ktmoomau

Oh no, I just offered to host a birthday party for my brother on this date, but he hasn't confirmed availability yet, I will secretly hope he is busy this day!

Last night was lobster ravioli with cherry tomatoes and asparagus cooked in butter and some pasta water with Parmesan.  

I can't do this weekend, but if you decide on another Sunday evening, I would likely be in, potentially with Hubby.

He actually has a class coming up making one of my favorite dishes at his restaurant with mussels, that might be a winner.

1 hour ago, reedm said:

Not for comparison, but we attended a pasta making class at Villa Umbria, and it was quite enjoyable. I'm not sure if they are still offering classes.

I would like to try one of those classes!  My old buddy Liam is there, I really miss his restaurant.  What class did you take?

So I did the colored pasta class.  We didn't make the pasta using the well method because of the color, but I kind of liked using a bowl, as I am not great at the well method anyway.  The class ran a little late getting started (had an extra person join) and ran over too, about 30 mins, just FYI for parking.  It was a very hands on class and I learned good technique.  They kind of explained how they made the colored paste, but it would have been better to have this as part of the demo, as I don't think it would be very easy to make spinach in quite that consistency.  But the pasta took a long time in itself with her checking and watching our progress, so I can see why they did the shortcut, but it could have been better.  I think having the class in not a dedicated cooking space/class space made it a little hard as whenever the instructor needed something they had to run and get it, but I am sure they will become a more well oiled machine.  Also the table space was not so large, so you couldn't really have drinking glasses on the tables.  Having said all that, it was a very good class and well worth the price.  I learned a lot that I will use going forward, and I am really looking forward to the semolina class.  I also would be interested in the stuffed pasta class for the future (although learning to make dumplings and empanadas, I could probably tackle this on my own just fine).  We got a taste of pasta at the end, but it isn't a meal (I didn't expect that, again just wanted to note it as so many cooking classes are different in how they do things).  The instructor was a sfoglina from Italy and really nice.  

Tonight Hubby smoked ribs, I made a tomato, cucumber salad and cole slaw and potato wedges to go with his triumphant first smoker experiment.  

Friday night was fish tacos with tilapia that I fried in a tempura batter, with a sriracha honey lime coleslaw, avocado and hot sauce.

We used the leftover fried fish for fish sandwiches on white bread with mayo, lettuce and tomato.

I still pronounce it that way, oops!

But what hairstyle will all the young boys wear now... 

Last night I had a meeting I was hosting, so dinner was cheese plate with salami, cheese, apple and crackers.  Orange segments covered with chocolate.  And the ugliest dip you have ever seen in your life- an avocado, greek yogurt and a packet of onion soup mix.  It was delicious, but the brown mix completely over powered the green avocado and it looked like baby puke.  But it was very tasty.  If one could add some coloring of some sort it might look better.  Served with baby cucumbers quartered lengthwise and carrot sticks.

Last night was clean the fridge night so we had- sauteed asparagus in butter, lemon and white wine, and then small bits of curried potatoes and peas, tomatoes and onions sauteed in butter and thyme, rice pilaf, roasted chicken and a little shredded roast pork.  

Now I need to come up with a comprehensive plan moving forward, as I may have gone a little overboard with my Costco vegetable buying and need to do some prep so nothing goes to waste.

If we need a couple more people, I may have a friend or two who would be interested.

We have stayed here a couple times with Max (our dog), once for the grand prix, once for a wedding, and another time to see friends, they have been very nice, and arranged travel for him to and from doggy daycare when needed (one time we found out the daycare wasn't running their shuttle, and we had already left Max with the front desk person, so they took him over in the limo, hahahahhahha).  They have been very generous and given us a large corner room that he just adores (I think they wanted to keep us at the far end of the hall not to disturb anyone if he barked).  We like the location as not too far to get to or from anything, not necessarily walking distance for where we were going, except the Grand Prix, but easy to drive to different locations, as well.  

Last night was turkey tamales with tomatillo salsa and avocado.  The previous night was roast pork with baby zucchinis in butter.

29 minutes ago, Bob Wells said:

So have you tried Spitony's Pizza yet too? Or what I always refer to as Spit On Me Pizza. 😂

We hit BRS a few years back. Pretty sure the consensus was "better than it should be, but really nothing special."

Oh yes, I think I reviewed Spitony's somewhere on here.  We got take out and ate it at the tables beside the place- they even give you paper plates and etc.  Apparently eating outside is popular with little league and soccer teams, etc.  I thought the pizza was quite good.  Not slap your mamma good or anything, but we thought it was better than Lost Dog and the Italian Store.  

Neither is a drive miles out of your way to eat at stop, no, but they might be some of the better stops in the evening along the Rt 29 drive.  

On BRS- I was quite impressed by the fried oysters, good fried oysters aren't as common as I'd like.  But no the food isn't special, but I will say I have to plenty of places just like this on the bay in Maryland and been less impressed, as well, so there is that.  I like a good fried shrimp basket every now and then, and I despise frying food at home, so if one is in the neighborhood there are certainly worse places to stop.  BTW, I didn't get the spiced shrimp, but they looked good too.

