400 The Life - July 2017

My Place: What drives County Commissioner Todd Levent

PG. 10

JUST ONE

THE TOMATO PG. 28

7

Things that define Fire Chief Danny Bowman PG. 12

Getting her shot From the Forsyth Central auditorium stage to the set of Law & Order: SVU. How Kelli Giddish made it.

PG. 22

PLUS: Documenting a two-week nonprofit mission in Myanmar... PG. 17

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I spent the final two weeks in May documenting a Rotary-funded nonprofit's efforts in Myanmar­— formerly Burma. The work Alliance for Smiles does in the field of free cleft lip and palate reconstructive surgery in under-served areas of the world is nothing short of amazing, and I cannot thank them enough for the opportunities they have given me to see the world and to experience other cultures. I took a bunch of photos and put some of them in this magazine and bunch more online.

I'm really excited to share these, and I hope they can be something to someone.

While I was gone, our staff here was taking care of business and getting their stories ironed out. Very thankful for them, too.

I am also very thankful to Kelli Giddish for taking some time to talk to us about her journey from the auditorium stage at Forsyth Central High School to being a star on one of the longest-running shows in television history. And thanks to Forsyth County Fire Chief Danny Bowman and Commissioner Todd Levent for giving us a little insight into their lives. Also thanks to the tomato for being great! Look, I'm just thankful to be home. Check us out!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS My Place: Todd Levent

10

Seven Things: Danny Bowman

12

Rebuilding downtown Alpharetta

15

My two-week mission in Myanmar

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COVER STORY: SVU's Kelli Giddish

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Just One Ingredient: Tomato

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Events 30

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At the end of the day, we all need a place to call our own, and for Todd Levent there is nowhere quite like the open (dirt) road. Continued on 12

MY PLACE We all have one. A sacred space that provides more than just peace ­— it's an escape from the mundane and the maddening.

STORY BY KELLY WHITMIRE PHOTO BY MICAH GREEN

T

Story by Sydney Robinson

he chairman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners spends a lot of time crossing the county, but like anyone else he sometimes needs a place where he truly can get away.

Over the last few years, Levent has reclaimed a love for riding dirt bikes that has taken him across the country twice and to sights and natural wonders off the beaten path.

“The first trip was from Mexico to Canada following the continental divide, almost all dirt.

The next trip was from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which was Charleston to Coos Bay, Washington,” Levent said.

Levent rides with a group, typically going about 250 miles each day with up to 25-30 riders.

A chase vehicle supports the riders by meeting at critical points with parts and other items that can't be carried on motorcycles.

“It's something that an individual has where you enjoy a

little speed, where you’re allowed to have that challenge, that risk and danger,” Levent said. “At the same time, it's a great adventure with a great group to hang with that absolutely look after one another.”

While crossing the country can be expensive and take a lot of time, there are rides Levent takes on locally, drifting between dirt and backroads in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.

With the pressure of meetings, constituents and the many obligations of county government, Levent said he doesn't get to ride as much as he would like but said those moments alone on his bike give him a chance to be with his thoughts — and breath-taking scenery.

“Every minute is just interesting,” Levent said. “You never know what you're coming to — it's nothing but an adventure.

The more challenges you go through, the better stories you have.”

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Seven

What are the seven things that help define your life?

things

To this day, Forsyth County Fire Chief Danny Bowman can remember the smell of his daddy’s shoe polish. I can smell brasso right now,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Kiwi shoe polish ... every night he was home.”

Born across from Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheatre to a sergeant major — the highest enlisted military rank — Bowman has a keen memory and a passion for history.

To tell the life of the 67-year-old career fireman, one merely needs to look at seven of his most prized possessions … from his family history to his engine trucks.

STORY BY ISABEL HUGHES PHOTOS BY MICAH GREEN

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or the last decade, Bowman, with the help of professional genealogists, has researched his family’s name, tracing his family history (1) to the 1700s.

His interest lies with the fathersof-fathers, which has led him across the pond to England. His research, he said, was confirmed by a DNA analysis.

