Hi Friends! The very best thing about being home for a whole week (aside from following my mum everywhere) is being able to see ALL my friends! Usually I’m only home for a weekend, so it’s hard to see many people aside from my little fam.

Last night I got to meet up with some long lost friends – the Borders crew! I worked at Borders Cafe through college, whenever I was home on break. I worked with the funnest, lovliest bunch of people there. We’ve since grown up and scattered all over but last night I was able to see two of my favorites who still live in the area – Cody and Amy P!

I was in this picture too…but my mum just told me I I’d be better to crop myself out. Thanks mum.

Anyways! We met at the Brew Kettle, a brewery/restaurant with a very wide selection of delicious artisan beers. I adore this place! Cody was running a little behind, so while we waited Amy P and I enjoyed our first brew.

I had a barleywine, with notes of citrus and toffee. I LURVED this beer and would have drank another if it hadn’t been quite so strong!

When young Cody did arrive, I was staaarving and therefore happy he suggested sharing these!

Holy moly they were amazing. Sweet potato fries with cinnamon butter. I’m usually not that fussed about fries but I had about 0% self control around these sweet little things .

Next, a milk stout.

This beer had a hint of sweetness from the milk sugars. It was deeelish! So delish in fact, it was the second drink choice for everyone.

And finally, the main event.

A grilled portabella mushroom sandwich with provolone and roasted red peppers. And the most amaaazing basil mayo which tasted incredibly fresh. A side of baked beans and coleslaw rounded out the meal.

What a fantastic evening! I can’t believe I’ve know those two for 8 years now. (We’re so OLD). And despite the length of time since we last hung out, it’s great to have friends who you can just pick up where you left off with. Good food, good friendies, it is SO good to be home.

(For a little bit ).

Hi Bloggies! I haven’t been so on top of updates this week but being home distracts me! I’m sorry. Let’s catch up. With my dad out of town, our eats haven’t been quite as picturesque as usual but I do have a few highlights to share, along with what I’ve been up to .

Monday was a run in the park/computer work at home day, so I was happy to have a break in the evening and meet my long lost friend Heather for a nice walk in Lakewood Park. I have missed her!! And it was a beautiful evening to be out.

Tuesday my mum wasn’t working, so we had a jam-packed day full of running in the park again, getting my hair cut and meeting a friend for lunch at Treehuggers Cafe.

I just LOVE this place. It’s an adorable, casual little coffee shop with really healthy, yummy food options. Most of the ingredients are organic and there are so many unique offerings to choose from!

I had the sweet potato quinoa burger, with homemade honey mustard and Greek kale salad. I wasn’t sure if it would be good but it sounded so unique, I had to give it a try. And it was delicious!! So moist and full of amazing flavor.

Then we headed down to Peninsula for a little look around the shops and finally over to Heartlight Yoga for an evening class taught by my sweetest friend Stephanie. Phew!

Wednesday I spent some time at the gym in the morning, then came home and discovered these!

I am a terrible daughter and had no clue it was my parent’s anniversary. Luckily my dad remembered . (Happy Anniversary best parents in the world).

Then I headed over to my friend Kristen’s house for lunch with our friend May. We had a lovely afternoon of watching Kristen’s adorable little baby and catching up on life…maybe even over a glass of wine .

My mum and I reunited in the evening for some dinner.

So this is how we eat when my dad isn’t home . Tasted yummy enough to me! Baked salmon, steamed asparagus and some SO good risotto cakes (mushroom and lemon) prepared for us by the lovely folks at Heinens. Okay, a little cheat!

And this morning,

What else?

Now we’re caught up! I’ll see you again soon friends, maybe with a bit of news to share!

Hi Again!

My Dad left for Europe yesterday afternoon, so he, my mum and I spent the earlier part of the day enjoying family time before his flight. First, I made us breakfast.

A yummy little smoothie. Only when I say little, I sure do mean it. Usually in my sad life I am making smoothies for one, so I totally underestimated how much I’d need for three! Oh well, it was a nice light breakfast before our morning hike.

Then we headed to Hinkley Reservation. My mum and I enjoyed a 3.5 mile-ish walk around while my dad did some running. I have little to no desire to run much since last weekend’s half .

Then we stopped and had a coffee before heading home for a decadent lunch! It was our main meal of the day since my dad was about to fly, roast chicken and vegetables with stuffing (my fave). Gotta take advantage of Dad’s cooking while I can!

And of course a glass of Cab to compliment the meal .

