Nick's & Nick's Again

{This post is dedicated to you, Rachel & Sean}

Thanks to those mentioned above, we were recently tipped off to what can only be described as addictive, authentic Greek food down on Memorial Drive. Nick's Food to Go! 

 (Sean, I "borrowed" your Nick's pic.)

We had Nick's for the first time two Saturdays ago, and due to some credit card machine issues (out of their control) and a lack of ATMs in the area, it ended up taking close to two hours for Andrew to get there, leave and find some cash, wait in line again, and get back. Could it possibly be worth that much of a wait?

Well, yes. Yes it could. It was soo good! Andrew had a lamb gyro, and I had a grilled chicken gyro. The "Zeus Sauce", as Nick calls it, is just beyond delicious. Not your average tzatziki. It actually reminds me a lot of the sauce on a sandwich I used to eat several times a week in Innsbruck and have missed ever since.

Then last Saturday, we were having the ever-present weekend discussion of where to eat. I was secretly thinking, "Umm Nick's again," and apparently Andrew was too. Because eventually he said, "We could always have Nick's again!" in that way that says, "I sound like I'm joking in case you think that's a dumb idea, but I am completely serious."

One of Andrew's co-workers is also a Nick's fan, and when she heard we finally made it over there, she asked if we had gotten the seasoned Greek fries with the lemon dipping sauce. We hadn't, so that was the only thing we changed up this time. They were worth a second trip!

Nick's is a walk-up place, and apparently Nick and his family are a colorful cast of characters that will make your trip worthwhile. (Andrew just went to pick it up both times while I took a nap did things at home.) Rachel recommends dining at the picnic tables when it's not so blazing hot. :) 

We have other places to be today, so we won't be making it a hat trick. But if you're in ATL, definitely check it out!

Opa!

{Nick's Website}

Menu Monday

We had some great dinners last week! They were all new recipes, and we loved each one. This week we're having repeats of old recipes, so instead of re-posting those I thought I'd just share pictures of the ones we tried last week.

 Corn and Tomato Spoonbread
{Baked a little long, so it was sort of dry. It tasted really good though, and the tomato-chive "salad" was a great topper!}

Taco Stuffed Potatoes
{YUM! What's not to love? I used sour cream instead of cream cheese in the stuffing and used my own taco seasoning rather than a packet.}

Honey Mustard Chicken Pinwheels
{You can see that we used whole wheat tortillas and made roll-ups/wraps rather than cutting them into pinwheels. The recipe calls for mascarpone, but cream cheese would probably work too. This was super easy -- especially since I cooked/shredded chicken breasts early in the week and then split the meat between these and the potatoes!}

Roasted Tomato Caprese Panzanella
{Toasted bread + Caprese salad...enough said. :)}

All the recipes are linked on this post. Except the spoonbread, which is here.

Another Menu Tuesday

 Pesto Pasta with Chicken Sausage

I thought about taking a menu-posting break this week, but I wanted to share this super easy recipe that we enjoyed! There are just a few ingredients, but it tasted really good. Our Publix has little bags of trimmed, washed fresh green beans that made it even easier. (And they were actually on sale - so not too much more than the bulk bin.) We used Aidells Italian Style Chicken Sausage, which was really good and did not have a fennel taste. I usually avoid Italian sausage for that reason. To make this even better, you could definitely use homemade pesto if you have some! This was just a great summer pasta dish.

{Recipe Here}

This Week's Menu:

Honey Mustard Chicken Pinwheels with Chips & Fruit

Taco Stuffed Potatoes with Black Beans

Roasted Tomato Caprese Panzanella with Fruit

Dinner out!

Menu Tuesday

 "Skinny" CrockPot Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I made this a little less skinny by using buffalo wing sauce instead of the plain hot sauce, but who's counting. :) I also misread the directions and added the wing sauce in with everything else at the beginning. It didn't hurt, but I did have to add more at the end so it wasn't quite so diluted. Doesn't get much easier than this! (Of course, it wouldn't be particularly difficult to just bake some chicken, shred it, and toss it in sauce. It's just nice that it's ready when you are.)

{Recipe Here}

We're a day late and a dinner short this week. But we're trying a couple of new recipes alongside two of our favorite dinners!

This Week's Menu:
Asian Steak Salad with Mango

White Chicken Enchiladas with Guacamole

Corn and Tomato Spoonbread with Biscuits and Broccoli

Pesto [Orecchiette*] with Chicken Sausage

*We can never find orecchiette! Why wouldn't ear-shaped pasta have a broad appeal?

