October Instagram

How is it November already? HOW?! 2013 is almost over! October (apparently) came and went in a whirlwind of food and travel. Here's what it looked like.

The very FIRST week of October I spotted Christmas decorations for sale already in Target. Even though it doesn't mean what it used to (since I don't work in retail anymore), it still gave me a shiver of exhaustion.

I would however, totally buy that Santa. Too adorable.

I had a BIG career challenge this month, my bosses went out of town and left me and the Sous Chef of Biscuit Love to run a wedding event in the boonies. I was super worried the whole time whether I was doing a good job, but everything went wonderfully and the ceremony was gorgeous!

I got really wrapped up in school projects this month, here we were practicing fruit and vegetable carving. Clearly this is my calling.

We have a catering project for school that's due in November, it involves planning menus, cooking food, and table decoration. As a blogger, I fixated on the visual aspect of the project and sort of got carried away with my prop shopping.

Still totally usable and kitchen safe, right?

Recipe testing for our catering project it went pretty well until I somehow melted the top to a ink pen in my oven (wtf?!). That made me feel really professional!

My brother turned 22 on October the 9th, he requested muffins instead of a cake this year (?). I included some Lego block candles because they were his favorite once upon a time...

We tried out quite a few new restaurants this month. We went to Burger Republic in Lenoxx Village to have dinner with my boyfriend's parents.

Fondue Tots 

Banana Split Milkshake

The  "Eat The Farm" and Bacon Mac and Cheese

Later in the month we tired out a Greek Lunch place called Kouzina Cafe,  I had the falafel gyro, it was sooo good but HUGE!

I also tried out a brand new food truck in town Churro Queens! 

Things have been slowing down a bit on the truck lately now that we're getting into the fall and winter, but we've been to a lot of fun events.

Attack of the Scarecrows at the Franklin Farmer's Market. All the vendors displayed themed scarecrows. This one was ours, modeled after our head chef and  notorious cookbook hoarder, Karl.

Square dancing with Yazoo brewery at Bells Bend Farms. This event was SO much fun, every one had such a good time, and the music was awesome too! The only bad part was that the temperature suddenly dropped down to 40 degrees while we were out there! I was really glad I was working so close to an oven and a fryer. Cold or not though those people keep on drinking and dancing.

Halloween was a bit of a bust this year, with Tornado speed winds and thunderstorms all night. Lucky for me my running club has a costume night  that day before the storm hit so at least I got to dress like a goober in public ( which as I'm sure you're aware, is one of my favorite pastimes). I went as Fionna from Adventure Time.

Only people with kids of a certain age even really knew who I was supposed to be, but I didn't care!

And that was the month of October!

If you want to follow me on Instagram I'm madame_magar

August Instagram - Food Truck Life

I got an instagram account last month with an on the road photo blogging project in mind.  Now I don't quite have the iphone situation all figured out yet, but here's a look at life so far.

The first two weeks of August were pretty slow, the truck was off the road while my bosses took a way overdue vacation, so I had more time on my hands for the finer things in life.

Outside things were pretty exciting. We got a new Doctor!

I was freaking out! Were you freaking out?!

 And there was a blue moon. Also exciting - though of course it looked just the same.

My boyfriend and I started watching/binge watched/completely caught up on Breaking Bad, and in the madness I found myself suspicious of every chicken place ever...

(Wait, we don't count, right? I'm gonna say we don't count...)

Then of course came Tomato Art Fest.

By mid August it was time to work again.

 5am - time to make the biscuits. I made 400 that day.

Using the street art to remind me where I parked downtown!

All lined up at Live On The Green

 At Riff's Food Truck Jam. It's every Friday night and sooo much fun! There's beer, and bands, and free parking; it's Nashville's best kept secret!

Chef Karl's (super secret off menu) fried okra. It will blow your mind!

Perks of the business; you get to try food from all the other food trucks! Smoked pork tacos, yes yes YES!

And that was the month of August!

You can find me on instagram at Madame_magar

"Food Truck Life" and "A Possible End To Radio Silence"

It's been a bumpy year for the blog, and really for the inside of my head. I got into the full swing of culinary school and the planning and execution of a job change and things around this space got sort of put on the back burner.

I'm a planner, and I thought that if I planned out a perfect pathway to my ideal future (school>internship>job) that I'd leave my childhood behind and I'd make the transition to responsible, respectable adult smoothly, but it hasn't really turned out that way. If anything I feel like going back to school and ditching everything to work on a food truck has just launched me into a second adolescence and I'm not too sure if I'm worried about it. I don't really know what I'm doing anymore, other than finishing school, or what I'm aiming for but I'm having an absolutely marvelous time traveling all over Nashville, getting to see places I never would normally even look. I've been able to try all kinds of food on the road as a result of lunch trips between double shifts, left over event food, and food truck to food truck goody trade. But the road is too unpredictable for my nice camera (aka "my infant son") and all this interesting food I eat rarely makes it home, or if it does makes it home in the dark of night, so my ability to blog has been hindered.

So in an attempt to solve my blogging problem and further prove myself to be a teen girl, I've ditched the technological equivalent of a speaking telegraph that I've been carrying around in my purse, finally, finally upgraded to a smartphone to use as an on the road camera situation, and now have both a twitter and instagram account that I intend to fill with the highlights of my travels.

