Wrapping up the holidays and 2009

Our 2009 and Christmas holiday zipped by in such a flurry that we've begun to wonder Does time speed up as you get older, or does it just disappear? We had a very cozy Christmas Eve together in Fredericksburg before heading down on Christmas day to Richmond to spend time with Nick's parents and then to Amelia to spend some time with mine. Our longstanding Christmas Eve tradition is to fix dinner together and gulp it down with lots of good wine, and this year accordingly followed suit.


We made roast chicken (whole, fresh and local, stuffed with an orange, fresh thyme, onion, and several garlic cloves and with a little guidance from here), a crock of mac and cheese with creamy sharp cheddar and Gruyere, roasted Brussels sprouts with local apples, and roasted carrots with smoked paprika. (I think the carrot dish is now my new fave side dish.) We capped off our peasanty dinner with two slices of the *the* most delicious chocolate mousse-topped pumpkin cake from our fave little bakery downtown. My mouth is totally watering just typing this up.


How a plus-size, bilious, ironic-bow-wearing, ten-year-old calico housecat named Birdie celebrates Christmas in our house: How a wistful Westie with cabin fever celebrates almost a foot and a half of snow (when he's not terrorizing a certain surly, graying, foul-breathed Chihuahua) :

We're on "staycation" next week with lots of fun things in the bloggy hopper, to include local feasting (I have a secret day trip planned filled local eating and drinking for Nick...ssshhh!), mushroom growing adventures (thanks, Grandma Betty!), and my new favorite obsession: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange's 2010 Catalog and Garden Guide.

Happy New Year! :)

Let It Snow

The idyllic, pristine white stuff has yielded to the better-late-than-never city snow pushers and has become that disgusting, bleakly gray, sandy mess piled high at the sides of the roads. White Christmas? Probably not. It's supposed to rain here on Friday, too, which will likely melt what's left of our winter wonderland. Still, the snow was a picturesque treat, and it made for a relaxing weekend for us.

We were mindful of our sweet feathered friends and tried to keep our feeders full. We saw tons of Cardinals this weekend. Nick called me a species feminist because I happen to like the female Cardinals better than the male Cardinals. Whatever, right? I sat in the windows with the cats and watched these guys for a long time:
Saturday while I was birdwatching, a hawk landed on our front porch, which kinda freaked me out. I wanted to snap a picture of it, but was afraid I'd spook it off before Nick had a chance to see it. I freaked out because I once heard this story on NPR about this man whose pet Chihuahua was scooped away by some kind of big bird. The dog eventually made its way back to its owner, but he did have a few puncture marks from the big bird's claws. Edison is one surly, foul-breathed ingrate, but I'd be horrified if a hawk dognapped him. I pity the big bird that tries to steal our stinky and grumpy little Chihuahua.

More Cardinals! They were thankful for their snowy seed feast.

Our backyard:

There's some raised bed goodness under here somewhere!

The only thing whiter than the snow is this dude's legs. That's right, the man I married shovels snow in soccer shorts. What a goof.
Nick shoveled a little path for the dogs so that they could get around the yard to do their business. Jordan loved racing back and forth through his little tunnel. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?

Here's Jordan doing his version of the breast-stroke through the snow. It totally cracked us up. Edison would have NOTHING of the snow.

We went for a walk Sunday morning after the snow stopped to check on a couple of our elderly neighbors to make sure they were doing well. One was a bit grumpy over the lack of delivery of the Sunday paper, so we walked a couple of blocks to a nearby grocery store to grab him a paper. Nothing like making a 90 year old's day with a small gesture.

Heading to the canal path to take a peek around. Thankfully Nick opted to wear more weather-appropriate attire for this.

The canal in all its early morning quiet and icy glory:

And the place that puts money in my bank account every two weeks. Apparently there's some good sledding to be had there on the back side of the hospital:

It really was a beautiful weekend. I hope the snow hangs in there for Christmas!

Garden in the Snow

We were just whomped by a pretty big snow storm--well, big for our little corner of the map. At last measure yesterday afternoon we had gotten 15 inches, but it had continued to snow for a few more hours after that. I'd heard that snow was falling at a rate of about 2 inches per hour earlier in the day...

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we had our first little dusting of snow of the year. It was pretty, but after this weekend's snow slam, that first dusting seems...quaint.

The square foot beds a couple of weeks ago: (Pardon a certain indiscrete Westie who slyly punked us while we were trying to capture our favorite little spot covered in snow.)

The rainbow chard that grows by our back porch:

We took a walk through our neighborhood this morning and snapped a few pictures of this weekend's massive snow. We hope to post those soon!

