Reid's Labor of Love

I have tried a bazillion times since yesterday to post a picture of our finally painted nursery...so this is in high hopes that I can post them via the blog at least! 

Below are the semi-before shots.  It's not the complete "before" picture since by this time we had already cleaned it out completely once then filled it back completely with my moving boxes.  This is also past the time I decided to start painting the guest room (notice the half primed walls in some places) then didn't get it finished by the time we had guests actually coming and had to quickly move a bed back in.  Which has since been moved to the kitchen house and was replaced with two twin beds I had.  So when these were taken a couple months ago we had a sewing project going on as well as had the printer set up in there (aka, another temporary office spot) as well as a ton of other stuff that has been moving around since we've been married.

And my favorite part of the pictures is Reid's 30 Alt 6 that is in it's "coyote hunting" strategic position (although he never actually shoots because our dogs get too close but yes the screen is cut away just for this purpose.)  Can you hear Deliverance?

Guest/sewing/coyote hunting/Kat's closet/random stuff room.  Look at that ceiling light too...

A better shot of my priming skills...no wonder Reid didn't want me involved in painting.  The twin beds are covering up the floor where I got paint from lack of any kind of prep work like laying down newspaper, plastic, etc.

So...at first we wanted to completely redo the ceiling by taking down the drop tiles and sheet rocking it.  But then we realized how good our hallway looked with the drop ceiling caulked, leveled and painted.  Plus the main thing that made the ceiling look so bad was the huge panel light that was a little too reminiscent of the grocery store.  After a couple trips to Lowe's we decided to change the ceiling lights and paint the existing ceiling.  Then the next step was getting everything prepped to paint (which Reid insists is one of the most important steps...different from my "paint now clean later" philosophy).  Finally the painting began along with wall repairs where the paneling had bowed a little, etc.  Needless to say if I had done this room it would have looked pretty sorry because I would have just painted over everything and called it a "distressed" look.

And of course the first step was clearing EVERYTHING out of the room which has been nicely decorating the dining room for the past 7 weeks.  So you can imagine how amazing it felt to come home to a room that was finally done!  Painted, ceiling, great lighting, etc, etc.  After over a year of trying to make slow but sure progress on the house (while also trying to run a business and work and get settled in the first place) we finally have a room done.  It feels amazing to have a room done.  I think we should host a dinner party in it.

Clearly, Reid removed the firearms from the baby's room.

A mattress for the crib and that's everything right?

I told Reid I am so relieved now-not completely prepared but not completely unprepared for a baby either.  And word on the street is that if for some reason you don't have a car seat (because you are overwhelmed with the 50 zillion kinds that are offered) the hospital will loan you one until you do.  So I feel like if I were to go into labor we would at least have a way for the baby to get safely home and a place to sleep when he or she gets here until my own mother can get here and take control of the "Kathryn doesn't actually know what to do with a baby" situation.  (We are still hoping of course for another ten weeks to go...but that due date seems to be getting closer and closer and closer...)

Best Use of Zucchini Bread Ever!

So I thought I was pretty clever last September when I made Reid a zucchini bread birthday cake lightly frosted with nothing more than whipped butter and a very scant amount of raw sugar.  (Zucchini bread is his favorite but I also made a chocolate cake and pecan pie just to make sure I had all bases covered for our dinner guests...and because it was my first time hosting a birthday dinner for my husband and I felt like I had to have 3 desserts.)  

But today at Athens Locally Grown, Eric showed me a picture that puts anything anyone has ever done with zucchini bread before to shame.  He cut a mini loaf of my zucchini pecan bread he had ordered last week (made with some of Thomas MacFie's organic zucchini) lengthwise and toasted it first to make the base of the "strawberry shortcake."  Then he topped it with locally grown strawberries tossed in a little turbinado sugar; dollop of fresh whipped cream and garnished with lemon zest and mint.

He was kind enough to email me the photo even though he should have known better than to torture a pregnant lady with pictures like these knowing a simple food suggestion can turn into a major craving at any moment.  (Yes, I am calling Lazy Willow Farm first thing in the morning to see if I can haggle any strawberries out of them because I now must, must have this.)

I'm going to go eat my veggies now before I give in and try to talk Reid into taking me to the kitchen where I know I have a loaf left over from baking today and then go covertly pick strawberries in the middle of the night at the LeGette's farm....

Getting Around to Getting a Menu...

I am not the most tech savvy individual.  We don't own a TV (maybe the reason I hated babysitting growing up was because I could never get anyone's TV's to work unless the remote control had less than 12 buttons); I haven't changed my voicemail in over a year from my maiden name even though it's primarily a business phone now and my camera issues have a blog post dedicated to them (but then one of the camera's screen's got all fuzzy and I never posted it which should just prove the point of the whole post).  My 12 year old niece brings her own ipod speakers to visit because I can't get the old tape player radio to work without Reid and she thinks it's too quiet in the kitchen.  Chandler as well as the dietetic interns I've had also have commented on the silence even though it doesn't bother me and I kind of enjoy the focused work and thinking I can do all by myself cooking.  (When I clean I have to have music though and was very proud of my "Cleaing Tunes" playlist I figured out how to put together on my laptop.  It starts with Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?).

Anyway, thanks to my tech savvy older brother we have a website.  And thanks to my brother in law and parents we have two new cameras which now thanks to Chandler I can actually get to take a picture most of the time.  And now thanks to advice from Eric from Athens Locally Grown (who I have asked sooo many computer questions to already) we are one step closer to having online ordering through our website http://www.southernscratch.com/ .  (Eric actually built the locally grown set up which is now used all over the country so every time I post items to the Augusta and Athens online farmer's markets it makes me think of how smart he is and also kind of how I feel like I know a celebrity.  I also know Tink Wade of http://www.tinksbeef.com/ who I think is a celebrity too.) 

So my goal for having our goodies posted online is that we can make shipping treats simpler but also local pick ups and deliveries a lot easier.  Rather than having to order at the market or calling me, you can order online and just choose local pick up.

The way things are right now we sell on Saturday mornings at the Washington Farmer's Market, online via http://www.athens.locallygrown.net/, http://www.augusta.locallygrown.net/, and then post a local pick up menu in the News-Reporter here in Washington and (when I remember!) on our Facebook page and website for local pick up twice a week and then special orders any day of the week.  Plus, for any shipping we just have worked via email or phone and done the old-fashioned "I'll mail your treats and you mail a check before or when you get them to this address." 

We also have never gotten around to ever printing out a final "menu."  Part of this is because it has taken a while to get to where I feel like I've got enough items that come out "perfect" every single time to want to put them on a definite menu.  When I eat dessert I want it to be the very best thing I've ever had.  I want it to be so good that I insist on making a fresh pot of coffee to enjoy it with- not eat some store bought cookie that was just "okay."  Other reasons we haven't gotten around to any semblance of a "standard" menu is that for a long time I never really thought about a standard menu and just kept baking whatever I wanted for the market or cooking anything that sounded good for the "Weekday Gourmet" meals. 

While just going in the kitchen and cooking whatever you feel like is kind of fun, it's (obviously) not really the best approach to having what people call a "streamlined business".  And it's especially not good if you are selling in more than one place and have no standard price list which means you end up trying to do a bunch of math in your head while talking to customers on the phone driving. 

