Accidental Peach Fizz

Peaches are in season in Georgia! Feeling inspired by what I can do with all the local peaches I bought at Whole Foods, and it being a holiday weekend, I came up with a peach cocktail that I appropriately named in honor of my blog…

Accidental Peach Fizz

Slice a peach in half, and peel one half. Put the peeled peach half in a glass or container in which you can “muddle” it. Add 1/2 tsp sugar, or agave nectar, or more if you like it sweeter. Honey might be nice too! Muddle the peach and sugar with the back of a wooden spoon or anything that you can smash it with. Add a hefty shot of gin. You could also use vodka or rum, or whatever you like. I had apricot brandy on hand so I also added 1/2 tsp of that to enhance the peach flavor. Fill a wine glass with about eight ice cubes. Be careful not to break the glass, and I am speaking from experience! Add the peach mixture to the ice cubes, then top with sparkling water, as much as you like. Stir lightly to combine. Add a peach slice and mint sprig for garnish. Enjoy in the hot Georgia sun or wherever you like!

Tonight for dessert I am making Virginia Willis’ Peach Upside Down Cake. It looks delish and I am serving it with vanilla ice cream. The recipe can be found in the June issue of Southern Living Magazine, and here..

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/peach-upside-down-cake-50400000121675/

BBQ

So the first thing many people think of when they hear “southern food” is barbecue. After we broke the news to my parents that we were moving to Atlanta, my sweet mother actually asked me to promise her not to eat it all the time. I still don’t know if she was kidding or not. I think she felt BBQ was unhealthy. And assumed that there is no other cuisine in Atlanta. I will apologize on her behalf for the prejudices that we Northerners have about the South. There are many amazing restaurants down here, and most of them are not BBQ!

However. Since we do live here now, we have been on the quest for great BBQ. My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and has always loved BBQ and smoked meats. His favorite restaurant where he grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin was Mike’s Smokehouse, and I would have the pleasure of being dragged there everytime we visited “way up dare, dontcha know.” Sorry honey, I can’t help myself.

I do not claim to be a BBQ connoisseur, but I do know good food when I see it. And I have had a lot of lousy BBQ. There is a place in downtown Alpharetta, Georgia that is out of this world and we keep coming back. In fact we went tonight and last weekend as well. It’s not a shack or a chain restaurant. It has a bit of an industrial vibe to it. It is located in a 200 year old building on Main Street and they serve real food, and really GREAT food at that. Smokejack BBQ is awesome. Honestly. We have been there several times and it is always consistent.

We have tried some of the “best” BBQ places in the Atlanta area and were shocked and how horrible the food was. We have had our share of super sweet baked beans straight from a can, macaroni and cheese from a box that was tossed in the oven to make it seem homemade, and stale yucky cornbread. As my husband can attest, I get very cranky when someone tries to feed me artificial crap, especially when we are paying for it. Smokejack is the real deal. You know it’s good when I only care about the sides. Meat shmeat. And BBQ is all about the meat! Which is great too, don’t get me wrong.

My husband is a devotee of the burnt ends, which apparently originated from Kansas City. Tonight they had a burnt ends sandwich special, with pimiento cheese and bacon no less (see the first photo), so he went with that. No, he is not in the ER as I type this. I have been on a no meat (except fish) low carb deal lately, so I went with the veggie platter, which essentially means you get to pick four sides. Creamy cheese grits, fluffy baked corn pudding, BBQ beans, and tomatoes & cukes were my choices. I dare you to find fresh raw veggies on most BBQ menus! The tomatoes and cukes are marinated with red onion, oil and vinegar and are so refreshing. The cheese grits are to die for. I think I tasted gouda or smoked gouda, and quite possibly several cheeses. The corn pudding actually has corn kernels in it, and something green which could be chilis or green onions. The beans have chunks of meat and chopped red and green peppers. Yum. No artificial crap in sight. It’s BBQ like I would make in my own home for my family and friends. I have had their smoke roasted chicken several times and love their Alabama sauce, which is pink in color and so delicious. All the BBQ sauces are great.

