Summer is almost here. Almost.

I can feel it creeping around the corner, and I know it will be on full blast as soon as we return from our trip to the Pacific Northwest next month.

Luckily, we have amazing locally grown fruits to get me through these humid Southern summers, and nothing says summer to me more than Georgia peaches. Peaches may be the one fruit I look forward to more than strawberries when the weather turns warm.

Photo taken on Android phone, edited via Instagram.

I have so many fond memories related to peaches. The most recent was biting into the perfectly ripe peach after running a 10K in the smouldering heat last year on July 4th. Although the effects of heat exhaustion a hit few hours later, that peach was the highlight of my day.

I actually don’t remember loving peaches this much before moving to Georgia 10 years ago. It really must be the locally, grown fruit that gets me. In any case, I expect this love affair with Georgia peaches to be a lifelong one.

To me, the ultimate combination (in pie form) when it comes to peaches, is blackberries. But, I did that last year with my mini pies. So, in the spirit of trying something different, I flipped through my new favorite cookbook: Pie by Ken Haedrich. By the way, if you love pie as much as I do, you really should pick this book up. It is full of 300 pie recipes – 300! That’s almost enough to make one pie a day for a year.

While searching for a way to use my Georgia peaches, I quickly stumbled across this brilliant recipe for Peach Blueberry Cobbler Pie.

Can’t decide whether you want pie or cobbler? Well, now you can have them both.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler Pie – from Pie by Ken Haedrich

Pie pastry, single crust (I cheated and used the store bought kind)
Filling
3 1/2 cups peeled, pitted and thickly sliced ripe peaches (about 7-8 peaches)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (1/2 a lemon works for me)
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (zest from 1/2 a lemon)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
Cobbler Topping
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Garnish
Fresh whipped cream (I used vanilla ice cream)

Let’s Bake!
Either prepare your pie/pastry crust or if you are using store-bought like I did, roll out your pastry shell and tuck into a 9 1/2 to 10 inch pie dish. Sculpt the edge into an upstanding ridge, or other preferred design. Place the pie dish in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400˚F.

Combine the peaches, blueberries, 1/3 cup of sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and nutmeg in a large bowl. Mix with a spoon or toss to combine, then set aside for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cornstarch. Then stir the cornstarch mixture into the fruit. Pour the fruit filling into the pie shell. Place the pie dish on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 375˚F and rotate the pie 180 degrees, so the front is now facing the back. Bake for another 10 minutes.

While the pie is baking, prepare the topping. Sift the flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingers or cut with a pastry blender, till the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. In a small mixing bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Make a small well in the flour mixture and add the buttermilk mixture. Stir the batter until evenly blended.

Remove the pie from the oven and spoon the cobbler topping batter evenly over the fruit. Sprinkle the topping with 1 tablespoon sugar. Return the pie to the oven and back for 23 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Tip: slide an aluminum foil covered baking sheet onto the rack underneath the pie dish to catch any spills.

Remove the pie from the oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream within an hour. Enjoy!

When I started working on this post, it was going to be about making homemade dog food for our three dogs (two of our own, and one foster).

But our sweet foster dog, Pepper, found her forever home over the weekend, so this post is dedicated to her.

We fostered Pepper for exactly 13 months, from April 6, 2011 till May 6, 2012.

I met this sweet black lab puppy at a vet’s clinic in Johns Creek, GA when she was about 4-5 months old, I had planned to stop by to photograph her and one of her sisters for Angels Among Us Rescue. But when I found out that she had a broken leg (the one sticking straight out in the below picture), either from getting hit by a car or dropped off a deck by previous owners, I just couldn’t leave her in boarding and decided to foster her.

Little did I know at the time that we would get to love her for more than a year.

We decided to name her Pepper because of her playful personality and wonderful spirit despite her broken hind leg.

From the beginning, I knew that we could not keep her forever, three dogs is just too many for our family to handle, especially now with a baby on the way. So I put up a mental block to protect myself on the day when she would leave us for her forever home.

But dogs just have a way of breaking down any mental barriers you try to put up, and she slowly became a part of our family.

Finally, back on February 1, 2012 after fostering Pepper for 10 months, we were able to take her to a specialist to have her broken leg amputated.

This only added to how much we cared for her, since I worked from home, I was able to be with her every day as she recovered from her surgery.

I know we will eventually be foster parents again, and we will love our foster dogs as our own during their time with us, but I also know that little Pepper will forever be a special one to us. She was a part of our family for such a long time, and we went through so much with her and nursed her back to health after her surgery.

Here she is with her forever family, who already love her so much:

This has been a tough post for me to write, I can barely see to type this through the tears running down my face. But I knew that I wanted to dedicate a post to Pepper.

We love you sweet girl, and will never forget you.

Thank you for bringing that much more joy and happiness (and cuddles) to our lives for the past year. We hope you’re happy in your new home with your new family. We know they will love you as much, if not more than, we did.