Bowman’s interest does not lie solely in his family’s history, how-

5 ever. As a child living in downtown Atlanta, he collected newspapers (2), the walls of his office at the Forsyth County Fire Department lined with headlines announcing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and later of Lee Harvey Oswald’s death. Today, papers announcing Martin Luther King Jr.’s death are hard to come by — something Bowman said in hindsight, he Continued on 14

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July 2017

Chief Bowman poses with a Forsyth County fire engine at the county's emergency operations center.

“[History] is not an interest — it’s an absolute passion. I don’t want to know just what happened. I want to know why."

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“If I’d have known that back in 1968, I’d have gone and bought all those newspapers back then,” he said.

As an 18-year-old in 1968, Bowman, like many other American teens at the time, was called to serve in the military.

Though he served in the Air Force, ultimately, he made his career in the fire service — a paramilitary organization. “Dad had traveled so much — he had traveled the world — and I was just sort of a homebody,” he said. “I got married and next thing you know, Kimberly, my little baby, comes along and that took care of that.”

As a rookie with the Atlanta Fire Department in 1968, Bowman was required to watch the “joker system” (3) — an apparatus that would punch out the number of any fire alarm box in Atlanta that had been pulled. Each week, he polished and shined the machine, ensuring it was ready for operation.

Just three years into his firefighting career, which is now in its 48th year, Bowman was dispatched to 104 Luckie Street in downtown Atlanta to combat a structure fire. A natural gas explosion within the blaze killed four firemen that day, a history of which Bowman’s wife, Donna, spent two years researching. “Luckily, I was blown out of the building and across the street,” he said. “I don’t remember landing. I

remember flying, but I don’t remember landing.” “Tragedy on Luckie Street” (4) tells the story of that day – May 29, 1971.

Just as his wife spent two years researching the events on Luckie Street, Bowman has collected more than 7,200 pages of photographic history of the fire service (5). The overwhelming majority of the photos are of the Atlanta Fire Department, kept in 72 100page photo albums filed neatly in a bookshelf adjacent to Bowman’s office. Since arriving in Forsyth in 2001, he has also spent the last 16 years completing a history of the county’s fire department, which has not been published. “[History] is not an interest, — it’s an absolute passion,” Bowman said. “I don’t want to know just what happened. I want to know why. All things history.” As much as he wants to learn history, Bowman is also a part of it. Accepted into Freemasonry (6) 45 years ago, he was honored with the title “Worshipful Master” in 2016.

Th ou gh h e h as bee n a Freemason for 45 years, Bowman has treasured his fire trucks (7) for the last 48. From d r iv i n g a n A t l a n t a F i r e Department 1952 Mack pumper truck to making sure all Forsyth County fire apparatuses are uniform, the vehicles mesmerize him and are “the single object which most define" Bowman.

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NEW HISTORIC

Downtown Alpharetta is getting a major facelift, but by the time the last crane finishes construction, you may not even realize the buildings haven’t been there the whole time. STORY BY KAYLA ROBINS

I

t’s Saturday, and the lawn nestled between refurbished square-block buildings looking onto either City Hall or a row of restaurants is speckled with families relaxing as their children run around, friends on a picnic and neighbors taking some time for themselves to lay outside.

Bikes rest by them, borrowed from the bike share program that allowed them to ride from Avalon to the new Alpharetta city center on the Alpha Loop. They even stopped at pocket parks along the way to rest, let their dogs drink water, observe the murals and scattered art pieces along the path.

This vision is not a reality yet, the blueprints not yet rolled away. Red clay is still being graded. Construction cranes still loom over City Hall. Space is still being cleared and laid out for the pedestrian and bicycle pathway.

But it will be.

With Avalon — a vastly popular mixed-use development just off Ga. 400 in Alpharetta — and the city center project — the new downtown being created east of Highway 9 on Main Street — being less than a mile from each other, city officials and planners came up with a grand scheme to connect the two.

“The third side is the Haynes Bridge area with those restaurants, Village Tavern back off the road, Ruth’s Chris. And there’s no connection to downtown,” said Chris Owens, mayor pro tem on the Alpharetta City Council. “The mayor’s business office is at Main Street and Old Milton, and he walks to Starbucks to get Continued on 16 July 2017

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away from the office and for some quiet time. He noticed a path behind the strip center, and an apartment complex has a trail behind it Kathi knew about.”

