Cooking Chicken

I've mentioned how excited I am about the CSA, right? And about the same time 365Nashville.com posted this! The University School of Nashville offers evening classes to support the school.  There's all kinds of topics... gardening, photography, food and wine, self improvement, knitting...  Emily and I took this AMAZING cooking class, "Cooking with Local Ingredients".  SO MUCH FUN.  I was pumped to try and learn to cook a little better to get ready for veggie season.  Kevin Ramquist, head chef of F. Scott's was our instructor and we lucked out that it was a super small class, as half of it couldn't make the time (re-scheduling issues) so the three of us taking the class had almost one-on-one instruction by Kevin and F. Scott's pastry chef Paige.  

The menu read like this:

Salad

Famer Dave's Baby Swiss Chard and Pea Tendrils,

Tennessee Buttermilk White Cheddar Dressing, Benton's

Bacon Lardons, Sunny Side Up Jolly Barnyard Egg

Entree

Roasted Emerald Glen Farms Chicken, Farmer Dave's

 Sweet Potato and Gold Rush Apple Hash, Herbed Chicken 

Jus, Sorrel Salad, Bonnie Blue Goat Cheese

Dessert

Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Tasting

And it was really incredible.  I was in love.  And if I'm going to convince Bill that cooking classes are money well spent (and FUN!) then I should put my newly learned skills to practice.  With a few exceptions it went pretty well.  

1) Cutting up a whole raw chicken.  Gross.  I HATE touching raw meat.  Necessary evil for sweet Bill's dinner.  I used this video to help me remember a little bit how to get it done:

Sparing you the gross details, it turned out just fine!  Look!  Chicken cut up and pretty!! and into the oven for 40 minutes at 400

On the shopping list: a decent size roasting pan
Until then, the brownie pan.

Chopped the sweet potatoes, apples, and onions and cooked them up for the hash.  The sauce reduced but didn't get the saucy consistency that the one in class did.  And I couldn't find Sorrel in the Kroger... So I went with some Arugula on sale.  Still yummy... but I think Bill's going to let me stick some Sorrel in his garden box!

Turned out yummy!

The chicken turned out PERFECT.  I know it's silly, but it was a huge personal accomplishment to cut up and cook some excellent bird!

Side Note:  After the cooking class, I've been SO anxious to try F. Scott's after our cooking class - plus the great reviews from Lannae.  While Bill and I were doing some shopping in Green Hills and he suggested a spontaneous date night to F. Scott's while we were there.  *He's so sweet* We had the greatest dinner... Crab au Gratin for a starter then I got the seared scallops with quinoa, acorn squash, and black garlic butter.  Bill tried orange glazed duck breast,with herb dumplings, onions,and baby carrots, in broth.  It was so really yummy and such a special treat.  

100 Mile Walk

Finally, the gorgeous weather returns to Nashville!!!  Only for a couple days, but we'll take what we can get before any tornado watches.  Bill and I woke up bright and early (kind of) to conquer the day (yard) and took a break for a teensy hike down to the Bicentennial Mall to check our the Mayor's kick off to Nashville Walk 100 Miles.  Mayor Karl Dean is encouraging each Nashvillian to put 100 miles on the treads of his or her shoes between April 2 and July 9th.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean
in the Bicentennial Ampitheater

The Challenge is two fold - to improve the health in Tennesseans (we're the 3rd fattest state in the nation) as well as promoting Nashville's awesome parks and greenways.  I miss the mountains and being able to get away and hike easily, but Percy Warner and Edwin Warner perfect places to get my fix.  And I fall in love with our city a little bit every time I see a program that brings the town together to make us just a little bit better.  Here's how Channel 4 covered the kick-off.

As of Monday night, I'm up to 7.4 miles.