My goal (pipedream?) is to narrow down our top treats (you know to the ones you just have to make a pot of good coffee for), breakfast goodies and cakes and have those available online and printed on cute paper on a regular basis.  Then our food items (like individual homemade rustic pizzas with locally grown/raised toppings; Tink's Grass Fed French Dip sandwich, Savannah River Farm's roasted chicken salad, side dishes, etc.) will rotate based on seasonal ingredients and availability just like they are now.  We'll also be able to do holiday specials, side dishes, etc. for families so you can order whatever you need to round out your menu.

Of course, at the Washington Farmer's Market, I still fully intend to show up with French macarons or chocolate eclairs or banana pudding with homemade vanilla wafers or a wedding cake or any other random thing that sounds like fun to make.  (But if I somehow really hit the tech jackpot maybe we can set it up where you can reserve treats online for those who don't make it to the market until closer to noon...).

Anyway-I need some help finalizing this menu for when I finish asking all the tech smart people questions and am ready to get our online ordering up and running.  Let me know what your favorite goodies, foods, etc. are so we can get this baby going! 

(And if you have any tech, online sales, photography or nursery painting related experience, remember that I am a huge fan of the bartering system and love to trade food for help in doing things I'm horrible at.  Which is also how I met Reid.  Yard work for dinner turned into marriage for us). 

Thanks so much-can't wait to finally get a real menu ready! 

-Kathryn

Southern Scratch: One Year!

Every Sunday morning before church Reid cooks grits (and sometimes eggs & bacon) for us and we get a chance to really catch up on everything.  It is easily my favorite time during the whole week.  On Friday nights when I know I'm down to my last ounce of energy, I can just think of Sunday mornings and know that everything is going to be fine.  My husband, good food, good coffee, our quiet farm, our conversation and knowing that God is to thank for it all make for complete, utter peace for me. 

Well this morning we talked about Southern Scratch.  It is probably one of the things we talk about most anyway, but today we kind of reflected a little on how much things have changed with our little business-what we've done well with, what was just a disaster (the kind you can laugh about now but probably had me in tears saying I just wanted to have a normal job and buy a TV and get our house painted instead of buying cases of butter at the time), what we should keep doing, stop doing and what we should start doing (like get better at taking/posting pictures).  We also talked about how Reid makes the most perfect grits and how lucky I am that he married me which is pretty much a direct quote of myself as soon as I have the first bite of breakfast every Sunday.  Food will do it for me every time.

So here are the best things that have come out of the past year:

1.)  Our faith.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not an uber-organized or really business-savy person at all.  Reid and I love each other, we love good food and we like feeding people.  As far as any kind of overall business plan, that is about all we know.  So I know for certain that if I was trying to pull all this together on my own I would definitely not be writing about celebrating a year of being in business.  Constant prayer has easily turned out to be the best business plan ever.  (I'm usually starting with "Dear Lord, I really don't know what I'm doing but I know that you do....")
We know that in the whole scheme of things, this little business is not really all that important because at the end of the day it is still temporal. What is important is that we make decisions that are in line with Christ; decisions that strengthen our marriage rather than separate us and that we don't lose sight of this bigger truth in life because we are caught up in the immediacy of filling cinnamon roll orders.  (Not to underestimate the importance of a really good cinnamon roll of course...). 
I had a biology professor who would say "Pray like it's up to God, but study like it's up to you."  If you switch out "work" for "study" then you've got a pretty accurate description of what we've done the past year!

2.)  Our relationship with each other.  Things can still get a little tense but working long hours in close quarters together has definitely taught Reid and I a ton.  For my part, I've much better learned how to communicate what I need and to trust that Reid will do it without becoming a crazy, nagging wife covered in flour and butter who clearly has "snapped."  (Which may have happened a couple few, oh say half dozen times on a late Friday night...). 
Not only have we gotten to work together the stressful, long hours of starting a business but we've also gotten to celebrate it together.  The very first market I texted Reid around 8:45 saying "Darling-I've already sold $8!!!".  I was super excited about telling him and even now we always wait until we have time together to see what we sold at the market.  I tell him about every single order and he tells me how much fun it is to hear customers ask for "Better Than's" by name since he came up with it.  We're in it together and I can't imagine sharing the experience with anyone else.

3.)  Our social life.  Part of wanting to sell a few things down at the farmer's market was to get out and meet people.  I was new in town, living out in the country with no really close friends or family within a hundred miles.  I had met some great people already in Washington through showers and visiting but still felt pretty isolated out here.   Starting this business (which we didn't really know we were starting at the time) has opened the doors to so many incredible people.  Our friends Pat and John who own Buona Caffe have a logo that says "Good things happen over good coffee."  We couldn't agree more.  Yesterday, when my brother and sister-in-law were helping us in Augusta they mentioned how warm and nice everyone seemed to be.  There is always a bond that forms when people share good food and drink together. 
I'm not sure how but we have the best customers ever.  I feel like nearly every person I've sold something to I could call if I needed help.  When I don't see someone at the market Saturday morning, it's like a good friend who couldn't make it to dinner so you can't wait to catch up with them the next week.  Even though the Augusta and Athens markets are online, I've gotten to know them through email, Facebook and occassionally getting to deliver on drop off day.    I feel so blessed to know so many amazing, interesting, vibrant people who seem to like food just as much as I do.
Not only are our customers amazing, I have gotten to work with all these incredible growers and producers of food.  Spending time at the farm where you buy all your beef, knowing every family member who grows your vegetables and hanging out every Saturday morning with the people you buy jelly, tamales, pita bread, flour, eggs, and produce from is one of the best social networks to be in!

4.)  Our food.  This morning for breakfast we knew where each and every bit of our food came from and had personally met all the people who grew it.  We had grits from Freeman Mill, bacon from Savannah River Farms, eggs from our neighbor and coffee from Buona Caffe with cream from Southern Swiss Dairy.  For lunch we made sandwiches from Tink's Grass Fed Beef sirloin on Lily Bakery and Cafe sourdough with radishes and lettuce from Harvest Moon Garden farm.  Every bit of it was so good.  And even though it was just me and Reid eating, I still felt a connection with all of the people I just mentioned because when you know who grew/raised/roasted your food, you can't help but think of them. 
And also with food...practice makes perfect.  I will say if we hadn't made chocolate chip cookies several times a week or started roasting 20 pounds of chicken at a time, we couldn't have gotten our recipes to where they are.  We are always tweaking and trying to improve upon items...and one day I'll convert all my handwritten and mental notes to paper...

5.)  Our house.  Umm..we painted the hallway and Reid is putting new lights in the soon to be nursery?  Haha-one day we'll get around to really working on the house...

Wow...it still doesn't seem possible that we've had a business for a year now.   Maybe it's because we still don't really think of ourselves as "business owners" since there isn't too much pomp and circumstance around baking all night long or washing dishes.  Or because the whole thing has really been a lot of fun (until it's really hard then we get some sleep and Sunday comes and everything is fun again). 

Late last fall when we officially moved the kitchen into the Tignall house, one of my first ideas was to have a great party out there for all the incredible people we have gotten to meet (and feed!) on our "Southern Scratch 1st Anniversary."  My plan was to host this on Saturday night, which would have been last night, on the eve of our "one year" and exactly 52 weeks from our first market.  Instead of a party we were both passed out asleep from an incredibly fun but busy day at the Riverwood Localfest in Evans, GA.  And the Tignall house (or our farm/house) isn't even ready anyway.  So here's to aiming for a 2 year anniversary party?  When we have an 8 month old?

