benefit for josh/festival failures

oh the weekends are way to short. even when i don't work on saturday, the hours go by to fast. before you know it it is 5:30 on sunday and your sitting at the computer writing on your blog wondering where the weekend went and how in just a few hours you will go to bed, only to wake up and have to go to work. but that doesn't mean that we didn't have fun, even if the festivals failed to live up to expectations. and i was really really looking forward to free festival fun. bummer. it all started on saturday morning. after a quick breakfast at southern thymes in downtown greer, we headed off to the first festival, autumn fest at the market. they were supposed to have a restaurant bake off, but it didn't start till 10 am and we got there at 8:30. oops. so we did a little grocery shopping and skipped of to the next destination, the friends of the library used book sale. ok, now this WAS fun, practically free, and very productive. i got 5 cookbooks and 1 garden book for $6. yeah!!! it was then that disaster struck. once we got to the hills skills craft show we found out that it was $4 to park and then it was $6 a person to get in. what a rip!! ok the admission fee is one thing, but then to charge parking on top of that. boooooo!! not to mention that the fair was a complete let down. hills skills my ass. i could go my entire life with out ever seeing a cheap plastic cake carrier painted with flowers. and exactly how may variations of beads on wire jewelry do we need. i thought it was going to be way more folksy than it was. other than the dude with the lighted up wood sculptures, the dude with the wooden snowman decorations, this one lady with witty and cute hand painted glass ball ornaments, and the dude whacking at a log with a small curved hand ax to make a bowl, the crafts totally blew. but there's hope. next weekend is the first annual antique farm equipment show in inman, sc. we all know how i like farming stuff and antiques, so this has promise. plus the flyer states that there will be a farm animal display, quilting display, wool spinning, blacksmith, antique tractors, and wait for it..........CHUCKWAGONS!!!!!!! could that get more ME!!!!!! antique outdoor cast iron cooking!!! i can't wait. i am soooooo excited.
after the festivals we came home to take a quick nap before heading off to josh caldwell's benefit. josh is the brother of matt, who is the boyfriend of nikki, who works with me at the animal hospital. those of you who have been reading this blog may know nikki as the girl who used to have the pig that i would feed my food scraps to. anyway, they had a spaghetti diner and live auction to help raise money for josh's medical expenses. josh is a junior in college and not to long ago was diagnosis with stage 3 germ cell cancer. i won't comment about the food, but the auction was fun. we got to see colby, the cutest baby in the world, and the preacher doing the auction was a blast. never in my life have i herd duct tape referred to as alabama chrome. we went with the intention of only bidding on the dinner at the cliffs private country club, but we came away with a dog gift basket and a gift certificate to an antique mall and a cafe called delicious delights.

here is colby at the benefit. the cutest baby ever, even though he was looking a little rough with that huge bruise on his forehead. he was completely intrigued by the group of singers performing before the auction. that is nikki to left and josh is right behind them in the blue shirt.

my dog gift basket that i successfully bid on. we won't talk about how all the stuff came from work and how i can purchase them at half off. we'll just continue to think about what a really good cause the money went to and how fun it was to out bid someone. and also what a bummer it was when we were out bid on this super cool handmade queen size afghan. but then we did out bid the same lady for the cliffs dinner. she will be warm, but i will eat and drink well.

ok, so let's talk about the 3-G food project for a bit. i think we left off at tuesday night's dinner of homemade potato gnocchi and butternut squash and sweet potato sauce. wednesday night i went for a walk after work, so ray fended for himself and snacked on whatever was in the frig and i had left over apple bread pudding for dinner. then on thursday we, of course, had pizza survivor night and on friday night ray had left over pizza for dinner and i had more of the bread pudding since i had my left over pizza for lunch. for lunch on wednesday and thursday i had left over swiss chard and root veggie soup that i made the weekend before with toasted bread and cheese and an orange. i ate apples all week for my snacks. not that interesting, but we did stay with in the $60 a week budget. week 1 was a success.
this weekend the food got a little more interesting. saturday morning we ate breakfast out, i made shrimp and grits for lunch, and then we had spaghetti at the benefit for dinner. this morning (sunday) i got up and made us breakfast. homemade rosemary biscuits, sliced heirloom tomato, and scramble eggs with feta cheese and hot sauce. for lunch we snacked on pink lady apples and peanut butter and then for dinner i made lamb burgers topped with feta cheese and heirloom tomato and paired that with the pickle salad that i started last tuesday.

