shop local advent calendar

Advent calendars are a fun way to count down to the big day of gift-giving. In my house, we were never into the chocolate or tiny toy variety. We have done a month of good things to help others, a month of fun things to do together, a month of Legos to build, and the like. For locally minded shoppers I have put together an advent calendar of some of my favorite products and small businesses I like to support.. What better way is there to shop than from the storefront of hopes and dreams, to reinvest in the community you call home?

 

I found a tree limb in the yard, spray painted it silver and planted it in a vase full of lentils and Christmas baubles. I found these neat printable numbers on StudioDiy.com. They are fantastic because the size is the exact fit for the top of a Mason jar. A Mason jar advent calendar would be very cute and very fun to find small gifts or good deeds-to-do to fit inside each day. At our house, each number on this tree is a clue to where to find the gift or good deed. But here, each number coincides with a local favorite.

Day One

 

Beautiful Briny Sea Salts from Suzi Sheffield are a favorite hostess gift and stocking stuffer of mine. I have been a fan of the Truffle Salt and French Picnic but thanks to The Indie Craft Experience, I have a new favorite, the smoky Campfire. My favorite places to purchase are the Peachtree Road Farmers Market and Beehive. And neat-o information: The Lapsang Souchong salt on top of the hand cut ice on The Unsung Hiro at Miso Izakaya was a special commission of Beautiful Briny.

The Unsung Hiro at Miso Izakaya with ice topped with Lapsang Souchong infused sea salt

Day Two

Mike Lowery Illustration

 

Atlantan Mike Lowery has the cutest, silliest point of view. His work has been seen in galleries and publications across the globe. I am enchanted by his illustrations of things like charcuterie, birds (Gunther Vogelmeier is my favorite), and even beards.

 

This is what I purchased at The Indie Craft Experience this year.

 



Day Three

NaturAlmond

 

All natural, made locally with just two ingredients: almond and salt. My favorite way to eat it-- off a spoon, straight from the jar. I like to purchase mine from The Peachtree Road Farmers Market so I can talk with owner Jamie and pick up a bag of her almond flour. It is great to coat chicken or pork before frying or baking. Jars can also be found at Whole Foods and Star Provisions. Click here for an extensive list and a bit of history on Jamie's grandfather, her inspiration. It fits in a stocking; I know because I gifted jars last year.

Day Four

Doux South Pickles

 

Local, Organic, handcrafted pickles by Chef Nick Melvin. Inside each jar is more than tasty pickles, it's the continuation of a family tradition of pickling the goods from his family's garden n Louisiana with his mom. I get mine (my favorite: Honey Kissed Turnips) at local farmers markets (East Atlanta, Peachtree Road), but they can also be found at Alon's, Pine Street Market,  and Star Provisions. As Nick says, Stupid good. Doux South also ships!

from http://www.erinsmithart.com/

Day Five

Erin Smith Art

 

Erin Smith creates sassy art from photos of relatives. I have given her cocktail napkins and bar towels as hostess gifts and as stocking stuffers to the delight of the recipients. My favorite place to shop for her whimsy is Heliotrope in Decatur but you may also purchase from her website.

 

Day Six

Emily G's Jams

 

Emily G's Jams are the perfect size for stockings. My favorites are the Pear Honey and the Pepper Vinegar. When I first tried the Pear Honey, I ate it with a spoon. It really is the perfect toast topper though. The Pepper Vinegar is used daily in my kitchen. It adds a zip and acidity to soup, my go-to breakfast. Emily's jams and sauces are all-purpose and the website includes a slew of recipes both sweet and savory for trying the mixtures. You can really taste the love in each jar.

 

Day Seven

Brother Journal

Brother Journal is a quarterly journal from Ryan Smith, Andrew Thomas Lee, and Alvin Diec with a specific focus on people who make "good, honest food the right way." The first issue beautifully traced the journey of pastured chicken from farm to table, chock full of all the good story bits. It really is a thing of beauty. Gift one here.

