grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Watermelon is my spirit fruit. (And other fun news from last week.)

June 18, 2017 By Talya Tate Boerner

It’s true, watermelon is my spirit fruit. But first, Happy Sunday and Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there in the blog-o-sphere. (Yes, if you are reading this, you are part of the blog-o-sphere ???. ) I may as well confess right off, this post really isn’t about anything in particular. It’s more of an update. Let’s pretend we are chatting over a cup of coffee, glass of tea, or whatever your drink of choice may be.

I won’t judge.

So what’s up with you? Tell me in the comments if you’d like.

In my world, a few really fun things happened last week.Continue Reading

Channeling Jamie Oliver and Cooking the Perfect Steak

June 15, 2017 By Talya Tate Boerner

The Jamie Oliver Way

Jamie Oliver has a simple and oh so perfect steak recipe that absolutely cannot be beat. And I’m going to tell you how to cook it.

First of all, you should know I don’t eat a ton of red meat. In fact, I go days with no meat at all. But after eating fish for two solid weeks in Iceland—don’t get me wrong, it was FABULOUS!—my body craved a steak.

I probably eat one steak a year. Maybe.

So I bought a sirloin at our neighborhood grocery store (which shall forever be known as Marvins IGA to me even though the name seems to change every few months), and I channeled Jamie Oliver. Confession: Now as I write this, I’m not 100% positive what cut of beef I bought, but I think it was a sirloin. Regardless, it wasn’t an expensive cut of meat—five bucks—and that’s part of the beauty of this skillet steak method.Continue Reading

mid-June Garden Shenanigans

June 12, 2017 By Talya Tate Boerner

Since I returned from Iceland, I’ve been writing like a fiend. Between all the words, I garden. That’s pretty much it. Weeds, y’all. They are thriving. I know my garden as well as I know the manuscript I’m working on. Because when I say, I garden, what I mean is, I crawl around on my hands and knees looking between flowers, pulling weeds by hand, studying the landscape and what’s changed in my brief absence. (Much like scrubbing the lines of my writing, pulling weed words. See what I did there?) I’m here to announce there are some mid-June garden shenanigans at work in my flower beds.

For real.

It’s as though the tiny garden gnomes said, “Hey, she’s gone for two whole weeks! PAR-TEEEE.”

And they have been.Continue Reading