Category: personal

Istanbul – Day 3

The morning started off with everyone congregating downstairs and making use of the free wifi in the lobby to catch up on email etc. before our continental Turkish breakfast included with the price of our rooms. We en-masse headed into the dining room where there was a spread of tomatoes, cucumbers, and three kinds of breakfast breads, standard white and wheat slices, a tasty yeast roll and a phyllo-dough pastry. Not wanting to neglect any variety of carbohydrate I took one of each, along with fixing a cup of Turkish tea. So throughout the course of this trip I’ve learned I am a big fan of Turkish tea. It’s brewed very very strong and is served alongside a pot of hot water (frequently it is served in a special double-spout kettle). The idea is you dilute the tea with the hot water to your taste, then add sugar cubes if desired. Most folks didn’t know this was either a) tea and not coffee or b) supposed to be diluted so we all had some pretty strong first tastes of Turkish tea (although Jeremy, who does not like coffee or most American teas, enjoys the Turkish tea undiluted, saying it is the only tea he’s had that doesn’t taste too watered down), now we have learned “how to take tea” and many of us order it at every meal.

Following breakfast we reunited with Elif’s parents, Kay and Elif’s aunt, along with Elif’s uncle and cousin and headed onto our minibus for our tour. We visited:
-Hippodrome – No longer surrounded by stands, this has the feel of a small park sandwiched between the Blue Mosque and Haga Sophia, with the only remnants of the stadium being the three ancient monuments lined up in the center of the ring.
-Blue Mosque – Still an active mosque, everyone must remove their shoes and place them in a plastic bag before entering, gorgeous interior
-Haga Sophia – Now a museum, no longer an active place of worship, amazing tiling and mosaic work
-Underground Cisterns – Very cool (and dark) underground water resevoir with dozens of aligned Roman columns holding up the ceiling.
-Sultan’s Palace – A series of 3 courtyards with various administrative and support buildings, beautiful views of the water
-Grand Bazaar – The bazaars are very interesting places, think narrow (10 feet or so) halls with shops on either side and people *everywhere*. In general there are probably a few dozen or so types of items sold at the bazaars but there are hundreds of vendors for each thing. We’ve been told you are expected to haggle with the sellers as they price their items about twice what they are expecting to sell them for, I found a cool silver case to hold my business cards in with (what I’m told) is a traditional Turkish pattern on the front, haggled from 15 TL to 10 TL.

Before visiting the Sultan’s palace we had traditional kebabs at a local restaurant served along a white bean salad and the most excellent indescribable dessert, it was maybe bulgar (or something else resembling couscous in size and texture) mixed with honey and maybe some kind of nut, it was compacted enough you could cut small slices out of it but wow was it tasty.

The tour lasted from 9:30 until 6 and then we reconvened at 7 to meet up with Elif’s college friends and cousins at a restaurant in the Taksim area of Istanbul, which is a pedestrian high-end shopping and restaurant district and also one of the main nightlife hotspots. All told there were 20 of us sitting in the outside seating area of the restaurant, which served a fixed menu of dozens of meze as well as more “entree” style items like liver, flash fried small fish that’s indigenous to the Bospherous, and meat and rice served in rolled grape leaves. This meal was also accompanied by raki or beer or Turkish wine (had both a Cabernet and a Merlot, both quite good) and ended with watermelon, nectarines, grapes and fresh figs (this was the first time I’d ever had a fresh fig, so much better than a Fig Newton!). Afterwards we decided to split up into two groups, folks who wanted a quieter spot to talk (Elif wanted to catch up with her friends) and those who wanted to check out more of the night life, Jeremy and I went along with Elif, Doug and Elif’s friends to a coffee/tea bar on the top floor of an apartment building that had 270 degree views of the Bosphorous, quite an amazing sight at night. Jeremy discussed world politics with Elif and her friends while Doug and I caught up on what we’d been doing the past few months, it was a great, laid back time. We agreed at the beginning of the night to meet in the morning at 9:30 for breakfast, this was not the most awesome idea by the time the night ended around 2am but oh well.