Spring at J. Percy Priest

So much for all my excitement about spring weather.  Nashville has shifted from glorious sunny 70 degree days back to highs in the 50s and nights dipping back near freezing.  But at a minimum that warm streak got everyone smiling and in a hopeful mood, waiting for the warmer temperatures to stay permanently.  And it got things BLOOMING!!!  I was out one of Nashville's gem's - J. Percy Priest Lake - last week and was able to sneak some pictures of the amazing pinks, yellows, purples and lush greens as the grey rainstorm skies sunk into the afternoon.  

Hopefully sending some of these warm weather thoughts further north until you all thaw out :)

First Peek at the New House

Here's some pictures of the new house. Keep in mind that they're snapped within 24 hours of moving in, so it's messy. But I'm so excited about it, I wanted to show it off... I'll snap some new ones of it once we're settled in.

The entryway! Cute!

My Bedroom... the windows in the house are awesome

I heart my roommate because she let me

have the room with the gigantic closet!

Emily arranged the shelves in the most important

cabinet in our kitchen

I love the living room... the fireplace is so cute and

as soon as we figure out how to turn it on, we'll light it up!

Reasons to Love Nashville...

The Nashville Tomato Art Festival

One of the best things about the South is their love of festivals.... festivals for mules, goats, RC Cola, strawberries, hot chicken, you name it. I'm quickly finishing my third summer as a Tennessean, and I have yet (as of yesterday morning) been to the Tomato Art Festival. One of my coworkers mentioned that it was a good one - and a celebration of the amazing tomato sounded like a good deal to me.

I should mention that this weekend was one of the hottest this summer. Temperatures were in the mid 90's and the humidity was extremely "juicy", making the outdoors feel even hotter. Some friends took pity on me and let me enjoy Saturday afternoon out on their boat on Old Hickory Lake, with plenty of time to acquire an intense sunburn before heading back to shower up and head towards East Nashville.

At 7 the sun had finally cooled to a level that was a little tolerable and I met Lauren, Lindsey, and Lindsey's boyfriend Keith at 3 Crow. A couple bands were playing and the art exhibits were still open, but we were all starving so decided to grab a bite for dinner (I had a BLT in celebration of the great tomato) before checking out the rest of the area. By the time our meals were finished, the art exhibits had closed down and we'd missed the events. *sigh* Maybe next year I will get a better feel for the magic of the Tomato Festival.

The night was still awesome. The four of us went downtown and it was one of those rare nights where everyone was out and it was a great chance to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile... and of course listen to a little Lewis Copeland.

Reasons to Love Nashville...

I LOVE when family makes it to Nashville! Aunt Jackie brought her nieces Ashley and Jacklyn up from Alabama for a long weekend to celebrate Jacklyn's birthday. It was the perfect excuse to try Gigi's Cupcakes and take some to the Opry Hotel to meet the girls. Out of all the yummy flavors it was hard to pick just six (so my mom knows, that's Texas milk chocolate, scarlet velvet, chocolate malt, birthday cake, grasshopper, and lemon!). It was so good to see them and walk around the hotel... and meet for breakfast at the Loveless Sunday morning before heading to Huntsville.... It was a great treat to be able to show off my city. Now I have to watch Gone with the Wind before my next trip to Birmingham!

Reasons to Love Nashville...

This weekend was the first time in awhile Dave and I were both in town with free time on our hands so we finally were able to celebrate Valentine's Day (better late than never, right?). Dave showed up with flowers and was able to pry me away from my homework. He was so cute all dressed up and it's been awhile since I've had an excuse to dress up too - and no jackets now that spring has come around in Middle Tennessee. We went to Allium, a restaurant that just opened in East Nashville and served some of my favorites... yummy french onion soup and creme brulee :) Dave went for dude food... steak and mac & cheese (he let me have a bite.... gooey-delicious!) The restaurant and bar were so elegant with the windowed walls looking out over downtown. Seeing the Batman Building lit up at night is oddly beautiful. It was such a treat to have a fancy dinner out. After contemplating movies or the park, we ended up just going home after supper... I'm still getting over a cold that I feel like I've had since January. I love getting to try new places around here. Happy (post) Valentine's :)