Mumford Gentlemen of the Road pt. 1

A few weekends ago I drove down to Bristol TN/VA (the town straddles the state border!) for the Mumford and Sons Gentlemen of the Road tour.  It was hands down the best weekend I’ve had all summer.  We left Friday morning and made our way down to the southwestern corner of Virginia.  Thanks to the advent of technology we found a road side BBQ place for lunch, which reminded me why I love the south so much.  It was so so good.

Due South does lunch right.

 

About 5 hours after leaving DC we pulled up to the farm house we had rented for the weekend.  A slightly more expensive option than a hotel, it was also one of the better decisions we made all weekend.  The time spent on the front porch was well worth it.  After dropping our bags and chatting with Clara, the lovely woman managing the property we drove into Bristol to look for food and a liquor store.  Obtaining our supplies we returned to the house and spent the remainder of the day sitting on the front porch sipping drinks, enjoying good conversation, and marveling at the peace and quiet of the country side.  It was good for a bunch of city girls to slow down the pace!

our farm house for the weekend

waking up to cows mooing outside of your bedroom window, a new experience!

Sunset on the farm, photo credit to MP

evening walks in the country do city girls hearts good.

The following morning we got up and made the short drive back up to Chilhowie, VA.  Gwen is from Chilhowie and had invited us to her Grandmother’s house for breakfast that morning before the show.  Her Grandmother lives in this amazing farm house stocked full of antiques, the house I believe has been in her husband’s family for many generations.  We enjoyed breakfast and coffee on the front porch while Grandmother regailed us with an oral history of the area and her family.  Perhaps it’s because I no longer have any grandparents alive, but I was in heaven.  Grandmother is a treasure and I could have spent all day just listening to her talk about her home and family, which she clearly loves dearly.   After a couple of hours we reluctantly left to head to the concert… which was so amazing- I will write it up later this week!

The girls with Grandmother and her beautiful barn quilt

I learned that there’s such a thing as Chilhowie brick…

life goal: have a front porch on which to spend long hours in good conversation.

Nats!

This has been a weird summer.  One that hasn’t actually felt like summer at all.  How is it August?  I feel like life for the last six months has moved by in a haze and I’m moving a long with time, but not really experiencing life.  Weird, no?

There are some experiences that regardless of the haze can always makes it feel like summer. Baseball games fall into that category.  I have fond memories of growing up and going to see the Pirates play at Three Rivers Stadium.  During my childhood I didn’t know the joys of baseball games as an adult, when it’s less about the baseball and more about beer and hot dogs and spending time with good friends.

I’m lucky enough to occasionally have access to my company’s season tickets to the Nat’s,  and a few weeks back I took some of the roommates with me to enjoy a Sunday afternoon game.  The Nat’s are enjoying a season that includes more win’s than losses and it was great seeing them beat the Braves while enjoying a cold one.  Hopefully I’ve got a couple more games in my future before the end of the season.

Having good seats makes it much easier to pay attention to what’s going happening on the field.

playing with camera filters

Why doesn’t Teddie ever get to win?

Roommates

Hanks on the Hill

One of my favorite things about living in the city is that there are always new restaurants to try out.  I met my friend Emily for dinner last week at a the new Capitol Hill location of an already established DC institution, Hanks Oyster Bar.  Hanks on the Hill has done a fantastic job of renovating the space  to make it feel like when you walk out the front door you’ll be right on the water instead of Pennsylvania Ave.  (Of course I was too busy taking pictures of my food to get any good pictures of the restaurant).  I used to live only a few blocks from here and have seen this space turn over many times in the last few years.  I think Hanks might be the one to make a solid run in this location.

I give it two thumbs up.  Food was delicious, and the cocktails were outstanding.  I had the crab cakes and Em had the fish tacos and we split the buttermilk battered onion rings.  It was all delicious.  I  enjoyed it so much I decided to come back with a friend on Friday evening!  For those of you in DC I highly recommend visiting this little spot on the hill.