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Istanbul – Days 1 and 2

Our flight left Dulles around 5:15pm, we arrived (courtesy of a 115mph tailwind) about half an hour early to Frankfurt where we headed to the Lufthansa lounge for a few hours before our flight to Istanbul. After a half hour delay, and a very odd musical chairs of checking our tickets and allowing us to sit in the gate waiting area, then having everyone file back out and rechecking our tickets before boarding, we got onto the 3? hour flight to Istanbul where both Jeremy and I fell asleep for a good portion of the flight after our second breakfast. We arrived in Istanbul around 1:30, acquired our $20 visas, went through customs, found our checked bags (in less than 5 minutes, was quite awesome) and located our shuttle driver by about 3pm.

We had about an hour ride to the hotel from the airport where we were first introduced to the driving experience in Istanbul…
1) lines on the pavement? more guidelines than rules
2) Honking is used to indicate frustration, location, gratitude and greetings or all of the above at the same time, if the guy behind, next to or in front of you honks, you should respond accordingly
3) Pedestrians take their life into their own hands crossing the street, the cars will not yield for you until you are standing in front of them
4) You must be thisclose to the car in front of you, any extra space is not allowed; accordingly, if there is a gap between you and the next car while you’re moving make sure to close that space in as little time as possible
5) (and this is according to our Turkish tourguide) Turks are colorblind, red, yellow, green…they are all the same
Overall the taxi and/or shuttle rides are very entertaining, a few folks have taken video of the cab rides, if I can find one I will link to it later.

When we got to the hotel Doug and Elif called up to our room once we had checked in and coordinated that we would meet up with everyone for dinner at 8pm at a restaurant within walking distance from the hotel. We had about 3 hours to kill, so there was definitive napping occurring pre-dinner then we met up with everyone in the lobby at 8 and got to meet the rest of the “USA” group staying at the hotel: Mike, Boston co-worker of Doug and his girlfriend Erin, Oliver, high school friend of Doug, Ray, co-worker from Williamsburg and Boston (and the next morning Randy, friend of Doug and co-worker with Ray). We walked a few blocks to an open-air restaurant where we met Elif’s parents, Doug’s mom Kay, Elif’s aunt and grandparents. Dinner was a smorgasboard of Turkish cuisine. We started with mezzes (appetizers/tapas) along with baskets of a flat bubbly bread topped with black sesame seeds which, according to Elif’s dad, you are supposed to tear open and fill with the goat’s milk cheese and butter, then roll up and enjoy. The bread is sort of like a thin empty brick-fired naan, the cheese is sort of like a mild feta in flavor and texture and between that and the creamy butter and the crispy and chewy bread, a very fun play on texture and tasty to boot. Next were the curry-spiced lamb and bulgur hand-formed meatballs which you ate wrapped in a lettuce leaf, “Turkish pizza” with a savory unknown meat topping, tomato salad with a vinagrette, fried meatballs with lamb and broccoli, sauteed eggplant with olive oil, and finally a cold cucumber quiche (keep in mind, this is just the starter course(s)). All of this is then followed by a toast with raki (pronounced rakoo), which is “Turkish uzo”, so a licorice-flavored 90 proof liquor mixed with water so it turns white. For the main course I had the traditional doner kebab (strips of lamb in a tasty brown sauce over cubes of bread and a yogurt dipping sauce. We ended the meal with slices of watermelon and nectarines. After all of this food and the travelling (and in the case of some folks, all the raki) everyone was ready to head to bed for the next morning was our grand tour of Istanbul.

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Chef’s Tasting Menu at the Copper Beech Inn

So for our last night in Connecticut we decided to stay close to home and eat at the restaurant at the Inn. The chef is Tyler Anderson who seems to be quite the up and coming chef so we were excited to try his food. We came down for our reservations at 7pm and asked for the chef’s tasting menu, we were told to each select two starters, an entree and a dessert from their prix fixe menu  that we would then get small portions of each of our own selections plus the other’s selection, and that would be our tasting menu (which was great because there was a lot of stuff that looked tasty on there we wanted to try).

