Food from Friends

Food

I’ve decided to re-organize this page with the most recent mentions at the top. Easier for everyone!

Chicken and Dumplings and Key Lime Pie from Lorraine Edwards

Lorraine Edwards
It is really cool when someone, who also happens to be a fellow entrepreneur, and someone you don’t know very well but want to know better, has been watching your journey through FB and your blog contacts you and ask to bring you a meal.  Lorraine owns Lorraine Communications, a marketing and PR consultant in Athens, GA. And to top it all off she brought me my favorite dessert – Key Lime Pie!

Dave and Tracy Stroud (Meal #2!)

Barbecue Chicken Pizza, Italian Salad, and Banana Pudding from the Strouds

I was so excited when a little message popped up in my FB inbox from Tracy offering to bring dinner over last night. I was really bummed when I found out they couldn’t stay and eat with us. I like those two so much and I haven’t had much time to spend with them together. I have hung out with Tracy a bunch with my friend Taylor but the dynamic when Dave is around is completely different. Those two are like a match made in heaven. And it is just so much fun being around them. Dave can tell the funniest stories. He’s about as animated as I am, and that’s probably why i’m such a fan of his. Tracy, well, no need to go and make her head any bigger. She knows i’m crazy about her. Oh, yea the food – Barbecue Chicken Pizza, Italian Salad, and Banana Pudding. Tracy didn’t know that is one of my top 5 desserts. I am a southern girl after all. Thanks guys – it was spectacular! And I know what i’m having for lunch!

Red Beans and Rice from Taylor Little

Taylor Little
Taylor is an old, old, really old (I mean he is even older than me!) friend of mine. He works down the way from my office and I often times find myself wandering down there, when I used to work, at least 2-3 times a week just to get a laugh or two. No matter how bad his mood or his day is, he is always cracking jokes. I have no idea if he can cook, and I didn’t want to find out. I suggested he do “take-out” just to be safe! He lives way out in the middle of nowhere and there is a restaurant way out there called Sisters Creole. I had him order up Red Beans and Rice. I used to order that at Gautreau’s when it was around. Real sad its not there anymore. Taffy Gautreau, who owned the restaurant with her husband, died of lung cancer in 2006. Brought back some fond memories of my time in Watkinsville.

Edible Arrangement

David and Janice Hutchins
It’s not often that clients become great long time friends. David and Janice are just that. They develop and license a Credit Reporting software system, Credit Time 2000 that reports to all four of the major credit bureaus. They are one of two companies in the US that offer this service. Janice is also one hell of a QC tester. She can tear apart any piece of software and find bugs that even the most diligent testers can’t find. We’ve been working with these two for over 10 years. We visit them often down in Rosemary Beach Florida. They are kind of enough to let us use their ocean front condo whenever we want. We love these two. Thanks guys for the fruit – I can’t eat enough!

Chicken Pot Pie, Salad, Zuchinni Bread, and Flowers from her garden

Natalie Glenn
I love that girl. Natalie worked for Plexus from about 2007 – 2009. She was my right hand girl. I credit Natalie with making me step up my fashion game. Before Natalie came to work with me you would often find me in ratty jeans and t-shirts, tennies, hair in pony tail. I’m just about back to that now since I been laying around doing not much of anything, but when I’m in public I try to get my game on. I’ve become an avid shopper at many of Athens finest boutiques, and I have a closet full of the finest wares. But I digress…Natalie is a fantastic cook and prepared a wonderful chicken pot pie, accompanied by a spinach and strawberry salad and zuchinni bread. Wow!

John Moorecraft and Prince William – Separated at Birth

John Moorecraft
Again I don’t have a photo because I actually ate this meal in person with the fabulous John Moorecraft. If you don’t know John, you might recognize him out about town. He looks hauntingly like Prince William – yes Prince William of Wales. Check out the photo – which one is John??? I’m not the only one that noticed…My neighbor and friend Cindy Sheffield stopped him and told him he looked just like the Prince. John took me to The National – my favorite restaurant – so I think he is a prince. Thanks for the excellent food and company.

