This weekend I harvested 3 cantaloupes from our garden. Two of them were squishy so I was anxious to crack this one open as it was super pungent. It isn’t the sweetest cantaloupe I have ever had, so I should have waited a few days to open it up. This picture was shot with my 50mm f/1.8 at ISO 100, F/4, 1/8 sec.
Carson Matthews
As we have been fighting off the squirrels and chipmunks from the tomatoes in the back yard garden, our cantaloupe have been quietly getting sweeter. Today I was walking “Farm Matthews” and spotted a cantaloupe that had made the turn and turned slightly yellow. Based on advice from YouTube I pushed on the stem and it popped right off. It smells sweet and is barely soft to the touch, so we will wait until morning and call it breakfast!
Saturday Down South
This week on the Shutterboo Weekly Photo Challenge the subject was ‘Urban‘. Â While there are a few technically ‘urban’ shots around Buckhead, I decided to go to Midtown and see what I could find. Â I certainly could have done a lot better if I had devoted a little more time to it. Â There are some pretty cool urban areas around Atlanta but I’ll admit I got lazy. Â So what I did was go to Midtown and hang around while people were getting off work and making their next move, whether it was going to yoga, a bar or walking home. Â I was able to capture most of that in this photo. Â You can see my other 32 submissions for the weekly photo challenge on Flickr
Here are some other shots I got while out and about in Midtown.
Finally Zaxby’s arrives in Buckhead in style. Thanks Powers That Be for bringing one of my favorites to the City of Atlanta and making it crazy convenient to my world. I’ll pay you back by eating there often.
By no means am I worthy of this gift, but for Father’s Day Martha surprised me BIG time with the ultimate cook’s gift, The Big Green Egg. I’ve sold many homes where the owner showed me the many features of the house, only to end up on the back porch talking about how awesome their Big Green Egg is and how it’s “not” included in the sale of the property. We also have several friends that have a Big Green Egg and I must admit, I have always been jealous of their passion for their smoker/cooker/grill/oven. I have a pretty awesome Weber gas grill and have been psyched about it since day 1, but this is taking it to another level.
Tonight after much hesitation, I took the plunge and cooked our first Big Green Egg meal. It was hamburgers and it was premeditated. I bought the meat before I had even gone to pick up the Egg. Speaking of picking it up, Martha bought it from the Workbench Ace Hardware store on Roswell Road near Chastain Park. Apparently they have the best deals and I also got a coupon for some choice meats from the New York Butcher Shoppe just up the road…I’ll be heading there on Friday for some 4th of July weekend eats.
Anyway, I was pretty nervous about how it was all going to unfold…how much charcoal, getting it lit (which required an extension cord), and maintaining the perfect temperatures to get a perfect hamburger out of the other side. Well, it took a you tube video to get me started, but after that it took off. Watching the egg react to air changes and flow was amazing. It was effortless to go from 400 to 700 degrees just by opening up the top vent, and just as easy to regulate it back down once I started cooking the burgers.
 
It truly was a lot of fun cooking with the Big Green Egg and I am really looking forward to cooking some Ribeyes for me and the boys this weekend…and some chicken or salmon for Martha. I also got a massive cookbook devoted to the Big Green Egg so I am making my way through it to learn about different tips and techniques. In my former life as a cook at the Snake River Brewing Company in Jackson Hole, WY, my favorite way to cook was with a Wood Stone Oven powered by wood and fire. We made amazing food, specifically pizzas with these ovens and that is one thing I am really looking forward to doing. I’m still in need of the pizza stones but they are my next purchase for sure. This will be a forever cooking tool that I am truly looking forward to working with. Check back for views from the Egg!
This is what boys do when daddy’s car breaks down when going on a nature hike.
Luckily Ray was close by and saved the day!
 
Carson Matthews Blog 