Day Eight

Phickles Pickles
 

Phickles Pickles began in 2009 in Angie Tillman’s home kitchen and has since moved to a facility in Athens. The entire family pitches in from the filling of the jars, sticking on the labels, and delivering the boxes. Each jar is hand packed with locally sourced veggies and fruit. I love all of the pickles but Rasta Beans are my favorite of the bunch. Rasta Beans came about as a gift to a local Athens restaurant that served a few dishes with jerk seasoning. They now have quite a cult following. Rasta Beans are not always available but she will make them to order. Look for Angie and her sweet booth adorned with heirloom linens at farmer's markets and local shops.

 

Day Nine

Pine Street Applewood Smoked Bacon

 

Pine Street Market meats begin with local pork from Berkshire hogs from Gum Creek Farms in Georgia. Humanely raised pigs forage off the land using a rotational grazing method without antibiotics, pesticides, or herbicides. CIA-trained Rusty Bowers is a skilled craftsman in the art of salumi. His house-cured meats made on site in Avondale Estates and aged in custom-built, climate controlled curing caves. My favorites are the speck and the applewood smoked bacon. My kids call it the “good bacon” when they are asking for it.

Day Ten

H&F Bottle Shop Bloody Mary Mix

 

 

It’s not a spicy mix but that is easily remedied with the addition of hot sauce and a few of those Rasta beans mentioned above. I love the mix’s  brightness and thickness. The mix begins with hand-milled tomatoes, not juice, but tomatoes and includes hand-squeezed lime juice, Worcestershire, horseradish, Trappey’s hot sauce, celery seed, and cream Sherry. The bottle encourages you to add to it what will make your bloody Mary best for you. I absolutely love the handwritten batch date on the label.

 

Day Eleven

Sweetgrass Dairy Green Hill Cheese

 

 

 This creamy, buttery, and smooth cheese with a thin bloomy rind and golden color is similar to Camembert. Jersey cow’s milk gives it the gorgeous color and I am convinced being made with love gives it its taste. Sweet Grass Dairy is a family owned and operated farm in Thomasville where the cows live as cows should and cheese making grew out of new found joy at a cheese-making class. It’s delicious, local, and sustainable.

Day Twelve

Tickets to team Hidi 2.0 Benfit

This event, scheduled for January 26, 2014 again at King Plow Arts Center will be one of The Giving Kitchen's largest fundraising efforts. Get  tickets for the Giving Kitchen benefit with over 30 of the Atlanta area’s best Restaurants and Farmers, the city’s finest beverage bad asses and their libation inspirations, a wicked Live Auction and rocking music by Yacht Rock Revue and Big Mike Geier! Join the Atlanta community in surrounding Team Hidi with love. What a fun and delicious way to help The Giving Kitchen give back to our city's restaurant employees when crisis occur.
Can’t attend?  Consider making a donation to thegivingkitchen.org.

Day Thirteen
Indigo Bath and Body Soaps

With soaps imbued with farm fresh ingredients from their farm and local farmers (from our farmer's markets) that you know and love, to the honey and beeswax raised in local apiaries, you'll find local ingredients in over 95% of Indigo Bath and Body products.  My favorite item is the Multi Fruit Antioxidant lip and eye balm. I keep it on my nightstand.

Day fourteen

Book: Buddhist Catnaps...

Buddhist Catnaps and Broken-Down Hymns is a collection of short stories by Decatur writer Tommy Housworth that I find witty, endearing, and honest. I get lost in the soulful characters and transported by the many references to music. Buy it. Read it.

Hope

I was out of town for last weekend's Team Hidi benefit for chef Ryan Hidinger and I felt my distance immensely. I longed to be in the space filled with collective hope and love. I wished to be able to send what was in my heart to Ryan and Jen. The closest I could get, being 1000 miles away, was texting back and forth with those present. I cried viewing the screen shots of my favorite chefs and servers giving to a man and a cause dear to them. I sobbed along with the video of Ryan speaking. I cheered when I found out they raised over $100,000 and then cheered some more when it surpassed $200,000.

Since learning of Ryan's cancer diagnosis and seeing the Atlanta community reach out and band together, I too have more hope within my soul. Togetherness is a powerful, transforming tool. I have great love for the men and women organizing benefits for Ryan and standing alongside him for the duration of this fight. I believe in the power of hope and love.