Off to finish baking our 10th dozen of cookies! (What else is being snowed in good for besides a marathon of holiday cooking baking?)

Bon Anniversaire

December is full of sparkle and celebration, and, for us, the kick-off is my birthday on December 1. This year Nick and I celebrated with a quiet, intimate dinner at our fave downtown spot, Bistro Bethem. The staff gave us complimentary glasses of champagne for the occasion, and, with the fall semester pulling to a merciful close, I drank mine in quick, mighty gulps. We also had cocktails made with the yummiest and spiciest ginger brew and candied ginger. We started with a deelish cheese board of Cypress Grove goat cheeses--Truffle Tremore, Midnight Moon and Humboldt Fog with jams, walnut brittle, chestnut honey, dijon mustard and toast points. I had the brioche-cranberry-pancetta stuffed quail, house made game sausage, and sauteed root vegetables. Nick had organic free-range chicken breast, three cheese mac 'n' cheese and braised greens. We split a vanilla bean creme brulee for heavenly dessert. My mouth is watering just recalling the menu. Mmm.... Lots of happy calls and cards from friends and family rounded out a lovely, peaceful birthday. I did receive several gifts that will assuredly be a boost in both the skill and inspiration departments for our next garden chapter:

Still here, still hanging on...

It's been cold and rainy here, and we've both been neck deep in paper writing, interning, and practicum wrapping. Dreary,damp chill and brain-saturating grad school work have made us heartsick for the summer, for sunshine, for lazy afternoons in the hammock, and plentiful blooms around our little parcel in suburbia. I took a peek through our old photos and found a few that we never shared over the summer. I feel warmed just looking at them.

A couple of years ago we wrapped one of our downspouts in twine, and we planted a clematis next to it hoping that the clematis vine would hike its way up. It takes a bit of coaching each spring, but eventually it shimmies right up and kicks out some pretty royal blooms. One day the vine is literally just a a leafy bramble, and the next day it's gorgeously afire.

We grew several types of sunflowers this summer, my favorite being the really rich, deep burgundy and rust ones. Most of those beauties bloomed while we were in Lake Tahoe, but we were able to catch a few unfurlings. We hope to try these again this coming spring.

We dug through a bunch of old landscape planning books a couple of weekends ago in an attempt to brainstorm creative layouts for our little backyard for next season. I love the French potager, which is pretty close to what we created this past year. But I also love the idea of growing this wild and wooly back patch of veggies interspersed with flowers interspersed with herbs. I want this vibrant patch filled with little paths. I want the whole backyard to be a wild display of food and flowers and birds AND NO GROUNDHOGS. Part of me wonders if we should check out a landscape architect, but that offends my DIY spirit.

We've been putting all of our seed catalogs and garden magazines in a tidy stack, saving them for our winter break when school work is no longer a distraction, at least for a month or so. We've been saving our egg cartons and our hemp milk cartons for future use as places to sprout seeds.

I'm working full-time at the hospital during the days, and then working at the mental health hospital across the street in the evenings for about 5 hours for my internship. Nick has been holding the fort down at home, staying on top of the household chores, running the furry ones to the vet and the groomer, AND balancing his grad classes and practicum. This semester has been, in a word, NUTS.

Hurry spring!

No, it wasn't an April Fools joke.

I'm not sure we ever shared with you, our faithful [2] readers, our story about the letter we received last April from our city building department. I was rifling through a bunch of old files recently in search of an old paper when I stumbled across it again, and I chuckled quietly to myself.

Nick had called me at work one day last April and told me that we'd gotten a little note in our mailbox indicating that we had a certified letter than needed to be picked up at our downtown post office. He had run down and picked it up and told me I'd never guess what it was. It's not often that one gets a certified letter, but these letters fall in only two categories: really, really bad news or really, really good news. Ever the optimist, I wagered on the good news.

Wrong.

It was not the fun you've-got-unclaimed-money-and-loads-of-it! letter that I'd imagined. Instead, it was a rather formal letter from the city advising us that we had 10 days to cut our grass or else they would send someone over and cut it for us and then charge us a penalty fee for doing so. The letter was complete with a highlighted photocopy of the city code pertaining to the rules about "weeds, grass, and other foreign growth." Apparently, someone had determined that our grass was taller than 12", and this, faithful [2] readers, was punishable and certifiable violation. I'm wondering if they were measuring with some kind of trick ruler, or if the individual who measured it actually passed a high school math class. I'm also wondering if said individual actually knows what parsley, rosemary, lavender and the such look like because those really were the only things at that point measuring over a foot tall.