In the meantime, we are going to have to come up with something fun to celebrate all around.  Or maybe move our "1 year" to mean the day we actually decided that we should maybe "go for it" or the day we filed as an LLC or the day we moved from baking in our somewhat renovated basement to a bonafied commercial kitchen that wasn't attached to our house.  Regardless, I love a party and so one day we'll have one! 

THANK YOU for helping us reach this milestone!!!

Love,
Reid & Kathryn

the last bite

 Green onions before their buzz cut.

Tri-colored carrots (Some are disguised as beets.)

Pound cakes cooling.

Magnificently, perfectly shelled pecans, if this author does say so herself.

One of these sneaky seeds will surely end up in my teeth, but with freshly whipped organic cream ... who cares?

Cabbage patch.

****

Hello, Southern Scratch readers. I have the privilege to be your guest blogger today. My name is Sarah, and I am a dietetic intern. I had the pleasure of spending a week with Kathryn in Tignall, getting a feel for what it takes to start a small business. It was a wonderful, hands-on experience! Keep reading for a taste of what I learned....

****

There are several ways a person can take the last bite of food. There is one way in which one tries to make the cherished morsel last as long as possible, shaving away micro-bites with a spoon or fork. This manner seems a slow tortuous denial, where someone eats crumbs for so long that they are the same as someone who has actually eaten nothing. Then there is the way in which one simply enjoys the last bit of food, swallowing away the fear and uncertainty of not knowing when or if there will be another portion.

When Kathryn answers a question, she starts a story—stories that revolve around food, books, her husband, Southern Scratch (SS), or maybe a tale from her childhood.  It’s more like a parable than a direct response. It’s perfectly appropriate when she regales you with a story, because in her reply, she unfolds the current dilemma surrounding food. She talks in sorrow about how we are distanced from our food while we unwrap unsalted butter from Southern Swiss dairies in Waynesboro, Georgia, how broken our current food system is while we crack eggs laid by hens about five minutes away, and how downright delicious local, sustainable, organic food can really be while pound cake batter is evenly distributed into two country blue baking dishes.  We discuss food philosophies while sifting organic wheat flour milled down the road and brainstorm about ways to impact patients at the hospital and folks in the community to prevent them from becoming the former. The stories we tell and the conversation we have expose the complexity of the issue one layer at a time like the organic scallions I am slicing.

There’s intimacy in the close quarters of the kitchen, where we wash carrots, zest lemons, and plunge our hands into dough, all while talking, sharing, and laughing. It's an intimacy with the food we are preparing and in relating and connecting as women. The communal aspect of food is so often overlooked, but we pause in the kitchen to sit around a vase of daffodils, commune, and eat. 

As we enjoy our meal, Kathryn talks about her customers. She recalls a number of details about them, their demeanors, their routine, their food preferences, and their faces. She is intimate and personal with the food she prepares, just as she is intimate and personal with the people for whom she prepares it. As our lunch comes to a close, I watch Kathryn brandish her spoon, gathering the last of the vittles, grandly enjoying the taste and texture of spicy sausage with apples and grains. 

As we push away from the table, I think about the last bite with a simple understanding. There is no sorrow in the end of a memorable meal when-- just down the road-- hens are laying eggs, wheat is being milled, and vegetables are growing.

For Christina Groce.

Monday night we had a bad storm come through pretty much all of the southeast.  Around 2 am I woke up and asked Reid if we should head to the basement and by 3 am we had lost power and I was too tired to care too much at that point if the roof was coming off.  Plus, I had let Reid convince me that we were fine (which now being awake I have no idea why I trusted my half asleep husband on tornado safety measures except that I really preferred my bed over the creepy basement bathroom).  I will admit I did get up long enough between 2:00 and 3:00 to put enough clothes on so that if the roof did blow off the house I wouldn't be indecent when the television crew came to film what was left of our stick built vinyl siding home with our hound running around and me barefoot and pregnant describing the tornado as "a train."  (I grew up in Alabama so I know all about proper post-tornado interview etiquette). 

Tuesday morning Reid rushed to get out the door for work since we had overslept.  I immediately brushed my teeth because I had remembered a vague comment from Reid saying that if the power went out, we didn't have water either because of the well pump. 

When I got to the Tignall kitchen to see if we had power there, the little town looked pretty bad.  I went ahead and labeled the Augusta Locally Grown orders that were ready along with packaging up extra treats so that the customers who weren't getting their order would at least have a bit of a "consolation prize."  (Even though I know hamburger buns and cookies or steak fajitas and granola aren't necessarily interchangeable, I didn't want anyone to get that sinking "I have no birthday presents to unwrap" feeling when they got to the market). 

I had errands and a husband in Augusta so I decided to use the day to surprise Reid (after sending him to work with no breakfast.. had accidentally left his portion of granola in Tignall), return horrible curtains, run errands and get to deliver my Augusta order in person (instead of sending it through the Wilkes County Delivery Train which happens to usually be the back of a Volvo or truck). 

Tuesday ended up being a really fun and important day.  I had only delivered my orders to ALG once but had to drop them off and run.  This time I got to stick around until customers came and learn how to be a "volunteer" by filling orders, running up to the coolers to grab gallons of Southern Swiss Dairy milk and of course offer meager brownies instead of a full dinner plate.  As of this afternoon we still had no power and since I was on a "visit the market you're selling to" kick, I got to drive the Wilkes Co. Delivery Train up to Athens today along with Carissa of Tink's Grass Fed Beef.  Again, it was so great to see this amazing online Farmer's Market operation up close and personal.  (Athens even has ipads for all their volunteers to pull up/check off customer's orders eliminating paper...pretty awesome operation).

We just recently got word tonight everything was up and running in Tignall but will have to wait until the morning to see it with our own eyes.  We very temporarily moved our base of operation back here which has reminded Reid and I exactly why we can't live in the middle of a business no matter how convenient the commute is.  It also made us appreciate the stainless tables and three different specified sinks soooo much more.  (I think whenever we redo our kitchen I'll insist on 3 sinks..hand-washing/prep/dishes-it just makes so much sense).

We are looking forward to getting back in our kitchen tomorrow morning and incredibly grateful for the last few days of "inconveniences" since it has led to getting to know more of the people that we're sharing meals with.  It was all worth it today when I drove away from "Weekday Gourmet" deliveries:

 I got to see a mom, daughter and grandbaby from Thomson eating Southern Scratch meals on a bench in the town square while enjoying the view of downtown Washington.  I was overwhelmed with gratitude and pride that visitors from the town over would purposely come and share in a meal that so many from our town have had a part in preparing.  I thought of how we all meet up at someone's house on Tuesday or Thursdays and load a car full of produce, meat, plants, meals & treats and send our little Wilkes County delivery train to Athens or Augusta and how that kind of fills me with pride.  I thought of how I have the best little job ever to get to do something like provide visitors in town with a meal that is not just from my kitchen but from the hands of a whole community. 

And I thought about how I almost fell asleep writing this and that I better go put on my best post storm interview nightgown just in case another storm rolls in tonight...

