Nashville Food Tour

Sometimes it's fun to play tourist in your own local area.  That's exactly what I did for a work event with coworkers!  We took a private food tour with Dabble Studio in Germantown and explored a multiple neighborhoods and types of Nashville classic fare.

We started off with hot chicken at the Listening Room Cafe, which moved to SoBro (South of Broadway neighborhood) a couple of years ago.  It's a great music venue, and the food was food too!  I've heard it's the kind of place serious music listeners visit, i.e. don't talk while the music is playing.

Our next stop was East Nashville, to get a bushwacker at 3 Crow Bar.  The bushwacker is the unofficial cocktail of Nashville, but I'd never had one before this tour.  I know, I know... I've lived here for seven years, what gives?  I'd heard that is was like an adult Frosty, and I'm not a chocolate person. But it's a delicious boozy milkshake that everyone should try at least once, and the liquor sneaks up on your fast.

Also in East Nashville, we had a sampler of hot dogs (and soda!) at I Dream of Weenie, probably one of the most Instagrammed spots on that side of town.  I loved the Cheerwine, which is such a Southern thing.

And it wouldn't be Nashville if we didn't stop at a mural for a photo opp!  Seriously, the number of murals in Nashville is insane.  I once did a post about visiting a bunch with my friend B, but now there are so many more... I love Kristin Luna's post about them with so many I haven't visited.

It wouldn't be a Nashville tourist

I had to leave the tour before the final two stops, because I had to get home to pick up Kenny at daycare.  But after I left, they hit up one of the best BBQ joints in town (Martin's Bar-B-Que in Belmont) and got dessert at Colts Chocolates in the Gulch.  Talk about a great way to spend an afternoon!

I'd definitely recommend you check out a food tour if you're coming to Nashville; this one hits so many different neighborhoods (they give you history and trivia along the way) and is a great way to enjoy a taste of Music City.

Preview: Wine Down Main Street 2017

For the third year in a row, I had the privilege of attending the media preview for one of the best local charity events in the Nashville area: Wine Down Main Street.  (Click to see my 2015 and 2016 posts!)  I meant to post about this earlier, but pregnancy and my sister's wedding sidetracked me...  so sorry!  VIP tickets for the event are sold out, but you can still snag General Admission tickets ($85) online and at participating retailers.  It's all happening tomorrow, Saturday, November 4th!

Fruit tart from Suzette

You guys, you don't want to miss this.  And since I can't drink all.the.wine. right now, you really need to go drink wine and eat delicious food FOR CHARITY on my behalf!

I got to sample the biggest banana pudding I've ever seen from Cool Cafe, which they WILL have at the event, y'all.  It was off the chains.  I can't wait to visit them for their Steak Night dinners, which I haven't tried.  They're my fav meat & three in Franklin.

I mean, look at this thing...

I also sampled bites from Taziki's, Mafiaoza's, Nothing Bundt Cakes (Pumpkin Spice is here for the limited time!), and Catering and Events by Suzette.

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Mafiaoza's

Catering and Events by Suzette

Tickets may be purchased online or in person at one of the below locations. Online ticket sales end at NOON on Saturday, November 4th.  Any remaining tickets will be sold at the ticket sales tents located on the Franklin Square or corner Fourth & Main beginning at 5 PM on Saturday, November 4th.

General Admission tickets only:

• Avec Moi - 418 Main Street Franklin, TN
• Finnley’s - 435 Main Street East, Suite A Franklin, TN 37064  (Note: this is one of my fav boutiques in Franklin!)
• Harlin Meyerhoff - 400 Main Street, Suite 120 Franklin, TN 
• The Shop Around The Corner - 117 Third Avenue South Franklin, TN 
• Yarrow Acres - 424 Main Street Franklin, TN

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee
For more than 113 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee (BGCMT) has enabled all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. Annually, more than 3,400 youth are served at nine Middle Tennessee Boys & Girls Clubs and through community outreach initiatives. Clubs are located in Davidson & Williamson counties. Boys & Girls Clubs provides a safe place, professional caring staff, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Priority programs emphasize academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles.

