biscuits

1003 A Day of Epic Walking

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

With the conference over at noon, I found myself with a free day and nothing to do. Another epic walk was in order, but my first stop was the High Museum, where I had a very important date with my friend Dalí. It was Bank of America’s Museums on Us weekend, so while I would’ve paid the $18, getting in free was even better! The Dalí exhibit focused on his late work, including his obsessions with Catholicism and the nuclear age. It was really fascinating stuff, and I’m glad I made the trip.

The High

I stopped for a cappuccino at Bakeshop along the way, so I wasn’t hungry until later – which worked out well, as I found myself wandering in the historical neighborhoods around Piedmont Park for an hour or so. I tried to get lunch at a restaurant right on the park, but I was apparently invisible, so I moved on and ended up at The Flying Biscuit, where I was seated at a table by a door that opened and banged shut every other minute. My biscuit and soup were excellent, but the service reminded me of why I don’t miss eating alone.

54 Columns

My afternoon walk took me past a game of soccer played by men in kilts, into Scarlett Loves Rhettro and down Ponce de Leon, through quiet neighborhoods and past urban art.  I had no map or agenda, and no reason to hurry back to Dawn’s, so I just sort of zigzagged around until I was hungry and tired and back in Inman Park. I grabbed a beer at a bar near Highland Bakery, then checked out a few shops before stopping for dinner.

Dinner with EB White

My last dinner in Atlanta was nothing fancy, just a black bean burger and a beer with a good book at The Albert. And then a good night’s sleep.

Miles walked: 10

If you go:
High Museum
1280 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
(404) 733-4444

Bakeshop
903 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
(404) 892-9322

The Flying Biscuit
1001 Piedmont Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
(404) 874-8887

Jack’s Pizza & Wings
676 Highland Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 525-4444

The Albert
918 Austin Ave
Atlanta, GA 30307
(404) 872-4990

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1001 Sweet. Potato. Biscuits.

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

If there’s one thing the South does well, it’s biscuits. There are many other things they do well as well – fried chicken, grits, greens, naming things Peachtree – but I’d like to talk about biscuits for a moment. Sweet potato biscuits to be precise.

Sweet. Potato. Biscuit.

Now if you’re like me and have spent most of your years above the Mason/Dixon line, you may be unaware of the fact that biscuits go with anything. You may also be unaware of the fact that you can make anything with sweet potatoes. And you would certainly be surprised to learn that putting sweet potatoes IN biscuits produces something so sweetly harmonious that you just might fall off your breakfast chair out of joy.

Well, that’s what happened to me this morning at Highland Bakery. OK, I might be exaggerating about the falling off the chair bit, but I certainly am not exaggerating when I say that once I bit into this crumbly biscuit, I very nearly lost all interest in the rest of my breakfast, including both bacon AND coffee.

I’d tell you about the rest of my meals from my first full day in Atlanta, but to be honest, nothing quite measured up.  The opening keynote of the conference was interesting, and I liked walking through the Sweet Auburn District.  It was fun to have dinner with Suz and Ken, though our actual dinner was a bit underwhelming.  We parted ways late in the evening, and I wandered back to Dawn’s with visions of sweet potato biscuits dancing in my head.

Miles walked: 6.25

If you go:

Highland Bakery
655 Highland Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 586-0772

0807 Shrimp Boil & Cheddar Biscuits

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

Though my siblings and I are enthusiastic carnivores, our parents don’t eat that much meat, so planning a dinner for the whole family can be tricky.  When mulling over our options this morning, though, Mom and I hit on an excellent plan: a shrimp boil.  And also cheddar biscuits.  And maybe cupcakes for dinner.  The sort of meal where you could pick and choose your preferred components – Pop could have mostly veggies, I could eat all of the corn on the cob that I could manage, and everyone could bathe everything in butter.  I like where this is going.  A LOT.

At Go Time, though, I was worn out from a night of lousy sleep, so Shane and Jenn did much more of the prep than I did.  I came upstairs in time to knead and form the biscuits, though, and to peel and devein a couple of pounds of shrimp with Shane’s nimble help.  And then we feasted:

Frogmore Stew

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits

Recipes:
Frogmore Stew, torn out of a magazine several years ago
Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits from The Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics