Holiday - grace grits and gardening

on this Memorial Day…

May 24, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

On this Memorial Day weekend while you enjoy time off work having fun with family and chowing on delicious barbecue, be sure to make time to remember those patriots who sacrificed all for our country, our freedom, our tomorrows.

Upper Cemetery, Brinkley, Arkansas

Unknown Soldier, Berryville, Arkansas

Fly your flag. Say a prayer. Meditate on how lucky we are to live in a democratic society. Do something patriotic today and everyday.

We don’t have a flag yet for our new (old) house, but after searching and searching, I finally found the bunting which we brought from our Dallas house. It was hiding in a drawer. I love the look of bunting, especially draped on old porch railings.

Our house is dressed up for Memorial Day

Our porch dressed for Memorial Day.

I decorated our Little Free Library for Memorial Day too! If you live in the neighborhood, be sure to check out our book selection for every age reader. Books change daily! And there are seeds in the bottom drawer. Zinnias were recently added (although I can’t promise they are still there).

Our Little Free Library is ready for Memorial Day!

Our Little Free Library decorated for Memorial Day! (Fayetteville, Ar)

Oh, and eat some barbecue! John will be grilling ribs—he’s a master at it. If it’s raining where you are, and it seems to be raining everywhere, try these oven roasted barbecued chicken thighs I made last week. Trust me, this is simple. I made this dish using only my right hand. Why? Because my left index finger was wrapped in a paper towel held above my heart/head to keep myself from bleeding out. #DullKnifeProblems #Distracted #NoTimeForStitches

Rinse and pat dry chicken. Place skin side down on an oiled cookie sheet. Roast at 425 for 30 minutes.
Coat with your favorite sauce (see mine below). Turn and coat the other side. Roast 10 minutes skin side up.
Slather on more sauce. Roast another 10 minutes. (Do not turn again.)
Repeat one more time turning the oven up to 475.
Let rest 10 minutes before eating.

I made the sauce using one cup of Bentley’s Batch 5 Reserve (my favorite!) mixed with two heaping tablespoons of apricot preserves and 3-4 chopped garlic cloves. (Recipe inspired by the one and only Pioneer Woman.) If you are a vegetarian, try this sauce with roasted veggies.

Happy Memorial Day folks!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Take time out of your #MemorialDayWeekend to remember. #America #Freedom @BentleysBatch5 [/tweetthis]

America, The Beautiful – Cedarmont Kids

I’ve since bought real Band-aids specifically for fingertips.

Fancy Raspberry S’mores

April 15, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Did I mention these Fancy Raspberry S’mores were made with marshmallow Peeps? Oh, yes. Leftover Easter Peeps. And of course, there’s a story, a foodie challenge of sorts. What could I do with the Peeps my sister-in-law sent home with me after Easter lunch?

Before I get to the recipe I created, first the backstory.

My sister-in-law made an incredible Easter lunch including salmon, wild rice, asparagus and all the trimmings included mystery flavored Peeps (just for fun y’all). Since Peeps introduced mystery flavored chicks and bunnies for Easter, we did our own taste-tasting and flavor-guessing, washing everything down with champagne. We guessed the bunny flavor correctly—green apple—but the chick was tricky considering it wasn’t a true flavor at all but fruit punch. Hmmm.)

Anyway…

I couldn’t let the leftovers go to waste, so I came up with a different sort of s’mores. The fancy sort. Something perfect for glamping with the girls or sitting around the backyard fire pit on a nice spring evening. Dessert for our weekly girlfriend supper.

Fancy Raspberry S’mores ingredients.

I used Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps which are thin, perfect for fancy s’mores, and sold in the deli area of my regular grocery store (Harp’s). A few years ago, The Bald Gourmet did a review of these cookies. Even though no mention was made of Peeps, he said they are perfect served with fruit, goat cheese and honey, yogurt, pudding, or with your favorite hot beverage. I concur!

butter crisps - perfect for making fancy s'mores

I wish I had one with my coffee this morning.

Look at that deliciously gooey melted peep. Of course, you could use a regular marshmallow.

I used my garlic baker (perfect size to make four s’mores) and broiled them in the oven.

Fancy Raspberry S’mores

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Thin Vanilla Waffle Cookies
1 Hershey Chocolate Bar
Fresh Raspberries
Marshmallow Peeps I used fruit punch chicks
Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions

Prep: Cut peeps into two pieces. Half raspberries. Break candy bar into sections. Depending upon size of cookies, you may need to break cookies into two pieces.
Set oven to broil.
Place one layer of cookies on cookie sheet. Top with one section of chocolate and one piece of marshmallow.
Broil for 2-3 minutes until melted. This takes no time! Keep a constant watch.
Remove from broiler. Place two raspberry pieces on marshmallow. Top with cookie. Press.
Drizzle with a smidgen of balsamic vinegar.

Decadent and rich. The raspberry makes it extra tasty. The waffle cookie is buttery and lighter than a graham cracker which sound oxymoronic but is true. Just a drizzle of balsamic vinegar cuts the sweet.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Fancy Raspberry S’mores made with leftover Easter #Peeps! Decadent #glamping #dessert. @PEEPSBrand @Hersheys[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing (perfect glamping song):

Otis Redding, The Dock of the Bay

the Colors of Easter

April 3, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

iris

I recently told my friend Laurie that my dream job would have been working for Crayola, specifically naming the crayon colors. Since I was a kid, everything about crayons fascinated me from the fresh smell of the wax to the way something so simple could transform a plain piece of paper into a refrigerator-worthy work of art. A new box of Crayons with the colors lined up sharp and perfect, or an old coffee can filled with broken stubs and unraveled wrappers—I’ve always loved them all.

Since my Crayola dream job has long been taken (I checked their website) and the crayons have already been christened, I decided to match up crayon names with the soft colors of Easter. It’s something I automatically do while walking the dogs. Those daffodils popping up everywhere? They come in various Crayola shades including canary, unmellow yellow and sunglow.

During this Easter season, Fayetteville is bursting with blooms. Pastels as soft as spun sugar. Tufts of fresh green grass begging to hide a dyed egg. The color of someone buying me an ice cream cone for no reason at all (Lemony Snicket). Happy, happy colors.

Easter is such a gift. A gift I don’t deserve.

Outrageous Orange

Banana Mania

Spring Green

Goldenrod

Inch Worm

Cotton Candy

Carnation Pink mixed with Wild Strawberry

Razzle Dazzle Rose

Blue Violet

White

If you are a Crayon nut like me, here are a few fun facts from ColourLovers.com:

Crayola crayons currently come in 120 colors;
An average of 12 million crayons are made daily;
The average child in the U.S. will wear down 730 crayons by her/his 10th birthday;
The first box of Crayola crayons was sold in 1903 for a nickel and included the same colors available in the eight-count box today—red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange, black and brown.

There’s nostalgic goodness in every box of Crayons. Sometimes that’s just what this world needs. Especially at Easter.