Marti Schimmel
Yes, THE Marti Schimmel from Marti’s at Midday! She gave me a $50 credit at the restaurant as well. I might actually have to stray from my normal selections and try some other things there. I’m a creature of habit when it comes to restaurant dining. I figure why get something I’m not sure i’ll like and take a chance of not being happy when I leave. But having all of this Marti Money – I can take some risks with my dining selections. I think I will definitely branch out. Shout out to Marti for starting that place – I love Marti’s at Midday!

Jinx and Gordon Patel
I met Jinx through the Athens Economic Development Foundation board. She is currently the chair of that board and up until last month I served on the Executive Committee with her. We have come to know each other very well serving on that board. Her grandchildren go to Athens Montessori with my two girls. And her son-in-law is Dr. Anthony DeMarco (love that guy!) who is a client of mine through Plexus. Its like a big happy family.  Jinx gave me a $50 gift certificate to Marti’s at Midday. I’m wondering who told her how much I love that place. I don’t have any photos of food yet since I haven’t used it but my favorites are The Rinne and The Mary Frances. I’m gonna be covered in those two for the next month at least!

Kim Landrum (Meal #3)
This is like Kim’s third meal she has cooked for me. I can say she definitely cooks from the heart. She notices my check-ins on FB which are usually abysmal.   She would like me to eat better and knows the only way is to hold me down and force feed me. She made a great batch of vegetable soup. And I forgot to take a photo. It was photo worthy though because it wasn’t your standard vegetable soup with tiny little pieces of something that used to be a vegetable. I could actually identify the vegetables in it. This was good and bad…I picked out the ones I didn’t like! Sorry Kim but it was only the zucchini that I didn’t eat. Thanks girl…it was delicious!

Stuffed Shells from Jennifer Fleece

Jennifer Fleece (Meal #2)
Apparantly Jennifer can’t get enough of cooking for me. She actually brought me two dishes on one night – the meatloaf dinner which I have already listed above, and Stuffed Shells, which I froze for a few days. I was finally able to find it in my freezer among all of the other left overs and food people have given us. Loved them! That’s all I can say. I am third generation Italian so I appreciate good Italian cooking and I think Jennifer has a knack for that. I’ll be making special orders from her from now on!

 

 

 

Chicken Soup from Spoonful of Comfort compliments of Valerie Touchstone

Valerie Touchstone
I met Valerie through Kim Landrum, my former Creative Director. She used to own a company, The Big Picture, with Kim back in the mid 2000’s. Plexus has worked with Valerie in a professional referral capacity for the last 7 years and I have become close personal friends of hers. Well her dinner was definitely a surprise. I received a delivery at home one day last week from a company called Spoonful of Comfort. I am always excited to get a special delivery but imagine my surprise when there was a card, but it wasn’t signed! I had no idea where it came from. I thought maybe I had a secret admirer, but fat chance of that. After some sleuthing, I contacted the company and they let me in on the little secret that Valerie was the guilty party. Turns out they don’t have a field on the order form to say who the package is from! Just a place to put a message which I guess they assume you will put your name. Oh well, so much for the secret admirer. But the soup was excellent and so were the cookies that came with it. The cookies lasted less time than the soup, if you can imagine that in my house :)

Greek Lasagna and Chess Pie from the Whitfords

Jan and Andy Whitford
I have quite a story about how we met Jan and Andy. Jan was a teacher at Athens Montessori where my kids go to school. Their youngest, Max, was a student at AMS and was in Emma’s class since they both starting going to school. In all those years we had never met Jan or Andy. We used to be kind of anti-social around school. We finally met them about 3 years after our kids were in class together. At Disney! We had gone to Disney for the first time last April (2010) and the first day we were there, within the first 10 minutes, one of our kids saw a child and said…”That’s Max from school!”  We were like…right – too big of a coincidence. But it was! We were all introduced, and it turns out Jan and Andy and their kids are Disney pros. They offered to guide us around that day, and man did we have fun. Didn’t wait in any lines, learned all of the tricks and just had the biggest time. We ended up spending the whole week together and have been great friends ever since. In the words of Disney “It’s a small world” literally. Jan made something I have never had in my entire life – Greek lasagna. We scarfed it down and chased it with a delicious Chess pie – at least that’s what I’m calling it because I don’t know what it was, but I have had at least three pieces since that evening. Delish!