To put it gently, I was irate over the letter. Livid. Not only was this April (the letter was dated 4/15/2009), but nary a single person in our neighborhood had cracked out their lawnmowers for the first mow of the season. It was that early in the season, and already somebody was complaining? We spoke with another of our neighbors about this (he hadn't received a letter and his yard looked just like ours) and the three of us hatched a conspiracy theory about which of our other neighbors had it out for us. Grrr...

I had a few choice colorful words to say to my dearest Nicholas about this ridiculous letter, and then I composed this letter to the jerkface who had mailed us our certified stinkbomb of a letter:

April 22, 2009
Re: Weeds, Grass and Other Foreign Growth
Dear Mr. XXX,

It is with frustrated bewilderment that we submit this letter in response to your Notice of Violation dated April 15, 2009. We have resided responsibly in this city for 10 years, and we frankly find your Notice to be an affront and a joke.

We hope that you enjoyed the "physical inspection" of our property: the flower pear and cherry trees; the weeded and mulched front garden filled with new spring irises, snap dragons, and clematis; and our side herb garden filled with strawberry crowns, parsley, cilantro, lavender, etc. Clearly your "physical inspection" would have suggested that our property is not one of neglect or dereliction. Nonetheless, we do hope that you provide another "physical inspection" of our property to observe that this "violation" has been addressed. While in the neighborhood, possibly you or your associates could inspect the abundance of other parcels in our neighborhood that have enjoyed April's rain and sun and then proceed to waste additional tax payer's money with costly certified letters to their homes as well.

Should the City of XXX feel so motivated to address "weeds, grass, and other foreign growth" within the city limits, it would be markedly wise and appropriate to consider shedding some direly needed attention on the Canal Path that most assuredly is "bounded in whole or in part by improved and occupied property." This area is routinely grossly overgrown and scattered with letter, not to mention the various shopping carts that find their way into the actual canal. We realize that the conditions of properties tend to fall below established standards for many reasons, and we suggest that you inspect your properties regularly for possible violations.

Genuine thanks for your time and attention.

Kind regards,

R&N

P.S. Happy Earth Day!

We never heard a peep back from them, but we made our feelings quite clear. And that, dear [2] readers, was immeasurably therapeutic.

Our Trick or Treat Recap

Remember when we talked about having made some schwanky reservations for Halloween? (Remember how we also told you we'd give you some clues along the way about where we were going, but then never did?...Ooopsie! We're total [busy] idiots.) Well, we spent All Hallow's Eve eating super yummy food and drinking amazing wine at...

Volt!

We love Top Chef, and when we found out that contestant Bryan Voltaggio's resturant was about an hour a half from us AND was a big supporter of local farms, we knew we had to go.

And with a neighborhood primarily comprised of octogenarians and, therefore, pretty low on Halloween excitement (well, last Halloween someone did steal our Obama yard sign...), 10/31 seemed like the perfect opportunity for an indulgent TREAT. We had been ticking the days off on the calendar with anticipation.

When Halloween finally arrived, we were stoked! (Okay, maybe one of us was really stoked.)

Nick made our reservations for the chef's kitchen, which was a smaller, more intimate room with front row seats of the kitchen. We were a bit giddy to see our fave Top Chef up close, but it was just another day at the office for him. It was fascinating to watch the chefs work in nearly silent harmony and with each other, like a fine-tuned gourmet orchestra.
That's the back of Bryan there that you see. One of the other guests asked him about the outcome of Top Chef, and he kindly replied that he wasn't at liberty to share any of the details. At that point, season six was a bit more than halfway through with (I think) seven chefs left. I had a feeling that our inner nerds might sneak out of us, and we'd geekily ask for a picture with him. However, eating in a fine establishment instead brought out the composed adults in us, and we just admired our delicious nosh and vino as we soaked in the whole experience. Seriously, it was a good time.

The chef's kitchen had two menus, the kitchen menu and the market vegetable menu, comprised of six courses each with its own wine pairing. I got the kitchen menu, and Nick got the market vegetable menu. (We did, however, geek out and ask for a copy of our menu.) Our meal lasted three hours, and it was utterly enjoyable and relaxing. :)

Course One

R: clam chowder with mock root vegetables and dehydrated applewood smoked bacon

N: shitake veloute and pinenut sabayon with chili oil and basil

wine: Kungfu Girl, Riesling

Course Two

The same for both of us: Cherry Glen Farm Goat Cheese Ravioli with butternut squash and chanterelle mushrooms (This was our fave!)

