Pretty Southern

  • Oakland Cemetery – Summer 2014

    Pretty Southern is privileged to be part of the Historic Oakland Cemetery Ambassadors program. We recently toured this Atlanta landmark visiting graves of thousands of Southerners including two of our favorites: Bobby Jones and Margaret Mitchell Marsh. You can scroll down below for photos, but first we wanted to let y’all know about a cool event happening this Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12.

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    Oakland Cemetery is now offering a guided walking tour – Malts & Vaults of Oakland: Where Beer Meets History. The tour adds to Oakland’s existing repertoire of 14 specialty tours and the additional “Sights, Symbols and Stories” tour. Authors Ron Smith and Mary O. Boyle of “Atlanta Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in the Hub of the South” will be onsite during the tours. Be sure to purchase a copy in our museum shop then have then sign it for you! At the end – your tour receipt is redeemable for $5 off at Six Feet Under in Grant Park. No beer will be served during the tour, but that receipt will get you a brew or appetizer. Get your tickets at OaklandCemetery.com. It’s $10 for adults, and $5 for students & seniors. Ya hear that college kids? For those of y’all above 21, that’s a free tour of Oakland Cemetery and a beer!

    Now here are a few of our favorite photos of Atlanta’s Historic Oakland Cemetery

    Historic Oakland Cemetery tour
    The beginning of our tour at Oakland Cemetery

    Margaret Mitchell Grave Historic Oakland Cemetery
    Margaret Mitchell Marsh’s Grave in Historic Oakland Cemetery
    Bobby Jones Grave
    The Grave of Bobby Jones – legendary golfer. Leave a golf ball for a blessing.
    Jewish Oakland Cemetery
    The Jewish family graves in Oakland Cemetery.
    Ollivette Eugenia Smith Allison - a true lady
    Ollivette Eugenia Smith Allison – a true lady

     
    Of all the magnificent headstones and mausoleums we saw that day, there was a simple one that left me in awe. The prayer on the grave of Ollivette Eugenia Smith Allison. She was called the “Great Mother” for her work at the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home – and she loved elephants. Her grave is a mother elephant, with her trunk draped across a young elephant.

    The prayer from Miss Ollivette is one that might be the ultimate prayer of thankfulness and gratitude…even from beyond the grave.

    O God, I thank Thee for food, clothing, shelter, love, and understanding. For friends who are necessary for me to grow, to be a strong and respectable person. Grant me self-control, self-respect, and peace within. Amen.

    “The two most important things that anyone can give a child are time and love. I’m never too busy to talk with a child. If I see a child who’s stressed, someone who’s having a bad day, I’ll go and spend time with them right away. If a child comes into my office while I am on the phone, I’ll hold her hand until I am finished talking and then I’ll give her a hug and ask her how she is.”

    Amen indeed. For the living, keep up with Oakland on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  • Progressive Dinner in Atlanta

    Appetizer Publik Draft House
    Our first course at Publik Draft House

    I think I was about 8 years old when I attended my first progressive dinner. My Girl Scout troop arranged a progressive dinner at three different homes so we could all earn our nutrition badge…or something like that! In my Southern girl mind, these dinners involved crock pots with packaged or pre-made concoctions. The recent progressive dinner I attended with the Atlanta Food Blogger Society was nothing of the sort!

    We started our meal with appetizers at Publik Draft House, followed by dinner and dessert at Baraonda. These sister restaurants are two of my favorite places to eat before taking in a show at The Fabulous Fox Theatre, and my-oh-my was this meal a showstopper. About halfway through dinner, I told Erica Smith from A Taste of Our City that there was no way I could eat anymore…but we kept going!
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  • Meatless Monday’s at Murphy’s

    Meatless Monday’s at Murphy’s

    Meatless Mondays at Murphy's
    Our entree from Meatless Mondays at Murphy’s.

    The Atlanta Food Blogger Society hosted a fabulous dinner at Murphy’s in Atlanta, located in the heart of The Virginia Highlands. Literally y’all – it’s at the intersection of North Highland and Virginia Avenue. Murphy’s has always been my go-to staple for the quintessential Sunday brunch, or to wow out of town guests with Southern staples. I was looking forward to trying their new #MeatlessMondays menu, and oh my goodness I didn’t miss the meat for an instant. The fabulous Denise Romeo of We Like to Cook even brought squash blossoms from her own backyard garden!
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  • Southern Summer Cookout Favorites

    Southern Summer Cookout Favorites

    I love summer for its warmth, flowers, vacations and thunderstorms, but I also love it for the cookouts. My family and I love sharing our Southern culinary specialties with our Northern friends. And like any good Southern dinner party, at least one of the recipes is from (or inspired by something from) the latest issue of Southern Living.

