Talya Tate Boerner's Blog, page 58

Grilled Poundcake with Fresh Strawberries and Basil

Grilled poundcake with strawberries and basil is that special sweetsomething you need for your 4thof July celebration. This dessert issuper simple to make, especially since you’re already planning to fireup your grill for the holiday. Right?

Here’s the simple part—I used a bakery poundcake and Reddi-wip in a canister.

Okay, keeping it real here—sometimes I make homemade whipped cream,and sometimes I don’t.UsuallyI make homemade poundcake.This time, I didn’t. If you prefer to make your own po...

My Summer Bucket List

Hip hooray for another summer (yay!). Because I’m a list-making sort of person, I decided a summer bucket list was in order. This isn’t likely a generic, appeal-to-everyone summer bucket list, but it’s what I hope to do. Andmaybe it will inspire you to come up with your own list.

Lists help me get things accomplished.I like that whole check mark thing.

So here ya go, my summer bucket list…

— Go to a drive-in. In Arkansas, there are only three remaining open drive-ins includingthe 112 Drive-I...

Slow on Sunday Morning.

A few simple pics for this slow Sunday morning, a recap of our weekend so far. I’ll admit it’sbeen extra long because I spent half of Friday thinking the daywas Saturday. When you have two Saturdays, you end up with a three-day weekend.

Slow Sunday morning frommy back porch.

Saturday night grilling. Cause sometimes you need beef.

A sunny spot.

Simple dessert.

Something blooming.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

And I never want to leave. Slow on #SundayMorning Powered...

those first best childhood friends…

One of the best things I’ve done in a long whilewas spend time with these childhood friends. I consider myself sooooo fortunate to have attended school from Headstartthrough twelfth grade with manyof the same people. (Headstart was a program started in 1965 for low-income kids who needed a “head start” before first grade, and we were those kids…)

There’s nothing like childhood friends—the folks we knew before we knew ourselves. We can sit together and reminisce and laugh and cry, and althoug...

a simple week after a busy week

My first week home after nearly two weeks traveling was anice blur of doing nothing much. It always takes me a few days to get back into my regular writing routine, and there are the accompanying chores that go along with traveling—the unpacking and laundry doingand reading mail and paying bills and pulling weeds and all those things conveniently forgottenwhile out of town. Things I need to do immediately yet want to ignore so I can get back to writing. WordsI can’t write while there are thin...

Lessons from Daddy

For Father’s Day…lessons from Daddy.

But first. How cute is this picture of Momma and Daddy? They are newly married—look at the sparkle on his wedding band. He’s making homemade ice cream, probably vanilla, and she’s wearing an adorable dress, with perfect lipstick and eyebrows! Love it.

Now, lessons from Daddy… (not in order of importance or anything brilliant like that)

Creecy & Tate Farms, Oct 1972

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Daddy taught me the importance of a strongwo...

Rusted Ford Trucks (a short story waiting to be written)

This rusted Ford truck collection on the side of the road just south of Crawfordville, Florida (Highway 319), is exactly the sort of thing thatcauses me to stopand spend some time exploring. THIS is what makes a road trip a road trip. Seeing those things you wouldn’t normally see if you, say, hopped on a plane and bypassed the drive itself.Unexpected and out of the way marvels.

Writer friends: need a writing prompt?
Talk abouta short story waiting tobe written… Apocalyptic farm lit or doomsd...

Sea Gifts

The best part of my recent book tour through Florida had very little to do with my book tour through Florida. It was more about the people I met, the sightsI saw, the food I tasted, the things I felt and learned.Time passedat a leisurely pace, my mind felt open and boundless. Sea gifts. A good thing.

The first time I saw the seaI was young and we were in Mexico, on the Pacific side, and Ifound sand dollars and brought them home. I’ve never forgotten those earlyimpressions—the vastness of the...

Ten Tips for a Fun Family Reunion!

Here in the South we are all about “the reunion”. Family reunion, church reunion, class reunion… If you belongtoa group of some sort—and of course you do!—there’s a good chance you’ll receive an invitation toa reunion before the end of summer. You may even be asked to plan it. Today I’m sharing my ten tips for a fun family reunion, tips to make yours a roaring success from planning to execution.

1. Planners gotta plan. There are a few people in our family who always step up and take charge....

Yoda’s summer house, I found.

Yoda’s summer home, I found. Deep withinthe remote river swamps of the

No, Yoda, I never saw with my own eyes,but watched and listened and waited, I did.His...