Author: sswagler
(Leftover) Barbecue and Sheep Milk Fresca Quesadillas
I was at the farmers' market at Pepper Place on Saturday, wanting tomatoes and peaches and hesitating about buying anything with all the leftovers still in my fridge from our 4th of July family dinner. Then Ana Kelly, owner of Dayspring Dairy suggested quesadillas made with our leftover Full Moon Bar-B-Que pulled chicken and sliced [...]
Fox 6 Books: July
Here's what I brought to WBRC Fox 6 on July 2. These vacation-ready must-reads include a LOL trip around the world, a thriller from Down Under, an important story of self-invention and some easy-to-pick-up, easy-to-pick-up-later short stories. Less by Andrew Sean Greer is laugh-out-loud funny and poignant and important all at the same time. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is [...]
Automatic Hit
It’s easy to think of Automatic Seafood & Oysters as a singular kind of place: It looks and feels like nothing else in Birmingham, and the menu is filled with adventurous approaches to familiar (and perhaps unfamiliar) foods. But what really makes it special are a few important partnerships: between local and regional suppliers and [...]
Fox 6 Books: June
Here's what I brought to WBRC Fox 6 on June 5. These beach-ready reads include some inventive historical fiction and all will inform and entertain and take you places you didn’t expect—from the marshes of the North Carolina coast to the Oklahoma prairie, from Victorian-era London to frontier Illinois in the 1800s. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia [...]
Prost! Brät Brot is Back!
The biergarten has become a gartenbar, but those awesome pretzels remain. was popular from the start. The Magic City’s first German biergarten opened about a year ago to rave reviews and consistent crowds but then took a cold-weather hiatus to make a few changes. It reopened on April 23 and very quickly became popular again. I [...]
Fox 6 Books: May
Here's what I brought to WBRC Fox 6 in May. Read and learn with some works of informative nonfiction. One is set right here at home. Then there’s some fiction … because fiction is awesome. Showdown at Rickwood: Ray Caldwell, Dizzy Dean and the Early Years of America’s Oldest Ball Park by Art Black will surely [...]
More Than Just Sweet Treats at Big Spoon Creamery
The small-batch, artisanal ice cream at Big Spoon Creamery is every bit as awesome as people say. It’s deliciously inventive with quality ingredients: goat cheese with strawberry-hibiscus jam, fresh mint chip with Valrhona chocolate chips. Many of these ingredients are locally sourced, supporting area makers and farmers like Stone Hollow Farmstead (where they get the [...]
Dine Out and Make a Difference
On Thursday, April 25, your dining dollars will make a big difference to a lot of people—if you’re eating at the right places. Dining Out For Life will involve more than 30 local restaurants that are committed to making our community better, including Bottega Café, Crestwood Coffee Co., El Barrio Restaurante Y Bar, 5 Point [...]
Fox 6 Books: April
Here's what I brought to WBRC Fox 6 on April 2: Two of these books—one for adults and one for kids—are by local authors! Then there’s an important book about African-Americans and our country's history and a moving novel about some brave young women set in India. Glory Road, the new novel by Birmingham author Lauren K. Denton, is about [...]
All Kinds of Goodness at Ashley Mac’s
Lots of people want to make a living doing what they love. Ashley McMakin made that dream a reality with her Ashley Mac’s cafés, catering and gourmet-to-go business. It all started with her hobby of cooking for those she loves. McMakin grew up in a large, food-loving family, and she learned to cook alongside her [...]