Oh no! An entire month slipped by, and I didn't write anything in my blog. It was quite a crazy month. We were out of town for at least one weekend. When we were home, we had so many visitors that I was doing laundry for the guest rooms regularly. (OK, so not hard to put sheets and towels into the washer and dryer).
I did eat out. On the road, we had our usual lunch/dinner stop at Sheetz gas station. Yes, I like their food. I usually go with a Made To Order (aka MTO) chicken sub: 6 inch toasted white roll with chicken, provolone cheese, mayo, bacon, oregano, and black olives. I've also started to get a cup of fries. I really like their fries.
In Buffalo, Darryl and I went to dinner with our great friend Katie. We decided on Ilio DiPaolos in Hamburg. Great food! I ordered the tortellini with the house sauce and a side of Italian sausage. In place of my salad, I had a great cup of french onion soup. We all split some cheese covered garlic bread. I figured I would order the tortellini because we were going to a wedding with a buffet and you never find tortellini in a buffet line. OOPs... Ok, so never say never. We did have tortellini at the wedding, but this one was prepared with a white cream sauce and had specks of bacon in it.
We did enjoy the usual fast food stuff... Pizza at King's Dominion amusement park, Panda Express, pizza at Wegmans, Asian at Wegmans...
I also ate at Capital Ale House... three times in less than a week. YIKES! But I did have three different meals, a lamb burger, a cheese burger (on $2 burger night), and a cheese dip on steal the glass night. I would have had more that last night, but I already had dinner on the table when we decided to go steal the Heavy Seas glasses that were on special.
Best of all.... I got to enjoy another meal at King's Arms Tavern with two of my best friends from Buffalo. After dragging Katie and Michelle all over Colonial Williamsburg, we had a wonderful meal at the tavern. I did have something different than my meal from the summer... I went with the prime rib. It was out of this world!!!
Out side of my restaurant experiences, I spent many hours really focusing on school. I really didn't try to make anything special for dinner. I definitely did not try to copy any of the meals I had out at the restaurants.
November is a new month. I still have a lot going on at school, and there is Thanksgiving to celebrate, so my cooking time will still be limited. However... I will be creating my famous Canadian Thanksgiving Meal (which normally is celebrated during Columbus Day weekend, but we had guests in town and a crazy month). This year I'll be cooking for 40 or so people again and I'll be experimenting with some new recipes that I have found. I think I will blog about that experience this month, and then jump back into restaurants again in December.
Showing posts with label Capital Ale House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Capital Ale House. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Eating out during a hurricane...
It has been a crazy week when it comes to Mother Nature! First she shakes Virginia with a 5.8 earthquake on Tuesday, canceling nursing school for a week and breaking an ice wine glass in my house. (OK, we also had a picture fall off the wall in a spare bedroom, a candle in the guest bathroom had to be fished out of the toilet, and a bunch of games for the Wii were scattered throughout the living room). Thursday night, Fredericksburg is hit with a "freak storm" with high winds, heavy rain, and lots of lightning. It was during Thursday's storm we were able to see the physical damage to the house from the earthquake, both back doors were leaking water. Luckily it just took some caulking to fix. Friday was calm, but Saturday ushered in Irene, a category 1 hurricane with wind gusts of up to 40mph and about 4 inches of rain. I think I would say that Thursday night was a little worse than all day Saturday.
My restaurant adventures began on Thursday. We had guests that arrived during our storm. Afterwords we decided to go out to eat. The storm knocked out power to a great deal of the City of Fredericksburg, but found TGI Friday's to be open. I decided to go with my normal chicken fingers and fries. Nothing exciting, and a meal I cook regularly (using a really cool recipe from Bisquick). I will not be writing about this one.
Saturday, we decided to brave the rain and went to the Spotsylvania Towne Center to see the new bookstore, Charming Charlies and Le Gourmet Chef. While there we stopped at the pretzel place for a quick snack, and then to A&W for a hot dog and cheese curds. I'll admit... I'm the one who wanted the cheese curds. We got the hot dog just so we could say "We chased down a dog in a hurricane!" OK, long story... guess you had to be there.
Saturday evening, we decided to take our guests to Capital Ale House in Downtown Fredericksburg. This is definitely one of my favorite places to go downtown. They have approximately 65 beers on tap and an additional 300 in bottles. You can find something for everything. The staff is very knowledgeable about the beers and can recommend one or a few for you. You can also get samples for $.25 each. The food is also amazing! I have not had a bad meal there yet.
So, I said this is one of my favorites... admittedly, my visit on Saturday was my second of the week. We were there Wednesday night with some other guests. Wednesday I had a great lamb burger with brie cheese and Dijon mustard, served on a croissant, with the baby spinach held (one day I may be brave enough to actually start eating those pesky green things). The lamb burger was well seasoned with rosemary and perhaps some thyme. The rosemary was very strong, and sorta overpowered most of the other flavors. I've had this burger before and it was amazing every other time I've had it. It comes with a side of frites and a flavored mayo for dipping.