It's About Time...

The past month or so we have been busy.  The good kind of busy though where by the end of the day you are so exhausted you can hardly let your head hit the pillow before you're asleep and then you're up and running again the next day with an equally packed day.  The kind of busy where when you do get in bed you know you've spent all you could that day with no regrets of what you could have accomplished if you had just been motivated enough, etc. For example, here was my schedule yesterday:

6:15 am:  Wake up in Columbia, SC on our surprise anniversary trip. (Front row tickets to Prince which made all things I had to speed through to do to get ready to go out of town on a Monday night so worth it!)
7:00 am: Breakfast in hotel (why do they always only have light yogurt made with artificial sweeteners?)
7:20am: Leave SC to drop Reid off at work in Augusta
8:30am: Leave Augusta to drive to Washington; finalize orders & details for brother's wedding this weekend
8:37 am:  Stop by grocery store in Augusta for items I forgot (wishing I had brought tennis shoes instead of the cowboy boots I was wearing with yoga pants.)
10:00 am:  Arrive at kitchen in Tignall
10-2:40:  Make blue cheese green onion & grit scones; bake off Better Than's; make 4 dozen burger buns; make carrot cupcakes; pull pork & season; make sauce; wash/shred cabbage; make coleslaw; make brown butter cream cheese icing to ice cupcakes & tartlets; make blueberry filling and fill tartlets I had made Monday; make plates to send to Augusta; package treat orders; load coolers/car up.
2:40-3:40:  Drive to deliver orders to Evans, GA for Augusta Locally Grown
3:40-4:00:  Drop off orders; see friends/growers there like Pat Curry from Buonna Cafe Artisan Roasted Coffee & Tink/Carissa from Tink's Grass Fed Beef and Kim Hines, ALG market manager
4:00-5:05:  Drive back to Tignall from Evans via almost accidently going to Washington and my lack of geographical knowledge adding about 20 minutes onto my drive; meanwhile call customers and make arrangements for home meal deliveries since I was running a little late for 5pm drop off.  (So glad Washington is such a small town!)
5:05-5:18:  Moving FAST at the Tignall kitchen, get Washington orders together; make treat tray to bring to class later.
5:18-5:45:  Deliver meals (probably the most unsocial I've ever been at meal drop off time since I just left my car running!); fill up with gas
5:45-6:05: Drive home to change clothes, grab some food, update FB status & get directions.
6:05 to 6:57:  Drive back to Evans, GA for an organic gardening class;  meanwhile able to find a wedding cake stand as well as call my expert cake decorator cousin for some last minute tips.
6:57-6:59: Breathe.  Amazed I am on time for the class; all orders/meals have been delivered and I actually have makeup and jewelry on.
7:00-9:00:  Learn about organic gardening from Relinda Walker from Walker Farms; discuss plans for LocalFest at Riverwood Plantation on April 30th.  (Reid and I are doing cooking demonstrations-so fun!).
9:00-10:00 Drive back home to Washington; call Reid and tell him how long the day was without seeing him; return a couple late phone calls for orders.
10:00  HOME!!  Laid back in a chair; told Reid how wonderful he was; discussed with him the finer points of the Prince concert
10:25  Ate the best sandwich (okay, 2 of them)...on Thomas MacFie's pita bread with his lettuce and radishes; cranberry-chipotle cheddar from Happy Cow; mayo/mustard; and roast beef that Reid had fixed
10:45 Looked up Prince videos online
By 11:05 Shower, in bed
11:06 Asleep.

I used to think that "getting it all done" meant having to stay up until four, five or just not sleep at all.  I've slowly been figuring out it's better to simply start each day with a good night's sleep and then hit the ground running in the morning.  Actually following this realization pretty well is probably best time management "trick" I've ever learned. 

Then a couple months ago I was listening to this sermon on the radio that had caught my attention because it was discussing time management.  The just of the sermon was that we shouldn't be so worried about "having enough time" because if we are seeking to let God be in control of lives, then we trust that God will also provide us with the time that we need to accomplish what He has set out for us to do; basically trusting that God won't give us responsibility for something that He doesn't also give us the resources (time, money, skill, etc.) for us to take care of it.

For someone like me who does not have very good built in time management skills and a brain that goes everywhere at once, that provided a lot of comfort.  I realized I have been on a long journey of coming from piling on way too much, saying yes to way too much and being a horrible procrastinator to now piling on a lot but knowing when/what to say "no" to and breaking everything down into small tasks that I just get done without agonizing over it first.  I've finally been able to admit that a good night's sleep on a consistent basis is way more effective than pulling an all-nighter and even that preparing ahead of time, little by little, makes whatever project it is actually enjoyable as opposed to the last minute rushes.  And of course, having faith that God will give me enough time to take care of what is really important even if that may seem different than what I think is important.  (Like time to spend an evening alone with my husband even though I was sure I needed Monday afternoon/evening to prepare for orders/meals). 

I have such a long way to go in all the little "management" areas of our business (which means in my life too!) like the "financial management"; "resource management"; "human resource management"; and of course still working on "time management."

 I am sure in a few months that when we have a baby added to the mix I will look back on this time now and wonder what I did with so much leisure time!  I also know that I will probably have only a vague recollection of what a good night's sleep is.  (Or maybe my definition of one will just change from 8 hrs/night to maybe 3 hour stretches at a time!).  I do know I am actually pretty calm and just excited about the whole thing because I know God will give us what we need to take care of our little one and everything else, including the time.

Well, I better get moving.  Headed to see patients at the hospital first then a full afternoon of baking so I can be home in time to have some dinner ready...

Ten Reasons Why I Love My Husband

I thought for Valentine's Day I'd dedicate a little blog post to Reid.  I would have written "top 10" but I'm not sure I have the mental clarity right now to put these in order and I know I'm going to leave a lot out.  (Please don't judge me that I've referred to our baby a couple times today as a little parasite who is draining all the energy and mental capacities right out of my body.  Love this baby, not a big fan of the side effects.) So just listing ten of the many, many reasons why I'm still thrilled that  Reid is all mine (you know, after almost 11 whole months) may be sufficient for now.

1.)  First, he will eat anything at least once.   I've never heard him say "that's gross" or "I don't like that" without first giving it a go.  I love even more that even though he knows he hates raw tomatoes, he tries them at least once every single year just in case anything changes.  I definitely could not have married a picky eater.

2.)  He calls me "Sugar-britches."  For the first two months of dating it made me giggle uncontrollably (mainly because I had never heard anyone say anthing like that and with such a Southern drawl).  I would laugh so hard I was asked on one occassion if I was drunk (right before church, which I was not, thank goodness).  Now all his coworkers and most of his friends refer to me by this little pet name as well. 

3.)  For my birthday this year he spent forever finding the perfect pair of boots for me because he knew my feet get really cold.  It was the last thing I would have thought to ask for but now I wear my Mucklucks as often as I can and my toes stay so cozy, especially during the cold market days lately.

4.)  He knows how to fix plumbing in our house. 

5.)  He built a two story dog/cat house for our pets complete with wood lap siding and a tin roof.  (I told him we should get Leonard Jones to paint it.) 

6.)  He makes sure I have a glass of water before he gets in bed every night so I can have it as soon as I wake up...often a few hours after he wakes up and is already at work.