Pork Loin and German potato salad by Alex and Eleanor Sams

Alex and Eleanor Sams
I’m starting to see a pattern here….I surround myself with very generous people who love to cook for you. It’s like going to grandma’s and no matter how much you’ve eaten, she always wants to sit another plate in front of you. It’s like this for me every night now and i’m loving it…until I get on the scale! This was a pork loin and german potato salad. The pork loin tasted like it was smoked but i’m not sure about that. It was awesome….and I mean it. I don’t normally eat pork loin, because I can’t cook it for one, and it’s just not something I ever think to order when I go out, but I loved it. Glad to have someone that knows how to cook it and bring it over to me. I’ll be glad to have another round with that pig anytime these guys are game.

 

Meatloaf from Jennifer Griffin

Jennifer Fleece (Meal #1)
I’ve known Jennifer for years….probably back about 12-13 years ago when she worked for Flagpole Magazine. I started a restaurant web site and delivery service called “Menus Unlimited” which was way before it’s time. It was a side project for Plexus – Plexus provided my income stream and this was the “fun” project. I kept at it for about two years until I came to the realization that the restaurant industry was about 10 years behind the rest of the world. They have caught up now, and Bulldawg Food is our new answer to city wide delivery for a large number of restaurants in town. I use them all the time and it’s been a great experience everytime. Anyways, Jennifer now works for Plexus as an outside sales expert, and project manager. She is doing great things for Plexus and for the Sharp’s by providing dinner for us. It was a special request – Meatloaf – which she had never made before and it turned out wonderfully. One of my children asked for seconds and wants to eat the left overs tomorrow. I won’t have to tell those of you who really know me which child that was. Got my fix of southern cooking on this night!

Boobie Cupcakes from Mike Hamby

Mike Hamby
I have to hand it to Mike – this is definitely the most creative food item I have gotten – not quite dinner but…. and not a lot of people know this about me – but I do consider cakes and candy to be one of the four food groups. How did that little secret get out? But really this was Mike’s answer to Kelly Girtz’s doughnuts (see above). Kelly did bring coffee, and he delivered it to my house, but i’m pretty sure if I had insisted Mike would have gone that extra mile. He is my super commissioner after all! The cupcakes were from Gigi’s cupcakes and I had a boobie before I left the office today and it was delicately delicious. Looking forward to the come back from the other Super commissioner!

Mac & Cheese and Ribs from the Hedricks

Jim and Leslie Hedrick
Believe it or not Jim and Leslie are our oldest friends here in town. We met them when we lived in Watkinsville about 12 or 13 years ago. It’s actually a crazy story. Buck used to play a game called “Subspace”. One of the guys he played with frequently was nicknamed “Pugg”. Now he didn’t know this guy – they just happened to play a few games together then put together a team that played challenges with other teams. All very strange to me! Anyways, during the games they would chat and somehow it came up that Buck lived in Watkinsville and Pugg mentioned that his brother and sister-in-law lived in Watkinsville. He gave us their email address and we contacted them. We got together for dinner one night and have been friends ever since. Jim was the delivery man but Leslie made a great batch of mac and cheese and ribs. It was a yummy lunch. And my little dog sunny really appreciated the rib skeleton!

A smorgasbord from Mirko Pasta

Phoelicia Canup and Mirko Pasta
We have been working with Mirko Pasta for almost two years! I hadn’t realized it had been that long until I referred back to my client records. They are a delightful client to work with, and I attribute that mostly to Phoelicia, who is essentially their marketing department. Phoelicia has always been sweet as pie, and has been supportive in many ways since I was diagnosed. She contacted me a few days ago and said that she wanted to make sure I was fed well, if she couldn’t do anything else. I knew Sunday was the big day and i’ve been looking forward to it all week. It was a very custom dinner because each of us got our own dish. One of the dishes is missing from the photo because Erin scarfed hers down before I could snap the photo. Our dinner was  Four Italian Cheese with Pomodoro sauce (not pictured), Chicken and Toasted Almonds with Sorrentina Sauce, Rigatoni with Pomodoro Sauce, Salmone al Pesto con Asparagi, Cannoli, and Tiramisu. We have always loved Mirko Pasta but they hold an even more special place in my heart and stomach now.