First Course

Carrot soup with lobster salad amous-bouche

Carrot soup with lobster salad amous-bouche

seared foie gras, macadamia nuts, rhubarb consumme, vanilla french toast, mint, strawberries

seared foie gras, macadamia nuts, rhubarb consumme, vanilla french toast, mint, strawberries

day boat scallops, turnips, bacon-shallot vinaigrette

day boat scallops, turnips, bacon-shallot vinaigrette

Second Course

smoked pork belly, garlic scape puree, oyster mushrooms, bok choy, kimchi bbq sauce

smoked pork belly, garlic scape puree, oyster mushrooms, bok choy, kimchi bbq sauce

pickled beets, orange, hazelnut brittle, goat cheese mousse

pickled beets, orange, hazelnut brittle, goat cheese mousse

Third Course

striped bass, cucumber, coriander blooms, tapenade, celery, crutons, piquillo pepper hollandaise

striped bass, cucumber, coriander blooms, tapenade, celery, crutons, piquillo pepper hollandaise

Fourth Course

duck breast, "faux, pho", carrot-daikon-bean sprouts-cilantro, rice dumplings, spiced duck consomme

duck breast, "faux, pho", carrot-daikon-bean sprouts-cilantro, rice dumplings, spiced duck consomme

Fifth Course

lemon curd, pinenut crumble, creme fraiche gelato

lemon curd, pinenut crumble, creme fraiche gelato

profiteroles, vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce

profiteroles, vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce

All of the food was delicious, light and flavorful and using fresh, local ingredients, so definitely a win in my book 🙂

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Long weekend in Connecticut – Day 3

Sunday morning we met with Jeremy’s mom at the Inn for breakfast (he had lemon ricotta hot cakes, his mom had the spinach, mushroom and goat cheese omelet and I had the eggs benedict) before heading out for a day of exploring. Our first stop was the Submarine Force Museum, home of the USS Nautilus. It was rather fun driving through Groton, since in so many ways it’s like driving through Norfolk with all of the military presence. The Nautilus is one cool vessel, and in addition to being able to tour about half of the vessel we also watched a video on the history of submarines in the US military (more interesting than it sounds 😉 ). For pics of the Nautilus check out the Flickr set.

After we finished our tour there we decided to stop for lunch, at Jeremy’s mom’s recommendation, at Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough. (All the photos from lunch are up on Flickr)

Our meal and view from our picnic table

Our meal and view from our picnic table

This place would be really hard to find without GPS (yay for the Droid and it’s excellent navigational skills 😉 ), but is well worth seeking out. They are only open between Memorial Day and Labor Day for lunch and dinner but even on a Sunday the parking lot was full, with cars from all over New England. There’s a walk up counter where you place your order after selecting what you’d like from the large wooden menu out front, then you take your order to “the long red counter” around the corner to get your drinks and soups then the rest of your order will be called over the loudspeaker when it’s ready. There is some seating inside a screened porch but the majority is outside at picnic tables either under a tent or next to the shore.

Hot Lobster Roll from Abbott's Lobster in the Rough

Hot Lobster Roll from Abbott's Lobster in the Rough

We opted for an open table near the water where we split clam chowder (broth based, no cream, just clams, potatoes, and broth, simple but good), lobster bisque, a “hot” lobster roll (pretty much consisting solely of lumps of lobster meat on a buttered and toasted hamburger roll) and a lobster salad roll (tasty chunks of lobster with mayo and celery on a buttered and toasted hot dog roll). I had never had a lobster roll of any sort and I think this was definitely a great introduction, both were amazingly tasty and the pieces of lobster were huge! Definitely a place to seek out if you are a lobster fan.

After lunch we headed to Mystic, home of the Mystic Aquarium (as well as some humorously named stores spinning off of the town’s name such as “Optimystic Eyewear”). The aquarium, though a bit pricey ($28 adult admission) was fun and full of people.

Clown fish at Mystic Aquarium

Clown fish at Mystic Aquarium

They had a cool jellyfish exhibit along with outdoor exhibits for seals, beluga whales, and penguins, and of course lots of fish (all the aquarium pics are up on Flickr). After we toured the Aquarium we decided to head back, via “the scenic way” to the Inn before our dinner at 7pm. Jeremy wanted to take the ferry so we made our way there along the beautiful back country roads and just barely made it onto the last ferry of the day, as we pulled onto the small 9-car ferry the ferryman shut the gate (the ferry closes at 5pm we got there at 4:59).

Next adventure is dinner at the Copper Beech Inn dining room where we’re planning on having the chef’s tasting menu, yum!

