Spring Has Sprung.

Well okay, not in Indiana.

There were snow flurries today.

But, we spent the weekend in Atlanta celebrating a good friend and sorority sister’s wedding.

And, in Atlanta spring had arrived.

It was gorgeous day for a wedding. Saturday was sunny and temperatures were in the seventies. Trees had come in bloom and the wedding was held at Atlanta’s Botanical Gardens where large tulips made the perfect background for the outdoor ceremony.

Like any wedding, I really look forward to spending time with my college friends who are now located in new homes across the nation. This weekend was a lot of fun because we had so much time to spend together and were able to really catch up.

Everyone got in on Friday and Ashley, whose boyfriend is currently assigned to a project in Atlanta, lined up a dinner at Einstein. Einstein was located right in the heart of Midtown in an area that is similar to Chicago’s Boystown.

Einstein is a restaurant and bar that has a great menu. They have a good amount of small plates and a few entrees, many sandwiches, and amazing selection of sides. They also have received plenty of accolades about their brunch.

With so many great choices, I struggled deciding on something for dinner. I ended up making a meal out of the Crab and Shrimp Cake small plate that sat on a bed of edamame succotash and sides of beets and fried green tomatoes.

Fried green tomatoes are a huge staple in the south and we actually saw them at every meal we ate this weekend in Atlanta… even at the wedding!

The next morning I made brunch reservations at South City Kitchen. Based on some research I had done before the weekend, South City Kitchen sources meat and produce from local growers and bread from a local bakery. It also happened to be right around the corner from our hotel.

South City Kitchen is a bright and cheery restaurant in the Midtown area. There was a patio in the front of the restaurant just off the street and seating inside on both the first and second floors. The waiter led our group upstairs where we were seated at a large table.

We ordered cocktails, because…

I had a Bellini and Adam had a bloody Mary.

Corn bread and biscuits with apple butter were brought to the table. The corn bread was great and got me inspired to make my own with all the corn in the freezer. Stay tuned for that one…!

The South City Kitchen’s menu was a good balance of brunch and lunch options. There were salads and sandwiches, and then your typical brunch fair like eggs and pancakes.

Adam had been excited all morning to try chicken and waffles. He had never had it, but as an avid Diners, Drive In’s and Dives viewer he had to see what it was all about.

When it arrived his excitement was at an all time high. He even took a picture of it and texted it to a couple friends.

He dug into the fluffy waffle and decided it was well worth all the excitement.

“It’s like sex in my mouth,” he exclaimed between bites.

“God, your classy,” I replied as I reached over to get a bite.

I am a big fan of a sweet and salty combo. I mix in M&M’s with popcorn. Chocolate chips with nuts. And, Chicken and Waffles is basically the epitome of sweet and salty combinations.

There’s the juicy, salty fried chicken and then the sweet maple syrup and soft waffle. It was good.

I had barbecue pulled pork egg Benedict with pork and coleslaw with, in true southern fashion, grits on the side. The eggs were perfectly poached and the sweet barbecue worked so well with this brunch classic.

Other entrees that graced our table were the smoke roasted beef eggs Benedict, a BLT with fried green tomatoes as the “T,” salmon, chicken livers and two more plates of chicken and waffles.

After brunch the boys headed to a bar to catch up on March Madness and some craft beers. My friends, Kelsey and Katie, joined me for the walk to Piedmont Park. Piedmont Park is a park in Midtown, but what we didn’t realize just how huge this park is.

It’s massive and, on the nice Saturday afternoon, it was booming with life. We saw soccer games, baseball games, kickball games, runners, bikers, boot camp classes, families picnicking, and lots and lots of puppies!

At the edge of the park, there was a large farmers market that was just winding down for the day. Many of the vendors were selling early spring produce such lettuce, kale and green onions. We weren’t really looking to buy anything because we had long drives back to our homes.

Although, if we had seen asparagus I would have found a way to make that work.

As we were approaching the end of the vendor tents, a table of pretty glass bottles caught my eye. The sign said it was a USDA organic ginger farm named Verdant Kitchen. The couple that ran the table offered us a sample of their ginger syrup.

It was zingy, sweet and interesting!

I looked down at the other items on the table, as the woman told us about all the different things you could make with the syrup, ranging from desserts to cocktails. You could even make your own ginger ale. In addition to the syrup, they also were selling ground ginger, dehydrated ginger and chocolate covered ginger candies.

She went on and told us that their farm is located in Savannah. This got me wondering, “Where is ginger typically grown?”

I like ginger and love to use it in Asian inspired meals, like stir-fry. I had even considered it when trying to come up with the name of this blog because my first name is Virginia. Something like, “Ginger’s Roots.” It didn’t paint the whole picture though.

Despite a bit of a crush on ginger, we had never even thought of growing it in our own garden.

So, I asked.

The man asked if I wanted to know where ginger is grown domestically or internationally.

Unsure of what I was even looking for, I just said domestically. He said normally it’s in Hawaii and a little bit in California and that it was pretty unique to be grown in America, let alone Georgia.

Thanks to Google, I learned that it typically comes from India, Africa, or the Caribbean. (And, that it needs a pretty warm climate to survive. So, ginger won’t be gracing our garden anytime soon…)

I thought this was very interesting. I had never thought about where ginger grows or even how it is grown.

And, thanks to the woman who was still sharing recipes that you could create with the ginger syrup, Katie and I each bought a bottle.

She said that we could find all the recipes on their website.

I asked the man what his favorite ginger syrup recipe is. He kind of laughed, saying that he enjoys them all. But, he really just likes it over vanilla ice cream and that it is also great in rum.

Something that I will have to try soon!

But, not tonight.

It’s a whopping 18 degrees tonight, making ice cream very unappealing. And, after all the fun at the wedding, it’s time for a little detox.