Hungry Times Two

Who turned on the damn furnace? Whew, it is way too hot way too early here in the D.C. nether-region. Despite temps inching towards the 90 degree Fahrenheit mark, we made it to Charlottesville this weekend for some fun! Thanks to the perusing of this C-ville blogger , our trip was peppered with tasty experiences all weekend long. After a short and traffic-free two-hour drive, we pulled into the parking garage in downtown Charlottesville just in time for the last hour or so of their kickin' farmers market. We ambled around to see the market vendors selling everything from jam to jewelry, and all in between some pretty swell looking produce. Scott couldn't resist the strawberries, so we snagged a quart of them for lunch. We decided to grab some lunch from a downtown spot and drive west to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah Nat'l Park. Luckily, Baggby's on the downtown pedestrian mall had some delectable-sounding sandwiches, so Scott scored the Cold Grinder and I chose ...

What did I have two, no....make that THREE, cups of today? It wasn't gravy, or Coca Cola, or Bourbon, or Cranberry Juice. It was TEA, wonderful tea. Ever since I was younger, tea has been a pleasure to enjoy, both hot or cold, sweet or unsweetened, as long as it's not adulterated as that Fruit Tea business you know I can't get behind, or Jasmine (too much like drinking Potpourri water to me). But - Japanese Green Tea, English style, Chai, Thai Iced - it's all pretty much marvelous to me. Luckily, Scott shares my love of tea. We jokingly have "tea and book time" (in bed too, but I swear, it's totally PG-13 rated) as our British alter-egos Russell and Margaret -- our first names, as we both go by our middles. Ol' Russ and Mags are just simple homebodies who like scones, a spot of tea, a good historical novel or quaint little series on the Public Television station, and a nice gentle rainy afternoon. Or something like that. Can you tell we've really t...

This should really a postscript to my post from September 14, the day o' my good husband's 32 nd year of birth, but sometimes it's hard to post photos as events are occurring and then time flies by, and any who ..... Behold the cake I baked for that special day: Those pellet/poop-like things forming the numbers are Ocean Spray Craisins . How resourceful/ scatological am I?!? The recipe comes from my new- ish cookbook The Healthy Hedonist - the Naked Carrot Cake. It contains the oh-so-nutritious oat flour plus four cups of grated carrots ( Oy . That was a lot of tedious grating, let me tell you), and other stuff that makes cake so awesome - vanilla, brown sugar, eggs, spices of nutmeg, cinnamon , all spice, etc. Only I didn't want it to be so nekkid , cause frosting, when done well and not all grocery-store lard- ish , is marvelous, mmmkay ? SO, I doctored it up with The Joy of Cooking' s Cream Cheese Frosting , and substituted the lower-in-fat and hard-to-pron...

To my co-blogger, my best dining companion, and my favorite tall blond man: Happy Birthday! Any man who dons a beard net to take a Celestial Seasonings factory tour is ok by me!