown sugar and water; mix until well blended. On floured surface, roll dough out to 7/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters of desired shape and size. Place treats on prepared sheet. Bake in preheated oven 35 to 40 minutes. Turn off oven. Leave door closed 1 hour to crisp treats. Remove treats from oven. Store baked treats in airtight container or plastic bag and place in refrigerator or freezer.

Apple Pie/Tart

Crust: you can either make dough yourself and use a tart pan, which is what I typically do, but today, I was cleaning out my freezer and found I still had a good and unused frozen pie crust so, that was my shortcut today.

For the apples:

5 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced.

Layer the bottom of the uncooked pie crust with all the odd shaped misfit apple pieces. Then, start arranging all of your pretty slices in concentric circles. Fill in with other odd apple pieces as you go, to even out the layers. There's no science to it, and don't worry if it's not perfect, it will still taste the same.

Sprinkle the top of your layered apples with 3 tablespoons of sugar and arrange 4 tablespoons of unsalted cubed butter around the top.

Bake at 400* for 1 hour or until golden brown. Be sure to check your pie crust or cover the edges with foil, so the edges don't burn.

Let cool and enjoy....ice cream or no ice cream.

However, you decide to eat or prepare them....just remember that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Goodbye College Years...

Those were my thoughts a couple Sundays ago, when I was looking at my "Ruby" red 3-door saturn that I've had since my college days and gawking over the pearly white CT200h Lexus sitting next to it. Yes folks, that Sunday was a big day. I turned in the keys for my saturn, which served me well, and signed myself away for a 5 year loan on a new Lexus hybrid hatchback.

I have to admit...it was hard. I know it's just a car, but it's only the second car I've had in my entire life of driving; and I drove it for the past 10 years. And, the little red saturn was a very generous gift from my parents, which I'm so grateful for (both the Parents and Ruby).

Ruby, as she was named quite appropriately by my friend Angela, took me a lot of places and has filled me with a lot of memories......

Back and forth 180 miles (roundtrip) approximately every other weekend in college (go dawgs!) to either visit my parents or the Techie boyfriend (now husband)

Several parking tickets...Ruby was red. What can I say. She wasn't hard to miss.

My first solo vacation with a boy (now husband)

Road trips galore:
~Texas, New Orleans, Florida (this was all one trip)
~Montreal, CANADA! for Jazz Fest, which included stops in Hershey, PA; the Adirondacks; Montreal - of course; Toronto; Niagra Falls (both sides); and Ohio, where I saw the prettiest sunset I've ever seen, believe it or not, on Lake Erie.

~Florida several times more
~Cinncinatti, OH with Angela for Gena's 30th, which included repeat stops, coming and going, at McAlister's Deli for oversized, stuff-your-face, loaded baked potatoes

Singing and dancing in the car with girlfriends.

Riding around, just to listen and not miss the monumental sports cast when the dawgs beat the gators for the first time, in who knows how long.

My first real "moving" accident: being rear-ended by a Blazer with Juno ending up in the front seat with me. Luckily no injuries. (Side note and reference to the "moving" accident: the car before Ruby unfortunately had to experience the inexperienced driver's utmost assurance that she wouldn't hit the lawnmower in the garage; I never said depth of field was my forte.)

And so on....{sigh}

But, most importantly, I always got to where I was going.

109k miles strong, Ruby's waiting for new adventures. And new adventures await me with the CT200 Hybrid, which gets 43 City and 40 Highway. It actually charges the battery when you brake!

Luxury combined with being green. It doesn't get much better than that. And, I'm kind of a hippy at heart. I love planet earth.

So here's saying my goodbyes to Ruby and hello to [insert name] Lexus...we'll see how you hold up to her.