National Cornbread Festival

I love my Lodge cast iron (and carbon steel) cookware.  So when I learned that you can tour the Lodge foundry only one weekend each year, during the National Cornbread Festival, I added it to my mental Tennessee wishlist.  It's just under two hours for us to get to South Pittsburg from Franklin, so we made a day trip out of it a couple of weekends ago!

The festival is held in a small town, and it draws a crowd!  I think Dan was a bit overwhelmed by the droves of people who came out for cornbread, cast iron, food, and crafts...  but I was loving it.  We hit up Cornbread Alley, where for just $5 you could sample a ton of really creative recipes.  I think the strawberry walnut one was the most interesting to me, and there were even recipes with bacon in them.

The other nice part about attending the festival?  I got to have a day date with my husband, and I got to catch up with a couple of my beloved DAR friends!  And it pays to know the locals.... I got the hookup for some corn omelette-pancakes (hard to explain, but soooo yummy) and even got to meet Henry Lodge, the President and COO of Lodge!

This is totally the nerd in me, but I love factory tours.  I think it's fascinating to be able to see how things are made on such a grand scale.  I've toured a pet food factory, a large scale craft beer production facility, and now a cast iron foundry.  I was so surprised by the beautiful silver color that the cast iron has before its seasoning.  It also surprised me how the product was sort of all mixed up along the line.  I wonder how they track production and inventory, and what percentage of items don't pass muster.  I'm sure it's a science and an art!

We also made a pit stop in Monteagle, which, along with Sewanee, I think is so quaint.  Here's a pic from when we stopped at the Amish Hippie, where I picked up a jar of crackberry (cranberry blackberry) jam.

 I love a good festival!  What's your favorite kind of fest,

and what do you like most about them?

The Chef & I

A couple of former coworkers have been mentioning The Chef & I as a wonderful restaurant.  I'd eaten their food at catered events, but never visited their restaurant in Lenox Village.  Then I found out they have cooking classes for $75 per person, which includes a multi-course meal.  My friend B and I have been looking to bring some more fun to our girls' nights, so we signed up for a Nashville Brunch themed cooking class.

It was a dark and stormy night, no joke.  Brooke and I were the only students on that night, so we got a private lesson from Chef Liz, along with some delicious dinner.  Some of their other classes, especially knife skills, sell out very quickly, FYI!

The first dish we made was a sweet potato and veggie hash, with eggs to boot.  It was a good exercise in dicing!  I loved all of the colors from the veggies, and we definitely learned a thing or two.  I'm planning to make this dish again, when I have houseguests!

Sweet potato and veggie hash

I grated cheese for the next dish, shrimp and grits (cheesy grits!) and we ate some of the veggie hash as a first course.  While we ate, Chef Liz prepped the shrimp and grits, while we watched and took some notes.  I'm not the biggest fan of grits, but these tasted soooooo good with all the grated Havarti in there.  The shrimp had smoked paprika, and they were very flavorful.

Shrimp & Cheesy Grits

Our last dish was Nashville hot chicken and cornbread skillet cakes.  You can also make cornbread waffles with this one, if you have a waffle maker!  I love hot chicken, but I have always been too scared to fry chicken at home.  I guess it's the idea of hot oil that freaks me out.  So Chef Liz helped me season the chicken (we did half hot and half not), bread it, and fry it up like a champ.  (Note the chef's coat I got to wear, like a boss.)  I have to admit, it was a little intimidating, but ultimately we had some great chicken!

I loved the spicy plus sweet flavor once we added the syrup to the pancake.  Yum yum yum.  I was a little rough handling the chicken, so some of the breading came off, but such is life.  Still tasty.

The Chef & I also has a limited number of seats at the kitchen bar open when they serve dinner, so you can watch them make your food.  But I love getting hands-on experience, so the cooking class was absolutely perfect.  I'll go back to eat there someday, but I also want to keep up with their calendar of cooking classes, so I can learn as I indulge.

Morton Salt's Next Door Chef: Nashville!