Taking the High Road

Today's staycation activity was visiting the High Road Craft ice cream factory store! It's a pretty small operation, but they open up on Saturdays for tasting and a tour of the kitchen. Aside from the delicious ice cream, the best part is that it's free!

It's in the back of a mostly empty corporate park in Chamblee, so we weren't quite sure what we were getting into when we showed up. We tried to go in the door marked "Rock Star Entrance" (since clearly we are), but it turns out that was the kitchen! Oops.

One of their kind kitchen staff members directed us to the tasting room. They have a selection of flavors to taste every Saturday, along with a board of many, many more that are for sale by the pint.

We tasted Vanilla Coke Float (my favorite - vanilla with a swirl of Coke sorbet!), Greek blueberry yogurt gelato (Andrew's favorite), strawberry rhubarb (really good), and fresh melon sorbet (a nice palate cleanser). I should have taken a photo of the "for sale" board, because they had so many that sounded amazing! Red Berries and Prosecco sorbet, Brown Butter Praline, Bourbon Burnt Sugar, and the list went on...

After we tasted, it was time for the tour. Hairnets required. (Verrrry fashionable.)

The co-founder of High Road, Nicki, led our tour. We saw the pasteurization room (and a vat of sweet cream base), the recipe board for today's batch, and the ice cream makin' line from the mixers to the filling station to the freezers. You'd never know it now, but the whole place used to be a Church's Chicken testing kitchen!

She explained how they started small by doing chef-to-chef delivery. Her husband is a chef, and he started creating gourmet ice cream to order for chefs in Atlanta restaurants. Then they expanded to Whole Foods and Fresh Market, and most recently they got into Harris Teeter.

And we could see why! The ice cream was really creative and delicious, and the people working there were so nice and enthusiastic. We were planning to stop for lunch after (and it's not very close to home anyway), so we didn't buy any at the factory store. But we definitely stopped at the Fresh Market to get some back in town! There's a more limited selection in stores, so next time we'll be prepared to make a trip up to buy some direct from the source.

Lunch was fun too - Chuy's in Dunwoody. I believe I could have eaten just chips and their creamy jalapeno dip for my whole lunch.

We'd definitely recommend a Saturday trip up to High Road. And take a cooler. :)

A (Very) Low-Key Fourth

Hope you had a happy 4th of July! We were undecided on what to do, but knowing that we have a busy couple of months coming up, we chose to just hang out at home and relax. Exciting, I know, but I'll record it here for memory's sake anyway. :)

Tuesday night, I really wanted a Bloomin' Onion. (Random, yes. And no, there is no "read between the lines" reason as to why I was craving one - I just was!) It was storming like crazy early in the evening, but we took advantage of a break in the weather to go get one.

And gosh...what's more American than going to the Outback?

We slept in a teeny bit yesterday morning and then watched the Peachtree Road Race on TV. We attempted to go patriotic with our lunch choice and have some good ole BBQ. Andrew was kind enough to offer to go pick it up, but apparently that was everyone else's idea too! The line at our BBQ restaurant of choice was a mile long, so we opted for homemade BLTs instead. Still pretty American!

We also had watermelon mojitos for some afternoon refreshment. ;)

A dinntertime attempt at BBQ also failed, so we went with another Plan B before watching some Braves baseball on TV and waiting on the fireworks. We've got a pretty nice city view from our rooftop deck here, and you really can't beat the post-fireworks (foot) traffic back home. We joined a big group upstairs to wait on the Lenox fireworks to start. Luckily we showed up early...because a nearby golf club had a whole show planned that we didn't know about until it started!

My phone camera doesn't "do" fireworks, but you can see just how close they were. It was a great surprise ending to a lazy day!

Menu Monday

Korean Beef Noodles
These were really good! The flavor was much better than I expected using such basic ingredients in the sauce. I only used about 2 tablespoons of the sesame oil and just used plain oil for the rest. (I wanted us to be able to taste more than just the sesame!) We used rice noodles, which were the closest thing to cellophane noodles Publix had, but they were great. Yum!

{Recipe Here*}
*I did not bother with all the rinsing and wiping of the skillet.
Well, we survived the heat to cook another week. ;) We're definitely going for low-key, and so far all I am prepared to make on the 4th is a pitcher of mojitos! I'd say our priorities are in the right place.

This Week's Menu:

Bowtie Lasagna (Officially a "go to" meal)

Chicken & Mango Tacos with Guac and Black Beans

CrockPot Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Watermelon

California BLTs with Chips