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.” 

 

--Emily Dickinson

This is a list of some pretty great Atlanta businesses who helped:
Abattoir
Floataway Cafe
Bacchanalia
Muss & Turner's / Local Three
4th & Swift
Brick Store Pub / Leon's Full Service
Rathbun's
Taco Mac
Canoe
STG / Bocado
Miller Union
No. 246 / The Optimist
Double Zero Napoletana / The Iberian Pig
Restaurant Eugene / Holeman & Finch
Rosebud
Southbound
Noni's
Empire State South
Cakes & Ale
Greg Hardesty with Recess in Indy
Six Feet Under
Octane
Honeysuckle Gelato
Fox Brothers BBQ / The Big Tex
Six Feet Under
Octane
Miso Izakaya
One Eared Stag / Holy Taco
Genki
Murphy's
Cardamom Hill
Pine Street Market
Woodfire Grill
The Sound Table
Aria
Emily G's Jams

100 Mile Dinner: Winter on the Lake

On a mild winter evening in January, I paused to take in the scenery of the picturesque Lake Avondale. The night was calm and quiet and I kind of let the stillness set in.  I thought of the recipient of the evening’s ticket proceeds, Ryan Hidinger, a beloved chef fighting a devastating diagnosis. Before I reveled in the food and fellowship that 100 Mile dinners always bring, I wanted to consciously dwell and hope. I saw another person standing on the porch and wondered if they too were caught up in emotion.

The hosts of The Avondale Community Club greeted me with such southern charm and the band Tonestar was already harmonizing in the foyer. Arianne Fielder’s welcome drink, Musk-u-dine-local, was in my hand- sorghum infused Muscadine wine from Chateau Elan with rosemary, soda, and pickled blueberries from Phickles Pickles out of Athens. Just a few seconds in the door, I encountered people I had met at another 100 Mile dinner. Loved this

The tables were set . Tiny vases of flowers and pretty menus awaited diners.  I chose a seat at random and wondered who would be next to me when I returned.

Forced meat stuffed trotter with sausage and bacon pate. I would have been happy sampling here all night.
Rusty Bowers really is a "meat magician.'

The set up for the Southern Smorgasbord was pretty perfect- a stone patio surrounded by pines, next to the glimmering lake. I am not just throwing our adjectives here. The lake was sparkling in the moonlight. It was cool enough to feel like “Winter on the Lake,” but mild enough to not need a jacket. Very  nice for mingling and sampling. So many things to nibble on. There was even a selection of Nick Melvin's homemade pickles. His pickled carrots are the best pickles I have ever had. I didn't have any this evening. I just remember from the last time I tasted them. That good. Wish I had taken photos and had descriptions of all of the offerings. One spoon was topped with crispy chicken skin. One was a play on a reuben. They were going fast.

A fellow diner said “If I could eat salad like this, I would eat it every day.”

People began wandering inside and taking their seats. This is always the fun part, getting to know your table mates. “So what brings you to a dinner like this?’ and “Have you been to a 100 Mile Dinner before?” My seat mates were enchanting. We only stopped talking to listen to the chefs and mixologists describe their offerings. I wanted to put them in my pocket and take them with me.

Rusty Bowers of Pine Street Market and Nick Melvin of Garden District welcomed us with excitement and joy and Nick spoke about how the dinners are to showcase seasonal, local food and “in a way, educate people that this is the way it should be done.”  He quickly brought the tone down to purpose. Nick spoke eloquently and purely from his heart about his dear friend (and a friend to many in house), Ryan. We were dining to celebrate eating locally and appreciating our food’s sources but also to uplift Ryan.

The first course arrives along with a colorful cocktail. Daniel Chance of Campagnolo introduced Duck Two Ways: “roll mop” pickled duck breast and duck sausage accompanied by an herb salad, truffle honey mustard, and bacon marmalade. I used different herbs from the salad with each bite of the sausage which had pine nuts, juniper, pepper, and fennel included. I especially loved it with celery leaves. The Darby Farms duck breast was brined, seared, and pickled similar to a pickled herring preparation. It was insanely good.