Edible Arrangement from Beverly and Wayne Smith

Beverly And Wayne Smith
Well this was a total surprise. I couldn’t decide whether to put this under flowers or food because it was both. It was an edible arrangement from Edible Arrangements – and healthy too! Strawberries, pineapple, and grapes. Really pretty arrangement and yummy. I will be using some of this for smoothies – just about the only way I can get my oldest daughter Emma to eat fruit. She will turn her nose up to pretty much any fruit if you put it on a plate in front of her but will drink it in smoothie form. I even sneak in spinach and she drinks that as well. Smoothies are a great way to fulfill that food group requirement! Beverly and Wayne are Buck’s Aunt and Uncle. Everyone in the family says that I look like Beverly when she was younger. Personally I think she still looks young a spring chicken so I don’t know what younger means. But i’m glad they think we have a likeness because Beverly is one foxy lady.

Chinese Chicken Salad from Joel and Kim Landrum

Joel and Kim Landrum (Meal #2)
Kim was my Creative Director at Plexus for about six years. Her husband, Joel, came to UGA for vet school so when they moved here I jumped at the opportunity to snag her skills. But along with her skills I got Joel’s cooking skills. He had been a chef at several restaurants over the past 15 years, and was a co-owner in Noodlehead in Athens, GA many years ago. There is one dish he makes that I loves and it is Chinese Chicken Salad. When Kim offered that up for dinner this week I was thrilled. Love this dish, and Joel is an expert at making it. We didn’t even have left overs – I had two gigantic servings. I wish I would have been eating alone then it would have all been mine, mine, mine! And Joel is now a veterinarian, and of course an expert at that as well. I’m glad he’s still practicing his chefiry skills. Did I just make a new word up?

Dessert from Saundra Griffith

Saundra Griffith
Gosh we’ve know Saundra for years. She was an intern for Plexus about 10 or so years ago. She pops in every now and then in between her jaunts to the west coast, midwest, east coast, and just about everywhere else. She came to visit and of course came empty handed. Hello….Didn’t you know I was sick and expecting some kind of gift or food? No one comes over without bearing gifts. Well she just had to make her way onto my blog because she is such a little attention hound so she didn’t hesitate to take me to Dairy Queen to get me a Peanut Buster Parfait – just about my favorite guilty pleasure when it comes to fast food desserts. She wasn’t happy with the speed at which I updated my blog this week so she posted an awful picture of me on FB and tagged me on it, and told me I had to get her up on my blog before she would take it down! Imagine that! Anyways, loved the visit from Saundra – wish she would come around more often and not when i’m sick.

Everything Bagels from Russ & Daughters from Jerry Daniel

Jerry Daniel
Jerry is married to Kat Daniel, who is one Emma and Erin’s Montessori teachers at Athens Montessori. Jerry probably traveled the furtherest in bringing me back his little treat. Sure he left his wife for four days to go out partying with all his buds in NYC to do it (sorry Kat but I know you were enjoying your dumpster diving while he was gone). Jerry brought me bagels from Russ & Daughters. They were the everything bagels and they were everything they should be. Now somehow out of all of this my HUSBAND has the hook up on the free place to stay during the next trip to NYC instead of me. Whaaaa?????

 

Macaroni Casserole from Laurel Alberty

Laurel Alberty
Laurel happened to bring over dinner the night we had another dish delivered that wasn’t freezable. So I put hers in the freezer and had just about forgotten about it when I got a note from her informing me (and this paraphrasing) that she didn’t blame me for not commenting about the meal she brought and she was a lot better at take-out. She had made the same thing for her dad once and he asked her to please never make it again! Ha! Actually I liked it very much. It was what I would call Macaroni Casserole with bread crumbs and bacon. Quite tasty, and I even ate leftovers the next day. That is rare for me. Bravo Laurel, and tell dad he just needs better developed taste buds :)