Kathi Cook is the community development director for Alpharetta. She, Owens, the rest of the council and other city planners are seeing their vision come to fruition in the creation of the new city center and the connection to Avalon.

“That struck the idea of connecting the three, so now we have a concept for an inner loop that’s a 5K, and an outer loop is five miles,” Owens said. “We’re requiring developers to allow for greenway space along 400 with a tree buffer.”

The Alpha Loop concept seems like it takes the best of each similar project and applies it to Alpharetta. There will be bike rental stations. Developers along the path must follow design standards. Pocket parks will dot the path. Resting points will feature gas fire pits, public art and wall murals and maybe even a bakery or refreshment stand.

“What’s fun,” Cook said, “is you can go to downtown and park in the garage there, rent a bike and ride over along the creek and go over to Avalon for a while and go back.”

The Alpha Loop and bike path is not the only refurbishing going on downtown, though that certainly will look the most modern. Buildings being erected in front of City Hall are all designed on aesthetic standards that center around historic buildings and walkable town centers. Ideally, old warehouses and buildings like the ones

$29 Mil .

Bond passed for construction

Krogg Street and Ponce City Market in Atlanta have been repurposed for are available, but those don’t exist in Alpharetta.

The solution?

“Everything is being built to look like they were something else turned into a restaurant, for example,” Owens said. “Or it used to be the Old Milton Courthouse, or an old church … It’s meant to be like Savannah or Charleston or any old town, where different property owners would don their own design and buildings right next to each other, but here inside it’s all one building.”

This change, this rebuilding, this grandscale design that is essentially creating an entirely new infrastructure was not always received with applause and open arms.

People were upset about the change. It’s different. The unknown can be scary. Then, after public input and meetings, some aspects had to be changed because developers caught parts that would not work.

People were also upset about getting a new City Hall 10-15 years ago, Owens said, but now they love it. They love the building. They love the library next door.

They love the lawn in front overlooking

the building and downtown.

“For years, planners were pushing away from downtowns and toward the suburbs,” Cook said, “and now they’re moving back in.”

And while there will always be pushback to change before the results are known, it seems to be working toward what Cook describes as cautious acceptance.

Developers certainly have bought in.

They’re all adhering to the design standards on the loop, and they’re giving more money than required for landscaping.

Owens said The Ivy Alpharetta — the same developer as Krogg Street Market — chose Alpharetta as his first suburban market location because of this grand plan.

Though Ownes and Cook said they haven’t taken one city as an example of what to do, they feel like they know what residents want.

“Roswell is a great example. That Canton street area, it’s a great example of how much people are craving and demanding community,” Owens said. “We call them taxpayers. I call them neighbors.

People want to go be with neighbors and they want to share something in common, and it’s hard to rally around the old style of retail … People aren’t going to stop going to the barber and the dry cleaners in some of the strip places we’ve got, but they don’t want to go to dinner with the family in the strip centers. They want a place to go and be around outdoors with each other. I think people are just craving community.”

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July 2017

A reason to smile: documenting my two-week mission in myanmar STORY AND PHOTOS BY MICAH GREEN

July 2017

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A

s I was walking back to the hotel in Myeik that morning, I got caught in the rain. It was monsoon season in Myanmar and most of Southeast Asia, so these bouts of rain were not uncharacteristic, but, of course, I was ill-prepared. I had my camera with me, so I tried to cover it with my shirt and started jogging. The rain began to pick up and so did my speed, but as I turned a corner I heard an indistinguishable shout. I turned to see a man sitting at what I can only guess was a make-shift bus stop: tree limbs and metal

poles tied together with a plastic sheet with an advertisement on it draped over the poles. The whole thing was leaking except for one little dry spot in the corner, where the man sat. He motioned me over and patted the small, dry space beside him. I sat down.

We were crammed so close our legs were touching. He pointed towards the hotel, the nine-story building that towered over the rest of the small coastal fishing town, as if to ask if that’s where I was headed. I nodded. After that it was quiet. We sat there together and watched it rain.

I had come to Myanmar with Alliance for Smiles, a Rotaryfunded nonprofit that performs free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries in under-served areas of the world. My duty was to document the trip and take before and after photos of the patients, who were mostly children. Despite these surgeries being relatively easy for a trained plastic surgeon and mostly cosmetic, they are life-changing for the patients and their families. The stigma that comes with looking or sounding different is gone.