In the evening, my mum and I settled down to see the film Bottleshock. It’s about bringing Californian wines over to France in the 1970’s and had come highly recommended to me by several people. Only it’s been hard to locate a slightly older film without a video store nearby! Luckily one just opened near my parents and the movie was mine at last. We both really enjoyed it – entertaining, informative and will make you want to drink more wine . 

So that’s Sunday. And now, Happy Monday. See you shortly!

Hello from Cleveland! (surprise!) It turned out that I didn’t have to work this weekend, so I decided to take advantage and head home for a bit. I know I just saw my parents last week when they came to DC but you can never have too much family time. Plus, I may have been eager to invite myself out to a special supper last night.

My bestest friend Emily’s talented brother Ben (got that?) just opened his own restaurant here! Spice opened in January and since then I’ve been itching to try it out. So I was extra excited when I heard my parents had plans to dine there with their friends and more than happy to join the fun .

From their site: Spice Kitchen + Bar is a Cleveland restaurant that prepares foods grown right here in our own backyard — literally and figuratively. Our menus are inspired by the seasons, prepared with culinary talent and served with a smile.

The restaurant itself is a really lovely space. It used to be a mac and cheese restaurant I’d been to a few times but it’s been so renovated you’d hardly recognize it! So open and airy with lots of thoughtful artsy touches. Very Bebenroth indeed.

We began at the bar where I enjoyed a cocktail:

DARLING CLEMENTINE – House infused clementine vodka, St. Germaine, Lemon, Pellegrino

Delish! I don’t usually order cocktails since I love wine so much and I often find cocktails too sweet. But this one was just excellent. Refreshing, fruity and just lightly sweet – I could most certainly enjoy one of these on a patio in the summertime .

Then we moved to our table and began with a few ‘snacks’:

A flatbread…I’m afraid the description is not online but as I recall there was some nice cheese and bacon underneath with those gorgeous eggs on top. Even the whites of the eggs were so full of flavor! Such a yummy difference with farm fresh eggs .

And then the dish I was most excited for in reviewing the menu ahead of time:

MUSHROOM BEIGNETS – honey goat cheese crème fraiche

We all know what a mushroom freak I am and these were insanely good. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and so so full of flavor. I’m pretty sure I could just eat a bowl of these and call it a meal .

For my main:

SEARED CHICKEN BREAST – spaetzle, bacon, root veg, hickory sherry pan sauce

I usually steer clear of chicken at restaurants since it seems a bit boring but I just loved the description on this. Plus, if you’re going to get nice chicken somewhere I guessed it would be here! And it was fab. I loved the combination of flavors and textures and most especially the spaetzle which had just the perfect soft chew .

And for the finale:

LEMON TART – preserved berries, lavender syrup

Hands down, my very favorite part of the meal. The lemon was so intense (in the very best way) and the lavender was a really lovely way to compliment it. I was just dyyying over this dessert and will dream of it for a long time to come!

So there you have it. A very fabulous meal indeed. Go eat there! We must support local spots, especially ones where the people are so kind and the food is so wonderful .

See you again soon!

Sunday morning (Happy Easter!) I woke up feeling just a liiittle stiff .

Our first stop of the morning was to Bull Run Park. My Dad wanted to go for a run and my mum a hike. I opted to hike, as I thought it might do some good to get my legs moving. It was another gorgeous day and park entry for residents of Fairfax was free! What a great start to the day.

After hiking/running, showers, coffee and packing, we headed over to Eggspectation for our final meal together before my parents headed home to Cleveland. I think I ordered everything on the menu.

It was pretty delish! Even though I didn’t finish it all, I did need a serious post brunch nap once my parents took off .

I spent my afternoon sleeping and cleaning before heading out again, this time for Easter dinner at Jackie’s. A lovely group of 5 ladies enjoying a nice feast together since we were without our families for the occasion. Jackie did all of the cooking with her little sis and it was deelish.

Great Harvest bunny bread!

Almost too cute to eat .

And the rest of our meal, with some wine of course.

A delight! After this weekend I am done running and done eating forever I think.

Just kidding about at least one of those things .

And so then it was Saturday and race day was upon us. I was up at 5:30 to get ready, feeling a bit nervous! Louisa met me at the hotel and we headed over to the start together. It was a smaller race and easy to get to the starting line for our 6:30 start time.

What a great little sis I have. She hadn’t even trained for running a half but when it turned out that I’d be running on my own, she volunteered to try and run with me. Having done a full marathon back in November, she’s in good shape but not exactly ready for 13.1 miles!

She was a real champ though. The course was absolutely gorgeous but HILLY to the max. Not only did she do the full distance, she chatted and cheered the whole time, which I desperately needed around mile 9 or so when I felt myself running low on fuel!

