Disney in December: Hollywood Studios

The family and I headed to Florida this past week for our (almost) annual trip to Disney World! The six of us started our first day at Hollywood Studios. We rode some of our favorite rides, did some shopping, and of course spent quite a bit of time at our favorite, The Osborne Family Lights! It always puts me in the Christmas spirit year after year.

Cast Iron Blueberry Cobbler

Ever since my childhood pastor, Art, gave us a cast iron skillet for our wedding I've been finding all kinds of recipes that specifically tell you to use one. You can use it on the stove top or oven, so it's definitely a nice pan to have in your cabinet. My favorite cookbook currently is One Pan, Two Plates that uses a cast iron skillet in every recipe!

Here's Jake and my current favorite dessert using our old faithful skillet.

Cast Iron Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon minced dried lavender 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1 scraped vanilla bean
• 2 cups blueberries
• Vanilla Bean ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving, optional

Note: I couldn't find it in time, so I did not use the dried lavender. I also substituted 1 tsp of vanilla extract for the vanilla bean and it worked fine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the butter in an 8-inch cast-iron skillet and transfer to the preheated oven to melt.

Meanwhile, mix together the flour, baking powder, lavender and salt in a bowl. Stir in the milk, 1 cup sugar, the lemon juice, zest and vanilla to combine. Mix together the remaining tablespoon sugar and the blueberries in another bowl. Remove the hot skillet with the melted butter from the oven and pour in the batter. Top with the sugared blueberries. Bake until brown and the batter has risen up and around the fruit, about 30 minutes.

Transfer to a rack to cool slightly. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream. 

Enjoy! :)

Bits and Pieces of Fall

Now that December is here, I realize what a wonderful fall we have had. Full of trips and fall activities that always add up to this being my favorite season.

Beautiful trees in our yard and on our drives .

 


Sharing apples and conversation with good friends.

 

Enjoying multiple concerts, including an amazing one by The Lone Bellow.

Watching the Bengals vs. Browns in great seats, then outrunning a tornado to get home.

 

Enjoying a chicken dinner with my favorite vet on Veteran's Day.

...and cheering on the #1 Pacers during multiple games since October.

 

Nashville: Our Picks

Thankfully, we have some wonderful friends that shared their favorite spots in Nashville before we visited. They did not steer us wrong! I highly recommend asking around before going to a new city. Our trip would not have been near as memorable without their help.

Here are our picks when traveling to Nashville. I hope they help if you ever find yourself there!

Ryman Auditorium
The "Mother Church of Country Music". This was the first home to the Grand 'Ol Opry. We geeked out over the Johnny Cash exhibit and the fact that they allow you to get up on the same stage where he once played! It didn't hurt that we watched John Mellencamp's crew set up his gear for that night's show!



The 5 Spot
I talked about The 5 Spot in my previous Nashville post, but it is just a great dive bar/venue experience. It's not intimidating at all and the bands were great!



 The Pharmacy
Fun, hipster restaurant in East Nashville. Gourmet burger, milkshakes, and a beer garden. They make their own sausages for goodness sakes!

Barista Parlor
Coolest coffee shop I've ever been to. It was once a car garage, so it still has vintage motor cycles and the garage doors as part of the decor. We actually went here two mornings in a row we loved the vibe (and coffee...and sausage biscuit) so much!


Crema
Another awesome coffee shop closer to downtown Nashville. I had a pear rosemary scone with my coffee that I wouldn't mind eating every day for breakfast. We went here on a rainy morning and it was so cozy I didn't want to leave.




 Hatch Show Print
Famous print shop where concert and event posters have been made for years and years. They still use a letter press to make their posters! They have such a neat, vintage vibe. They are each like pieces of art. They just moved their operations into the Country Music Hall of Fame. We bought quite a few to hang on our walls.

Third Man Records
Jack White's (of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, etc.) record company. The have a record store, and they record and press their own vinyl next door. The store is quite the experience even though it's small. I highly recommend going!





Jack's Bar-B-Que
Iconic BBQ place right across from the Ryman. We went there right after our Ryman tour and just soaked up the atmosphere of Broadway Street. Oh, and the bar-b-que was delicious!

The Parthenon
Nashville has been called "The Athens of the South," so it's only fitting that they built a scale version of The Parthenon for their centennial celebration, right? It's smack dab in the middle of a beautiful park. The inside has the history of The Parthenon, an art gallery, and a HUGE statue of Athena.