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After about 20 or so minutes, the rain had subsided enough to continue my walk back to the hotel, but I strangely didn’t want to leave. I got up anyway, did my best to convey my gratitude with several head nods and a smile and went on my way. The generosity and simple compassion is something I witnessed over and over again in Myanmar.

It is something I'm now looking for a lot harder back home. Here are some other things I saw.

Go to ForsythNews.com for more photos.

July 2017

July 2017

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ABOVE: Kyu, a 12-year-old from Kan Maw, an island of just about 1,000 people, sits on her bed awaiting surgery. She goes to school and has some friends but said her unilateral cleft lip has made many people, especially other children, make fun of her. Kyu’s parents had tried once before to get her cleft lip fixed, but they could not coordinate enough time and money to make it to previous missions that have come to Mynamar. They traveled over five hours by sea and land to make it back to our team in Myeik. Kyu wants to be a teacher when she grows up, and taking this social stigma away from her makes it that much more achievable. “I would be over the moon if I can get it fixed,” she said. RIGHT: Kyu's before and after photo. She was Alliance for Smiles' 6,000th patient in its 12 years of service.

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July 2017

Growing together and depending on each other.

July 2017

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July 2017

Getting her shot...

How a girl from Forsyth Central made it from the high school stage onto the TV screens of millions.

STORY BY ISABEL HUGHES

Act I

Scene 1: The flower It wasn’t a speaking role. It wasn’t even a human role.

Six-year-old Kelli Giddish stood behind the curtain at Big Creek Elementary School, the costume’s large, colorful petals nearly overwhelming her petite blond head.

As the lights turned on, she stepped onstage.

“I think I was in first grade when I did my first play,” she said, laughing. “I was the main flower, and all I remember is having a big costume on.”

The Forsyth County native speaks with an affectionate twang, a fondness in her voice as she remembers her acting debut.

Though she is now based in New York, Giddish hints at her metro-Atlanta upbringing in the way she speaks — her words drawn out a little longer than her Northern co-workers and the occasional “grandmamma” thrown into conversation.

The actress, who is most well-known for her role as Detective Amanda Rollins on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, remembers her years – and mentors – in Forsyth fondly.

“When I was around 8 years old, I went

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL PARMLEE

and auditioned for a play; I think my first audition was ‘Do Your Ears Hang Low?’ and I had to pick out a poem and say it on stage,” she said. “I did Shel Silverstein’s ‘Homework. Oh, Homework! I Hate You! You Stink!’ and that was for the Velveteen Rabbit, and I got that.

“I auditioned for the next play the next year, and I think I had to have a German accent when I was 9 years old, and it was so much fun because Yatesy Harvey would direct the plays and put them on and everyone was super excited to be there. It really got everybody involved and excited.”

Scene 2: Drama camp Giddish’s respect for her former drama teacher, Harvey, is evident as she remembers the woman who helped make her acting career possible.

The teacher, who built Forsyth Central High School’s theater program while teaching from 1989-2010, was instrumental in the lives of many, both on and off the stage.

“I did her drama camp, which might sound cheesy to the people who don’t know what it was, but she took about 20-25 kids to the north Georgia mountains or wherever Continued on 24

July 2017

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she could find a house that was willing to rent to 25 middle and high schoolers for a week every summer,” Giddish said. “She just inspired a fierce curiosity and very high standards of what acting was and how much dedication it took and rehearsal and we would do plays every night, and everybody had a particular night to do their scene and we all sat down and critiqued it afterwards.

“She had full confidence in us as teenagers and treated us with the utmost respect. When people treat you like that when you’re that young, you kind of say, ‘Oh, ok, they are listening to me and I need to step up and actually earn the respect that they’re showing me.’ It was that kind of atmosphere.”

Every year during her time at Central, from 1994-1998, the school won the one-act play competition — a tournament where drama classes from schools around the region perform a 55-minute play.

“If I tell anyone here in New York we competed in plays, they look at me sideways,” Giddish said. “But we really had to make the sets, we had to paint the sets, we had to put the set up yourself — you had to know how to do all of it, and the whole experience just really inspired me and really gave me a good base as to what I was going to go on to do.”

it,” she said. “Because I had them, I had that.

