Farmers' Market, Thrifting, & DIY date night

We started Saturday morning with a trip to Pepper Place Farmer's Market. We had intended on making a stop by the free chef demonstration since this week's featured chef was Chris Hastings, head chef at James Beard award winning Hot and Hot Fish Club. However, we were running late, but for a good reason- John surprised me and cooked breakfast! We did make it in time to snap a picture of Chef Hastings signing autographs and catch a glimpse of his heirloom tomato salad. We had the opportunity to attend his chef demo last summer and enjoyed watching and tasting his delicious creations. So, if you get a chance to go- I highly recommend it! Every week Pepper Place has a featured chef who does a free cooking demonstration at 9 AM. The chef always gives free samples of what they cooked. So, John and I try to attend as much as possible...especially since the chefs are usually from top notch restaurants that we don't get to frequent on a regular basis.


After we picked up our beautiful Chilton County peaches and Alabama honey, we celebrated National Thrift Shop Day by heading to America's Thrift Stores in Roebuck. While we didn't find anything for purchase, we did enjoy looking at some of the kooky merchandise. On the way back into the city, we made a stop by Hanna Antiques Mall. While it wasn't a thrift store, it was still full of previously owned things. We love Hanna's and always enjoy browsing through their massive assortment of home interior furnishings. It was even recently voted "Best Antique Shop in Birmingham".  John's favorite find was an assortment of vintage corncob pipes while I fell in love with all of the vintage rings.


After our shopping/browsing was at an end, we went to Crazy Cajuns, one of our favorite restaurants, for lunch. If you can get over the LSU decor, the food is delicious and tastes like it's right out of the Bayou. I had the crawfish po boy, John had the Cajun Meatloaf po boy and we both had a side of their famous baked cheddar smoked gouda grits-which helped to balance out the Cajun spiciness of our sandwiches. It was rich, savory and the perfect lunch after a long morning of shopping.

Afterwards, we met up with our friends Collin & Elizabeth at Steel City Pops. We took Elizabeth there a few weeks ago when she came down from Nashville to visit and she fell in love. So, she requested to go back and bring along Collin to try one of their yummy and unique flavored pops. I opted for the buttermilk, Collin the pineapple jalapeno, Elizabeth the strawberry cream, and John the coconut. They were all out of this world, as usual. However, we enjoyed each others company and the laughter we shared more than anything.

That evening, I tried a recipe that I had been wanting to cook for a while- Feta Stuffed Chicken. It was super simple and healthy too!! The recipe can be found here (it eves includes a recipe for steamed spinach with lemon and pecans as your side dish). In addition, I made herb butter using herbs out of the garden and put it on toasted whole wheat toast as a quick and indulgent side.


After dinner, we decided to stay at home and played a game of First Words. It's pretty simple, you use this free print off to play. The directions are as follows: "You Cut out the word cards. Shuffle. Divide cards in two piles. Each person with a pile of cards reads his/her cards one at a time. The second person responds with the first word that comes to mind. No thinking allowed. Say what first comes to mind. Do this as fast as you can going through all the words in the pile. When a person’s pile is done, switch roles." It may seem a bit elementary, but it ended up being hilarious! After that we continued to work on our journal "Why I Love You- A Journal of Us" . Since we journaled to one another leading up to our wedding day, we decided to continue the tradition by doing a journal with one another. It's full or questions, prompts, and places to keep pictures and notes. So, it really helps us to continue to get to know one another, remember where we came from and make us think about where we hope to go. 


It was another jam packed weekend, but I wouldn't have it any other way! 

1 comments:

  1. MK--I'm totally addicted to your blog. I view it as an encyclopedia of stuff to do around Birmingham, compiled by someone with great taste. Keep it up!

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