The Hip Zipper
Best vintage store I've ever been to. A lot of times I'm intimidated by vintage stores and to even try anything on, but the girl working here couldn't have been more welcoming and helpful. She even gave us a huge list of of other vintage stores and her favorite restaurants in the area. Jake and I both walked away with some great finds!

Gruhn Guitars
a HUGE guitar shop just outside of downtown. Jake was in heaven. Mandolins, banjos, and lots of other things I'm sure he could tell you about. They even let you try out any instrument you would like. When else will you get to play a $5,000 guitar?



Opryland Hotel
This hotel has its own zip code it's so big. We didn't actually stay there (although I would love to someday), but we did pay to park and walked around for a few hours. There is  basically a small city inside the hotel, complete with tropical trees, rivers, cobblestone walkways, gazebos...you get the picture. It's huge, and definitely worth seeing.

Twenty One Pilots

We went to see them while in Nashville. This is not a "Nashville" pick per say, but they are just a really good band that you should check out! :) They are amazing live, too!!


Now go forth, and have a great time in Nashville!

The Brookses go to Nashville

Jake and I celebrated our two year anniversary a few weeks ago! So many of our friends have sung Nashville's praises, so we decided to take a little trip down to Tennessee for our anniversary. We loved it! It was a music lover's dream. So much history to see at the Ryman, tons of record shops (Jack White's Third Man Records!), and live music everywhere you go. Seriously though, we walked around at 3:00 on a Tuesday and heard many places with bands playing. 

The highlight of our trip actually happened on our anniversary. We went to Prince's Hot Chicken for lunch. It was an...interesting place. However, their chicken was really amazing. While waiting for our food, we met Brian. He is a music producer and told us all of these places in Nashville we should check out. He even invited us to see him play in a band that night at The 5 Spot. It is a great hole-in-the-wall place that was featured in the show Nashville!

The band was great and we chatted with Brian after his set about our upcoming days in Nashville  and what we were going to do. It was so fun getting to know someone from the area and trying something a little out of our comfort zone. Sometimes those circumstances make for the best memories I think.

It was a wonderful start to a great vacation!

You know it's fall when...

Renaissance Festival 2013

We made our annual trip to the Ohio Renaissance Festival with Jake's youth group on Saturday. Luckily, we had a break in the rain just long enough to enjoy all it had to offer. 

I hung out with the Nordic Power Rangers...

 ...and Thor

 I found some writing utensils...

 ...and made a new friend.

 We stopped to smell the (iron) roses...

...and generally did some amazing people watching. Great day!

Copperlily

I am a huge fan of House of Heroes. When I heard that Tim Skipper and his wife, Stephanie, started a band, I knew I was going to love it. They did not disappoint. This song is just too sweet.

Enjoy Copperlily!

Country Living Fair

I have been a huge fan of Country Living Magazine for years. I know it sounds kind of old lady-ish, but it is nothing like the Americana decor and cowboy boots you're thinking. It is full of vintage and flea market finds and home tours that are just my style. 

Well lucky for me, Country Living hosts a craft and vintage fair in Columbus, Ohio! If I didn't like Columbus enough already, this sealed the deal. Mom, Kels, Michelle, and I spent a full day shopping the many, many booths and ran across way too many amazing finds. I think we should have taken a U-haul instead of Mom's Jeep. We will take that into consideration for next year, because I have a feeling this will become an annual tradition.

 

Gentlemen of the Road

What a crazy weekend! Jake and I made the drive up to Troy, OH to Mumford & Sons' Gentlemen of the Road festival. The entire downtown Troy was turned in to a street festival with all of the local businesses having booths outside of their stores. Boy, did they get some business this weekend. All of the shops also decorated with mustaches and British flags for the occasion. There was such a fun, friendly vibe everywhere you went. You could tell Troy was very excited to host GOTR.

The concert grounds were just as festive and fun. They had food booths from all over the country, including my favorite Jeni's Ice Cream from Columbus, OH. The concert itself was on the Troy High School football field. At the height of the day's concerts, the entire field plus both sets of stands were covered with 30,000 fans (PS- Troy is a town of 25,000- it doubled this weekend!). We definitely didn't have the best view, but you couldn't match the atmosphere on both days (even with a slight rain storm that brought out our super cool ponchos- see picture below).

Some new-found favorites from the weekend were Willy Mason and Bear's Den. We also had an awesome time singing along to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show. In fact, I like both of them better now than I did before. Mumford was excellent as usual and even brought both Bear's Den and Old Crow on stage for a few songs. You could tell they were genuinely having a great time on stage. We were as well, along with 30,000 of our closest friends.