Even my children’s hot dogs were all beef, huge, grilled and served with homemade seasoned fries.

Hungry yet?

We skipped dessert tonight because we were being good, but I have had their peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler and apple crisp, all yummy and all served warm with vanilla ice cream. The blackberry cobbler is out of this world when the berries are in season during the summer. I also love the original artwork on the historic walls!

I have been wanting to write about BBQ since moving to the south but had to do my research first. I am a city girl at heart and BBQ is not normally my thang. Smokejack deserves credit where credit is due. Check it out if you are in Atlanta and are craving real BBQ that is real food!

www.smokejackbbq.com

Scent of the South

Having not quite lived in Atlanta a year yet, I am still finding little surprises every day and feel like a wide eyed child at times. One of the amazing things about living in the South is that you encounter gardenias blooming around almost every corner when in season.

Yesterday I came upon a hedge of gardenias that wrapped halfway around a house. From far away I thought they must be something else, and then the heavenly scent wafted over to me on the breeze. Gardenias remind me of my grandmother, who loved to wear them in corsages for special occasions, and Billie Holiday, who wore them in her hair when she performed. They have such a vintage feel to them.

I know they grow in other parts of the world, but there is just something so unequivocally Southern about those flowers. As a follow up to my previous post, I found some gardenia based perfumes if you love the scent as much as I do.

Parfum

I am almost out of my current perfume and am trying to decide if I want to give it another go or try something new.

I love perfume. Always have as long as I can remember. I love choosing a new one and deliberate forever. Is it a representation of me? Is it too sweet or too strong? Will it give me a headache?

Perfume has been around since the dawn of time, since the Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks and probably before. Below, two perfumers are expressing essences, and the woman on the left is carrying lily flowers. It was carved in the 4th century BCE!

Priestesses richly adorned,
Anointed with myrrh, perfumed with lotus,
Their heads garlanded with wreaths,
All together drunk with wine,
Fragrant with the plants of Punt,
They danced in beauty, doing my heart’s wish,
Their rewards were on their limbs. ~ Tomb of Wennefer

The Cypriots and Phoenicians were well known for their perfume vessels. The Ottomans loved to burn herbs as incense to perfume their homes. Perfuming their bodies was very important as well, and they favored the scent of rose most.

It’s amazing how memory is linked to scent, and a scent can jog your memory.

I remember my mother wearing different perfumes growing up. Her go to fragrance when I was younger was Lauren by Ralph Lauren. She mainly wore it for special occasions and when my parents entertained. I remember her being all dressed up and smelling yummy.

My grandfather wore Old Spice without fail. My Dad and his brother would get it from my grandparents for Christmas every year. It became the running joke in the family. My husband does not like to wear cologne and after several attempts, I have given up. Which is fine because too much is never a good thing, and sometimes cologne can be too much.

Growing up, my aunt wore Paloma by Paloma Picasso. I remember thinking it was very sophisticated and worldly. A friend of mine in elementary school had a very chic mother who wore Paris by Yves Saint Laurent. I can’t believe I still remember that to this day!

I went through a Jessica McClintock perfume phase in junior high. Remember that brand, and all of the lovely (cough cough) Victorian-ish 1980s dresses? I wore one for my 8^th grade graduation, with my badass perfumed self, and the big poofy sleeves and skirt made my graduation gown stick out like a tent! Unfortunately (or thankfully) I do not have a copy of that photo. This is pretty close, only imagine it with poofier sleeves and more colorful big flowers!! That and my braces, oy vey.

My first boyfriend in college wore One by Calvin Klein. Whenever I would smell it after we broke up I would think of him, sometimes fondly, sometimes not so much. Then a few years later, my rough around the edges chain smoking lesbian coworker wore it all the time and ruined it for me. One didn’t exactly evoke the same memories anymore.