Pumpkin Dog Biscuits (makes approximately 30 treats)
Ingredients
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons dry milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Let’s Bake:
Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Mix pumpkin and eggs together in a medium bowl, then add the flour, dry milk and salt. Mix together well by hand to form a rough dough.

Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick, and cut into shapes. I decided to go with 1 inch sized hearts.

Place the cut-outs about 1/2 inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 min on one side and 6-7 minutes on the other so that the treats start to turn golden and puff up a bit.

Remove from the oven, let cool to room temperature and hand them over to the pups!

I celebrated Cinco de Mayo early this year. Yesterday, I unwittingly scheduled a lunch AND a dinner, BOTH at Mexican restaurants.

Who does that?

First was lunch at Ceviche Taqueria in historic Roswell, GA with Malika of Atlanta Restaurant Blog. We’ve been “Twitter friends” for at least a year (maybe more?), and it was so nice to finally meet her in person. We both ordered tacos and mmm.. we’re they tasty, and filled to the brim with fresh ingredients.

Then later in the evening was a dinner meeting at one of my good ol’ standbys, La Parrilla at The Forum in Norcross, GA.

Since I’m not cooking much lately, I thought I would dig back into the archives to offer you a recipe for Cinco de Mayo: Grilled Fish Tacos with Mexican Rice – the rice is super easy and quick to make, and the fish tacos are loaded with fresh veggies. It’s one of my favorite make-at-home Mexican meals.

And offer up another recipe for aguas frescas. This time with honeydew melon, cucumber, lime and mint – tastes almost like a mojito.

Melon Cucumber Lime Infused Water
Ingredients
Honeydew Melon, 1/4 of a melon sliced into thin slices
1 lime, sliced into thin slices
1/2 cucumber, sliced into thin slices
Mint leaves
Water

Let’s mix!
The beauty of infused water is that you can put as much or as little fruit, vegetables & herbs in the water to suit your taste.

Add the melon, lime slices and cucumber slices to a large pitcher. Then four to five mint leaves, tear them into quarters and muddle them to get the flavor to come out. Then add to the pitcher.

Pour water over the melon, lime, cucumber and mint, then cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, up to overnight. The longer the fruit and herbs are in the water, the more intense the flavor will be.

To serve, pour the water into a glass over ice. Enjoy!

From my last post, cooking has been quite the task lately. I have been filling my belly full of fresh vegetables and fruit lately. Thank goodness it’s spring/summer here!

Water has been something that I’ve been trying my hardest to have a lot of. Unfortunately, drink plain ol’ ice water is tough for me to stomach. The adding a lemon to the water thing is starting to get old too.

I went to see my friend Megan, of Mobi Yogi, earlier this week for a photo shoot. She handed me a glass of amazing melon-mint infused water. A lightbulb went off. Why haven’t I been doing this? Fruit + herbs + water, oh yes, please.

(By the way, she’s amazing. Back when I studied tai chi, they wanted me to do something similar. I just laughed at them. Give me flexibility exercises any day over strength and balance.)

Also known as aguas frescas, fruit and vegetable infused water has its roots in Spanish cuisine.

I have a few combinations that I will be trying out in the coming weeks, but since we are in the midst of strawberry season here. I’m going to start off with a strawberry basil infused water.

Strawberry Basil Aguas Frescas
Ingredients
Strawberries
Fresh basil leaves
Water

Let’s mix!
The beauty of infused water is that you can put as much or as little fruit & herbs in the water to suit your taste.

For me, I cut about 10 strawberries into very thin slices and added them to a large pitcher. Then three basil leaves, tear them into quarters and muddle them to get the flavor to come out. Then add to the pitcher with the strawberries.

Pour water over the berries and the basil, then cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, up to overnight. The longer the fruit and herbs are in the water, the more intense the flavor will be.

To serve, pour the water into a glass over ice. Garnish with a fresh strawberry and basil leaves, if you wish. Enjoy!

Recently I’ve been fighting the good fight against bouts of severe morning sickness. I thought I was lucky enough to escape it entirely, but then I was hit like a freight train at the very end of my first trimester. While I told myself that I would refrain from posting too much about pregnancy on this blog, I just hate that it’s keeping me from creating dishes and writing blog posts!

Prepping and cooking has been unfortunately impossible recently. But, I have been very busy recently on restaurant shoots, so luckily I still have some food porn to share with you.

This shot is of Tandoori chicken from a shoot that I did a few days ago for an Indian restaurant in Alpharetta, Georgia. For more photos, please visit my photography blog.

Fingers crossed that I feel better soon! There are so many recipes floating around in my head that I want to test out ASAP!

Ciao Bocca is an Italian style cafe located at the Sweet Auburn Curb market on Edgewood Avenue in downtown Atlanta.

Sweet Auburn Curb Market is one of the oldest standing landmarks in Atlanta, established in 1918, the year after the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 (Read more about the history of the market here). Local vendors in the market sell meat (whole pigs!), seafood, produce, baked goods and lunch dishes.

