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We are stoked to have a much longer growing season here, we can grow more fun stuff now. We have things like corn, zucchini, tomato, peppers, basil, lettuce, parsley, cucumber, melon, beans, peas, egg plant and collard greens going out there right now.

This last weekend we had quite a few zucchini that were harvested and some bushy collard green plants so I went looking for some recipes. Since transplanting to the Midwest I’ve discovered I like southern style collard greens but we’ve been failing at cooking them. Turns out it is all in the stock!

I found this recipe for Tasty Collard Greens that calls for simmering in chicken stock for an hour as opposed to sauteing them. Who knew the chicken stock simmer would make such a huge difference? It turned out amazing.

N also had a hankering for Stuffed Zucchini which was also very tasty! We used some leftover homemade spaghetti sauce that N’s dad made while they were visiting us right after Everly’s birth. It was so good over the zucchini.

Now we are looking for ideas and recipes for all the fresh cucumbers we’ve got. I don’t want to make a million jars of pickles, we’ll make a few but I would also like to make some other things with them. Any ideas?

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Other than the prenatal visit and the face of nasty we did have the pleasure of sightseeing throughout Nashville and neighboring areas of Tennessee. We stayed at a cheap Red Roof Inn Saturday night and had linner at Whole Foods that day (linner is a combo of lunch and dinner. A un-word N uses for fun).

We were both really beat by about 5pm-6pm that day. After all we did wake up at 5am to make the trip out to Summerfield. So we checked in to our hotel after our linner and then we laied down for a nap after the prenatal appointment. I got to put a hot compress on my spider bite before napping and we also got some natural cortizone type cream for the bite at Whole Foods.

We have no Whole Foods in Evansville (or any decent natural food store for that matter) so hanging out at the Whole Foods in Tennessee was a treat for us. We also stocked up on my favorite breakfast item, Strawberry Hemp Granola! 2 pounds wont last long but it sure is a great treat!

Sunday morning after a good nights sleep we awoke and headed out to sight see. We took a guided tour of the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, TN and had a blast. For some reason we enjoy guided tours of old historic places. While in Flagstaff, we attended a tour of the Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff, AZ that we also really enjoyed.

Anyway the Carnton Plantation is not only cool because it is an old plantation house with tons of history. It is also noteworthy because it was a civil war field hospital during The Battle of Franklin and is now a final resting place for 1,481 men who were killed during the Battle of Franklin.

Carrie McGavock, wife of John McGavock who resided at Carnton Plantation was in the midst of The Battle of Franklin on November 30th 1864 when the Army of Tennessee passed around her home headed toward battle. Carrie took in hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soildiers during battle and the day following battle. The florrs of the home are still stained with the blood of those who were treated there.

It was a very educational and historic place for us to visit and we had a great time learning and reflecting upon the history of our country. We even kind of like the outlying areas of Nashville and would consider living there.

It was an amazing place for us to visit because as natives of the west coast we never really got to visit and take in all of the sights and locations that played such a huge role in civil war history. Sure we are well aware of the way Native Americans, Cowboys and Hispanics have shaped the west coast’s history but we’ve never been face to face with civil war history so we really enjoyed the day.

Oh and I got the stress cracks on my MacBook fixed up at the Nashville Apple Store. We didn’t have an appointment with the genus bar because no appointments were available during the time we were going to be there, so we talked with a concierge about the cracks and explained we were from out of town. They were nice enough to out us on a waiting list, in case someone was late for or failed to show up for their scheduled appointment.

We waited about an hour in the store but they managed to squeeze us in and they even fixed my cracked MacBook at no cost, right there in the store. It only took them 15 minutes! We figured I would have to send my Mac out for repair and that they couldn’t fix it in store. Amazingly they did and were super friendly about it too!

So all in all the trip was lots of fun and also a great success. We found a place to have our natural birth, got to have some fun while learning about civil war hisstory, got the MacBook fixed and we may have even found the place we want to live after N’s 3 year contract is up here in Evansville. Productive don’t you think?

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