So I stuck with my [acting] and every little play that I did, even in a black box, they were there, in the audience.”

Intermission

Photo courtesy of NBC Studios/Michael Parmlee

Scene 3: Couch surfing Giddish sounds determined as she remembers her post-high school years.

After graduating from Central in 1998, she went on to the University of Evansville in Indiana where she majored in theater performance and graduated with honors.

Soon after, she moved to Manhattan to pursue the career full-time.

“Kelli is in New York after she graduates, couch surfing,” said her mother, Nita Giddish.

“She was doing everything. But it’s all part of it, I guess, and one thing I’ve never worried about since is wherever she lands, she’ll be able to take care of herself.”

Giddish largely credits her parents for her current success.

“You can be talented, but if you don’t have the backbone and the wherewithal to take rejection over and over and over again and still believe in yourself, you’re not going to make

STORY BY KELLY WHITMIRE

11:10 a.m.

Thursday, May 25 Giddish apologizes for her brief tardiness: “hi! just putting my son down for a nap, he was late today! call you in the next 20 minutes, sorry for the

delay,” she texts.

When not on scene, the 37-year-old mother of one is tending to her son, Ludo, and spending time with her husband, Lawrence Faulborn — an artist who facilitates the creation of Giddish murals throughout the streets of New York.

Though she considers her fellow SVU actors to be family, Giddish adores her husband and son. Giddish said she has already been asked if she thinks the one-and-a-half year old will take after his mom.

“People ask me if my son were to act, would I let him?” she said. “I’m like, ‘Well, he’s going to be a New York City kid so his experience growing up is going to be a lot different than mine, and why people get into acting in L.A. or here is probably a little different.

“In [Forsyth County], it was just complete abandonment with your curiosity and imagination.”

Photos by Micah Green

Above: Giddish with former Vice President Joe Biden on set for Law and Order: SVU. Left and right: Nita Giddish, Kelli's mother, poses for a photo at Forsyth Central High School in Cumming, where Kelli began her acting career.

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July 2017

Act II

Scene 1: The seeds you sow Giddish sounds almost incredulous as she recalls her path to SVU. “I had been the lead of two shows that didn’t make it more than a year,” she said. “I had just finished one called 'Chase' that we filmed in Texas. Within six months, I got a call that there was a new character that they wanted to develop on Law and Order: SVU, and they were going to hire a new show runner named Warren Leight.

“I had met him when I was doing a play development conference when I was 18, and it’s so crazy because the seeds you sow when you’re trying to do acting – it’s a silly metaphor – but you don’t know when they’re going to come into fruition, and this one happened to really come into bloom. I think the character of Amanda Rollins was originally from Philadelphia, and I have a little bit of an accent and a little Georgia attitude, so they made her from Georgia.”

Giddish speaks of her character, Rollins, fondly.

Having spent seven years playing the part of the detective, Giddish knows her like the back of her hand. Rollins is more than a fictional character, Giddish said.

“As my character evolves, you come to find out her mother came and her sister comes [to Continued on 26

July 2017

Kelli's Supporting Cast

Nita Giddish as "The Mother"

Charles Giddish as "The Father"

Eli Giddish as "The Brother"

Lawerence Faulborn as "The Husband"

Ludo Faulborn as "The Son"

Yatesy Harvey as "The Teacher"

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New York] and Warren goes, ‘Well, what city do you want [Rollins] to be from?’” Giddish said. “I go, ‘Oh, gosh … it has to be Loganville because that’s where my grandmamma [was]; my mom was raised there and that’s where I always went. So Amanda Rollins is from Loganville, Georgia.

“It has been nothing short of just an honor, and most shows don’t even make it the amount of time I’ve been on [SVU]; it was on for 12 years before I even joined. I’m so very fortunate to have this job, and what it’s taught me is to work really, really hard. It’s 14-hour days sometimes, so that means you get home at 10 and you’re working up at 5, 6 a.m. to be right back at it. It’s quite a family.”

Scene 2: Healing As the conversation turns to SVU’s content, Giddish takes a more somber tone.