Follow if you feel so inclined, you'll find me both places as madame_magar , and stay tuned to this space for some changes and more frequent updates appearing in the very near future.

-m

She'd Fly Through The Air With The Greatest Of Ease

So, um... I quit my steady job of 5 years to work on my favorite food truck.

I don't really have a good explanation for this, in fact mentioning it to people has earned me plenty of sideways/confused/skeptical looks, but... I had to do it. I had to leave my old life behind and join the circus, there was just no other choice.

Figuratively speaking of course - Image credit

You know that feeling you get when you know you have to jump on an opportunity even if it makes no logical sense? It's a kind of pounding in the heart, a weightless heady spinning sort of inside tingling like a Spider-sense. I try my best never to ignore that feeling, I've had some of my best times in life because of that feeling, and some of my only life regrets so far have been because I've ignored it. I've been to New York, San Francisco, Bonnaroo, Culinary School and run two half marathons because of that feeling, I've met Jack White, Issa Rae, and the most unforgettable (though not always long term) boys because of this feeling (and against my better judgment), so I've learned at this point that while I may be able to make most of my life choices with my Capricorn analytical, calculating, tightass, emotionally removed mind, if I want to have a truly happy life, you know, from my insides, I'd better listen to the Spider-sense.

So I'm being ridiculous, I'm working in a mobile kitchen with no air conditioning sweating through my clothes in the 90+ degree Tennessee heat, I'm driving all over Nashville and Franklin to a different place every night. I'm tethered to my cell phone in case the week's schedule suddenly changes, I'm working under a highly passionate wildly sociable artist who changes the menu week to week, and I'm wearing my chef whites to weddings. It is an illogical, seemingly random choice, it's wildly changeable and it's the most fun I've had since I was 17.

"Shakin' Down East Nasty" or "The Tomato Art Fest"

This weekend I took a vacation from work and went to visit the madness that is the East Nashville (aka East Nasty) Tomato Art Fest. This was my first time going and I'm new to East Nashville so I missed the first two events, the tomato 5k and the tomato themed parade, but there were enough people still in costumes wandering around the event site to give me a pretty good idea of what I missed (and inspire me to show up earlier next time!). My favorite was a green haired lady with an enormous headdress made of tomatoes and tomato cans. I swear this woman looked exactly like how I would dress every day if I had my way. Although let's be honest I don't think I could handle the shoes as well as she did.

The tomato themed art show I think was my favorite part of the trip (even though I couldn't take any pictures), the art ranged from whimsical to wildly ridiculous with tomatoes stuck on everything from earrings and teapots to pictures of Elvis, and the faces on The Scream by Edvard Munch. It made me wish I had enough money to just cover all my walls with eccentric tomato art ( I'll learn from my experience and bring more cash next time!). The art show is actually where the festival got its start. In 2004 this little East Nashville gallery had tomato themed art show celebrating the tomato in late summer and planned a few neighborhood events to promote the show, it was so popular that it turned into an annual, signature event. Once you see the art, it really isn't hard to see why the Tomato Art Fest was so popular.

For lunch there was a wide selection of vendors all with tomato themed specialties for the day, I took the opportunity to hit up Franklin's infamous Biscuit Love Truck and had what was hands down the best fried chicken of my life. What I ordered was called "The East Nasty- Tomato Art Style"; buttermilk fried chicken, Kenny's farmhouse cheddar cheese, and Bloomsbury farm tomato gravy served on top of a fresh (made from scratch) biscuit. It was HEAVENLY! I swear at first bite, my eyes rolled back in my head. The biscuit UGH! I don't remember the last time I had a biscuit that was as light and flaky and bursting with flavor and this one was! I don't know if I ever have! And the chicken was perfect! Crispy and hearty paired with the strange but tasty tomato gravy. The only thing that was even the slightest bit off was that I couldn't figure out if what I'd ordered was supposed to be a sandwich, like a chicken in a biscuit, or if it was chicken with a biscuit on the side. If it was supposed to be a sandwich it seemed to me that the meat to carb ratio was a little bit off with the fried chicken being just a little more than twice the size of the biscuit, but it was so tasty I didn't really spend too much time thinking about it and just ate what I could see, biscuit-meat-biscuit and wiped the gravy off my chin when I hit the bottom of the plate.

Of course they couldn't have a tomato festival without a few tomatoes for sale. The Downtown Farmer's Market had a little booth set up bursting with Heirlooms and Romas and every kind of tomato you could think of along with jars of salsas and sauces if you were so inclined. I couldn't resist, since I can never make it to the farmer's market regularly, and filled my arms with all the tomatoes I could carry ( which was sadly only a few pounds) and a jar of mild salsa for my purse as we left. I wish I could say I had grand culinary plans for my bounty buuuut it's mostly just been really delicious... *cough* BLT sandwiches*cough* so far.

It was an such a fun event, even though we couldn't stay very long. Next time I'll plan ahead and catch the Bloody Mary and Red Head competitions, along with the 5k and the parade. And maybe next time I'll make a costume too ( and you know that I will!) and join in the fun.