Donuts by Girtz...I mean Ike & Janes

Kelly Girtz
So this story starts with me texting Kelly at 8:30am Saturday morning (I know he’s an early riser like me) asking him if he will please go pick up these chairs my mama just bought for me at Agora since he has a truck. Why should I take the blame for the fact that he is cursed with a truck? Isn’t that like one of the things that comes with buying a truck – toting around stuff for all your friends? He proceeded to tell me that he had a few too many the night before and left his truck and Ike and Janes and he had to walk down there to get it and if it wasn’t towed he would definitely get them for me later in the day. I suggested ever so slightly that if he was going to be at Ike and Janes anyways he might as well bring me some donuts and coffee. Voila about 45 minutes later breakfast was served. Oh and he did bring me my chairs about an hour later. That is what I call community service from our public officials! Love that dude.  I’m really not that demanding from my friends – Kelly is just so nice he never says no to anyone. Kelly I hope you don’t start getting calls for delivery orders – tell them to call Bulldawg Food!

Pulled Pork Tacos from the Nichols

Ed and Sloane Nichols (Meal #2)
Ed was jealous that he didn’t get to bring dinner last time and hang out with us so he made Sloane cook again so he could get out of the house for a quick drink. Oops, was I supposed to mention that Ed? Sorry – everyone knows I can’t keep a secret! I gotta tell you I eat at Taqueria Del Sol ALOT and they got nothing on the pulled pork tacos that Sloane Nichols can cook up. I ate two of them and I wanted to go back for a third but I couldn’t talk either of my kids into going to make me another one and I was already laid up in bed for the night. Anyone that knows me, knows that once I get snuggled up under the covers for the night, stick a fork in me – I’m done. Thanks to these two for keeping me fed. Again I was blown away with the skills that Sloane has in the kitchen. Ed better be good to that one so he can keep her!

Funeral Casserole and Nana Bread from Ashley Harp and Nana

Ashley Harp
Ashley wins the award for most creative name of her dishes. She brought “Funeral Casserole” and “Nana Bread.” Let me clarify the “Funeral Casserole” was no indicator of her perspective on my prognosis. She explained to me that as the last few funerals she’s been to that everyone brings this same casserole because it actually is very tasty and keeps well. It’s shredded chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, ritz crackers and probably a few other ingredients i’m not privy too like fairy dust and stuff like that. And the nana bread was described to me as a sour dough but there was nothing sour dough about it – it was a moist, dense sweet bread and my very picky 8 year old says “I love nana bread.” Nana is gonna have to provide a regular supply on occassion or at least share that recipe *hint hint* – maybe I can do it it justice. I do know my way around the kitchen if I have the directions.

Pasta, Scallops and Bean Salad from Juli and Chris Tredwell

Juli and Chris Tredwell (Meal #2)
They are back it again and this time I got a photo of it  before we scarfed it down. They prepared pasta with scallops and bean salad, which i’m certain had to be cooked on some kind of Big Green Egg since that is the only way Chris cooks anymore. Chris participates in the Big Green Eggfest every year. He is the best grill master this side of the Mississippi. Hell he’s probably the best on both sides! The crazy thing even my 7 year old tried it and loved it. She’s pretty experimental but shellfish is a pretty advanced thing to try at that age – at least for me when I was that age. Great job guys. Always look forward to what creative dishes you will come up with on that grill. I still love that grilled romaine salad so feel free to make that next time!

Chicken Pot Pie from Candice Courcy

Candice Courcy
Candice runs a nice little spa just about everyone in Athens must know – Urban Sanctuary. Urban Sanctuary was voted Best Day Spa in Flagpole Magazine Reader Picks for 2011 and was Reader’s Choice Award for 2008, 2009, and 2010. I can personally attest it is a top notch facility. It is in the middle of the Boulevard district right at the intersection of Chase Street and Boulevard Avenue. I met Candice through a couple of my other friends – Mike Hamby, Kelly Girtz and Andrea Griffith and she and I are very much alike. Hard edged business women. We get along great. And she is one fantastic cook and a psychic. She made a chicken pot pie and that is one of my favs. As a matter o fact, everytime I go to Jason’s Deli I get the chicken pot pie soup. Anyways, Candice is a ball of fun and I can’t wait to get to know her better over the next year. She’s good people.

