There was a slight chill in the air earlier this week, which lets me know that Fall is not too far away. Fall is my favorite season, but this year I’m a little sad that it’s arriving so quickly because I barely had a summer due to my internship. But, that’s what I signed up for when I decided to go to grad school!

Thursday morning was beautiful so I made a breakfast of baked eggs in tomato parmesan sauce and ate it on the back porch.  I followed a Martha Stewart recipe so of course it calls for you to make your own tomato sauce, but being the lazy resourceful person that I am, I just used some tomato sauce we already had in the pantry. It was the easiest breakfast ever: throw some tomato sauce in a ramekin, break an egg in it, top with a little more sauce and parmasan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-24 minutes. And Voila!

When we purchased this little patio table, I had day dreams of us sitting there in the mornings, drinking coffee and relaxing before work, or eating our meals in the shade of the umbrella, or even sitting there with coffee in one hand and a book in the other. The reality is that Nick hates being outside (allergies and insects) and I don’t wake up early enough to leisurely enjoy a cup of coffee before rushing to get ready for work/school/life so we’ve actually only eaten at the table maybe three times in the two years that we’ve had it. So I was determined to have my eggs and coffee out there!

The chill made it perfect; it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold. I ate my eggs and drank my coffee and had a very pleasant morning!

We’re visiting my family this weekend and celebrating my nephew’s 4th birthday so I’m planning some fun posts for you this coming week. I hope you all are having a great weekend and get to enjoy your coffee in a beautiful, cozy space of your own.

To celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of school – I just started the first year of my graduate program in public health – Nick and I decided to go on another foodie “daycation.”  The first, and only other, daycation we had was to Middletown, Rhode Island in 2010. This time, we decided to go to Atlanta, Georgia since it was close to home (only an hour-long flight) and relatively cheap.

We started our daycation at The Little Tart Bakeshop in Grant Park, which was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s ‘The Layover’.

You can see Nick’s reflection in the window to the left!

It was absolutely wonderful. We got there around 9:30 am and ordered a little bit of this and that to share. We had a ham and Gruyere cheese croissant, local sausage, potatoes and collards turnover, and a Cinnamon-Sugar bun.

Ham and Gruyere cheese croissant, turnover with local sausage, potatoes and collards, and Cinnamon-Sugar bun.

The building was very industrial with exposed brick walls and ceilings, and lots of metal and wood accents. The windows along one wall had little poems written in the corners.

Ain’t no sin to take off your skin

A few of our favorite poems that were too high up to get good photos were:

there are times when silence is a poem

if you think you can see with just your eyes you are mad

i had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee

After breakfast, we decided to explore the area around the building and discovered a beautiful cemetery just across the street, the Historic Oakland Cemetery. We wandered in and were amazed at how lovely it all is. We wanted to stay longer, as they were giving tours, and there was much ground that we didn’t get to cover because of the sheer size, but we decided that if we ever get a chance to come back, we’ll definitely spend more time there.

Before lunch, we stopped at Cocoa Atlanta Chocolate Company in Buckhead to sample some sweet treats. We’d heard about this place on Unique Eats and were excited to try some high-quality , pure chocolate that was made in-house from the roasted beans from cocoa pods they have delivered regularly from the Dominican Republic. We also made sure to grab some extras for gift to our family.

For lunch, we visited the Bone Garden Cantina from Travel Channel’s Mexican Food Paradise.

The first thing you’ll notice as you walk in is all of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) decorations, which was pretty cool, because I happen to love Day of the Dead in Mexican culture. Lots of colorful sugar skulls and playful skeletons everywhere.

According to their website, their food is made from scratch in small batches, using fresh ingredients. We had some tacos, a shrimp empanada, and a shredded chicken tamal, and it was all so yummy! The tamal was the best I’ve had so far.

Chicharron (fried chicken skin, top) taco, carne asada taco at bottom, and chicken tamal (wrapped in a banana leaf). And lots of yummy salsas!

Barbacoa de Chivo (goat bbq) taco, taco al pastor (pork) and shrimp empanada

We also got an amazing queso dip with chorizo, which I’ll be definitely be trying to replicate at home. We ended up stuffing ourselves because we wanted to try as much as possible. Afterwards, we headed back to the airport and the flight home was a full and happy one.

Have you ever taken a daycation?