Buttermilk Battered Onion Rings!

The crab cake was delightful

Emily shared one of her fish taco’s with me. Delish!

Urban Garden

Maybe one of my least favorite things about living in the city is a lack of a yard to work with.  I don’t miss the chore of grass cutting, which somehow was always my responsibility growing up.  According to my mother my little sister couldn’t do it because “she might cut her foot off”, I guess mine are more disposable?  Anyways I’ve got a few pots out back in which I’ve planted some herbs, peppers, and tomatoes.  I noticed last night that I’m close to having my first “harvest”.  I’ll have to go get some good fresh mozzarella to have with my homegrown tomato and basil.

Happy Donut Day!

Donut Day is a holiday I wholeheartedly support.  Once when I was somewhere around five years old my parents were out of town and some family friends who were basically surrogate grandparents were staying with us.  They told me the night before that we were having donuts for breakfast the next morning, and as the story had been told (over and over and over again) I woke them up at 3:30 in the morning asking if it was time to go get donuts yet.  What can I say, from an early age I knew a good thing when I saw it.

I’m bummed I’m not in New York and able to celebrate this great holiday at the Donut Plant.  Any suggestions on where to get a great donut in DC?

Cheese Straws

One thing I do not make enough time for in my life is cooking.  I’m not necessarily the best cook, and maybe it’s because I enjoy eating so much, but I love spending a Sunday morning in the kitchen cooking or baking.   I enjoy making good food and sharing it with others over good conversation (and good wine).  It may sound weird, but I find it so satisfying to be able to provide a good meal for friends and know that they’ve left my house full and satisfied.  But maybe it’s just that I enjoy cooking because I enjoy eating.  Who knows.  Alas, I’ve decided that I’m going to start sharing some of my cooking adventures here, in an effort to not only cook more, but to blog more.

I come from a long line of southern women.  One of my favorite things to do is to find old family recipes to experiment with.  They are not always the healthiest options, but they certainly are delicious.  Most recently I experimented with my Great Aunt Evelyn’s Cheese Straw recipe.  I first made them to take to my sister’s baby shower and then again to take to my church community group.

If you don’t know what a cheese straw is you are missing out.  Eating cheese straws with a cold coke in a can is an instant trip back to my childhood vacations at the beach.  This recipe is pretty basic, I add spices/ flavors depending on the purpose.  For the baby shower I kept them pretty mild, but my second batch I added tabasco and cayenne  pepper to give it a serious kick.

Aunt Evelyn’s Cheese Straws:

Sharp Cheddar Cheese – grated (buy a block and grate it yourself, I don’t know why it makes a difference, but it does)

2 cups of flour

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

spices:  tabasco, cayanne, garlic powder, salt, pepper (to taste- I never measure, just guess)

Grate the cheese and let the cheese and butter stand at room temperature for 1/2 a day, unclear if that means 12 hrs. or 4-6 hrs, but you want it to be soft enough that you can easily mix it together.  Combine flour, butter, cheese and spices in a big bowl and mix (I just use my hands) until dough forms.  Now comes the hard part- take a cookie press (if you’ve got one) and press the dough through one of the larger attachements to form the cheese straws.  If you don’t have a cookie press (or if you break it in the middle of the process like I did) you can also just roll the dough out and cut into straws by hand.

Place straws on an ungreased cookie sheet and back at between 375-400 depending on your oven for approximatly 10 min (again this will depend on your oven), but you want to make sure they aren’t too brown when you pull them out.  Let the straws cool on a wire rack.  Also the first time I did them I baked them using my silpat, but I find that they crisp better on the outside if they are cooked directly on the pan, and they have enough butter in them that they won’t stick.

Enjoy!  And good luck not eating them all in one sitting, they are addictive.

This is what the look like after they are pressed, before they are baked

Happy Easter!