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Long weekend in Connecticut – Days 1 and 2

When Jeremy and I heard that his cousin Lara was getting married in Connecticut a few months ago we decided to make a long weekend out of the trip (leave Friday, return Monday) and take the train up and back. This was the first time I had the opportunity to ride the train (Amtrak to be specific) for a long distance in the US (had ridden overnight in France and Italy before but never in the States). Jeremy and I left the Williamsburg station around 10am and almost 12 hours later stepped off the train in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Overall the train is definitely a pretty nice way to travel, especially when you spring the extra $40 for business class seats, more legroom, quieter, a little footrest, it’s the little things that make it nice 😉 We called the local cab company when we arrived and they sent out their only cab to pick us up and we headed to the Copper Beech Inn driven by a nice guy who had grown up in (as he said) “Bad News” (aka Newport News) so we all chatted about the area for our 10 minute drive to the bed and breakfast. Cabs are a bit expensive (was $20 for the 10 minute ride) but didn’t have too many other options at 9:30 at night. We checked in and promptly went to sleep, who would’ve thought sitting for 11+ hours would make you so tired?

The next morning we enjoyed the Inn’s tasty full sit-down breakfast in the glassed in patio, Jeremy had the Bread Pudding French Toast and I had an omelet with leeks, bacon, mushrooms and cheddar cheese, very tasty. Since we had no means of transportation yet we called the cab again to take us to the rental car place after breakfast, picked up our swingin’ Toyota Corolla and then just wandered around the various little towns for the afternoon. Our first attempted lunch stop  (per Yelp’s high recommendation) was the River Tavern in Chester but, after multiple attempts and drive-bys, we were unable to find the restaurant, there’s an empty lot at 23 Main Street so apparently only locals are allowed to find it. Instead, we stopped at the Whistle Stop Cafe, very cute little place (literally little), with one main inside room and then picnic tables under a permanent tent in the back. Since it was cool outside (low 70s or so) figured it was nice enough to eat outside so even before we sat down the only waitress got our drink order and told us to take a seat anywhere. Jeremy ordered the Reuben (which he left no trace of) and I ordered the “Mr. Okinawa” which was a tuna melt with tomato and bacon on rye, also very tasty. The sandwiches came with either chips or a salad, and since on the train ride up the day before we had only eaten cheese and crackers and trail mix I figured I should get some greens in so I ordered the salad, which was surprisingly tasty for a small side-of-the-road-cafe salad, it was simple with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, carrots and a spring mix with balsamic dressing but I guess I must’ve been missing those vitamins.

We headed back to the Inn after lunch for a nap before the wedding at 4:30 that afternoon. The couple picked a gorgeous location for their ceremony and reception at the pavilion in Rocky Neck State Park. The pavilion is a huge two story stone structure built in the 1930’s through the Works Progress Administration (which was created to provide jobs after the Great Depression). The bride was beautiful, the rain held off, and the ceremony and reception were great, it seemed like everyone had a really nice time, my best wishes to Lara and Dan!

Pictures to come…

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spring cleaning

So the cleaning bug struck today, fueled by the fact that I have folks coming to visit later this week, and 6 hours later I am done! The whole downstairs was cleaned and (not planned but excited about it) rearranged. I needed to move my futon into the bonus room for my guests to sleep on (the air mattress in there has some hidden leak, so not so comfortable for a full night’s sleep) so I decided to take the opportunity to shuffle things around downstairs and do some things I’ve been meaning to do for a while (like hang up pictures and plates I’ve had for months and years respectively).

Here are the results:

clean kitchen

Clean kitchen!

Kitchen window

View of the kitchen window, added one of the extra dining room chairs here for random seating and hung the Campell's soup picture next to the door.

Greek plates

Plates I got when I was in Greece, they are terra cotta with colored glass inside. These are hanging in the powder room downstairs now.

Buffet

This is a buffet acquired at a yard sale that my mom and I refinished about 2 years ago, it was behind the dining room table before but actually fits perfectly under the stairs. The glass vases in the center are ones I got in Venice.

dining room

So moved the dining room table from being catty-cornered to up against the wall and then moved the 2 extra chairs to various other spots in the room.

living room

So everything in the living room is now catty-cornered a bit and I think it really opens everything up rather than having things pushed up against the wall. My mom and I made all of those pillows (there are so many because we made some for the futon too). Behind the chair is my bar from Crate and Barrel a bunch of my friends got me as a house warming present, love that thing! and it gets a lot of use as glass and wine storage.

