photo by kristen bach
bourbon and pear upsidedown cake
ingredients
the fruit
1/3 cup butter, browned
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP or a glug of bourbon
6-8 pears, peeled (hard country pears work great)
a heavy sprinkling of cinnamon
the cake
2 cups unbleached AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
a sprinkle of cinnamon
directions
pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
the fruit
-in a cast iron skillet, melt the 1/3 cup butter, cook for 15 minutes on med /low to brown it. pay close attention and make sure you do not burn it
-stir in the brown sugar and stir until combined
-stir in the bourbonand cinnamon and stir, remove from heat
-slice the pears as thin and uniform as possible and layer nicely in the butter and sugar mixture
-let sit while you are making your cake batter
the cake
-mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar together
-add the wet ingredients and mix, only until all ingredients are combined
-spoon mixture over the pears and place cast iron in oven
-bake for 40 minutes or until fruit is bubbling and the cake is slightly browned
-remove from oven and let it rest for a few minutes
-take a butter knife and run along the edges of the cake
-using a cake plate or any large plate but over the top of the cast iron to flip,
flip the cake and re-arrange any fruit that may have come loose during the flip
-enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream.
this is the dish that i brought to share at the flower social at 3 porch farm. if you haven't caught up on our last few posts about you you should! it was a magical day! i promised many of the attendees that i would share this recipe....so here is another pear delight!
it's a perfect fall treat!
photo and recipe by kristen bach
cosmos
in Daily Beauty
photograph by rinne allen
sacred feminine flower portraits
for the flower social at 3 porch farm this week, rebecca made a big flower backdrop. she hammered nails through a large piece of plywood, then stabbed blocks of oasis on the front. next it got flower decorated and set up for photos. " i wanted to celebrate the sacred feminine. i was thinking of religious icons and frida kahlo. i shot each guest in front of it and the glowing portraits turned out amazing!
photographs and words by rebecca wood and rinne allen
vines
in Daily Beauty
photograph by rinne allen
3 porch flower social cont.
in The Country
we have so much beautiful content from this day that we could almost make a whole week of posts about it. this was the 2nd annual flower social out at mandy and steve's flower farm, 3 porch farm. as autumn and frost approaches quickly, friends gather to make arrangements of the last batch of flowers.
photographs by rinne allen
wood brick
in Daily Beauty
from habersham mill. wood was cheaper than brick at the time.
photograph and words by kristin karch
habersham mill
two dear friends of mine just got married this weekend at habersham mill. i had never been to a place like this size before, which sits on a thousand plus acres of land and has almost 200 years of history. the mills sit on the soque river in habersham county and once used the water to power energy. it was used to make canons during the civil war and later became an iron ore manufacturing plant. after, it ran through multiple purposes and businesses before russell athletics bought it in the 1970s. now, it is owned by a lovely couple who vision it as an event space. they have already created four beautiful airbnbs, one of which I got to stay in for the weekend.
there are so many rooms, buildings, rocks, & pools to explore. i highly recommend taking a trip to see the beauty of this place.
photographs and words by kristin karch
stalks
in Daily Beauty
photograph by rinne allen
3 porch farm flower social
last monday we had our 2nd annual flower social out at mandy and steve's flower farm, 3 porch farm. before the frost takes everything out, we like to have a last blast with all the beautiful flowers and foliage. mandy and steve collect buckets and buckets of dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and other flowers. i helped mandy gather some wild persimmon branches weighed down with orange fruit. there are branches of maple and sweet gum and oaks, as well as ornamental grasses, pods, and beautiful cotton. we invite a few ladies out to spend the day arranging flowers to their hearts content. we hung a few backdrops in her unfinished flower workroom, where the light is nice. then we all go to town making insane flower arrangements! after a potluck lunch of wonderful homemade food, we get back to the flowers until we're too tired to do any more.
it's a day i look forward to all year.
photographs by rinne allen
fall ground
in Daily Beauty
photo by kristen bach
fall pear cider
this weekend we actually had some fall weather! we decided to fill our house with the the aroma of fall and make some pear cider. this recipe is such a great way to enjoy the country pears that many of us have growing in our yards. the pears that never seem to ripen, but are actually quite tasty!
here is a recipe for fall pear cider that is so simple and will have your house smelling like fall for days!
-fill a crock pot with pears, washed and quartered (seeds and stems are fine)
-add 1 orange, peeled
-add 6 cinnamon sticks
-pour water over pears and fill to the top of the crock pot leaving 1 1/2 inches
-let cook all day or overnight
-mash the pears with a potato masher
-drain juice through cheese cloth or a fine colander
-enjoy....outside on the porch is best!
photos and recipe by kristen bach
cotton
in Daily Beauty
photograph by rinne allen
rural studio’s sub rosa chapel
as we mentioned earlier this week, rural studio has been a place we have visited many times over the last 20 years, for inspiration and ideas.
one of our favorite, somewhat secret places they have designed and built is this subterranean chapel, Sub Rosa, built into the side of a small knoll, in honor of their late co-founder, samuel mockbee. finding it is like finding the pot of gold at the end of a treasure hunt, and walking into it, down the dark corridor, into the light of its oculus is a great reward and provides a quiet, calming feeling. it is a beautiful, beautiful place.
photographs and words by rinne allen
corn
in Daily Beauty
photograph by rinne allen
hale county vernacular
in The Country
as we mentioned earlier this week, rural studio has been a place we have visited many times over the last 20 years, for inspiration and ideas.
rural studio was intentionally situated in hale county in western central alabama. hale county is well known through literature (‘’let us now praise famous men” and many others) and photography (the work of walker evans and william christen berry, among others). it is also well-known for the intense strife and poverty its residents face.
it has a beautiful landscape; open and agricultural, but also tired and falling in…some structures seem like they can barely hold on for much longer. but, this makes for beautiful poetic buildings that have rich stories to tell…the layers of patina go deep.
photographs and words by rinne allen
golden hour
in Daily Beauty
photograph by kristin karch
rural studio’s morrissette house and grounds
twenty years ago, rebecca and i and a small handful of friends went to rural studio for a long weekend to help build a bathhouse. little did we know the amazing world we were stepping into, but, without a doubt, that weekend changed my life. we spent hours and hours working alongside the late co-founder of rural studio, samuel mockbee, and his young students as they constructed one of the first outbuildings on the grounds of their home base, the morrissette house. that weekend, we drove bobcats, mixed concrete, and laid brick and block over the course of three days, and had long, thought-provoking conversations all the while.
now, 20 years later, i recently completed my 5th visit to rural studio to check in and see the changes and transitions they have been through and brought to the surrounding area of hale county, alabama. the grounds of the morrissette house still house the bathhouse and ‘pods’ for students, but also an almost-complete greenhouse, a small farm, all sorts of outdoor gathering spaces, a kitchen, and other experimental structures.
wishes
in Daily Beauty
photograph by kristen bach
fall pinks
photographs by rinne allen