We made it through the whole way together and I couldn’t have been happier to see our little cheering section and the finish line all at once.

Ugly runner sisters and a proud mum . And so we did it! I’m very pleased to have run the whole way through and very much hoping that’s worked the half-marathon bug out of my system. All that training was fun but very hard work! I’m so glad we did such a beautiful course in such a great town – we ran through downtown, the university campus and through beautiful mountain scenery. The experience is a memorable one for sure.

We enjoyed a much deserved coffee and a shower before heading to brunch at The Pigeon Hole. I really, really loved this place!! It was situated just outside of downtown in the most adorable little house. I needed food in my tummy stat by the time we sat down and this meal could not have been closer to perfection.

It was a vegetarian take on a Monte Cristo, with cinnamon apples and Swiss cheese between French toast slices with a maple honey-mustard sauce and grits. I will forever dream of this wonderful meal!!

Then of course it was time for more wine tasting. I was excited to be able to enjoy an actual post-race glass . We made 2 stops on the way back home to NoVA, first at Keswick Vineyards.

Next to King, it was my second fave of the Charlottesville trip! Their wines were lovely, especially their 2010 Viognier and Cab Franc and the property was beautiful. So, so many vines!

Next we went to Barboursville which wins my award for most sucky . It was packed, there were no directions as to how to get set up and it looked like people were mostly shuffling from pourer to pourer in order to do a full tasting. I was not in the mood for such madness and I don’t think anyone else was either! Instead we opted for a bottle of Rose out in the sunshine.

Much better .

Then it was time to say goodbye to Charlottesville (boo hoo) and head for home. My parents stayed the night at my place and we enjoyed a Dad-feast for much of the evening!

Wine, olive hummus and multigrain pita chips, roasted lemon salmon with veggies,

assorted chocolate truffles and apricot Wenslydale cheese with French bread. Apparently I was too busy eating to document it all . Food coma!

The race + the wine tasting + our epic feast and I was out like a LIGHT by 10:30!

One more post from the weekend to come .

Hi Bloggies! What an absolutely fabulous weekend . I have close to 60 pictures to sum it all up, so I’ll try not to bore you and break things up over the next few posts.

So Friday! Jimmy and I headed off Friday morning, with the intention of stopping at a few Charlottesville vineyards on the way down. Yes, my race was Saturday morning but a few tastings couldn’t hurt, right?? I just couldn’t go to Charlottesville and not take advantage .

Our first stop was King Family Vineyards. It was my goal to visit King first, as their winemaker consults for Hume, where I work. King is really neat because not only is it a vineyard, it’s also a polo field! I really enjoyed every single wine in our tasting (a rare treat), the staff was very friendly and the property was just gorgeous.

It was our first stop and also my top pick of the weekend!

Next, we drove on to Stinson Vineyards. Stinson is a newer winery and it came very recommended so I was interested to try it out. A pretty drive over!! When can I move here.

I enjoyed Stinson’s wines, especially their rose which was slightly smoky and quite unique. We sat outside for a little while after our tasting because how can you pass up this view?? It was such an incredible day outside.

Our last stop was White Hall Vineyards, also recommended to me.

Stinson and White Hall both had a few wines that I enjoyed and a few that weren’t my taste. But that’s why I love tasting! Both locations were just beautiful and very friendly. So I’d pass the recommendation on for all three that we visited that day.

After our winery tour, we stopped for a bit of lunch before driving downtown and checking into our hotel. Then it was time to get the race packets and explore!

I just looooved  the downtown area. It was the perfect little mix of grungy and cutesy with lots of interesting independent shops and restaurants scattered throughout. So much character!

After we’d had enough walking, we stopped to sit and have a beverage at Mudhouse Coffee while we waited for the rest of my fam to arrive in town.

A raspberry-vanilla Italian soda and a vegan power ball which included peanut butter and flax and walnuts and sunflower seeds…pretty much my dream snack rolled into one yummy little treat .

The we headed over to Horse and Hound, where my parents and sister joined the weekend fun. It’s a little pub with deeeelish food and drink. I couldn’t participate in the drink but you better believe I enjoyed the food! Some highlights:

Prosciutto-wrapped scallops with smashed butternut squash and red potatoes with a brown butter sauce. Holy YUM. I could eat that meal every night, no problem.

For dessert we split a few slices of pie among the table, coconut cream and Baileys and Guinness.

So good, so good, so good! Not only was the pie incredible, I’d like to take a bath in that whipped cream.

The whole meal was just beautiful and the perfect pre-race fuel! With a full belly and a long day behind us, I pretty much face planted into bed back at the hotel.

Big race in the morning!