And there was also vaccuming and bathroom cleaning as well. As I was cleaning I realized I hadn’t posted pics of my master bath since I’d redone it over Thanksgiving, so since this is apparently my “behold my house” post, here it is:

bathroom before

Before: (well almost, this is the guest bath which looks the exact same as the master did, just mirrored)

bathroom after

After: shower curtain rather than glass doors, storage under the sink, fun modern lighting, love it. I always thought the free-standing bowl sinks were cool so when I found this one at Lowes (on sale!) as a package with the granite top and cabinet, I knew I had to get it. Found the lights at Home Depot and the mirrors at Target.

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pasta from scratch

So tonight I made my first use of a Christmas present from my parents, the pasta attachments for my Kitchenaid mixer. Jeremy had some leftover sausage from the volleyball party last night and I had lots of frozen veggies and an interest in trying out the pasta machine.

The “recipe” consisted of 2 cups of flour (I ended up using bread flour because I didn’t have enough all-purpose), a pinch of salt and three eggs.
Got to make the fun well in the flour and mixed the eggs into that, then incorporated the flour, kneaded it for about 2 minutes then let it rest for 20.

Next the dough was sent it through the machine, giving the it extra kneading by folding it in half and running it through the widest setting a few times then gradually decreased the thickness on the machine the next three passes through, then cutting it with the fettucini-sized noodle cutter.

Jeremy sauteed up the sausage, I got the vegetables and garlic prepped, the pasta was put in boiling water for about 4 minutes and was ready.

Everything was mixed together and topped with some fresh Parmesan cheese and we were good to go for a tasty dinner (and leftovers for lunch tomorrow).

So if ever you think making your own pasta is difficult, like I once did, do not fear! three ingredients and just a few steps and you’re well on your way to tasty fresh (and cheap!) pasta 🙂

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baking day

So a combination of factors resulted in this uber baking/cookie day for me (and Jeremy):

  • I needed to bake cookies to bring in to my office building’s holiday cookie exchange on Tuesday
  • I had decided earlier in the weekend (after watching Bravo’s Chef Academy where that episode they focused on baking bread) that I wanted to try making bread
  • Saws a tasty looking cookie recipe in December’s Martha Stewart Everyday that I wanted to try
  • and after all that  baking, needed a quick dinner that could provide some leftovers for lunch for the week

So the baking began around 1 and we finished around 7. The bread probably took the longest overall (3 rising periods plus oven time, per the “French-Style Country Bread” recipe from King Arthur Flour) but the results were very tasty. Jeremy made the dough and then split it in half, I supplemented “my half” with chopped rosemary and kosher salt on top and we both sat on the kitchen floor staring through the oven window watching the bread rise for at least half the time it was in the oven, we are such cooking geeks.

The cream-cheese cookies with jam (on the cover of December’s Martha Stewart Everyday, couldn’t find the recipe, pretty close one found on recipezaar) were the most difficult of the projects. I had a heck of a time getting the dough to the right thickness without it warming up too much, in which case it would stick to the counter, or being too cold, in which case it would crack when i tried to form the cookies. It was at this point I also realized I don’t have a rolling pin, so I used an old Illy coffee can, worked pretty well actually but think I will pick up a rolling pin the next time I’m in a store that carries one. I searched the fridge for all the jams I had and ended up with strawberry-rhubarb, blackberry-raspberry, and peach jams and apple butter. Since the cookies were being difficult when I was forming the little cups to hold the jam they ended up opening up while they were in the oven, resulting in a bit of a jam spill. So theend results weren’t the prettiest thing ever, but they were really tasty, so now it’s a challenge for next time to get them to look as good as they taste.

The peanut butter blossoms (standard recipe off the back of the Hershey Kiss bag) were not nearly as feisty, I think I left them in the oven a bit too long as they are a bit drier/crunchier than when my mom makes them but aside from that they turned out well.