7.)  Since we found out we were expecting he has completely withheld from tickling me or trying to scare me which has previously made up a big part of his entertainment.  This is a big act of restraint for him and I appreciate it tremendously. 

8.)  He knows how to reload bullets which just sounds like it would be too hard, tedious and dangerous for me.  Even better have been the little craft projects lately that have gone with it such as ducktaping random boxes and filling them with that insulation foam stuff to make bullet cases as well as cutting out target critters (so now we have cardboard squirrels, hogs and birds). 

9.)  This past Saturday morning before the market I had some major morning sickness, had banged my leg falling up the stairs, had no makeup on and had gone all night without sleep to get everything baked for the market. I looked pretty pitiful but he looked at me and said "You're so pretty darlin."  It may have made me cry all prego-emotional style complete with sniffling but it was super sweet.

10.)  Speaking of Saturday mornings...Every Friday night/Saturday morning since last May about he has stayed up late/gotten up early with me to help bake/prep for the market, load my car, make the coffee and then spend all morning with me "working" our little tables behind the courthouse.  We joke around about our regular "Saturday morning date" but I really cannot think of anything more romantic than having a husband who supports my little dream endeavor so much that he'll give up all his Friday nights and Saturdays to help me.  (Along with countless weeknights and middle of the nights too!).

11.)  Okay I'm going for a couple more here...Every Sunday since we were dating Reid has been the one who makes sure we get to church.  I'm so grateful our little baby is going to have a father who isn't quite as flaky as I am...(I'm also grateful our church doesn't start until eleven because the good Lord knows I am not naturally an early riser).

12.)  Lastly, the thing Reid does that completely knocks me off my feet:  He folds laundry just like he learned in military school.  Am I the only one impressed at how flat/square this stack of t-shirts is? 

If you've trudged through all my newlywed sappiness, thanks!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day with your friends, lovah or that box of chocolate that went on sale early...  (And that any men reading this realize that folding laundry is waaaaay sexier than flowers.)

-Kathryn

Ham & Pop-Tarts

No one in my family is what you would call a "finicky" eater.  My mom cooked dinner every weekday and you just ate what was being served.  (Except for Friday nights which was always pizza night.) Which was not a bad thing at all because my mom is a great cook.   I'm one of four so my mom would wake up around 4 or so to have time to cook dinner and have coffee/quiet time with my dad before we all woke up.  Since dinner was "ready" by 6am every day, this means no one in my family has a weak gut either.  See, as we got older we all  had different schedules with practices, etc. so we would eat dinner with whoever was home and hungry at the same time.  My mom was adamant we wouldn't find dinner if she didn't just leave it on the stove so food only got refrigerated a good 12-16 hours after it was done.  Not a practice the Health Department would smile on, but all of us turned out to be pretty healthy and also pretty "adventurous" eaters.  And like I said before, none of us have weak stomachs at all.

Which is why the way I've been eating lately is so strange to me.  I've been an intuitive eater for a long time, so I am pretty good at eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and listening to my body for cues on what to eat.  (That sounds kind of new age-y, but I promise it's not.  Just imagine life without dieting, moving your body just because it feels good, and finding a natural, healthy weight without the food police around to tell you what you should and shouldn't be eating.  If that sounds like a peaceful dream, it is.  But it is also the way we were created to eat and is even backed up by some pretty good studies).  So I'm not afraid to eat lately what really sounds good to me.  The thing that is so strange though are all the foods that don't sound good to me.  Such as...

1.)  Coffee- I think an astute observer could have seen that my morning Southern Scratch Facebook posts went from mentioning sipping on coffee nearly every other day (even though I had plenty every morning) to absolute zero mentions of the stuff in January.  For about 3 days after we found out, I was crushed at the thought of having to limit coffee to a cup or two a day.    I didn't care at all that I couldn't have a glass of wine with supper.  But coffee, how would I go on? Then all of a sudden two days after Christmas it just had no appeal to me.   Now, I can't imagine how I ever drank it since the smell of it grosses me out. 

2.)  Most Vegetables-  Raw carrots, steamed brocolli and a tiny bit of lettuce/tomato snuck on a sandwich are about all the veggies that sound good to me.  Potato salad, french fries and onion rings with lots of ketchup are pretty amazing too but let's not count those as a "vegetables."  I'm hoping I get over this aversion really quickly. 
For example, a week or so after we first found out (right before Christmas) I picked up 3 pounds of raw spinach from Lazy Willow Farm.  I knew how important folic acid was and I was psyched to be getting so much of it in this locally grown, pesticide/GMO free form which had been freshly cut and washed that morning.  So picture me arriving home with the equivalent of about 9-10 of the washed "baby spinach" size bags in the grocery store.  I had been so excited to sautee up some every day and had told Reid our "baby" was going to eat so healthy.  Then I got it all inside the kitchen.  I took one look at all that spinach and quickly realized baby was going to have to get it's folic acid somewhere else.  Luckily, I'm eating fruit like crazy.

3.)  Chocolate-  This is more of a semi-aversion since I still like the stuff in icecream or chocolate chip cookies.  I've mentioned before our stash of weird dark chocolate flavors which normally I love.  Reid still thinks it's funny for him to be eating some and I'd prefer saltines.  Chocolate cake also seems equally as awful.  So instead of eating any myself on my birthday, I just brought chocolate cake to the market for everyone to eat for me. 

4.)  Anything I cook- Luckily this one is starting to get a lot better but for nearly a month I could hardly bring myself to coo,k much less eat, anything I made.  I am so thankful the worst of the nausea/funky food aversions happened during the slow time for the market, orders, etc. and the very worst week there also happened to be an ice/snow storm.  The rest of the time I would go by TPS on the way to Tignall and buy a Mexican coke (made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup) in a glass bottle.  Alternating between water and sips of coke I could get through the cooking.

5.)  Reid's Sunday breakfast- This one is the worst for me!  One of my favorite times to spend with Reid is on Sunday.  Before, I would sip on coffee and watch him cook grits, eggs, bacon, etc. thinking how lucky I was.  Now that any of that food makes me feel a little sick, we're stuck with trying to have a relaxing morning over...granola bars?

6.)  Food I really liked the week before-  Another weird thing is that for a week or for a few meals, I'll really be craving something in particular and loving it.  Then all of a sudden it seems like the worst food in the world.  This has included pizza, orange juice, apple juice, Nekot peanut butter crackers and Talk of the Town's Hello Dollie turkey panini.  It happened briefly with this organic instant oatmeal (which I started eating due to the whole not liking anything I cooked thing), but now it's good again.

Foods that I haven't gotten tired of and cannot get enough of include fruit, ice cream, milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on twelve grain bagels and extra pickles on any sandwich I'm eating.  (But not on the PB&J or with the icecream).

BUT, I think the oddest part about the whole food aversion/craving thing though has got to be my very, very recent Pop-Tart habit.  It started the day I went to pick up antibiotics the ice/snow week.  I felt more miserable than I had ever felt and pretty much all food except for oranges and saltines seemed like a full on assault to my senses and my stomach.  Hot soup or any other good sick food seemed equally as horrible.  Until I went to CVS and passed a package of brown sugar and cinnamon Pop-Tarts.  All of a sudden I thought, "that actually does not sound I entirely horrible.  I went on to run another errand but the little toaster pastries still sounded good, which was a good thing because I hadn't really eaten but I needed to.  When I did get a box of them I definitely thought "What is wrong with me??" that I want processed breakfast pastries but good oatmeal makes me sick?

