The First Anniversary

We'd been married an entire year (and a couple of hours) in this photo.

Sure wish I had

a peanut butter and banana sandwich with Benton bacon right now...

Fond memories from Taylor Catfish

In a continued series of flashbacks

I would like to remind everyone that my Aunt Ellie made me a beautiful handmade wedding gown that had our names and the wedding date embroidered in the hem--and also the name of Elvis!

A photo from the beach last year...

that looks much like a photo we took today (but I can't find the camera cord).

We can grow zinnias

even in the cracks on the street.

Today is our Anniversary

And these are our favorite wedding photos, taken on the walk from the church to the reception. Photo #1: in Ajax, the location of our first date. I was in love as soon as he asked if I wanted mac and cheese for dinner. Photo #2: In front of our favorite bookstore. Note my blue suede shoes. They gave me killer blisters. We're grateful for a very good year.

Magnetic Memories

So, how many people still have this save-the-date magnet on their fridge? We do. (Sorry, international friends, but the postage to send this overseas was prohibitive.) And how many of you have noticed that we should have included a hyphen between can and eat? If I visit your house and you have this on your fridge, expect me to pull out a Sharpie and correct our error.

We're at the beach celebrating our anniversary week

but we know that some of you will check our blog. So, for the coming week (unless we can find free wireless at the condo), we'll entertain you with some flashbacks. Flashback #1: here's where I gave Ned a deadline for asking me to marry him at Sunday's Toth Parade (Feb. 18). Generously, I gave him until April 28, 2007 -- one month and ten days from the moment I wrote this on his hand (the date was significant because it would also have been three years since he met me). Little did I know that he had a ring upstairs, ready for me the next day.

Today is Potlikker Oxford Day

And there will be Middendorf's catfish. Yum. Read more at www.southernfoodways.com.

Ready for company!

I'm in Oxford for two days, and I tonight I enjoyed dinner with Alex and Sophie, and my friend Jennifer (also a Vicksburgian). Alex and Sophie were excited to hear the plans hatched at the sports bar to attend the Vandy/Ole Miss game in September. They're ready for company, as shown in this photo. Think how much Grove cooking we can do in this fabulous kitchen, Sandy! Plus, Sophie will be the perfect innocent-looking person to sneak in illegal beverages to the stadium.

The Shelling Contest

I'm sure you were all wondering who shelled the most peas this weekend. This photo represents the winning Sunday batch. The losing Sunday batch was well under the 8 cup mark. Which means...(1) we have a lot of peas in our freezer and (2) Mary Beth is champion! Woo hoo!

Look, Mom --

I married my own Dish Genie. And he's really great. For those who do not know, the Dish Genie is the magical being that appears in your kitchen and does dishes while you cook, so the mess at the end is not so bad. I had one at my house in Valdosta. And now there's one in Vicksburg, too!

An Unsolicited Endorsement

This is not a paid endorsement. But it could be. This stuff is amazing. I bought it because some of our zinnias dropped petals and flower dust onto the Irish linen that sits on our buffet, and -- by the time I noticed -- there were several discolorations. I love the linen, and didn't want it to be ruined, so I bought this stuff. I had faintly remembered my Aunt Ellie's allegiance to it after she used it to remove the stains from where my wedding dress dragged the ground at the reception. OxiClean not only removed the stains from the Irish linen, but I used the leftover solution in the soaking bucket to remove stains from about five t-shirts that had seen better days. These things had been washed and dried at least a dozen times, but they came out looking good as new. Maybe this will keep me from having to buy new white t-shirts so frequently! Buy it at your local grocer, or the Super-Wal. (Yes, we hate the Super-Wal, but it's the only place to buy some things in Vicksburg.)

Ned has major awards!

When Ned's mom sold her house, we inherited all Ned's childhood stuff. (My parents sent me home with all my junk on the way home through Valdosta after our honeymoon.) Here's something I know about my husband: he won a lot of trophies in his youth. I insisted on hanging them up in his office. Far to the right you'll see Ned's diplomas. But, more importantly, you'll see other accomplishments: the trophy from the high school physics competition (bottom photo), his second place district math award (7th grade), and -- from the next year -- his first place district math award (he studied over the summer). Also on the wall are Eagle Scout certificates, academic honor pins from junior high, and his award for Best "All-Round" Athlete at Cleveland High School. Sadly, there's no hardware to commemorate his title as Geography Bee Champion.

Ned's Saturday

Today we bought a bushel of purple hull peas at the market. A shopper had ordered from one of our farmers, but then didn't come by to pick it up. Thus, we scored a deal. Of course, now we have to shell them. Ned looks pretty happy as he begins the task--far happier than he looked this afternoon while working on the diss.

Feast of the Assumption

Friday (today) is the Feast of the Assumption. It's my favorite Mass of the year, because we get to sing all the Mary songs (albeit usually off key). And, in celebration of this feast day, pictured here is one of my favorite things: Lipstick Mary with backyard zinnias. She's a planter given to us by my Aunt Susan. Not sure if Mary wore lipstick, but I love it all the same. She sits on my kitchen window.

Weird Garden Creature of the Day

Found enjoying our tomatoes.

Stuffed Tomato Contest at VFM

Get your stuffed tomato recipe ready. Details in today's Vicksburg Post. And on the VFM Web site. Now, if we could just find a few more tomato growers...

Kitchen Gadgets

The Stuff White People Like Web site is giving PostSecret a run for its place of honor as favorite household blog (category: commercial). For the record, we do not own these items: waffle maker, potato ricer, panini press, or sushi mat. We do, however, have everything else mentioned. But, in my own defense, my blue Kitchen Aid mixer is used 1-2 times a week: for bread, and the occasional dessert (as here, for ice cream in the dead of winter).