In between baking the cream cheese and jam cookies and the bread we tossed together a fritatta from the contents of my freezer (chicken sausage, peas and broccoli) and the remaining eggs I’d bought for all the baking. It looked good coming out of the oven but boy was it stuck to the pan and the resulting attempt to flip the pan onto the plate resulted in a bit of a fritatta fail but Jeremy pieced it back together and it was very tasty regardless.

And thus ends the cooking adventures for today, and the lesson? Things frequently can taste way better than they look 😉

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Pumpkin three ways

Pumpkin tower

Pumpkin tower at College Run Farms in Surry

So I’ve spent most of the day today (10am to 3pm to be exact) cooking, roasting, toasting, baking and simmering three different preparations for pumpkin. A few weeks ago Jeremy and I went out to a local pumpkin farm (College Run Farm in Surry, VA) and I bought (along with about a half dozen cute tiny pumpkins and some very Martha Stewart-y white and green and speckled orange pumpkins) 3 “pie pumpkins” (or sugar pumpkins). I had never cooked with fresh pumpkin before but figured now was as good of a time as any to try it out.

Pumpkin field, College Run Farms, Surry Va

Pumpkin field, College Run Farms, Surry Va

Seizing on the cooking mood I had been in this weekend I decided to tackle the pumpkin-cooking this morning. I knew I wanted to toast the seeds, I had done that last year with tasty results using the Toasted Pumpkin Seeds recipe from Simply Recipes, but I also wanted a bit of variety and Jeremy found some tasty variations on 101 Cookbooks.

Halved pumpkins

Halved pumpkins

Now came the issue of what to do with all of the actual pumpkin, roasting was definitely the way to go so after halving each of the pumpkins, scooping out and separating the seeds and stringy bits I roasted the halves cut-side down in a 350 degree oven for an hour (checked them at 45 minutes and they weren’t quite tender enough). As the pumpkin halves cooled I flavored and toasted the pumpkin seeds (conveniently the oven was already hot), the results, although a pain to get off of the cookie sheets, were very tasty, especially the sweet and spicy (sugar and cayenne) ones, that’s a combination I will definitely add to the pumpkin-seed-flavoring repertoire.

Toasted pumpkin seeds three ways

Toasted pumpkin seeds three ways

Looking around at two of my mainstay recipe sites, 101 Cookbooks and Simply Recipes I found some very tasty sounding ideas for pumpkin bread and pumpkin soup with smoked paprika. You can check out the recipes on your own but the general idea for the bread was 6 cups of roasted pumpkin, lots of spices (fresh grated nutmeg and cinnamon and allspice) and a standard quickbread recipe, and the soup was 1 cup of pumpkin, chicken stock, onion, garlic, apple, cream and smoked paprika with a dash of cayenne.

I was rather pleased with myself that I had exactly 7 cups of pumpkin from the three sugar pumpkins, no extra at all (although I still have one small sugar pumpkin that didn’t get used, that may become another loaf of pumpkin bread later this month).

Pumpkin bread

Pumpkin bread

Using the pumpkin was definitely easier than I thought it would be, the cleaning and seed separating was probably the hardest part. This was also the first time I had ever done a pureed soup, I have to admit, I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing, but again, simple to do and really sounds

Pumpkin soup

Pumpkin soup

more complicated than it is…although the blender did get a bit obnoxious with me a few times, spitting up air bubble soup rockets (yes, I’m creating a new term) at me when I’d open the lid, but I blame the blender, and not the soup for that 😉 In the end both recipes came out great. I was a bit dubious that the soup wouldn’t be overpowered by the smoked paprika but once everything was blended together the apple and cream mellowed out the strong smoky flavor and I ended up with some very tasty (and surprising low-calorie, about 200 calories per serving) soup. The bread came out probably the best I have ever done bread-wise, it was moist but also had the lovely crunchy layer on top and very flavorful with all of the spices. So with all of this I now have breakfast and lunch for at least half of the week, excellent 🙂

btw, all photos documenting the pumpkin-ness are up in a set on my Flickr page.

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Early fall weekend in the Blue Ridge

So since the U2 concert was on Thursday we decided to make a long weekend out of this trip to Charlottesville. We stayed the whole time in this cute bed and breakfast nestled in the mountains a quick drive off of I-64 and the Blue Ridge Parkway called the Iris Inn. We get full breakfast every morning and have a nice room with a bunch of windows that let in lots of light and a pretty view of the woods in the morning.