So for the next three weeks I ate nothing but Pop-Tarts for breakfast every single morning along with not a lot else during the day except for fruit, saltines, lots of water and the time I ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom and had Reid pick it up on his way home.  Between my first two doctors appointments I had lost 8 pounds.  I told Reid I was going to give up real nutrition for good and write "The Pop-Tart Diet." 

Luckily, I've been feeling better all around the past week or so and am finally okay with more variety again as well as eating a much better breakfast most days.  So while I'm glad the aversions toward EVERYTHING aren't as bad, the cravings are definitely starting.  As evidenced by Reid and I driving to Athens Friday afternoon just so I could get a ham sandwich.  It was so worth it.

-Kathryn

Homemade (but not really fast) Fast Food

I was born in Atlanta and the current address on my drivers license* happens to be the childhood home of Robert Woodruff in Columbus, GA.  So naturally, I don't think you can get much better than a Coke or a Chick-fil-a sandwich.  Since neither Reid or I drink many soft drinks or eat much fast food either one of these is a pretty occassional thing.  And since it seems you crave Chick-fil-a way more on Sundays than any other day, I decided to do a little "mock" fast food for dinner. 

*This is due to my parents temporarily living in my uncle's house when they first moved to Columbus while he was in Namibia.  He had restored the birthplace of the longtime President of Coca-Cola along with the Woodruff House.  It just happened to coincide with the renewal of my drivers license in college and was the "permanent" address.  Tomorrow, however, this will no longer be the case as a kindly Washington, GA police officer recently informed me that you actually only have 60 days to change your license, even if you did spring for the 10 year plan, you at least changed your name on your social security card and you dislike paperwork.

Luckily at Ingles, they had a great sale on organic chicken breasts.  I also picked up a box of bread mix.  I knew I could whip up some sandwich buns pretty quickly but I was kind of secretly curious about those mixes.  And, since it was a "fast food" night I thought it was fitting as well as being way better than a bag of store bought buns or sandwich bread. 

At home, I pulled out the Cuisinart breadmaker that Reid's cousins gave us for our wedding.  I had used this religiously when we first got married and didn't have a working oven.  (Along with a panini press we had eaten the best sandwiches in our limited kitchen.  Plus it was kind of awesome to have Reid come home to the smell of freshly baking bread...definitely felt like a housewife extraordinaire).  So I was psyched to use my long lost kitchen helper. 

After it took me about 20 seconds to "make" bread by adding a cup of water, the mix and the yeast packet, I started on the chicken.  I googled a few "mock" chicken sandwich recipes and the basic tip was adding powdered sugar to the flour/salt/pepper breading.  It might have worked but I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand and it kind of sounded gross anyway.  Just wrong to do that to organic chicken.  I did add a tiny bit of raw sugar but decided I would be just as happy with paprika/sea salt/pepper batter than trying to match the fast food favorite perfectly. 

I first cut the chicken breasts in half and then tried to pound them a little flatter which probably would have worked better with a wooden meat pounder than the back of a big spoon which was what I used.  Then I let the chicken soak a few minutes in a cup of organic milk with an egg that we got at the market from Sandy Saturday.  (She said technically they are Charlie's chickens).  Then I battered them (did the process twice for that full on FF effect) and put them all at once in a cast iron chicken fryer.  Covered it for 5 minutes; turned them and covered them again for five minutes.  They came out pretty perfect.

Well...that didn't take very long and we still had about 2 hours left for the bread to finish.  Since we rarely fry anything I always feel like I have to "make the most" out of it because you've got all this batter and hot oil assembly line going. I don't reuse oil (oxidation=not good for ya), so I did what any short order fry cook would do and sliced up an onion.  About twenty minutes later Reid and I were feasting on homemade onion rings with plenty of ketchup.  (My favorite is the Heinz organic ketchup...taste is really phenoemenal, but I'm still pretty happy with the "Simply Heinz" which is at least void of high fructose corn syrup). 

This made a pretty great appetizer because it was still a little over an hour before we could eat our "real" dinner, i.e. my homemade, "It's Sunday and we live an hour away from the nearest Chick-fil-a anyway"  chicken sandwiches.  When the bread machine buzzer finally went off, I ran over to see what this magical quick mix had done.  Unfortunately, it didn't do a whole lot and gave us a loaf about 3 inches high as opposed to the picture on the package which looked more like a good 5-6" loaf.  Oh well-the denser loaf turned out to be a little sturdier for our sandwiches.  I was about to butter the bun then realized there really was no point since the bread had literally just finished baking and didn't need it.  Plus, Reid wanted a little Duke's on his anyway.  After then piling them high with pickles (two really isn't enough in my opinion), they were all ready to go. 

Well, almost.  I realized my little homemade fast food sandwich was missing one thing-an icy cold can of Coke.  (And not that diet stuff either). 

Now, I am a firm believer in not buying 2 liters of soda or cases of soft drinks to have on hand at your house.  Diet or not, there is absolutely nothing of nutritional value in them.  They are empty calories that do little to nothing to ease your hunger.  Many people treat soft drinks as simply another beverage like milk or water, but believe me- it ain't water.  Soft drinks really should be treated more as a very occassional dessert.  And even though the "diet" drinks don't have calories, they do have artificial sweeteners (*GRAS) and plenty of phosphoric acid-which isn't good for your bone health and certainly doesn't compare to the benefits of water or green tea.  (If you really need that fizz, try sparkling water, like Perrier, with a splash of lime, OJ and pomegranate juice...kind of amazing and more like a daytime "cocktail." Scandalous huh?)

So that being said, Reid and I didn't just have a Coke in the fridge to pull out to go with our sandwiches.  We thought about it for a second and then deemed it totally worth it to jump in the car and drive to the nearest Coke machine.  This just happened to be the one in front of Bobby Steven's store a few miles from our house.  We grabbed some quarters and then set off on our little late night "Coca-Cola run."  (Just one of our many romantic adventures).  The best part is that we were completely right on it being "worth it" and I savored every sip.

And here is a pic (finally, right?) Reid took of our semi-homemade fast food meal (that took closer to 3 hours to make)...

Hope ya'll enjoyed your dinner as much as we did!

-Reid & Kathryn

Almond Butter Cookies

I think pretty much everyone knows the super easy Peanut Butter cookie recipe which is this:

1 Cup peanut butter
1 Cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.

My mom makes these and when I typed in "easy peanut butter cookies" the first handful of links were all pretty much this same recipe.  Some versions call for a little vanilla and others add some baking soda.  But you can get nice PB cookies with just the 3 ingredients although I bake mine a little longer because I like somewhat of a crisp cookie.

This morning before I made up a batch of these cookies I realized that a) I needed more than a dozen cookies which is what the recipe makes and b) I hate measuring out peanut butter, especially the all natural kind where the oil separates and you can never get it mixed completely right.  I was also going to use evaporated cane juice instead of straight "white" sugar. 