Ga Ro Ti from Ivy Le

Ivy Le
I met Ivy because she works for a Public Relations firm in Athens called Jackson Spalding. I love all of those guys. Ivy let me on a little secret tonite that she was an awful cook in college. But she found this book called The Three Ingredient Cookbook that changed her life. Now she can start on Top Chef I’m sure of it. No wonder that boyfriend of her wanted to tie her down – he wanted to make sure he didn’t have to eat ramen noodles and mac and cheese every night for the rest of his life. Ivy made a dish called Ga Ro Ti (Vietnamese Chicken). It was so delicious even my kids ate some of it and that is a HUGE deal.

Southern Comfort Food from Jackie Goforth

Jackie Goforth
Jackie is Buck’s stepmom and every year we go to their house in Easley SC for Thaksgiving and have dinner. My favorite dish she makes is Chicken Casserole with Ritz Crackers and Sour Cream. I call this Southern Comfort food. It’s real comfortable laying on the couch napping after you eat because you are too fat to get up and do anything. Just how I like it. I was thrilled to see her show up with not only enough for the days lunch and dinner but enogh to freeze for later in the next few weeks. She also brought a pound cake which I havent yet even broken into. God I have a lot of food to eat!

Sushi from Shokitini with Dave and Tracy Stroud

David and Tracy Stroud (Meal #1)
So David Stroud actually works at ARMC, and I was hoping he would be able to be in my surgery but he works such messed up hours it just didn’t work out. I believe he went in and checked the room to make sure it was just right for the princess – wouldn’t want anything to be askew! David is also a master woodworker. Check out some of this awesome work! I met David through his wife Tracy, who I met through Taylor Little. Tracy is just a sweet sweet person, who can’t get a word in edgewise when I am around because I am such a raving big mouth but I *hope* she likes me as much as I like her. They were so generous to take both my husband and I out for Sushi at Shokitini the night of the Cinco De Mayo celebration at Hotel Indigo. This is the plate I was eating off of. I only ate one of these rolls. I was sharing my plate with Taylor and Buck and they were the little piggies of the group. I did have a fried oreo which was very tasty. David entertained us with many stories of varied types – I think I laughed so hard I was in stiches literally. Oh how I look forward to spending more time with those two soon.

New Year’s Day Soup from Kathryn Lookofsky

Kathryn Lookofsky
I have not know Kathryn a long time but what I do know about her is she can cook up a storm. I follow her on FB religiously and she is constantly preparing meals for friends so when she offered up her skills for me, I said “Hell Ya!”. I sent her a recipe I found in BHG for a New Years Day Asian Potsticker soup. She improvised and added additional vegetables like the little tiny corn ears, which Erin LOVES, and the soup was delicious. She delivered it with Edimame beans and a Key Lime Pie with Oreo Crust which was out of this world. I wish I had taken a photo of it but I had scarfed it down before I remembered too. But here is a snap shot of the spectacular version of New Years Day Asian Soup! BTW when Kathryn dropped off her soup at my house my kids always want to know what people “do” for their life. I told them she is the boss of downtown. They were really impressed with that, and so am I. It is true! Kathryn is also one hell off a gardener. She has a tire garden that puts any regular garden to shame. I have seen the photos of the product she produces in those tires on FB and it blows me away!

Lasagna from Rachel & Aaron Luther

Aaron and Rachel Luther
Aaron works at Interglo Stone, a granite importer located in Athens, GA which is partially owned by my neighbor and business partner in Plexus, Jim Langlois. Aaron has a lovely wife Rachel, and a precious little red headed little boy named Jonah. From what I understand Aaron is usually the chef of the house but Rachel made me this lasagna. I love saucy lasagna. Most of the time when you order lasagna at restaurants they pack it down with cheese and meat and you end up choking because it is so dry. This was juicy, tasty and cheesy. Just a perfect combination. Unfortunately we had this the same night as the “hot pockets” so we had a tour of Italy – I got to eat a little of both. Boy was I full last night. And I have a lot to freeze for next week when everyone forgets about me….boo hoo! If you are ever interested in seeing the crazy assortments of meals she and her husband prepare on a regular basis be sure to follow the twitter account @whataaroneats. It’s quite an eye opener – for instance I saw he was drinking a Fois Gras Shake the other day – WTF?