VA Route 814 on the way to Crabtree Falls

The Friday after the concert we decided to head up into the mountains for a hike after breakfast.
We chatted with some of the other couples at breakfast about where to go and decided to head to Crabtree Falls after a bit of internet searching. The Falls were about an hour away from where we were so we Googled for directions and wanted to stay off the interstates so we took the second recommended route which took us on five miles of dirt road along a mountainside that looked like the map screenshot on the right here, quite an interesting drive.

We arrived at the trailhead around 11:30am and had a great hike up to the top of the mountain. The trail was a series of switchbacks and each time you would finish one you would get a new view of the falls, 5 or 6 times you go back and forth and after about 3 hours we reached the top (with probably an hour of that just taking pictures, which will be up on Flickr soon). We snacked on granola bars at the top and then made it back down in under 45 minutes.

Once we got back to the Inn and got cleaned up we headed into downtown Charlottesville to the Belmont district to go to this great restaurant we’d found last time we were here called Mas Tapas. The food there is amazing and a lot of it is locally sourced. The place opened at 5:30 and after our hike we were starving so we were there just after they opened and managed to get one of the last open tables before the waiting list started (by the time we left there were at least a dozen people outside waiting for tables, it’s really that good). We managed to snag our order sheet back from our server so here is are the six dishes we had with our bottle of Castell del Remei Gotim Bru 2006 (very tasty and a very good price):

  • Pan al horno (our cold-fermented, hand-crafted bread, baked with natural starters in our wood-fired brick oven daily)
  • Datil con tocino (dates wrapped in applewood smoked bacon, roasted till crispy)
  • Queso con alcachofas (roasted artichoke hearts, garlic, sweet onion, olive oil and goat cheese spread with bread)
  • Salchicha a la parilla (the eponymous Spanish country sausage – air-cured, dry-aged with smoked pimenton, olive oil and pork)
  • Lomo en capa (Angus beef tenderloin with espresso-smoked pimenton crust, pan-seared rare only with pico de gallo)
  • Mejillones con sofrito (Farm-raised Pacific Penn Cove mussels cooked in a smoky sofrito sauce with our brick oven bread)

And it was all amazing tasting. And we had a warm strawberry-rhubarb pastry thing for dessert, and if you know me and my obsession with (especially Trader Joe’s) strawberry-rhubarb pie that was definitely a treat. The restaurant has been voted best in Charlottesville this year for best appetizer (the bacon-wrapped dates), best service, best “small plates” and best service, and it definitely deserves all of those accolades.

Today we met up with my parents and did a bit of winery touring around the Madison area where Jeremy went to high school. We met my parents at Prince Michel winery right off of Route 29 and enjoyed a rather extensive tasting there, 3 pages of wines! And the great part was they only charge you $1 and that’s only if you do the “reserve” page of wines. We ended up buying 3 bottles of their Cab Sav and then we headed to the famous Pig ‘n Steak for a late lunch (and to get some food in our bellies to absorb all that wine 😉 ).

After starting off with a sampler appetizer platter of fried pickles, fried olives and fried broccoli (with cheese inside of course) we enjoyed bbq and burgers and mountains of fries before heading out to the final destination of the afternoon, Sweely Estate Winery. The tasting room was beautiful and the whole building was newly built with a huge reception hall on one side all in stone and big timbers, a nice mix of modern aesthetic with traditional materials. We were so stuffed from lunch we sat out on the back patio for a half hour or so letting our food settle before heading in for the $4 tasting of 9 wines. The wines there were pretty good, we all preferred the whites over the reds I think, but that may have been due more to the fact we were so full of food and wine that by the time we got to the reds there was just no more room in our stomachs. We parted ways with my parents after finishing the tasting and took a nice scenic route (not as scenic as good ol’ 814, all paved) back to the Inn. We stopped at the grocery store in Waynesboro on the way back and grabbed some cheese and crackers as a snack but we never ended up having any. We sat up on the “observation deck”, a little 3rd floor balcony off on one side of the Inn and watched the sun set over the mountains and then walked down to a lower deck with a swing and sat and read our books for a while in the cool evening before heading in for the night. A very nice, quiet and peaceful way to end a most excellent weekend before heading back to the ‘burg.

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