Evaporated Cane Juice is pretty much the same as sugar except less processed so you still get some trace vitamins and minerals.  It is still 15 calories/tsp like fully processed white sugar but since it a) tastes better and b) is slightly better for you, I think it is the clear winner to bake with in most things.  It is also slightly sweeter than sugar so you can get away with using a little less.  It costs more but using gratuitous amounts of cheap sweeteners may be a good habit for all of us to break anyway...

But back to the cookies.  Here was the recipe I used for tonight's dessert:

1 16 oz. jar of organic all natural peanut butter
1 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Nutrition Info:  36 cookies; 117 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 12 gm carbohydrates, 3 gm protein, 0.8 gm fiber and 39mg sodium.

I used the whole jar of peanut butter so I didn't have to measure anything out (it is the equivalent of 1 3/4 cups so I just did 1 3/4 cup of ECJ since it was a 1:1 ratio in the original recipe) and also so I didn't have to stand there and stir in the oil.  When you just use a spatula and put everything in a bigger bowl it's way easier and the oil, ECJ and eggs mix up super easily.  Some people are probably much cleaner about it that I am but whenever I'm first mixing the peanut butter I always have oil spill over the jar. Then it's all greasy and hard to open the next time.  (Even when I store it upside down first before opening.). 

An obvious solution may be to buy a jar of JIF but unfortunately most peanut butters that are already "mixed" have a lot of extra sugar, salt, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) added to them.  And mixing up peanut butter is really not the hardest thing in the world. 

Anyway, once I made the cookies it kind of hit me that they were inherently gluten free (like the flourless chocolate molten cakes I made last week) and lactose free, two more common food allergies/intolerances.  Since peanuts are another big allergen I thought how easy it would be to substitute almond butter and make them even more allergy friendly.  Also I thought the peanut flavor didn't shine through as much and the cookies could still be great with much less sugar or ECJ. 

So when I ran to the store for those last few items I grabbed a jar of organic all natural almond butter.  A note on almond butter-make sure you read the ingredients because there are several brands that have flax seed, wheat germ, etc. added to them.  While this may taste great and add some more nutrients, it kind of defeats the whole gluten free thing.  (Get it, WHEAT germ?)  It's also close to $10/jar which is about twice as much as a jar of organic peanut butter. 

But for a super easy, versatile cookie that could please anyone with or without a food allergy it's not that bad.  (Ever seen the cost of a box of gluten free cookies?  Non-wheat flours are expensive...)  The brand I bought was straight almonds so no extra sodium either.  Also, almonds are technically a seed so allergies to them are much less common. 

Since these are so easy to make I thought I'd whip up an "experiment" batch right before Reid came home so he could have some warm cookies.  (If they didn't turn out, he could still just have dinner with the peanut butter ones.  And in the end he just had both.  Research, right?)  I might add a tiny bit of sea salt and vanilla to these but they are pretty good as is.  So here is the almond butter/less sweetener version:

1 16 oz. jar organic almond butter
1 cup evaporated cane juice
2 organic cage free eggs

Bake at 350 for 14 minutes.  (For a super soft cookie you can bake them for only 8 or so minutes).
Nutrition: Makes 36 cookies (slightly smaller); 99 calories, 6.5 gm fat, 8.3 gm carbohydrates, 2.4 gm protein, 1.7 gm fiber, 4mg sodium

*Cookie baking hint:  Use parchment paper to line your cookie sheet.  This way you avoid gunking up your pan with baking spray which then turns the pan black. You also don't get any funny taste from the sprays.  If you are making a ton of cookies this especially helpful because you can just slide the whole piece of paper onto the cooling rack and then re-use the parchment for additional batches.  Slide on, slide off.

Enjoy!  I think these are going to come to the Discharge Planning meeting with me on Thursday.  A hospital is a great place to sample allergy free treats, right?

By the way..I'm still working on trying to figure out my new cameras so one day we'll finally have pics back on the blog.  I'm such a slow technology learner...they should probably just give me an instant camera and then let CVS hand me a disk of pictures!

Why Even Our Little Business Needs a Plan B....

Early last week I started to get a little cough and Reid said "Oh Sugarbritches, that doesn't sound good."  I told him I felt fine and that I was sure it would go away.  So along with pretty much the rest of the South we enjoyed Monday's surprise "snow day."  We got to sleep in and our sweet neighbor even made homemade biscuits and had her husband bring them over while they were still warm! 

Tuesday morning there was still so much ice on the road in front of our house (along with a mini skating rink at our entrance) that we decided to cancel meals for the night.  We weren't sure of the condition of the roads to Tignall and the kitchen there is kind of off the beaten path so we were sure there was still a lot of ice there.  I was glad we canceled it because by Tuesday afternoon I was starting to feel pretty bad but thought it just might be allergies/asthma from being outside.  (Yep, I'm a dork who is allergic to oak trees and other random things and will have a full on asthma attack if I eat in too close proximity to exercise.)

Wednesday I went to the hospital to see patients.  By the time I got home I literally fell into bed I was so tired.  My chest hurt, my cough was worse which made my throat hurt and my head was just about to explode.  All I wanted to do was lay in a hot bath for the next day until enough steam made its way through so I could breathe again.  (Which made me wish someone would invent some kind of bath bed but I guess it's not actually good to stay in hot water that long). 

Thursday morning I called my doctor who called in a Z-pack.  I think half of Washington was already in line at CVS and I'm sure the other half were in line at Fievet's waiting on their antibiotics.  After that I ran to the store and picked up a new shower curtain to complete the first of three productive things I have accomplished in the last week.  When I got home I took my first dose cushioned with crackers and apple juice. (I never drink apple juice but it sounded more soothing than OJ-no wonder kids love that stuff, it is delicious and void of most nutrition.)

By this point I was in full-on misery mode.  But I knew I couldn't recover without changing out my shower curtain first and scrubbing the tub-especially if I was going to take a bath.  Plus, if I desparately needed someone to come to my aid, I couldn't very well have them see a messy bathroom. 

I was so happy to see Reid when he got home that night.  For the first time being really sick and married, I wondered how I ever handled being sick single.  I was getting chills so he would take a blanket, stick it in the dryer and then when it was hot come wrap me up in it.  He was so great, peeling oranges and making sure I had plenty of water. 

Friday we went and did the second productive thing all week which was to finalize the new insurance plan for the business post-Tignall kitchen.  Poor Reid drove while I went through a roll of toilet paper sneezing and coughing the whole way.  Luckily, his birthday gift to me had come in-a pair of Manitobah Mukluks.  They have a fleece inner lining and then suede/leather/rabbit fur exterior.  My feet haven't been cold since.  I fully realized what a horrible outfit I was wearing in public with my layers to keep warm, no makeup, this fuzzy hat and furry mocassin boots but I really didn't care.  (I even sported it in downtown Athens while running in to grab a bag of coffee at 1000 Faces-UGA students-you're welcome for the entertainment.)

I basically slept all day Saturday and on Sunday afternoon I accomplished my third productive thing which was to finish monogramming and sewing this really simple dog bed.  I probably wouldn't have finished it if our dog Mattie hadn't found her way in the guest bedroom and "dug" through the block of foam that was going to go in it.  This little excavation has left little pieces of foam ALL OVER the room.  (Again I'm glad I scrubbed my bathroom-just imagine if someone had seen that AND a dirty tub?)  I filled the the bed with an old pillow instead and soon will get all the little pieces up-probably when I'm more over this though.  (For some reason the dogs have switched beds-so we have this 30# dog on a huge bed and an 85# dog trying to fit on a cushion the size of a standard size pillow).