Pairing so perfectly with the juniper in the sausage was our cocktail from Arianne Fielder of Seven Lamps: 13^th Colony gin, Sweetwater IPA reduction, Savannah Bee Company Tupelo honey, ruby red grapefruit soda, and blackberries.

Jason Kemp of The Family Dog described our next sip, a 2009 Voignier from Tiger Mountain Vineyards as having “a little bit of funk.” I completely agreed. I also tasted a minerality I could only believe comes from the granite outcrops of the north Georgia Mountains. Voigniers are great food wines, especially with root vegetables .

Enter Rusty and Nick’s Celeriac Buttermilk Soup. The Blue Ridge trout were cured 24 hours then cold smoked and flaked into a celery leaf salad. Also in the luscious bowl of celery root soup were smoked trout roe in mustard oil. This dish could go on my last meal wish list. The flavor combinations and textures were powerful and really played off one another. I want this to be on a menu somewhere.

Our third course presented by the effervescent Terry Koval of Wrecking Bar Brew Pub was beautiful Scotch ale braised beef cheeks with root veggies and parsnip puree.  I heard so many diners say “what’s a cheek? Where is it from?” A cheek is well, a cheek; or more specifically, the fine grained facial muscle of a cow. The cheeks were super tender ( no small feat when you think of how strong a cow’s facial muscles must be from chewing all day) with a hint of the braising liquid flavor. I loved knowing the cheeks were from Moonshine Meats in Athens, a farm that uses this statement:  Moonshine Meats is just meat the way it should be: raised on pasture by producers who have a deep sense of humility, humanity and awe for both animal and land. I loved the baby carrots, turnips, and rutabagas- soft but not too soft, and left in their natural state as opposed to cubed. I could have eaten a bowl of the parsnip puree.

The dish paired so nicely with the Colin’s Wee Heavy Scotch Ale from Wrecking Bar and Brewery. The beer, named for Bob the brewmaster’s son, Colin, is a malty, rich, warming with chocolate undertones ale that was aged in bourbon barrels. It’s a masterpiece and such a wonderful brew for a cold winter’s night. Bob Sandage, founder of Wrecking Bar, was even in the house.

The final dish of the evening came with an introduction from delightful Layne Lee of Sweet N Sinful Bakery. She said it had always been a mission of hers to get her equally delightful sister to try squash. Who would have thought to put butternut squash in a cobbler? Sweet, light and warm, the cobbler sat on top of sage ice cream. I watched her sister eat it and watched Layne beam.

Jason Kemp ended our night with the perfect nightcap: Ivy Mountain apple brandy with warm Mercier Orchards apple cider and allspice dram. So good. It could only have been better if were were outside next to a campfire.

The band came from the foyer to wish happy birthday to a guest, play, and sing amongst us. It was a really fun moment. They encouraged us to dance. I was sad the night had to end. I was satiated but wanted the conversation to continue. My table mates were interesting, fun, and thrilled for this sort of dining experience. Each course we tasted together brought forth lively conversations, anecdotes, and funny stories. We laughed. We even shed tears over a shared experience.

We tasted the seasons and the local offerings of Gum Creek Farms in Roopville, Flat Creek Lodge in Swainsboro, BesMaid Garden in Decatur, Serenbe Farms in Chattahoochee Hills, and Moonshine Meats in Athens. We didn't start a revolution or change the world but we ate a delicious five course meal sourced from 100 miles and further discussed a better worldview on sourcing food. We didn't just eat, we conscientiously placed value on our foodstuffs and how they arrived at our table. For this conversation, I am grateful to The 100 Mile Dinner and the chefs and farmers who provided a forum.

I left with hugs for my new friends and for the chefs and servers who put on such a great night. My anticipation for the next 100 Mile Dinner in March along with Nick’s restaurant, Garden District, is already beginning. I walked gently into the night. Seeing the lake and moon again made me take pause and send good thoughts out to Ryan.

For Team Hidi info, click here.