wine: Huber, Gruner Veltiner

Course Three

R: Alaskan Halibut with forbidden rice, yellow oyster mushrooms, cardamom spiced carrot and pinenut sabayon. Wine--Botani, Muscatel Seco

N: yellow oyster mushrooms, pea leaves, farro risotto, cardamom spiced carrot broth and ginger glazed carrots. Wine--St. Cosme, Syrah

Course Four

R:Iberico-wattle pork belly with cannelini beans, carmelini beans, petite red ribbon sorrel and mostarda. Wine--St. Cosme, Syrah

N:Chickpea gnocchi with cannelini beans, carmelini beans, and sage brown butter. Wine--Botani, Muscatel Seco

Course Five

R: Wagyu beef with ratte potatoes, golden raisins, dragon carrots and glazed Tokyo turnips (these turnips were awesome).

N: Eggplant caponata, parmesan, zhatar, roasted pepper and beluga lentils.

Wine: Hall, Cabernet Sauvignon

Course Six...DESSERT!

Textures of chocolate, cinnamon spiced chocolate ganache, milk chocolate ice cream and chocolate caramel. Served with Graham's 10 year tawny port

Really full and slightly inebriated:

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Even Reese Witherspoon has chickens.

P.S. The ever-loving groundhog is back. And judging by the size of her hole, packing a summertime's gorging of heft and keeping true to her titular hoggy-ness.

Fall Y'all

Every October for the past 6 years we've gone to Westmoreland Berry Farm to pick out our pumpkins. We've always gone with my sister and brother-in-law, and it's become an annual fall tradition, something that seems to truly ring in the harvest season for us. Goats!
The whole gang!
We're pretty impressed with ourselves...and our badass pumpkins.
In the patch. We were a bit bummed that the "patch" was basically a cleared portion of a field where cute little pumpkins were set out for the taking. In the past, you disembarked the hayride at a bonafide crop of pumpkins on the vine. The fun was actually tromping through the tangles of vines, inspecting every other pumpkin to find "the" pumpkin, and then snapping that big orange jewel from its umbilical vine. It felt rustic. This way...not so much. We did creep out to outer edges of this field where there were still a few growing on the vines and picked ours from there. We're authentic like that.

So, I guess this means it's officially fall, y'all!

Outlawed!

One of our neighbors confirmed for us yesterday what we already suspected: the city of Fredericksburg does not permit backyard chickens. Bah.

Early on this spring, I had awoken at the crack of a Saturday dawn to let the dogs out, per usual. Sitting on the porch, wishing they'd hurry and wrap up their business, I distinctly heard the crow of a rooster. I was pretty sure that a one Mr. Rooster was living about 4 houses up from us on the opposite side of the street. When I went back inside to go back to sleep, I stirred Nick and said, "I swear I just heard a rooster in our neighborhood." We happen to have one of those nature-sounds alarm clocks (seagulls, chirping birds, a crowing rooster, etc.), and Nick dismissed my observation as "probably just the alarm clock." And then I heard it again. I liked that someone in our neighborhood had chickens. I thought it was kind of quirky.

Later the following week, Nick told me that he'd come home from work for lunch midday and had seen an Animal Control wagon in front of one of the neighbor's houses, in the same area where I heard Mr. Rooster crow. After that, I never heard him again. Boo to whoever ratted on our neighbor's poultry! (Though, really--roosters, outlaw neighbor??? Why not just perch a ginormous neon sign on the front of your house that says HELLO, I AM VIOLATING A CITY ORDINANCE.)

Anyway, our other neighbor--the one who told us about the ban on backyard chickens--is also a big champion of backyard chickens. She says she chatted with a handful of our other neighbors, who said they're also interested in city chickens. We chatted briefly and a bit half-heartedly about organizing something, but I seriously want to do it. (Like Nick and I don't have enough stuff going on in our crazy life right now!) I want chickens, and, of course, I want them more because someone has said I can't have them.

Backordered!

I ordered this little gem yesterday, only to receive a response a few hours later that it's backordered at present! Drats!

Who knew they made magazines like this? And could someone tell me why the shipping cost more than the actual magazine? Sheesh.

Check the little gray circle about midway down the cover on the right--CHICKENS AND BEES IN THE BURBS! Wooohhooo!

Heritage Harvest Festival

We've been spending a lot of our recent weekends in Charlottesville, much to our total enjoyment. We've really fallen in love with the area for myriad reasons, many of which were reinforced during our visit to the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello.

With the mountains as our gorgeous backdrop, we arrived full of kid-like glee, eager for the tastings, lectures, and local farm goodness that awaited us. Montalto was apparently just recently purchased by the Monticello estate, and it really was an extraordinary setting for the festival. Seriously gorgeous.