So what does all this have to do with a Plan B?  After canceling two meals and a market due to the ice and illness (and an order due to unexpected no propane at the Tignall house-which is being looked at tomorrow since we just had it filled), I started to think about what all could go wrong.  From my experience managing kitchen employees in a hospital, I've known you don't ever want to only have one employee who can do a specific job.  It's better to have people who can "crosstrain" and fill in when someone is sick, on leave, etc.  Having an organized work environment where jobs can be broken down into simple tasks also makes it easier to hire and train employees.  Now being a "business owner" (gulp!) I see firsthand what it's like when YOU are pretty much the only employee (except for your husband who already has a full time job). 

So while laying in bed over the past week I've thought about how important that concept is even in our little business.  My first thought was "How could I have made it so that someone else could have cooked & delivered the meals?"  It is easy to get away with not being organized and exact when your business consists of you and your husband.   I think the best thing about being sick this week (other than the Edy's fruit bars) has been getting to see our little business from a completely new perspective.  Mainly from being sick (and we'll chalk Tuesday to the ice), we had to forego 2 nights of meals and the market-which in our little business is the equivalent of being "closed" all week long.  Not very good if you plan on staying in business for very long... 

Once I'm back to feeling-good mode and not getting-by mode, I'm looking forward to working (hopefully) a bit smarter in our little business.  We're excited about a girl coming to help do prep work after school and finding out which parts of our business are good to delegate to others and which parts are best to do ourselves.  (It's always a good start when you realize you can't do everything, right?)

Hope everyone is feeling better (or doesn't get sick to begin with) around here!  How many more weeks of winter????

-Kathryn

Washington Farmer's Market Still Open!

Most Farmer's Markets have closed for the season and will open back up when the weather gets a little warmer...but not in Washington-Wilkes!  As long as it's not raining we will be in the parking lot behind the courthouse from 9am-noon every Saturday.  And if it is raining we will be under the awning to the side of the Chamber of Commerce. 

The following vendors will be there for sure this Saturday from Wilkes County:

Tink's Grass Fed Beef-the most amazing tasting beef & pastured pork ever! 

Lazy Willow Farms-sweet potatoes, garlic, spinach, homemade soap, (incredible) homemade sourdough bread, and really awesome novels

Harvest Moon Garden Farm- so excited the Carter's will be there!  Rumor has it John has lots of  homegrown tomatoes...yep, in January! 

Southern Scratch-fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls, scones, Better Than's, homemade granola and more! 

I'm also pretty sure Leonora and her made from scratch jalapeno & cheese or spicy chicken tamales will be there too!

 Even though it's going to be cold come down and see us!  Get ingredients for soup & stew with locally grown vegetables and beef or pork and some dessert to go with hot cocoa in case it does snow Sunday!

See everybody Saturday morning!

-Reid & Kathryn

And We're Back!

Happy New Year! 

Although it always seems you can't believe it is the New Year, I will say this past year doesn't seem like it could have fit anything else in it!  What started as a busy year with the final stages of wedding planning ended as just as busy a time with filling the final Christmas orders and traveling all over the southeast to see family. 

Since we knew we would start back up in January with a packed schedule, we decided we would take this week "off" as much as possible!  Reid still worked all week and I started orientation as the new part time clinical dietitian at Wills Memorial, but overall we really relaxed.  We ate out a lot, laid low at night watching movies and just enjoyed a week without any real deadlines.

Friday night we went up to Athens for dinner and realized that although a Japanese steakhouse is great in theory, the amount of margarine added to innocent rice and vegetables is borderline criminal.  (Not to mention the couples beside us who added about two cups each of mayonaisse based "yellow sauce" to their plates which kind of grossed us both out big time.  Atleast it did give me an idea to do a few posts centered around how good food can be turned bad so quickly...).  I was in bed by about 10:30 and woke up right at midnight somehow to squeak out "Happy New Year."  Not quite the exciting end to such an exciting year but it felt great to not be staying up all night baking for one of the first Friday nights in months!

Yesterday we continued our holiday theme with sleeping in.  Since we had plenty of time, Reid cooked a big breakfast of grits, organic cage free eggs, some of Tink's pastured pork sausage, with some of Sandy's whole wheat sourdough bread toast and sharp cheddar.  I think by far this was the best meal we ate all week.  Maybe because he lived alone for so many years, Reid is a grand master champion at grit cooking.  He doesn't add anything fancy to them, just salt, pepper and butter but they are incredible. 

For dinner I cooked black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread in the cast iron skillet, and a little risotto.  I overcooked the peas so we didn't eat a lot of them which maybe will indicate a little less change in 2011 than 2010 but you never know- I think we would both be happy just working on what is on our plate already!Luckily Reid did eat plenty of collard greens...

After dinner Reid taught me how to play gin.  (And then I beat him in 2/3 games to 100).  Between games Reid read out goals we had each written down for the year.  He had told me Saturday morning he "needed my goals by the end of the day."  So before he read them out he told me that since this was our first holiday together married and we were creating traditions, that he thought sharing our goals together should be one of our traditions.  It was fun to see what we each put down and a lot of them were along the same lines.  I even did a little separate section for Southern Scratch which I think I need to formalize some what to guide our decisions over the next year. 

After a few more rounds of gin and a mug of Rocky Road  for me (for some reason I hate eating ice cream out of bowl and just always eat it from a coffee mug-maybe because I like adding just a little milk on top to make those ice crystals form) and some dark citrus ginger chocolate for Reid (my sister's in-laws gave us this awesome gift bag of all kinds of artisan chocolate for Christmas addressed:  To K&R, from K&R-loved it!), we went to bed pretty early again. 

Today after church we decided to go to Heavy's barbeque in Crawfordville.  I had never been but seen all the signs and heard all the legendary tales about the place including the filming of part of "Sweet Home Alabama."  The food was definitely just good ole' barbeque and stew and fit into our "let's not cook so much this week" plan!  I was so full we fell into a total fat-kid-coma and took a Sunday afternoon nap. 

I (finally after nearly ten months of living here) made a primary appointment for annual check-ups tomorrow in Augusta.  And in more eat-whatever-you-want-because-heck-it's-the-holidays confessions, I totally signed Reid and I up for a free Chick-fil-a spicy chicken biscuit in the morning.  (Definitely not pre-doctor's appointment food).  After our "morning date" Reid has to go to work and I'm going to do some shopping/errands in "the big city."  Then maybe I'll save any Sam's errands for when Reid get's off work so we can hold hands and people watch together.  Oh what an exciting life we lead.

Then Tuesday it is back to busy!  I am loving the time I have spent so far at the hospital and looking foward to seeing patients in the morning.  Then heading over to our kitchen in Tignall and getting dinner fixed for our first ever TUESDAY night Weekday Gourmet meal. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!  I think our "tradition" is definitely going to include the week after Christmas being our real "low key family holiday" time when we (and maybe one day our children) get a break from home cooked meals and get to eat out, sleep in and play games. 

Well, I've got to hurry up and finish because Reid is fixing hot chocolate and then we are on for another gin match-up... 

Thank's y'all for making 2010 so wonderful!