Things of Beauty #15
Nashville, friendship, & award-winning cookies
Trying my hand a a little travel wrap-up here this week and hitting the highlights of a recent trip to Nashville where there were plenty of beautiful things.
Also sharing some delicious (award-winning!) cookies, a really lovely essay from a friend, and an awesome song I discovered (in Nashville, of course)!
Without further ado, I bring you this week’s random smattering of beautiful things:
🍪 I made these Chocolate Chip Kitchen Sink Cookies* for the annual office cookie exchange & contest last week— and I WON! There is definitely an element of trust involved in this recipe. As stated in the instructions they do indeed seem uncooked when you take them out of the oven. But they absolutely do settle in to the perfect chewy-ness as they cool on the pan.
is one of those people whose recipe instructions I’ve learned to trust wholeheartedly— even when it seems like I’m going to be taking a plate of half-baked dough to the party. I’ll also note that my award-winning version of this recipe did not have coconut in it and I used dry roasted, salted peanuts. (*the post with the recipe is from very early in the start of the pandemic, so it’s also an interesting time capsule type glance back in time about how we just had no idea what was to come).
📙 My friend Leah wrote a really beautiful piece about female friendship, reflecting on the death of her mother and the connections that still remain. This was one of my favorite parts, but please do go read it in it’s entirety:
There’s a connection that’s gone now that I cherished, and when it got taken away I got knocked down hard. But there are those that remain: the school moms and the aunt and the writer friends who assume I can do this—whatever *this* is—because I’ve done it before and this is who I am and what do I need?
🎸 My husband and I took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee the first week in January. Here are three things I loved on our trip1:
Hatch Show Print tour- a working letterpress print shop that’s been in operation since 1879. They’ve done show posters for Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton as well as some of today’s biggest artists. You even get to make your own small letterpress poster to bring home!
The Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium - the Ryman is known as the mother-church of country music, but even that’s not your favorite genre (it’s not mine) both the Opry and the Ryman are iconic “must do” things in Nashville. Unless you just really don’t like music at all, then I suppose then you could skip it, but I don’t think Nashville would be on your list if you didn’t like music. Anyway, we grabbed tickets as soon as we booked our travel and didn’t realize that we were catching the return of the Opry to the Ryman stage for the first time in three years, which made it feel even more special to be there.
Assembly Food Hall - Tried the hot chicken (as you do) at the Prince’s Hot Chicken outpost there. I will note that I had the “mild” which is two levels up from the “plain” (which I assume has no spice) and it was plenty hot for me. We also had a really nice dinner at Sixty Vines (get the brussels share plate!), which is at the very top of the food hall space and has soaring ceilings and a really awesome view of the top of the Ryman Auditorium across the steet. There is also live music throughout the hall all-day (which is a quintessential Nashville thing). If we’d been there just a little longer- definitely would have gotten a Belgian waffle from The Liege Waffle Co. and dumplings and bao buns from Steam Boys.
🎶 One of the artists we saw at the Opry was, Maggie Rose. I loved the song linked below. I always enjoy finding new to me artists and there’s no cooler way than discovering them while visiting an icon of American music history.
What random beautiful things have you stumbled on here at the beginning of 2023? Favorite cookies (half-baked or otherwise)? Great articles? Songs you’re playing on repeat? Let me know!
Whew . . . all the respect for travel writers— it took me as long as it usually takes to write an entire Things of Beauty post to write these three bullet points (and find the links, and think how to boil down an entire experience into a little snippet). Plus don’t even get me started on how I never remember to take pictures. Those 3 above, plus a blurry selfie are it from the whole three days we were there. This suits me personally just fine, but certainly wouldn’t be great if I were trying to make a go of writing about my travels on a regular basis. :-)
Oh, that essay by Leah was fabulous. All the feels, as they say. Thank you for sharing it!
Now I’m shopping for letterpress art at Hatch online! Armchair (or, in this case, standing desk) travel!