Hunter Turns 5/Sweetwater Creek State Park

Our friend Iggy and Wade's oldest son turned 5 this weekend! They had their first "kid friendly" birthday party at Sweetwater Creek State Park and we all like to think it went pretty darn well.

Iggy and Fletcher before the hike

I had Fletcher duty-- "Is that a leaf?" "Noooo..."

First view of Sweetwater Creek

First view of the rapids

First view of the old Mill

Violet hugging Jeremy

V, J, and LK pet Regan's dog Rachel-- she's training Rachel to be a guide dog!

V and J

The ruins of the old Mill-- it was burned by Sherman's army during the Civil War; the women and children were shipped to Ohio and told they could either die or stay in Ohio. 

Ruins

Ruins

Worst Captain America Cake. Ever. We're sending it to Cake Wrecks...

Hunter and his cake! 

Prom!

The Decatur Education Foundation holds an Adult Prom every year, so this year... we got dressed up and went! This was Jeremy's first prom and a great night.

Me and Susan

Fabulous ladies! (we stole someone's limo)

Nicki and I 

Jeremy and Steven (Nicki's husband)

Susan, me, and Nicki

I'll scan our prom portrait in later, but we had SUCH a great time!

What is this, a food blog?

Radish pickles! Pickled radish! Either way it's awesome!!

As you can see, the color leached out of the radish skins and in to the whole mixture-- it's actually a little pinker than the pictures allude to, and was definitely disconcerting at first, but they are awesome.

For those of you interested in the recipe, I got it from Epicurious-- here's the link. It's VERY tangy, very garlicky, very vinegary, and basically about as pickled as you can possibly get. I'm in love with this recipe because it was pretty darn easy to make, only takes three days to pickle, is good for a month, and a handful (shown in the last picture) is the perfect after-work snack for me. It also reminds me a lot of some pickles that we had at a Russian restaurant my freshman year that were used to coat your stomach before imbibing a great deal of vodka. (The Russians were right, by the way, some of those pickles and a piece of soft bread was all we needed!)

Pickles Update! [UPDATED]

Pickled Radishes

Step One in Spicy Pickles

End of Step One (2hr soak)

First jar sealed

Second jar almost sealed

Jar three

PICKLES!

Extra Spicy on the far right

Has it been 10 days yet?

Seriously, I want to eat them... 

PICKLES!

Also, I don't care for the new Blogger format. I think they're trying to be new-age Wordpress and I'm not a fan.

But back to the Pickles...

I'm on a bit of a bender. A cooking bender.

Our local farmers market is ah-mazing and has the most delicious veggies! In spite of the fact that it pops up in fairly convenient locations twice a week, I find myself unable to resist buying nice plump radishes in bright shades of red, fresh grass-fed beef, delicious goat cheese, home made pesto and tampenade, and beautiful "Easter" eggs that may or may not have been laid by the chicken I'll be roasting...

(via)

Well, this week I walked away with an abundance of radishes and onions (my mom and I couldn't decide on a bunch of the onions, so the farmer gave them both to us for $3!) and I couldn't quite figure out what to do with them. I looked through Food Network and Epicurious, and overwhelmingly the recipes involved pickling the radish. Don't ask me why this hadn't occurred to me sooner, I'm a big fan of pickled radishes, but we always ate them fresh when I was growing up!

So, I went to that dreaded bastion of insanity and poor lighting (Wal-Mart) and picked up some Ball jars and pickling supplies. We'll have to go to Publix or YDFM later to supplement my garlic and pick up some cucumbers, but there will be pickling to be had in the Sizemore-Clark household this week!

My secondary project is picking the ripe mulberries off the tree Jeremy discovered before the birds can get to them-- once I have 6-8 cups, mulberry jam it is!

Basically, I'm on an old-fashioned food bender. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go slice up some kiwis and kumquats for snack.

(in case I hadn't bragged enough about our locavore tendencies-- this morning we had locally raise bacon and french toast made with locally-baked challa and some of those Easter eggs from my friend Sharon's hens. Clearly, we're pretty awesome.)

When it rains it pours...

BOOKS!

One day I have zero e-books in my holds list, now I have FIVE! They'll hold them for three days before giving them to the next person on the list, so I've been ripping through books all weekend!

I read "The Other Wes Moore" and "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter" in one day, then started "The Tiger's Wife" yesterday, will finish that tonight and tomorrow so that I can read through the first Sookie Stackhouse book again (before I read the rest), "The Anatomist's Apprentice" AND the first Steig Larsson book "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"-- quite a list!

I pre-ordered The Bloggess' book "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and Amy Atlas' first publication for my business library. I'm SO excited about this year in books! Back to reading!

"The Other Wes Moore" by Wes Moore

A really amazing book, I'll review a little more thoroughly later, but I loved this particular bit of writing:

"The common bond of humanity and decency that we share is stronger than any conflict, any adversity, any challenge. Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom. Ubuntu was right." - Wes Moore