Glorified Hot Pockets from Kelly Girtz & Andrea Griffith

Kelly Girtz and Andrea Griffith
Buck calls these glorified hot pockets but it’s one of my favorites so I demanded Kelly cook this over some healthy vegetarian dish. But I won’t beat around the bush. I don’t know how much credit to give Andrea since that girl can’t even make a grilled cheese sandwich but she can text her little fingers off. Her participation in the whole preparation of this yummy dish was that she texted the recipe to Kelly. Now the big surprise here is that Kelly actually cooked beef on his stove! Oh my! And it was actually good – that is even more surprising! Poor Kelly even went so far as to bring ice cream and fruit and I opted to eat cupcakes delivered by Terri Porterfield Davis below. For some reason cake always beats ice cream in my book – but i’ll break into that ice cream tonite i’m sure.

Ragu and Pasta, Salad and Fruit from The Nichols

Ed and Sloane Nichols (Meal #1)
Sloane went through quite an ordeal to prepare this meal. She spent all day Sunday working on it only to realize she left it cooking a little long on too high of a temperature and it got scalded and she had to throw out the whole batch. I’ll quote her from FB “Words cannot begin to express my self anger and frustration at having cooked for an entire day to make a wonderful batch of homemade ragu that would feed 50 people that is now headed for the woods to be dumped. Left it on too high unattended and now the whole batch tastes burnt. ARGHHHHH!!!!!” After going upstairs, screaming into her pillow, beating her bed up and down, ,and secretly blaming Ed because he must have had something to do with the screw up because all husbands are the reason woman screw up – we are perfect otherwise, she came downstairs and said “OK, here I go again”. So she went back at it and it was beautiful. She grounds her own meats including beef, pork and lamb, and prepares a delicious ragu to be served with pasta, salad, and fruits.

Mark and Frances Anthony
Mark and Frances are my backdoor neighbors and as if they don’t already do enough for us by giving us free reign to use their pool all summer long, they brought over a delicious beef stew with carrots, potatoes and celery. It was savory and served with garlic french bread. I forgot to take a picture. The meds had just kicked in! Dr. Mark is also my chiropractor and owner of Anthony Chiropractic. Frances is a hospice nurse in Athens. I hope I won’t need her services too soon. Mark and Frances also brought me over a quite extravagant outdoor plant and planter. See the gifts and flowers section.

Golden Bowl - Landrum Style

Kim and Joel Landrum (Meal #1)
Kim is currently a freelance designer with my company Plexus but served in the capacity of Creative Director for about 6 years. She transitioned to a freelance designer at the beginning of 2011 so she could focus on her personal training business and triathalon training. She is also a complete health nut so I know anything she prepares is going to be healthy! She brought me a delicious rendition of one of my favorite meals in Athens – The Golden Bowl invented by The Grit. It was accompanied by diced watermelon, strawberries, and blackberries. Of course I tossed in just smidgen of sugar on top Stephanie style while she wasn’t looking!

Gratin Dauphinoise from The Drennans

Susanna and Sam Drennen
Susanna and Sam own Suska, a very upscale consignment boutique that I frequent too regularly. Sam is also a Group Vice President Retail Banking at First American Bank. I also serve on the Athens Economic Development Foundation Board with Sam.  Susanna and Sam just had two twins about 5 months ago so I don’t know where Susanna had the time to prepare an additional meal to the way she slaves over the stove to serve up Sam’s gigantic appetite while feeding two big ‘ol babies off her fun bags. Susanna is just a wonderfully energetic woman who you crave to be around just hoping some of her positive juju rubs off on you!. Susanna is quite the world traveler and prepared a french dish called Gratin Dauphinoise that was just scrumptuous. It was accompanied with Rotisserie chicken and a spinach salad with dried cherries and goat cheese.

Juli and Chris Tredwell (Meal #1)
Brought me a delicious meal of smoked salmon (on the BGE), cous cous, and a green salad. I wish I had a photo but I scarfed it down so quick I forgot to take a photo! They brought this to me while I was still in the hospital to save me from having to eat some kind of dried out chicken. Thank the lord!