I love a new month! Bring on September, new menus, new pictures, new reading challenges, new weight challenges, new friends, new adventures. Prime word is NEW!
This month we are going on vacation to a place we both vacationed as children with our families of origin and now we get to introduce our boys to the joy of Vogel State Park. Our older boy turns two so get ready for birthday blogs. Its fun! So, let’s get going!
Having a freezer meal party (pictures forthcoming) and am bringing chicken rice broccoli cheese casserole. Recipe forthcoming
Snickerdoodle Cookie Sandwiches with Spiced Pumpkin Buttercream – recipe forthcoming
And summer is slowly coming to an end. Zoo Atlanta is less crowded during the day. More school buses are always on the streets around town. Malls are less jam packed with kids.
School may have started, but summer fruits are still thriving. This past weekend I went over to Alabama to visit with some family and I got treated to two farm-grown watermelons. One had yellow flesh and one had the typical red flesh. Both were beautiful and sweet.
So, I paired them both with some balsamic and olive oil! What? That doesn’t go with watermelon. It does if you have some specialty balsamic and olive oil from Oli & Ve in Roswell. I paired this for a tasting there and knew that I would be purchasing both. That tasted amazing together.
Vanilla Lime Watermelon Salad
Recipe Type: Salad
Cuisine: Fruit Salad
Author: The Charming South Kitchen
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
Fresh summer fruit that is simply dressed – perfect.
Ingredients
1 cup yellow flesh watermelon, cubed and seeded
1 cup red flesh watermelon, cubed and seeded
2 tsp vanilla balsamic vinegar
2 tsp persian lime olive oil
salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
Put watermelon in a bowl. Combine the oil and vinegar together. Drizzle over top of the fruit. Season with salt and pepper. Eat!
I like this served room temperature. Would be a great side dish to a pork or tacos or fish
Budget living is not fun, but it is wise. I could spend so much on groceries. Even though when we lived in Little Rock, there was a grocery tax, the cost of food here in ATL is still more. So, we are examining our budget and our needs – especially as our two littles go through growth spurts and eat a lot!
So, we get a little creative – or maybe a little boring when we get to the last week of the month, especially one with 5 full weekends and 31 days! And this week also brings with it a date night to the Braves game – can’t wait to try some stadium food – any suggestions?
Vegetable Slow-Cooker Lasagna (this is cooking right now and will get the recipe up to y’all soon)
Grown-up Green Eggs and Ham (recipe coming later this week as well)
Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage
Zucchini and carrot muffins (combined, not separate)
Something savory and something sweet with some watermelon I’m getting today – haven’t decided what
My friend Tasya took the above photo and I got the idea for labels from my friend Shannon.
For this week’s edition of Sundays in the South, I am featuring I recipe I finished up this morning.
I am definitely from the South. And if there is any dessert that is commonplace in the South, especially the Deep South, it is pound cake. Unfortunately, pound cake might rank right up there in my just-never-asked-for-desserts. Unless you are this one particular pound cake found at a tiny bakery in a tiny town off I-40 in North Carolina.
Ketchie Creek Bakery serves an amazing Five Flavor Pound Cake with a rich and smooth buttercream which I would take over most any dessert in the world. You get a huge piece and need to split it with about 4 friends, but man, it just melts in your mouth.
But, this pound cake features two of those flavors…lime and vanilla. I made it today for our family reunion and my Dad’s comment “Its dense and moist.” Exactly what a pound cake should be.
I tweaked How Sweet Eats recipe of this – I thought it was too lime-y, so the recipe you see below makes that adjustment. Also, I didn’t have a vanilla bean, so I upped the amount of vanilla. The end result was still tangy and smooth.
Vanilla Lime Pound Cake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Pound Cake
Author: The Charming South Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-10
Tart and warm…a Southern vanilla lime pound cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3 eggs
3 T whole milk
1 1/2 T REAL vanilla extract or paste (don’t use imitation as this is a huge taste of your pound cake)
1 T lime zest
1/4 cup lime juice
For the glaze:
1 tsp vanilla
1 T heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
juice of two limes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Put parchment paper in a loaf pan and spray with cooking spray.
Mix dry ingredients. Sugar in this recipe is a dry ingredient. Reminds me to always read directions before starting a new dish.
Mix wet ingredients and combine with dry.
Bake for about 60 minutes or until done.
Let the cake cool.
Mix the glaze, adjusting the sugar and lime juice to your consistency liking. Drizzle on top of the cake.
Quiche – the brunch delight I once thought was only reserved for the dainty tea-drinker types – how wrong I was. Quiche is so good and healthy (proteins and vegetables galore) and so versatile! I make a new one regularly and my whole family (including the two toddlers) enjoy them. You can serve by itself, or have a side salad, fruit, and/or bread with it to round out the meal. This is perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Brunch and Linner. Brunch or Brinner. Whatever you wanna call it – its delicious.
I love asparagus. When spring hits and I see those tall skinny luscious green stalks all bound together – I can’t wait to get home and roast them simply with sea salt and lemon zest. That’s what made me think of this quiche.
Hope y’all enjoy!
Asparagus, Ham, and Mozzerella Quiche
Recipe Type: Quiche
Cuisine: Brunch
Author: The Charming South Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
A hearty quiche with asparagus, ham, and mozzerella!
Ingredients
1 frozen deep dish pie crust, thawed
1 lb asparagus, end removed, and chopped in 1 inch pieces
3/4 cup diced ham (aim for low sodium regular ham)