“It’s not just like every other TV show,” she said, pausing. “It treats a subject matter that’s so hard to talk about, and it treats it with respect and it shines a light on things that are hard to talk about, in terms of sexual assault and what survivors go through.

“That is also the most difficult part of the job; I don’t know how many times I’ve cried. But it’s also very joyful because it’s not something that people are just surviving. They’re actually healing, and [Rollins] is helping and I hope that the show kind of helps survivors that have gone through things heal, as well. The subject matter is very difficult, and it’s not something you can just leave at work.”

She pauses, taking a breath, her voice catching.

“I have fans that have come up to me and said thank you. That’s the most difficult, yet the most rewarding, thing,” Giddish said. “At the end of the day, it is a TV show of course, but I think it helps people.”

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Plumber in Forsyth!

Master Plumber Bobby Amos is proud to be the go-to plumber for businesses and homeowners throughout Forsyth and surrounding counties. Bobby works hard to earn his reputation by providing the best customer care and most complete plumbing service in our county, doing it right the first time and in a timely manner.

Whether it’s basic plumbing needs or emergency repairs, Bobby is always responsive and courteous.

Bobby began his plumbing career in 1986 working for his older brother Pete, at Amos Plumbing and Electric.

Here he gained experience in all areas of plumbing, including sewer line repair, working with main waterlines, residential and commercial plumbing, installation and repairs. Bobby left his family’s business in 2000 to open his own company, where he is backflow certified and specializes in all types of home and commercial plumbing.

Bobby is fully licensed, bonded and insured, and has become Forsyth County’s most trusted name in the plumbing business.

Call Bobby Amos, Inc. at 770-406-8362 or 404-569-3144

Curtain call The smile returns to Giddish’s voice as she speaks about her future.

SVU, which is going into its 19th season, is the fourth-longestrunning U.S. TV show, behind The Simpsons, Gunsmoke and the original Law and Order.

With 410 episodes and counting, the show is a staple. Regardless of its lifespan, however, Giddish will likely stay in television.

“I’m very suited for TV work because I like to work,” she said.

“If I don’t get something right in that day’s work, I can try all over again the next day. I get to weave a character through so many episodes, and I get so many chances to show different sides of [Rollins].

“It’s not like a film where you do it for three months and it’s done and if you didn’t get something right, it’ll kill you — if you didn’t get a scene right, you only had that one chance. I kind of get a lot of chances, and if I don’t get something exactly right, I get to try again. That’s what [I love] about TV.”

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Unrivaled Visibility.

The Most Distributed Publication In Forsyth County History.

Publishes:

Friday, June 30th July 2017

#1 Sports League

multi-sport camps Registration is Open for

PROUDLY PRESENTS

CAMP #3 JUNE 26-30 CAMP #4 JULY 17-21

SPACE IS LIMITED! Registration taken until 1 week prior to start of your chosen camp date(s) or until spaces are full.

CAMP #5 JULY 24-28 Full-Day (9am-3pm)

678-731-9009 www.i9Sports.com

Half-Day

(9am-12pm)

All Camps are Co-ed & open to ages 5-12

1

JUST ONE

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Our celebration of a single delicious, versatile ingredient. This month: keeping things juicy with a Southern staple — the TOMATO

Misconception:

The origin of the fruit’s English name, “tomato,” derives itself from “tomatl,” its name in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec people who were the first to cultivate the produce. Originally, the English word was “tomate,” though it later transformed into its name today.

While many often think of the produce as a vegetable — many cooks will fight you tooth-and-nail calling it a vegetable — scientifically, a tomato is actually a fruit. To be considered a fruit, produce must develop from the ovary in the base of the flower and contain the seeds of the plant.

While tomatoes aren’t sweet, they are, nonetheless, fruits.

Why we chose it: Though tomatoes, contrary to what one may think, are fruits, they serve as versatile ingredients from which many delectable dishes come from. From eating the fruit like an apple – yes, according to our editor, that is a real thing – to mom’s famous tomato sauce, the juicy red produce is the perfect addition to any meal.

What’s in the name?

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STORY BY ISABEL HUGHES

Types: There are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, though some of the most common ones are cherry tomatoes — the smaller, tougher kind — Roma tomatoes — a type often used for pasta sauce — and beefsteak toma-

toes — larger, heavier fruits often used in sandwiches and paninis.

