Simple Pleasures - grace grits and gardening

Simple Summer Salad

June 3, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Certain flavors are happy together. One enhances the other. This simple summer salad does just that. The combination of only a few ingredients sing. Try it, you’ll like it, even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t appreciate the under appreciated radish.

Trust me, use butter lettuce (also known as Boston and Bibb). Butter lettuce is usually found it in a plastic container with the roots knotted at the bottom. This variety is super duper fresh because it’s still alive. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of washing lettuce, and butter lettuce is easy to wash because the leaves are loose. Although this lettuce is a bit more expensive than some, there is no waste. You will eat the entire thing, other than the roots, which you will toss in your compost. The leaves are sweet. As you will taste with this simple recipe, you don’t have to dress up butter lettuce to make it flavorful. And, these leaves are especially perfect for wraps.

Now about radishes. The radish often gets a bad rap. People don’t like them for whatever reason(s). But you might want to learn because the health benefits are astounding. From liver detoxification (hello drinkers…) to respiratory cures (allergy sufferers!), radishes even help with insect stings. Plus, they are easy to grow, inexpensive to buy, and a bag will last months in your fridge.

Look how gorgeous they are!

Okay. I’ve stated my case, so now on to my simple summer salad. I know you will love it!!

Simple Summer Salad

Print Recipe

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon freshly chopped dill
1/2 Tablespoon freshly chopped chives
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 head of butter lettuce torn into pieces
5 radishes thinly sliced

Method

Toast pine nuts in a 375 degree oven until golden brown. This doesn't take long, about 5-7 minutes depending upon your oven.
In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, mayo and herbs.
Arrange lettuce and radishes onto salad plates. Sprinkle with pine nuts. Drizzle with creamy dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste.

What’s your favorite summer salad?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]This will soon be your favorite summer salad! Promise. #simplerecipes #gardentotable #IHeartRadishes[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Happy Together, The Turtles

ode to the Pay Phone Booth

May 28, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

When was the last time you made a phone call from a pay phone booth? Heck, when was the last time you even saw a phone booth? While we’ve been busy texting and downloading and surfing the web, phone booths have disappeared right out from under our noses, much like the album store and the electric typewriter and a slew of other things I can’t think of because out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Sigh.

The phone booth in Prairie Grove recently received lots of attention when a lady fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into it. Since it only generated about four bucks in annual revenue, the Prairie Grove Telephone Company (serving the western portion of Washington County), debated about “retiring” it. Forced retirement is rarely a good thing. People took to social media and raised a hullabaloo about their beloved phone booth. It had become a photo op destination and part of what made Prairie Grove special. The phone booth was not only repaired, it’s been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

And that’s pretty cool.

Can you imagine all the phone calls placed in this small space since 1959? Words spoken. Promises made. Pleas pled by curfew-breaking teenagers. But mom…

The Prairie Grove phone booth is located in the parking lot of the Colonial Motel, across the highway from the Prairie Grove Battlefield.

There’s a phone book inside, too.

According to Smithsonian, the world’s first pay phone was installed at the corner of Main Street and Central Row in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. There’s a plaque to mark the spot. As phone booths become extinct, maybe Prairie Grove’s phone booth will someday be the last working pay phone booth.

Or maybe pay phone booths will become WiFi hot spots. It could happen. Maybe?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Dial N for #Nostalgia. Ode to the Pay Phone Booth. #PrairieGrove #NorthwestAr @artourism[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Robert Cray – Phone Booth

The Bearded Ladies of Fayetteville

May 13, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

I love bearded ladies and by that I mean irises and not women with beards. (And yes, that’s a thing, too.) Irises are sometimes called bearded ladies because of the thick, bushy “beards” on the lower petals of the blooms. In our Washington-Willow historic neighborhood of Fayetteville, and all over the South, irises are in full bloom. They are my favorite flower because they remind me of my Nana who always grew them. One whiff of that sweet smell transports me back to the home place every time.

Here are a few pictures I took only steps from our porch.

Just wow. I love this apricot/rose color. If I knew the name, I’d tell you, but there are hundreds of varieties, and I’m certainly no expert.

These deep dark purple irises look like velvet. This might possibly be Superstition or Red Velvet Cake, but don’t hold me to it. Regardless, they are stunning.