Very interested!  I think I could likely make that date.  Hoping this is the classic egg pasta, as I am going to do colored and semolina on other days!

1 hour ago, southdenverhoo said:

PS are you, like, living in Fauquier County these days?

No, my in laws live in Charlottesville, so we make the trek up and back a lot, and we like to be adventurous and scope things out along the way.  Really it is mostly me saying things like- Why is that weird seafood place always packed, or why would someone eat pizza from a place with spit in it's name.  And then my Hubby says something like, "Let's find out, call for take out," and it's on.  This trip was my Mom and I being hungry, not having the pups, and me saying, "Are you up for an adventure? It may not be good, but it just might be." 

I just bought way too much pickled ginger and was thinking to myself... I found a recipe for that really good salad one time.  Huzzah, I saved it to DR and found it on a google search of Nooshi pickled ginger.  I haven't been to Nooshi in a long time, but I might have to go back and taste this salad.

I finally got to stop at Blue Ridge Seafood on Route 29 in Gainesville.  Website here.

The parking lot of this establishment is generally pretty full and I needed to find out what all the fuss was about.  The place is not fancy inside, the only placemats and tablecloths are brown paper for eating seafood on.  The chairs are stackable, or picnic tables.  The restaurant is fairly disjointed and not someplace you go for ambiance.  They have a bar, I know they serve beer and wine.  BUT we had good fried shrimp, fried oysters, hushpuppies.  The side of zucchini had a sizeable onion flavor and chunks I could do without.  The lobster and crab dip was good, but there weren't discernible chunks, I have had better, but it wasn't bad crab dip in any way and it was good on a cold windy night.  We both had glasses of Gray Ghost Chardonnay.   This place is like an Eastern Shore/Beach restaurant in the middle of the Virginia heartland, but the seafood was of better quality than I would have thought not having that proximity to water.  Anyway, I would definitely stop again, we normally have the dog when making treks up and back so we just normally don't do sit down.

Sticks Kebob Shop- got pick up from there.  This is a perfectly ok place, it is essentially gentrified kabob in my mind, but not mad for a quick meal.  One a platter you get one stick, one side, a small bit of salad (not enough to say a side really), and rice. With two wedges of pita.  You can add on sides and more sticks.  I would have preferred less rice, more veg.  I think Zoe's Kitchen is much better, IMHO, but I don't think this place is a chain, which is nice.

Glenmore Country Club- had a really terrible lunch here.  The beef vegetable soup had no vegetables in it and so much fat that it would form a skim of fat on top if not stirred frequently in my bowl.  My Mom's french onion soup had big chunks of onion that were not carmelized, the crouton was tough you couldn't cut it with a spoon and since they didn't carmelize the onions they had to thicken the soup and it was not appealing, either.  The difference between the small salad and large salad was about the most pronounced difference one could imagine, I wish they had a medium.  The small comes on a plate that was about bread plate size and was like a small side.  The large is a huge bowl of salad that is more than I could likely eat in one setting.  Anyway, we were there to see my in-laws house construction, and I may just need to stick with a burger or etc.

Yoder's- this is more outside of Ruckersville towards Culpepper a bit.  Cafe, grocery, deli, bakery with mennonite foods and other goods.  Your typical bulk market on steroids, with a great deli.  We got chili, a steak sandwich and a bologna sandwich, all were quite good, the sandwiches had a good amount of meat, the bologna was thin sliced and good, the roast beef was good.  They have a nice selection of all sorts of baked goods, etc.  I would stop here again.

Farmville

If one is at Greenfront Furniture, Charley's Waterfront Cafe, http://www.charleyswaterfront.com/ makes a good lunch stop.  They have an ok selection of wine, we had two specials, a steak salad and turkey panini for lunch and both were perfectly acceptable and good.  Service was good, and it didn't take too long, we could have had a more leisurely meal, but we had a lot of buildings to get through.

Can I just make a note that it is really silly that Greenfront isn't open on Sundays, a boutique hotel and the restaurants could really do well if it would.  There were a lot of buildings and other shops I would have stopped in had I been able to stay for two days.

I made peas and potatoes with curry last night to go with leftover Indian food that we had- rice, chicken korma, eggplant.  

Sorry, people responded somewhat last minute, when I looked last week we only had one person sign up for each date. 

As of right now for the available dates, we only have 2 people that can go.  I just don't think that is likely worth it.  And I think we should likely select a few new dates a little further out so people could plan.  I would like to at least have 4 people that can go so we could try a few things.

On 2/12/2019 at 3:46 PM, ALB said:

I use a baking steel that my boyfriend picked up from someone right over the PA line (I can find out where if anyone wants.) I believe it was $50-$70. It makes pretty good pizza (and bagels) in my not so awesome oven.

What's the difference between a baking steel and a cast iron griddle?