Do you remember the teaser back in November when I attended Morton Salt's Next Door Chef: Nashville?  Morton Salt partnered with local chef Karl Worley to teach a Nashville local, Travis, how to cook... and then they turned his home and backyard into a pop-up restaurant!  On March 20th, the video from the event at "Indie's Kitchen", named after Travis's daughter, went live, and I couldn't be happier to share the big reveal.

photo courtesy of Morton

Upon arrival at Travis & wife Claire's house, we were truly transported to a beautiful outdoor restaurant!  I loved all of the spring flowers, and the entire menu was tied around springtime cooking, perfect for this time of year.

We started with a cocktail hour, featuring a Lemon Spring Tea cocktail.  The lemons preserved in Morton Kosher Salt really enhanced the flavor of the drink!  Super refreshing for spring as the weather get warmer, and you know Southerners can't live without their tea.  You can find the recipe *here*.

As for the meal, for me it was more than just eating the amazing food that Travis learned to make.  It was about noticing to the subtle flavors enhanced by different types of salt!  I never thought about the salt that enhances pimento cheese; Chef Karl recommended Morton Fine Sea Salt, which easily blends and dissolves for consistent seasoning.  (Find the pimento cheese recipe *here*.)

If you've been using table salt in all of your cooking, you need to check out their tips and recipes.   Kosher salt, coarse sea salt, and fine sea salt all have the ability to bring out the flavor in your home-cooked meals.  All of the dishes we tried, from cocktails to main course to dessert, were transformed by the proper use of various types of salt.

A few lessons I learned at the dinner... 

• Morton Kosher Salt is the preferred salt of many chefs because it is easy to control for perfectly seasoned food.  It's the salt that I keep in my salt keeper by the stove.
• Morton Coarse Sea Salt adds a visual "pop" that you can see and taste.  I like to sprinkle a little bit of this on top of warm brownies, or caramel ice cream.  I think it's great for a little contrast with sweet desserts.
• Morton Fine Sea Salt is perfect for blending while cooking.  The crystals dissolve quickly, which means it's the best for marinades, soups, sauces, and dressings.  I can't tell you the number of times I've cooked a dish where I realized too late that I didn't mix well enough for the larger salt crystals to dissolve!

The dish that surprised me the most?  The Salt Roasted Beet Salad.  I'm not a fan of beets!  But these didn't have all of that beet juice runoff I'm used to seeing, because Chef Karl says the Morton Kosher salt absorbs it during roasting.  I was much happier with the flavor and taste of these beets as a result.

Salt Roasted Beet Salad

The Chicken Country Captain with curry, served over cheesy grits, was probably my favorite dish of them all.  There were so many great flavors, all in one perfect dish.

Chicken Country Captain

I didn't get a great picture of dessert, because I devoured it!  So I had to steal one from the professional photographer.  But I think I could make this Biscuit Strawberry Shortcake at home... using the *recipe* provided of course!

photo courtesy of Morton

Travis and Claire (and baby Indie!) were so brave to open their home to a bunch of strangers like us... it was so much fun!  I'm sure it has inspired them to turn to their kitchen for well-seasoned meals more often.

You can go to MortonSalt.com/NextDoorChef to see more from our meal and learn how you can host your own Next Door Chef with the same recipes we had at our event.

photo courtesy of Morton

Morton Salt has shared that they will be releasing video and recipes from their third Next Door Chef, in New Orleans, this summer. Stay tuned to the website for some amazing grilling inspiration.

Thank you to Morton Salt for sponsoring this event and blog post!
The images (unless noted), text, and opinions expressed are all my own.

Pie Society

I really love The Loving Pie Company (mentioned here on the blog in 2014 and also this year), so when my friend told me about their twice-annual Pie Society event with Jackalope Brewing Company, I felt like it was perfect for a date night.  Held after-hours with candlelight at the brewery, it featured six courses pairing pie and beer.

We dressed up a bit for the occasion, though ties were optional.  The price was super reasonable too, just $35 per person plus tax.  Not bad for a night out including alcohol!  We were served a pint upon arrival, then we settled into seats to be served our first course.

Check out the photo above of the menu for descriptions of the courses and beers.  I'll be focusing more on the food angle, as that's my element, while beer is my husband's!

The first course was kind of a Christmas cookie out of pie dough, with drizzled chocolate and blackberry.  I think I need to make cookies out of all of my leftover pie dough, when I have it!  The second course was a tasty meat pie.  I don't usually like peas in anything, but I ate the whole thing because it was a great hand pie!