Here's a diet I can handle.

Found in a Monroe antique shop. Domino sugar has only 15 calories per teaspoon, per this book.

Saturday Adventures in Monroe

We'd never been to Monroe before, and thought -- why not? Here's a photo from the flower park maintained by the Rotary Club. It's near a great alley of antique shops. They closed at 5 p.m. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. Oh well.
A good find in West Monroe. They use Gambino's bread on their poboys. The roast beef is sliced, not shredded, however. Atmostphere gets a 10. Poboys gets a 3, for the bread alone.
And we ended up at the race track. How to describe this fun? (1) Men who carry 3 beers at a time around the grandstands. By beer, I mean 24 oz. cans of Natural Light. (2) Parking lot races, where regular folks sign up to race their everyday vehicles on the track at intermission. Insurance policies have exclusions for this, by the way. That might explain their brake lights on the turns. (3) The HORRIBLE WOMAN who sent the police officer to confiscate my camera after the above photo was snapped. She could have asked me to put it back in the car as we walked through the gates (it was tucked in my purse after this photo was taken), but apparently she must have thought I looked particularly dangerous and she needed some back up.

Saturday Lunch in Delhi, Louisiana

It really wasn't good at all.

Another First Anniversary Deadline

Ned looked much happier making homemade tortillas for taco night than he did later in the evening, when we began the process of finally unpacking his back office. Hours later, it's still not all done, and the smiles are even less pronounced. Updated photo tomorrow, after all the "new stacks" are piled in the shed, hefted in the attic, and driven to the office. Unpacking the office is only one of our "must have it done by the first anniversary deadlines." Other deadlines include thank you notes (we're getting closer), and assembling the wedding photo album (finished at 6:45 p.m. today).

Buy some hummus from us...

That was going to be the slogan for Sandy's booth at the Vicksburg Farmers' Market.  Alas, poor Sandy is traveling the world right now (Australia, then India--or is it Indonesia?)  

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I was craving hummus last night so we had Mediterranean Night on National Street.  I'm happy to report that the baba ghanouj (using eggplant from our garden) turned out great.  That was a first.  The hummus was "as usual," but I was unhappy.  My hummus is always much more like chick pea paste than like that good, creamy hummus you get in restaurants.  At dinner I decided I'd call Lebanon's Cafe in New Orleans for advice, but Ned convinced me that they probably wouldn't give up their recipe.  Luckily, a quick Google search has solved the problem.  Check out the solution here:  you must first whip the tahini with the lemon juice to form a creamy base and then add in the chick peas.  The order of ingredients makes a world of difference!  (Hummus pictured above not served at our dinner table last night, but it will be next time.)

I momentarily considered keeping this "order of ingredients" secret to myself and then impressing all our friends at dinner parties, but why be selfish?

Merci

As Ned and I look forward to our first anniversary, the clock is ticking on our thank you note deadline.  Tonight's project:  16 notes.  We're closing in, slowly but surely.  And another note of thanks:  additional gasoline and a fuel additive started the Malibu right up -- no towing needed.  Of course, the car savings was offset by today's repair of a leak in our roof by the hot water heater.  The moral of the story: you're gonna have to pay, one way or another.

Expensive repair of the week

Friends may remember the Great Washing Machine Incident at the end of July. We ended up buying a new one. Now the car has decided to cause problems. Ned thinks the gas gauge quit working and we're just out of gas (despite the fact that the gauge shows a decent amount still in the tank). Fortunately, it ran out of gas right beside our house, and now it's just parked on the street. Unfortunately, running out of gas in a car with fuel injection system is not an inexpensive problem to fix, particularly when it will involve a tow to the shop and we fear that the fuel pump has quit working. Our efforts to fill it with gas did not help today. We're going to sleep on it, and hope the car fairy comes by and works a magical fix overnight.

Sad day for Braves fans

Skip Caray, Braves announcer, died yesterday.  He's on the right.  His dad, Harry, is on the left.  Photo borrowed from CNN.  He's famous for screaming, "Braves win!  Braves win!"  Not that we've heard that often this season.

Awkward moment at the garden shop

We went to Faulk's to buy tomatoes for our second summer planting, but ended up with a lesson in nature. Note that the male lizard has chased down the female and is biting her neck to hold her in place. Close photo is courtesy of the new camera, purchased just last week in time for the Seattle trip. We kept our distance and used the zoom lens, rather than intruding on the moment. And this is your National Geographic photo for the day.

A solution to our dog problem

As our friends and family know, Ned is an animal lover. I am--um--just the opposite. I realize that only my sister really understands my aversion to pets, but it is what it is. That said, I do feel a little bad that the "no pets in our house" rule has kept Ned from getting a dog. But good news: now he can get his puppy fix each Saturday at the Vicksburg Farmers' Market. The shelter has been bringing dogs down to the market, and adoption rates have increased almost 30%. Each Saturday, Ned can enjoy the puppies, and we never have to own, feed, or care for a dog. Win, win.

Spiffing up the kitchen

My friend, Pableaux, a gifted photographer who took some of my favorite photos of our wedding, sent a nice offer to share some of his photos with me a few weeks ago. Just this week, I've gotten around to the hard business of narrowing down our choices from his wonderful selection. I went with a food theme -- 5x7 prints to hang in my kitchen. He's traveling in Louisiana these days, but I look forward to adding these treats to my kitchen landscape when he returns! (Today's photo credit is, of course, to Pableaux.)