Fun fact: Even though they are scientifically fruits, the tomato is the state vegetable of New Jersey.

Tomato Galette Ingredients:

½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper 4-6 tablespoons cold water 4 large heirloom tomatoes, cored (about 2 pounds) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 3 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs ½ cup thinly sliced shallot 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves 4-6 ounces semisoft goat cheese (chevre) or feta cheese, crumbled 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon water Fresh basil leaves

Directions: 1. In a large bowl, cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender until pieces are pea-sized. Stir in Parmesan and cracked pepper.

Sprinkle one tablespoon of cold water over part of the mixture; toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to the side of the bowl. Repeat, using 1 tablespoon of the water at a time, until all of the dough is moistened. Form dough into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes or until easy to handle (up to 24 hours).

2. Slice the tomatoes about ¼ inch thick and arrange on a wire rack over a baking pan, sink or paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and let drain for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 13-inch circle. Fold in half to transfer to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper; unfold.

4. Evenly spread bread crumbs on pastry, leaving about a 2-inch border. Layer tomatoes, shallot, thyme and goat cheese on bread crumbs. Fold crust over filling, pleating as necessary and leaving some filling exposed in center. Combine egg and 1 tablespoon water; brush on edges of pastry.

5. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is browned and crisp.

Cool at least 10 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with fresh basil (snipped if leaves are large) and cut into wedges.

Source: Midwest Living www.midwestliving.com/recipe/tomato-galette/

It’s that time of year!

For a beautiful summer body you’ll love, visit

Mention this ad & receive

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1080 Lumpkin Campground Road Suite 200 | Dawsonville, GA 30534

Conveniently located across from the Premium Outlet Mall in Dawson County

July 2017

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Events in your area

What’s happening?

July 2017

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Alpharetta Food Truck Alley A variety of rotating food trucks, music, and fun children’s activities.

foodtruckalley 5 to 9 p.m. every Thursday Old Roswell Street

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Thirsty Thursday! at Dave & Buster’s Come enjoy delicious food and drinks and meet other professionals in the Alpharetta area.

This is a great opportunity to catch up with friendly faces and meet new business prospects.

Alpharetta Chamber of Commerce 5:30-7:30 p.m., 6500 North Point Pkwy., Alpharetta, 30022

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1/2 Price Family Days at Cumming Aquatic Center Join us the third Friday of each month for half price off daily admission.

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Steve Miller Band In concert with Peter Frampton

Visit vzwamp.com 7 p.m., Verizon Amphitheatre

Food Trucks N’ Forsyth

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Live music, bounce house for the kids, hot air balloon rides and 11 of Atlanta’s premier food trucks!

Food Trucks N’ Forsyth 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Lanier Technical College Forsyth Conference Center

19 Boston With Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

2 to 6 p.m.

Cumming Aquatic Center

7:30 p.m.

Verizon Amphitheatre

This fun event features America’s Favorite Dessert – ICE CREAM, but also includes a variety of health and wellness engagement activities, fitness routines, food & non-food vendors, live local musical entertainment and even a morning 5k Fight Cancer Walk.

11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Piedmont Park

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Georgia Bridal Show Don’t leave your dream wedding to chance ... meet face to face with wedding professionals and find everything you need in one place and in one day.

infiniteenergycenter.com Noon Infinite Energy Arena

Visit vzwamp.com

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Atlanta Ice Cream Festival

Visit atlantaicecreamfestival.com

Visit cummingaquaticcenter.com

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29 Atlanta United Orlando City, S.C. at Atlanta United

atlanta-united.tickets-center.com 5 p.m., Bobby Dodd Stadium July 2017

Thank You

for

22 great years!

3,108,113 Meals Served $2.45+ Million

donated to Local Charities Thank you to all of our customers, employees, business partners, and friends. Thank you for showing us the love throughout these 22 years.

y a d l l a g Servin

y a D s ’ r e Fath th June 18

Last Supper Monday -June 19 th Lunch & Dinner

Seating is first come, first serve so come early as we are anticipating a large turnout.

50% of all sales on June 19th will benefit the following local Churches: First Redeemer Baptist • Shady Grove Baptist Parkway Presbyterian • Pleasantview Baptist