The third course was Dan's favorite, a maple pie with BACON.  I think one of my favorites was the fourth course, the cutest apple pie I've ever eaten.  It also had a hint of cheddar.  I love apples plus cheese.  It's one of those strange combos that works!

The fifth and sixth courses were holiday-style desserts of cranberry pecan pie bites and a dessert that was designed almost like Dan commissioned it: chocolate, pretzel, coffee, and Oreo!  I was starting to slow down.  The pies were the perfect small bites for a multi-course meal.

If you like beer and you like pie (and let's face it, if you read my blog you likely like one or the other), these Pie Society events are a great night out in Nashville!  Whether it's a girls' night out or a date night, I really enjoyed it.  I definitely would consider attending another one, if only to get my husband out of the house and into a sport coat.

Morton Salt's Next Door Chef: Nashville

On Monday, I was thrilled to be invited to join a number of guests at Morton Salt's Next Door Chef: Nashville.  We were transported to the backyard of a local family, hosts Travis and Claire, so Travis could learn to cook (with different types of salt as a complement) under the tutelage of a professional chef.  

At the event, the home was transformed into a beautiful outdoor bar and restaurant! This was Morton Salt’s second Next Door Chef event, after a dinner served in Chicago.  There, they focused on holiday cooking, which you can view here.  

If you've been using table salt in all of your cooking, you need to check out their tips and recipes.   Table salt is for the table...  Kosher salt, coarse sea salt, and fine sea salt all have the ability to bring out the flavor in your home-cooked meals.  All of the dishes we tried, from cocktails to main course to dessert, were transformed by the addition of various types of salt.

Want to host a salt-enhanced dinner part of your own?  You can go to MortonSalt.com/NextDoorChef to download your own hosting kit, complete with recipes and steps to add that extra something to your meal.  And if you do host a “Next Door Chef” party or have a recipe idea for using Morton Kosher or sea salt, post your photos using #NextDoorChef!

I can't wait to share more about this special event when the video and recipes get published to the Next Door Chef website.  In the meantime, make sure you check out what they did in Chicago, and learn more about how you can enhance your cooking technique and flavors for the holidays.

Thank you to Morton Salt for sponsoring this event and blog post!
The images, text, and opinions expressed are my own.

Preview: Wine Down Main Street 2016

Last year, I had the privilege of attending the media preview for the best (for nine years running!) charity event in Franklin, benefitting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee: Wine Down Main Street.  (Check out last year's post here.)  Since 2001, this event has raised more than $1.5 million for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Franklin and Fairview.  This year, I was again invited to their media preview, held at Homestead Manor's beautiful barn.

Bites from Catering and Events by Suzette (that foie gras mushroom bite was awesome!)

We enjoyed delicious bites from some of the participating restaurants, including Puckett's Boat House, Saffire, Homestead Manor, Triple Crown Bakery, and Catering and Events by Suzette.  We also had beer and wine provided by the official wine sponsor, Lipman.  I tried one of their newer wine brands, Napa Smith and Sonoma Smith.  If the food we had is indicative of what will be served at the event itself, you will love every sip and every bite!

Dominican pork bites with pico de gallo on a sweet potato grit cake, from Saffire

Squash soup shooters from Homestead Manor

Triple Crown Bakery dessert shooters

Celebrating 16 years, this year's Wine Down Main will be held Saturday, November 5, 2016 from 7 to 10 PM in historic downtown Franklin.  General admission tickets are $85 and include wine, beer, and food tastings.  VIP tickets are already sold our, but a limited number of Premium VIP tickets are still available, including access to the exclusive VIP lounge at The Red House (one of my favorite venues in Franklin) and a gift bag.

If you're in the Nashville and Franklin area, I highly recommend you buy your ticket and support this worthy event.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee

For more than 113 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee (BGCMT) has enabled all young

 people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens. Annually, more than 3,400 youth are served at nine Middle Tennessee Boys & Girls Clubs and through community outreach initiatives. Clubs are located in Davidson & Williamson counties. Boys & Girls Clubs provides a safe place, professional caring staff, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Priority programs emphasize academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles.