Fancy Beer Friday: Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero

IT'S FRIDAY!! You know what that means - FANCY BEER HAPPY HOUR! We picked up the Mexican-style chocolate stout, Chocolate Sombrero, to see how it would compare to the delicious Lips of Faith Coca Mole. It's good - but not quite as perfect as the Coca Mole. Definitely still worth a try.

Thai Chicken Satay Salad with Peanut Sauce Dressing

If you don't know what Thai chicken satay is - look it up*! Because it is DELICIOUS!! Last night we ate it on skewers hot off the grill with a side of homegrown grilled eggplant and YDFM sweet potato. Tonight we enjoyed it on a bed of lettuce with home grown red peppers and tomatoes. Oliver's peanut sauce accompanied both meals. YUM!



*Yes, this is me losing patience with writing copy for meals I didn't cook (read: don't know how cook) but LOVED eating.

Sunday morning in the garden

By the time the Grant Park Farmers Market opens at 9:30 we've already been up for at least an hour. This morning we spent time in the garden. Our tomatoes are finally too tall for their stakes so we decided to cut them off at 10 ft. Pumpkin blossoms are appearing on the pumpkin vine. The leeks are getting fat. Green peppers are turning red and there are almost a dozen eggplants between two plants. While Oliver cooked bacon I ran down to the GPFM and picked up some goat cheese made Friday on a farm just 10 miles away. Breakfast was omelets with veggies from the garden, fresh goat cheese and a side of bacon. 

Dinner at Bone Garden

We interupt the regularly scheduled Fancy Beer Friday to bring you one of our favorite Atlanta restaurants: BONE GARDEN!

We have a weakness for well done Mexican food. (A big bowl of liquid cheese can brighten even our darkest days.) Heart healthy? Ehhhh...not so much. But one of the rules we live by is 'everything in moderation - even moderation'.  So rather then deny ourselves our favorite food we make sure that when we do splurge we do so on something worth it. If I'm going to be happily rolled out of a restaurant then I want every bite to have been ecstasy. Bone Garden is that kind of restaurant.

Hidden away in an industrial  park in West Midtown, Bone Garden, has cheerful day of the dead decor. (Described not-so-cheerfully on their website: We replaced the pinatas and sombreros with artwork that scares small children...). If the skull looks vaguely familiar it might be that you've seen a similar rendition on Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points (same artist/restaurateur). But forget the fun atmosphere - it's the wide selection of unique foods that keeps us coming back!

Just a few of our favorite menu items:
• Chorizo enchilada (Oliver's favorite)
• Pasilla Patron tamale (cactus and queso)
• Chicharron taco (fried pork rind)
• Barbacoa de chivo taco (slow-braised goat)
• Lengua taco (cubed beef tongue)
• Elote (grilled corn topped with mayo, chili powder and lime)
• Vegetable empanadas

Portions are small so you're good to order two or three things before you're totally too full to take another bite. Love it!

Lunch & dinner, lunch & dinner

More dinners made from the London Broil we grilled on Monday: 
• Wednesday: London Broil on a big bed of red leaf lettuce with vinaigrette, homegrown tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles. 
• Thursday: London Broil stir fry with green peppers from the garden and baby portobello mushrooms from YDFM (side of baked sweet potato).

Lunch (x5): stewed black beans with a dollop of Greek yogurt

250th post

This is And Topher Too's 250th post. It's taken almost a year (and about 20 posts a month) to reach this milestone. In that time we've earned a "blog of the month" award from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and grown our readership to an average of 75 hits a day. To all the people* who have helped along the way: thank you. We truly appreciate your support. 

After much consideration I've decided that the end of August will also mark the end of regular, daily posting for And Topher Too. There are many reasons, among them: 

• Photographing my food before I eat it, and then writing relevant copy before I post it, has become a chore. Plus I am disappointed in myself for rarely highlighting why/how each meal specifically fits into our heart healthy, locavore diet.
• It feels like I'm preaching to the choir. I started the blog hoping to inspire change in people's lifestyles and eating habits; but I'm pretty sure the majority of our readers already live healthy lifestyles. The friends and family who think I'm a "hippy" or "fanatic" because of the way I eat (and there are plenty of them) just never read the blog (thank you Google analytics).
• The politics of building a larger blog audience turn me off. Leaving comments just so you can get comments feels insincere. Even if I had time to do it I still would not. Besides, my favorite bloggers are BURIED in generic, repetitive comments only hours after their posts. That extreme sounds equally unappealing. 
• I HAVE a full time, 9 hour a day job and 60 minute (roundtrip) commute. When I come home I'd really love to just relax with my husband. The time I spend on the blog is always borrowed from the time I want to be spending with him.
• But really the biggest thing is: I don't feel like I've gotten through to anyone. 

Over the last year I've accomplished more then I would have ever dared imagine. I've lost 20lbs, earned a great promotion at work, lowered my blood pressure, completely given up artificial sweetners, lost my taste for overly processed foods, learned more about cooking, and increased my physical indurance to 60 second planks/15 mile fast paced bike rides/20 push ups/50 weighted lunges, etc. But as I said before, the purpose of this blog was never to document my (unexpected) successes. Now, after a year of trying to convince others to take better care of themselves I've come to accept something: only you can decide to change your life.

And that's it. I hope every person who reads this will take a moment to sincerely consider the health of their heart and cardiovascular system. Oliver lost both of his parent's to heart disease. Losing them changed our lives. What will it take to change yours?

Thanks for reading and sincere wishes for a happy and healthy life.
- Cullen 

*A special thank you to: Mandy, Sabrina, Amber, Clair, Lucile and Kathleen. 

What's for dinner? Roast beef sandwiches

Last night's London Broil became tonight's carved roast beef.  We enjoyed it on YDFM bread, with horseradish sauce and fresh tomato from the garden. 

What's for dinner? London broil and grilled vegetables