The first perfume my husband gave me was Romance by Ralph Lauren. I liked that he picked it out for me himself. It felt so personal and intimate coming from him.

It’s amazing how a person’s body chemistry can change a fragrance from smelling wonderful on one person and horrid on another. Sweet floral perfume does not fair well on me. A friend of mine wore Orange Blossom by Jo Malone in the summer and it was heavenly. My husband bought it for me and I had to return it.  On me, it went from pretty to strong to migraine-inducing in about 30 seconds flat.

My current fragrance of choice right now is Colette by Tocca. It is described as warm, spicy and sweet (but not too sweet), which I suppose describes me as well. I never drown myself in it, just a spritz or two.

My children often tell me I smell good and I smell like me, which always makes me smile. The scent of my perfume is comforting to them. I’m sure children in the ancient world had the same thoughts about their mothers.

What is your favorite fragrance?

~ Happiness is like perfume. You can’t give it away without getting a little on yourself. ~

Les Miserables at the Fox

Last weekend my husband and I went to see Les Miserables at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, a belated birthday present for him. We were supposed to see it in Chicago ten years ago when I was pregnant with our son, but I wasn’t feeling well that day so he went solo. I was so excited to be able to see it with him this time, and nothing was going to stop me!

Of course 5 minutes after we left the house, the babysitter called to say our daughter’s first tooth fell out AND it happened when she was eating a tortilla chip AND she swallowed her tooth! I was excited for her because she desperately wanted that sucker out, but I wanted to cry at the same time. I am a stay at home Mom and my husband and I go out once in a blue moon. Oh the irony that I would miss a milestone such as this. At least there are lots more teeth to go and hopefully she won’t swallow those! Anyway..

The Fox was built in the 1920s and was originally designed as a headquarters for the Shriners organization.  It is a mosque-like building with minarets, onion domes, and even trompe l’loeil. It has a cobalt blue vaulted ceiling with twinkling lights reminiscent of the night sky. To build it today would cost over $300 million. It opened as the Great Depression began, which you can imagine brought its own set of challenges. I had thought Gone with the Wind premiered there in 1939, but that was another theater nearby that has long since been demolished because of a fire. The Fox survived and is now an amazing space used for theater productions, musical events, ballet, and has several ballrooms that you can rent out as well.

Our seats were in the dress circle level, which induced a mild panic attack when I finally sat down. I am not normally afraid of heights or enclosed spaces, but for some reason I was very anxious. One good thing about sitting high up are the restrooms at the very top of the gallery! As you ladies well know, the lines for women’s theater restrooms are sadistic, while there are none in the men’s room of course. The women’s restroom at the tippity top of the Fox Theatre has no lines! Sure you have to climb all the way up Mount Everest, but it’s worth it when the show is about to start and you KNOW you can’t make it until intermission. Just a little tip for ya. Which I didn’t share with the obnoxious woman who was sitting behind me. In her thick southern drawl, she was going on about how some “stooo-pid” woman outside the huge line of the rest room downstairs told her that there is another restroom upstairs if she wanted to try it. She didn’t believe her to say the least and called her an idiot. I kept my lip zipped because she didn’t deserve to know my little secret after speaking so unkindly about a good Samaritan. Stoopid is as stoopid does..

The lead role of Jean Valjean was played by Peter Lockyer, who aside from Luciano Pavarotti was the most mesmerizing performer I have ever seen in person. I did not want him to stop singing! His voice kept making me think “no he didn’t!” The other stand out perfomer in my humble opinion played the role of Fantine, Betsy Morgan. Amazeballs. They both have that je ne sais quoi that gives you the chills.

Les Miserables is currently touring the US and coming to London and Madrid as well. It was well worth the price of our tickets, which were not cheap even for the dress circle. http://lesmis.com/home_usa.php