Here & Now

Summer's Here

Memorial Day, Southern Style

We just got back from a quick weekend trip to the Georgia coast.  We stayed on Jekyll Island, where the beaches are quickly accessible and the hard, compact sand stretches for miles.  This visit to the ocean for the holiday makes us true Southerns - in my opinion - as most people who live in the South for an extended period of time go to the beach during the summer.

We found out on Saturday morning that sub-tropical storm Beryl had also decided to visit for the holiday weekend and was making her way towards the coast.  Saturday was the hot and calm before the storm, so we stayed on the beach all day to soak it up.  We brought Emma with us for most of the time, as did many other beach-goers.  Jekyll Island is pet-friendly, which meant there were many dogs running up and down the beach at any given point.  We decided to maximize this a few times, bringing both Emma and Simon down to the ocean for walks.

 

 

At first, neither one of them knew what to think of the water.  The waves were larger than normal due to the impending storm, which scared them initially.  We couldn't let Simon off leash yet, but Emma got to run a little bit and she tested out the water a bit more each time she ran in.  During our sunset walk on Saturday night, John decided to show Emma exactly what to do, and he dashed into the ocean with her.  They splashed each other and ran through towering waves again and again, having so much fun together and getting soaked in the process.  John was really thrilled to be at the ocean with the whole family.  He talked about their adventure in the ocean for the rest of the weekend.

 

 

By Sunday, storm Beryl was coloring the skies gray and prompting sporadic rain showers.  We decided it was a good time to show Simon his namesake, St. Simons Island.  We took the dogs over and had to subject Simon to a few photographs in front of the island's welcome sign.  We rounded out our trip down memory lane by visiting the most memorable restaurant of our honeymoon trip, CJ's Italian Restaurant, which has wonderful deep dish pizza.

 

 

One of the more interesting moments of the trip happened in a flash, as we departed the island early Monday morning.  As we navigated the causeway, we saw a truck pulled over with its hazard lights on. We slowed down to see what the situation was and there was an alligator!  It happened too fast to catch a photograph, but it was pretty cool to see an alligator in the wild.  It was a nice goodbye treat from Jekyll as we made our trek back to Atlanta.

 

Twig & Berries (By John)

 

Poultry is remarkably easy to roast on a grill.  I am using a turkey here, but any fowl will do.  Here's how I have found success:

Brine it.  Essentially, this step involves soaking the bird in saltwater and spices.  If I still lived in MN, the other spice I would add is: whole pepper corns. That's it.  In Georgia, my friends like spicy food, so I used cayanne, paprika, pepper corns, onion, garlic and thyme. 

 

Low and slow.  This is the most crucial part.  I used a small amount of charcoal and roasted for a long time.  For example, I woke up at 10:50 on Thanksgiving morning to start roasting the bird at 11:00 for our dinner at 5:30.  As you can see, I put the coals on one side of the grill and filled a drip pan with water and placed that in the center.

Put the bird on away from the heat (indirect grilling).  I have a roasting spit, but the same thing can be achieved by setting the bird on the side of the grill without the charcoal. 

Periodically add hardwood.  This will lend a smokey flavor to the food.

I realize this picture is out of date, but its purpose is to emphasize doing this slowly.  After I put the bird on the grill, I did lots of other things.  I watched this game, mowed the lawn, walked the dog, etc.

 

Remove at 160.  The turkey continued to rise in temperature after it was removed, ultimately reaching 165 (http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html).  If a dry, chewy 180 is the target temperature, skip all the steps above and microwave the poultry.  

 

 

The bottom line is that this was time consuming, but not the least bit difficult.  Even though it took all day, I probably only did about 20 minutes of actual work.  The rest was just down time.  Yet, when it was all said and done, I was rewarded with the best turkey I've ever eaten. 

 

Oh Canada

I've lived pretty close to Canada most my life. I have never crossed into the country, though, until last week. Up and over several states and eventually Niagara Falls I went to make it to Toronto and my first Canadian visit.

I spent most of the time I was in Canada in the town of Kingston, about 3 hours outside of Toronto, where Assurant Solutions has a call center operation. We were lucky to stay in downtown Kingston, where there are old quaint buildings and pubs lining the cobblestone streets. It felt quite British in nature, although I expected more of a French feel given the language situation. There was a beautiful waterside area and several great restaurants, whose food and decor rivaled any of a big city.