On Saturday, we ordered an appetizer of the frites with the four flavors of mayo: garlic, dill (my favorite), chipotle, and regular. It was raining pretty good outside, and the wind was blowing pretty strong as well... I would say sustained winds in the upper 20mph. The power went out. Our meals were not quite ready yet, but the kitchen could not continue to cook because the vents were not working. The manager was really great about it and gave us a Bavarian pretzel with three different cheeses, two sausages, grapes, and a mustard dipping sauce, all free of charge. The cheeses were a yellow cheddar, smoked Gouda, and a mild Swiss. The sausage were two types of polish sausage, the fresh and the smoked. Under the circumstances, it was a great meal. Oh... and not that I got my main meal, but being true to my challenge, I ordered the Cheddar Beer soup. I would really like to try to make this at home, but I really would like to try some at a restaurant first. I was also saving room for dessert... the chocolate cake with ice cream is the best!
On Sunday, the weather was perfect! Beautiful blue skies, comfortable temperatures and a bit breezy. We decided to head out to Potomac Point Winery, in Stafford County, VA. The power was out there, but the tasting bar was still open and the Bistro was serving a limited menu. We decided to have lunch there. Darryl and I split a cheese platter (with a dill Havarti, brie, and muenster), pita bread, preserved cherries and olives. It went very well with the bottle of wine we got for the table, the La Belle Vie. As we were finishing our meal, the power returned, so we were able to get a tour of the winery.
Besides the lamb burger, I will probably not be making these meals and blogging about it. If you've been to my parties, you've experienced similar cheese platters. I've also served the chicken fingers at a few parties.
If you would like to visit Capital Ale House or Potomac Point Winery, please visit their websites: Capital Ale House and Potomac Point Winery.
My restaurant adventures began on Thursday. We had guests that arrived during our storm. Afterwords we decided to go out to eat. The storm knocked out power to a great deal of the City of Fredericksburg, but found TGI Friday's to be open. I decided to go with my normal chicken fingers and fries. Nothing exciting, and a meal I cook regularly (using a really cool recipe from Bisquick). I will not be writing about this one.
Saturday, we decided to brave the rain and went to the Spotsylvania Towne Center to see the new bookstore, Charming Charlies and Le Gourmet Chef. While there we stopped at the pretzel place for a quick snack, and then to A&W for a hot dog and cheese curds. I'll admit... I'm the one who wanted the cheese curds. We got the hot dog just so we could say "We chased down a dog in a hurricane!" OK, long story... guess you had to be there.
Saturday evening, we decided to take our guests to Capital Ale House in Downtown Fredericksburg. This is definitely one of my favorite places to go downtown. They have approximately 65 beers on tap and an additional 300 in bottles. You can find something for everything. The staff is very knowledgeable about the beers and can recommend one or a few for you. You can also get samples for $.25 each. The food is also amazing! I have not had a bad meal there yet.
So, I said this is one of my favorites... admittedly, my visit on Saturday was my second of the week. We were there Wednesday night with some other guests. Wednesday I had a great lamb burger with brie cheese and Dijon mustard, served on a croissant, with the baby spinach held (one day I may be brave enough to actually start eating those pesky green things). The lamb burger was well seasoned with rosemary and perhaps some thyme. The rosemary was very strong, and sorta overpowered most of the other flavors. I've had this burger before and it was amazing every other time I've had it. It comes with a side of frites and a flavored mayo for dipping.
On Saturday, we ordered an appetizer of the frites with the four flavors of mayo: garlic, dill (my favorite), chipotle, and regular. It was raining pretty good outside, and the wind was blowing pretty strong as well... I would say sustained winds in the upper 20mph. The power went out. Our meals were not quite ready yet, but the kitchen could not continue to cook because the vents were not working. The manager was really great about it and gave us a Bavarian pretzel with three different cheeses, two sausages, grapes, and a mustard dipping sauce, all free of charge. The cheeses were a yellow cheddar, smoked Gouda, and a mild Swiss. The sausage were two types of polish sausage, the fresh and the smoked. Under the circumstances, it was a great meal. Oh... and not that I got my main meal, but being true to my challenge, I ordered the Cheddar Beer soup. I would really like to try to make this at home, but I really would like to try some at a restaurant first. I was also saving room for dessert... the chocolate cake with ice cream is the best!
On Sunday, the weather was perfect! Beautiful blue skies, comfortable temperatures and a bit breezy. We decided to head out to Potomac Point Winery, in Stafford County, VA. The power was out there, but the tasting bar was still open and the Bistro was serving a limited menu. We decided to have lunch there. Darryl and I split a cheese platter (with a dill Havarti, brie, and muenster), pita bread, preserved cherries and olives. It went very well with the bottle of wine we got for the table, the La Belle Vie. As we were finishing our meal, the power returned, so we were able to get a tour of the winery.
Besides the lamb burger, I will probably not be making these meals and blogging about it. If you've been to my parties, you've experienced similar cheese platters. I've also served the chicken fingers at a few parties.
If you would like to visit Capital Ale House or Potomac Point Winery, please visit their websites: Capital Ale House and Potomac Point Winery.
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