shrimp and grits. the shrimp came from the back of the freezer. not local. although we do have some local shrimp in the freezer as well, but ray wanted to use up the older stuff first. i used up the last of the raw milk cheddar cheese for the white corn grits, which came from woods corn mill in pelzer, sc., topped with mini-mircales farm vidalia onion hot sauce.

sunday morning homemade rosemary biscuits. nothing that comes from an exploding can will ever compare to these lovely ladies.

let's talk local. homemade biscuits = happy cow butter, white's jersey raw milk, and rosemary from my own garden. local heirloom tomatoes. local free range eggs. local goat feta cheese from split creek farm.

sunday lunch. lamb burgers. i can't remember which farm the lamb is from. we bought in up at a tail gate market one saturday in ashville. i do know that it was pasture raised. as you can see, we don't have a grill..... yet. although i have been eyeballing the little hibachi style grill from lodge cast iron.

tomato and feta cheese to go on the burgers.

sunday dinner. lamb burger, feta cheese and tomato slice with my pickle salad. this was yummy!!!!

here is this weeks groceries, so far. this is all the loot that we got from the saturday market downtown. 4 peppers ($2), beans ($2.50), 1/2 dozen eggs ($2.50), and happy cow cottage cheese ($4.40). if my math is right, that adds up to $11.40, leaving me $48.60.

THEIR HERE....their here. my cookbooks that i ordered. so far i am totally in love with the jamie oliver book. the cover made of this super cool textured cloth like material with cute blue and brown vintage graphics. it also has gardening tips and of course many pictures of jamie looking all rugged and outdoorsy. sigh.

yeah! cookbooks!!!

even more cookbooks from the used book sale. all for $6. hell yeah!!!!!!!!!
i probably would not normally buy the martha cookbook, but for a dollar, why not!!

she'll be comin roun the mountin when she comes.
she'll be eatin pink ladies when she comes.
she'll be shoppin for antiques, she'll be lookin at the trees, she'll be buyin local bees when she comes.
(ok bees was all i could think of to rhyme with trees, but i do love local honey!!!)

fall colors are a comin!!

ok... i look like some sad bono impersonator and ray looks asleep. either that or he has lost something. something very small. what could he be looking for???
(sorry ray, it's just to funny!)

PINK LADIES!!!!!!!!!!
we went back up to just us apple orchard to get some pink ladies. all these local apples for $12. then we spent $2 on a yummy fried apple hand pie. so now i only have $36.60 to spend at the earthfare on tuesday and i still need coffee, ice cream, milk, peppercorns, and lady supplies. hopefully i don't need anything else.

at the auction for josh we bid on a gift certificate to the inman antiques mall. i got on this when ray left to get the checkbook from the car. silly man, leaving me alone like that. here are the cast iron candle holders that i got today. i was hoping to find some of the fire king dishes that i collect or a groovy bread box, but no luck. but these candle holders are super cool.

we also got some handmade pottery. i think i will use this as a salt holder on one side (because i hate my current metal salt container, the lid has this plastic piece that keeps coming off, and having to pop open the lid is a pain in itself) and the other side to hold my little measuring spoons. super cute and very rustic.

ray helped me choose which pieces of pottery to get. he is very good at that. i love him.
anyway, i think i might use this one to hold some dried herbs.

well i guess that is enough for now. i will keep you posted on how the 3-G food project goes this week and also how next weekend's antique farm equipment show goes.