This trip marked another occasion: it as the first trip I've taken with only my iPhone on hand for photographs. It was a simple and lightweight approach, even though I felt odd about it a few times. Going forward, my plan is to bring my phone plus camera on more touristy-heavy trips. Kingston had a moderate amount of touristy explorations, so the phone-only approach worked out well. I will add on a "real" camera for places where I plan to take a lot of photos. I use the app Camera+ when snapping pictures on my iPhone, as I really like their edit capabilities.

Canada was a worthy stamp for the first in my new, married-name passport - this seems appropriate for my first-time visit to our neighboring country.

Surprise!

When I heard that I would be traveling for work during the week before my sister's graduation, I got the crazy idea to try doing a stopover in Minneapolis in order to surprise Jenna for the big event.  And so the secret arrangements began for me to fly from Atlanta to Toronto to Minneapolis to Atlanta over the course of 5 days.

Throughout the week leading up to the Friday I was arriving in Minnesota, I was so excited about Jenna's surprise.  It felt like she didn't have a clue as to what was going on - she thought it was just too expensive / too time consuming / too out of the way to come to Minnesota for the weekend.  I called to find out how she was doing as her college days wound down.  I figured out an arrival plan with my mom and dad.  I raved about the plans to my co-workers as I anticipated the weekend.

This was a pretty simple surprise, all things considered.  However, as I finally arrived in Minneapolis and my mom drove to the Groveland Tap, where Jenna and my dad were waiting, I was anxious about the big reveal.  Luckily, I had nothing to be worked up about - the surprise was perfect.  Jenna was absolutely shocked, enough so that she was in tears within seconds.  It was simply perfect and really fun to pull off, despite my initial anxiety.

With the surprise underway, we focused on the big event at hand.  We went to St. Thomas early for pictures, we spent time with Jenna's friends and their families (and our friend Lindsay, who dropped by for a few minutes to say hi), we met up with my grandpa before the ceremony.  We also got to tour several new buildings at the university, all of which were quite impressive.  I was not only proud of Jenna, but also proud to be part of St. Thomas myself during the weekend.  Later, after the long ceremony, we went to celebrate with dinner in downtown Minneapolis.

I am so glad that things aligned to get me to Minnesota for this occassion.  It was really special to be there with my family and a joy to take time to recognize what Jenna has accomplished and the beautiful young woman she has become.

Deep in the South

According to Budget Travel, one of the most beautiful small towns in the world is in our backyard - Madison, Georgia.  I was exploring their website last week when I across an article highlighting Madison next to the likes of Switzerland Alps villages and the English cotswald.

Madison, Georgia

Norman Rockwell meets Gone with the Wind in Madison, Georgia. Legend has it that General Sherman refused to burn down the village during his March to the Sea because it was so pretty. (The more likely reason was that Madison was home to a pro-Union mayor, but no one who's been there questions the "too beautiful" description.) Restored antebellum homes still stand alongside fragrant gardens and plenty of independent boutiques, restaurants, and inns. The small village is also known for its museums, covering fine art, history, and African American heritage, as well as the mini-automobile.

We love a good roadtrip - and anything on parr with world travel -- so we wanted headed to Madison in short order.  Lucky for us, Jeni was visiting us and up for an adventure to check this Southern jewel out.  We piled into the car (Emma and Simon in tow, of course) and made the 1.5 hour trip southeast of Atlanta.  There, we found the promised charming Southern city.

Madison is known as the city that Sherman did not burn during the Civil War.  As a result, there are old, plantation-owner homes lining its streets and quaint downtown streets (unlike Atlanta, where pre-Civil War buildings are few and far between).  We had lunch outside and walked through the small alleyways, oohing and aahing at the beautiful homes.

Jeni also got to see a bit more of Georgia during her visit.  Most of our sight-seeing revolved around shopping, as we were on a hunt to make some much-needed enhancements to our closets.  We also went to the Marietta Farmer's Market and a cupcake shop featured on "Cupcake Wars."  We were glad to have her here for several days.

Happy Graduation, Jenna