My Summer Vacation Part 2: July & August

My final catch up blog. Now I'm not quite 2 months behind.

We usually do Lamb Turnovers for Catherine's Birthday (Observed) but this year we went a bit non-traditional with a meal inspired by an article from Saveur.  We still had lamb, but with a variety of other middle-eastern-ish sides. It was a success, though some of the items seemed to take forever to prepare. On her Actual Birthday, we ran down to meet Catherine at 82 Queen.

As was apropos for a Charleston-born girl, her first legal drink was a Dark & Stormy. (Charleston has a deep historical connection with Barbados, which is famous for Dark Rum & Ginger Beer). The food was incredible,  but then after 30 plus years, what would you expect? Go there. 

(Side-note: Stewart has been in Asia since early July, so he STILL hasn't had his first legal drink in the US of A!)

Recently we attended a cooking class at Charleston Cooks here in Columbia. Our buddy Sheri Castle was teaching the class. Sheri is an author, food writer, and educator from the mountains of North Carolina. (She’s also a great story-teller.) We met her several years ago and SFA Field Trip in Bristol Tennessee, where she was in her element!

Sheri has one of the greatest cook books we've come across in a long time. The New Southern Gardens Cookbook is all about using the wonderful bounty of fresh produce we have here in the South. Sheri directed about a dozen of us in whipping up 6 different dishes. Here's the line up: 

Salmon with Green Godess Dill Sauce

Lemony Deviled Eggs

Summer Vegetable Potato Salad

Summer Squash Gratin

Blueberry Cardamon Parfait

Another fun thing we kind of perfected this summer was the Bailey's Irish Cream Cake. It's boozey, but not too much for tea-totaler. The almost-but-not-quite pound cake consistency makes its perfect for a companion scoop of ice cream!  Here it is with homemade Nutella ice cream.

In August we headed to Folly Beach (aka The Edge of America) to check out Catherine's new digs.  The first official meal of the apartment: Butternut Squash/Quinoa Salad, Summer Squash Gratin, and Home Grown Tomatos.

While there, we went to The Early Bird Diner, where we had our first ever taste of Chicken & Waffles. They were extraordinary,  as was the Red Velvet Cobbler we all shared for dessert! 

Lastly,  in August our buddy Tommy Stone started providing us with Hot Peppers from his bounteous garden. Would you believe he's still getting them?  Aren't they gorgeous?

This is one of my favorite things to do with the surplus peppers. That's vinegar in the bottles, not bourbon! Let that steep a few months and then cook a mess of greens!