The midway filled with vendors and all sorts of fun stuff. I wish I had gotten a picture of the tomato tastings being held. No kidding, I think they were doing a tasting of what seemed like 25 different tomato varieties. Super neat!From the other end of the midway--see those mountains?!
We were really interested in the free lectures held that day. Our first choice lecture was Heirloom Garlic and Onions: How to Grow These Culinary Essentials; however, it was uncomfortably PACKED, so we checked out our second choice, which ended up being a total highlight of the day. Figs and Other Fruit, presented by Michael McConkey of Edible Landscaping: We also made seed balls! A local young farmers group was encouraging folks to make their own free seed balls--a little bit of compost, soil, water, and seeds rolled into a damp ball and left out to dry in the sun. Supposedly you just throw these cured seed balls out into a vacant lot (or some other area desperate for a bit of pretty eco-fying) and voila! Pretty things will grow! It's guerilla gardening, y'all!

Other fun vendors that totally caught our eye:

Worm Crusaders--worm compost! I am so completely fascinated by this... Something to consider for next season? Maybe!Buy Fresh, Buy Local! Find your Virginia chapter here.

JAM according to daniel. We bought a jar of the yellow peach and lavender jam.
We attended a second lecture as well, this one on green pest control. I think the biggest lesson I learned from this lecture is to heavily consider planting those plants that attract the "good" bugs so that they can munch their merry way through the "bad" ones. (Now if I could only find the good bugs that would enjoy a fine feast of flea beetles, we might have a few eggplants next year!)

We also spent some time chatting with a few master gardeners about bee keeping, which, as you may know, I'm feeling rather interested in these days. I left that conversation feeling little overwhelmed and wondering if perhaps I might want to a)finish grad school, and b)not live in a suburb before I consider taking up this awesome hobby. Another pretty rad booth was CLUCK--Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers. And, yes, this is also a fomenting fascination of mine, but I think the previously mentioned prerequisites are in order before I can even get serious about it.

Basically, I left the Heritage Harvest Festival with dreams of chickens, bees, and fruit trees. One day...one day. :)

It was a long day for Nick, as you can clearly see:

As the festivities wore down, we laid on the hillside taking in the breathtaking view, dreaming about next year's growing season!

Doin' the Localmotion: Part 2

I'm sure it goes without saying that the second half of our localvore day was not just about fawning over fresh food, but was actually dedicated to consuming it too! We got lunch at Feast!, which is super cool establishment that is half-deli, half specialty shop that focuses on "connecting local farmers, artisan food producers and consumers by specifically sourcing and endorsing hand-made, local and seasonal foods that sustain the viability of farmland and family-owned food businesses." (Do you love that as much as we do?!)

Nick had the Polyface chicken salad with spinach, almonds and cranberries and a tasty beverage of Russian tea. I had a panini of chicken, figs, and cheddar cheese with a side of white bean salad. It was SCRUMPTIOUS! We spent some time perusing the wares in the shop while we waited for our lunch. I think my favorite part of the shop was the various types of fresh, bulk olive oil, where you bring your own decanter to fill--so cool! After lunch, we went for a walk on the Downtown Mall, checking out the shops and enjoying the fresh air. We loved these giant stone chalkboards filled with all kinds of chalky graffiti:
Nick added his touch here! Can you find it?And, of course, I added my touch, too. After our walk, we scooted down to Vinegar Hill, Charlotteville's spot for independent, documentary, and foreign films. We decided to see The Cove, a thriller of a documentary about Japanese slaughtering of dolphins, which was probably not the most uplifting thing to watch on such a sunny, delightful day. It was good, yes, but it was really difficult to watch and we both left feeling a little heartsick. Neither of us have craved sushi since. We had dinner at The Local, which, in keeping with its name, is only easy to find the first time if you are, in fact, a local. We ended up having to call for directions at one point, even though we had come prepared with a map and directions. We had the most deeeelish appetizer, a beet and goat cheese (from local Caromont Farm) salad. Isn't it pretty?

I had the roast chicken (from local Green Fence Farm) with exotic mushroom and pea ragout and mashed potatoes for my entree. (Um, yes, it was half a freakin' chicken, much to my surprise!) Nick had the local organic beef topped with manchego cheese, apple smoked bacon, and caramelized onions:
It really was a lovely locavore day filled with lots of awesome food. We fell in love a little more with Charlottesville that day. It really is a great feeling to be immersed in a place whose appreciation for local farmers and food is quite tangible.

Have you found any nifty stores or restaurants who share a love of locally sourced food?