    For this particular dinner, our main course came from Southern Living, but here are our my family’s Southern Summer Cookout favorites.

    DSC02215COCKTAIL: Mama’s Peach Sangria. How can you say no to peach?

    1 bottle white zinfandel
    1 bottle tonic water
    1 container Crystal Light powder lemonade mix
    1/3 cup peach schnapps
    Various sliced fruit (raspberries, peaches, blueberries)
    Add all ingredients to a pitcher. Stir. Chill until ready to serve, or serve immediately.

    APPETIZER: Texas Caviar or any caviar which you can buy online by looking up Russian Osetra Caviar for Sale Online. This one gets requested a lot.

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    2 cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
    2 avocados, sliced
    Juice of 1 large lime or 2 small limes
    2 jalapeno peppers, diced (or 1 if you aren’t a fan of hot and spicy)
    1 medium sweet bell pepper, diced
    1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
    1 medium onion, diced
    1 bottle Italian salad dressing
    Fresh cilantro to taste

    Mix all veggies in a bowl. Pour Italian dressing over top. Sprinkle with cilantro. Stir, cover and chill until ready to serve. It tastes best with tortilla chips.

    DSC02241For our main course, my dad grilled pork chops according to this Southern Living recipe, with an extra touch of mustard-based barbecue sauce on top right as they finished grilling. We topped the chops with the blueberry-peach salsa, which was a wonderful sweet companion to the flavors that came out in the pork. The watermelon-and-feta orzo salad was a cool and crisp companion to the dish’s star attraction. Of course we needed a starch, too: roasted potatoes, lightly tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper.

    DESSERT: Yum-Yum

    This was my mama’s Grannie Adams’ recipe, so I know it’s tried, true and delicious. My mama makes it at home a lot during the summer; it’s very light and fruity, which if you ask me, is the perfect summertime dessert. You can make it with any kind of pie filling you want. My favorite flavor is strawberry, but my mama and dad prefer cherry and blueberry.

    2 cans pie filling
    1 ½ sticks butter
    3 cups graham cracker crumbs
    2 envelopes Dream Whip
    1 cup cold milk
    1 8-oz. block of cream cheese
    ¾ cup sugar

    • Melt the butter and add to graham cracker crumbs. Stir until it forms a wet but crumbly mixture. Spread and mash half of it into the bottom of a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
    • Mix the Dream Whip and milk until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and sugar and beat until well combined.
    • Pour half of the cream cheese mixture over the graham cracker layer. Add both cans of pie filling over the cream, and then pour the remaining cream cheese on top. Lastly, cover the top layer of cream cheese with the last of the graham cracker crumbs.
    • Chill two hours, or until ready to serve. Helpful tip: the longer it’s chilled, the better it stays together and the longer the flavors all have to blend.

    Happy cooking, y’all!

    Kate Robertson
    Kate Robertson is a features writer for Pretty Southern, and a conquering graduate at Virginia Tech. Originally form Atlanta, Kate is starting grad school this fall at Elon University to further develop her career as a kick ass writer. Follow her on Twitter @kate3robertson

  • Happy July 4th Atlanta!

    Pretty Southern Girl

    Happy Independence Day, y’all! It’s America’s 238th celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Of course – here in the South – The Fourth of July is really all about the F’s = Family, Food, Fun, and Fireworks! If you don’t have your own batch of explosives recently acquired from Alabama or South Carolina, and ya feel like going out for a party, then here are just a few ways to celebrate July 4th in Atlanta.
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  • BLT Steak Atlanta

    BLT Steak served with herb butter in a cast-iron pan.
    BLT Steak served with herb butter in a cast-iron pan.

    When it comes to the Atlanta restaurant scene, I’ve been blessed to try some of the best places this city has to offer. But after my meal at BLT Steak last week it’s going to be hard for any other joint in town to come this close to knocking my socks off.

    BLT Steak is an award-winning steakhouse located in the W Downtown. Adjacent to the swanky lobby, flanked beside the PriceWaterhouse Coopers building and across the street from Atlanta’s convention hub, it’s a flagship institution of the much-needed revamp of Downtown Atlanta.
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