I had a lovely Easter weekend here in D.C.  Attended several really great church services, hosted an easter lupper for 26 close friends, and celebrated with my single urban family.

It was good for me to get back into the kitchen and cook for people.  It’s one of my favorite things to do that I have not done much of recently.  I took virtually no pictures, except this one of the angel food cake I made.  Is there anything better than angel food cake with fresh whip cream and strawberries?  I think not.

El Centro D.F.

My dear friend Katie was in town a few weekends back, we lived together in college and she was one of my best friends for the first few years here in D.C.  She left us a few years back for Denver, but luckily she comes back to visit every now and again.  This time while she was here we decided to try out El Centro D.F. for drinks and dinner.  They have a great rooftop bar, and excellent mojitos!

We had a great night reminiscing about our old shenanigans and all the fun times.  Katie even managed to score a big WHATEVER! later in the night.  Men in DC never fail to impress.

There is something so great about spending time with old friends and being able to pick up right where you left off.  Katie, it was so fun having you here, come back soon!

Katie and AJ

Cute hair piece, Katie!

Me and AJ

Chris and Katie

Florida Avenue Grill

Breakfast, in my opinon, is the greatest meal ever invented.  In my family, every saturday morning meant homemade from scratch biscuits courtesy of my father.  Greatest family tradition ever.  As I have moved into adult-hood, and am now on my own most saturday mornings I often find myself out to breakfast catching with friends, occassionally I’ll make my own attempts at homemade biscuits, although I haven’t reached my Dad’s skill levels, yet.

After moving into my current neighborhood over a year ago I began searching for a new, local, favorite spot.  The Florida Avenue Grill was on one of my favorite running routes.  Every time I ran by I’d think to myself, “there is no way that place has a bad breakfast, I bet it’s amazing.”  Then, one day as I was running by a father and his young son were walking in and the little boy asked his dad where they were going.  The Dad responded, “It’s like urban IHOP”.  That solidified my intreague.

I was right, the Florida Avenue Grill has a FANTASTIC breakfast, but that Dad was wrong, it is WAY better than IHOP.  For displaced southerners, this place has the best biscuits and gravy I’ve found in the city hands down.  The eggs and bacon are greasy, and the pancakes are perfection.

The atmosphere is what really puts this place over the edge.  It is a small diner with a counter and a handful of booths.  You get the impression that the folks working there have been there forever and they know their local customers.  There’s a good chance  your waitress will call you sweetheart or sugar.  It’s my goal to become a regular.

Breakfast Counter

Eggs over easy and bacon. perfection.

if you know me, you know I love pancakes more than almost anything. these are close to perfection.

**Disclaimer, if you are at all health conscious don’t sit at the counter and watch them cooking on the griddle.  They believe in butter like Paula Deen does, and in some cases (like this one) ignorance is bliss.

Easter Lupper

So what happened to May?  Seriously, I don’t know what, but I certainly didn’t MEAN to take a month off from blogging.  I know how you faithful 5 have been waiting with baited breath for this update.  Good news is I’ve got several posts I’m working on, here’s to being more consistent in June!

Being a 7 hour drive from home makes getting home for weekends tough unless I’ve got at least 3 or 4 days.  Alas, this Easter I didn’t make it to North Carolina, but instead hosted some of my favorite single urban family members at our house for lupper.  Lupper, if you didn’t know, is a combination lunch/ supper.  It’s one of my favorite meals.  Many of us attend a 5 o’clock church service, so we did a 2:30 meal to accommodate.

I’m way behind on my 11 dinner parties in 2011, but this one reminded me how much I love a good dinner (or lupper!) party.  I’m attending one tomorrow night, which will get my grand total for 2011 to 4.  I need to pick up the pace.

All the photos below are thanks to my good friend Alison of Red Shoes Photography, if you are in DC and looking to hire a photographer, check her out.  She’s awesome!!