Sucheta of Go Eat Give and I were treated to a marvelous tasting spread by Chef Deborah, owner of Ciao Bocca. Deborah was born to an Italian mother and Polish father, her family combined with her life travels in Europe, helped to develop her palate and her cooking style.

L: Tuna Albacore, capers, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives and extra virgin olive oil served on a bed of arugula. R: Pasta Salad with sundried tomatoes, capers, kalamata olives and extra virgin olive oil

The beauty of Ciao Bocca’s food really came from the simple, fresh ingredients in each recipe. Authentic Italian dishes don’t require many, complex ingredients. It’s the simplicity that really makes the dish.

Listening to Chef Deborah explain these dishes to us really reminded me of when I attended Taste of Atlanta back in October and learned how to make pasta dishes from Barilla’s Executive Chef Lorenzo. That’s when I truly understood the why Italian food should be cooked: Fresh and Simple.

And Chef Deborah did not disappoint, everything she served to us was hands down mouthwatering and I only wish my stomach was bigger so that I could have eaten more. Emphasis was placed on highlighting the few, fresh ingredients in each handcrafted dish.

Grill Cheese – asiago provolone and mozzarella with fresh tomato and basil all pressed to perfection on semolina bread.

On your next trip to the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, be sure to stop by Ciao Bocca for lunch. They are tucked away in the back corner, so break yourself away from the crowds at the burger and bbq lines and head on back to see Chef Deborah.

For more on our visit to Ciao Bocca and further descriptions on what food we enjoyed, visit Sucheta’s post at her blog, Go Eat Give.

For more photos from our lunch at Ciao Bocca, hop on over to my photo blog.

This is a sort of follow-up post to my announcement earlier this week:

I have never considered myself a baby person. In fact, I have never been too fond of children. I’m the type of person who has always found children to be more annoying than useful.

Even though I have always pictured myself having children, it was something that would take place, at some point… in the far future. But, after our accident back in December, something changed. Due to the traumatic event, I was suddenly ready for kids. Life and death experience thing, I guess.

So, we started trying.

And immediately got pregnant.

To be honest, most days I am absolutely terrified.

Aside from not knowing whether or not I am going to be a good mother, I am terrified of how having a baby is going to interrupt my career and life goals. I have always had that Type A personality where I have goals in mind and I work my ass off in order to reach those goals. Having a baby was never on that priority list.

But it must be the hormones, recently I’ve started to sympathize with mothers who have crying children in public, kids have started to look more tolerable to me and having a baby suddenly doesn’t seem so daunting.

At our last ultrasound, when I saw Baby’s sweet Buddha belly, body wiggling around and playing with its feet… my heart melted. Before our appointment, I was starting to get used to the idea about being a mother, but seeing that ultrasound sent me over the edge. I am ready to do this.

I don’t know what the future is going to be like. But, I won’t be the first working mom and I certainly won’t be the last. It’s going to be more difficult with children than without. But it will be more exciting and rewarding.

I am ready for this next stage of life.

As for this blog, it has been tough to keep up with blog posts and new recipes when for the past month and a half all I really want is not even think about food. The nausea is starting to wane (slightly) and with the strawberry season, I am looking forward to getting back in the kitchen and testing out recipes.

Here’s a quick and dirty video of our strawberry farm outing. Somehow by a miracle, I managed to get some footage through the constant sneezing, thanks pollen:

Although I will technically be a mommy blogger, this blog will remain a place for food & photography. Of course, with family stories tossed in the mix *grin*

Recently, the quick, simple and fresh recipes are the ones that I’ve been sticking to. Here’s a quick and easy, but fancy-looking, recipe that you can put together quickly for a fast breakfast or as a brunch starter.

Strawberry Yogurt Parfait
I’m not going to put exact measurements here, to me, the beauty in making your own yogurt parfait is that you can put as much or as little of the ingredients as you like. But for the most part, equal parts of yogurt, granola and strawberries is recommended. Also, I did not use honey when I made the recipe. The strawberries that I used were pick-your-own from our local farm so they were sweet enough, so no additional sweetener was needed.

Ingredients:
Vanilla Greek yogurt
Granola (I used oats & honey flavor)
Raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
Sliced almonds (optional)
Honey (optional)
Sliced Strawberries

Let’s Assemble:
In a glass (size of your choice, a dessert trifle glass works great), layer yogurt, granola, raisins, almonds, honey and strawberries. Repeat layers until the glass is full.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

I think someone smells a bun in the oven…

I’ve been keeping this secret inside (literally!) for a little while now.

We’re so excited! Especially Paul, can’t you tell? Look at that smile.

The dogs have no idea what’s in store for them. We’ll have to get them used to all things baby… stroller walking, crying, the smells…

P.S. The first photo was taken this morning, while the other two were taken yesterday evening. Aubie was in no state of mind to cooperate last night, as you may be able to tell from that last photo. Too many outdoor distractions, apparently.