Where did October go?

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.

King's Arms Tavern, Part II

I was so excited last week Tuesday when I was grocery shopping.  I always check out the meat department at Wegmans to find these amazing little orange stickers that say "special today."  Usually they can be found on meat that is nearing the last days it should be sold.  Of course this is Wegmans, so that date is sooner than any of my other local grocery stores... Giant would probably try to sell it for another week, and I don't even want to guess how much longer Food Lion/Bloom would wait.  Anyways, as I was looking around the beef section I noticed two beautiful Fillet Mignon's half price!  I got both of them for $13.  YES!  I could try to recreate my King's Arms meal!!!!  Since it was my favorite, I was really excited.

When making my weekly menu out, I decided to put the King's Arms meal on Friday so that I would have plenty of time to make it.  Well, by the time Friday rolled around, I was really tired.  I didn't feel like cooking, and I don't think Darryl did either.  But I could not let the beef go to waste.  I decided to make the meal anyways.

The Williamsburg cookbook had a short cut for making the brown sauce using gravy mix.  I decided not to try that, since everything I've been making has been just about from scratch.  Also, I didn't have the short-cut type ingredients.  Darryl makes a very similar brown sauce, and we usually freeze a bunch in ice cube trays, so I thought I would use that.  You just pull out a few cubes right before the meal is ready and pop them in the microwave.  Heat and serve.

I cut up the potatoes like I'd been doing for all my other meals last week, seasoned them, and wrapped them in tin foil to put on the grill.  They were taking about a half hour or so to cook, so I went ahead and put them on the grill and went back in the house to get the beef ready.  I should have looked at the thermometer on the grill to see that it was oh... 500 or so degrees.  I had been cooking the potatoes around 350 degrees. 

I just lightly seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and just a touch of garlic and onion powder.  Took them out to the grill and put them on.  I got beautiful grill marks on each side, but when I cut into the larger steak, it was still very red.  I decided to leave them on just a few minutes more.  We enjoy our meat medium-rare.

Ok, time to talk about the disaster I should have called dinner.  First, we didn't actually have any brown sauce in the freezer.  I think I found something that once perhaps was... but it was now an icy clump of mess that you may find on the side of the road after a really bad snowstorm.

My beef, well, I over cooked it.  It was a medium to medium-well.  I read in a cookbook that you want to pull the beef off a few minutes before you think it is done, because the meat continues to cook.  Now I understand why.  Besides being cooked more than we normally like, we did eat it and enjoy it.  I probably could have used a little more salt and pepper because they were thick pieces, but overall it was pretty good.

Now for the potatoes.  Does anyone need any extra charcoal for their grill?  Yep.  Burnt to a crisp.  I even have the picture to prove it:

I know, they don't look so bad, but the smoky flavor given off by the ones that were bad penetrated all the other ones.  Besides, if you flip over the good looking ones (if you can even get them off the tin foil), you will find they are just as bad.

You'll notice, I have not talked about any vegetables...  that is because I didn't make any.  My anti-veggie protest of sorts. 

So, my lesson?  Don't give up, but don't cook something nice when you really don't feel like it.  Perhaps I should have made my chicken pot-pies that day... (those were made from left overs from the Shields Tavern dinner).

I plan on attempting this meal again.  And I will make sure my head is in the game when I do.  It was an awesome meal at the tavern, and I think it could be an awesome meal here.  Perhaps I'll make it for a group and even include the relishes and creamed Spinach.

The King's Arms Tavern, Willilamsburg, Part I

The King's Arms Tavern was my favorite... no FAVORITE dining experience in Colonial Williamsburg!  Rather than just a meal, this was a dining experience from the moment we walked in through the door.  We were seated at a small table on the very edge of the one dining room we were in.  The table was right next to a window and had a perfect view into the kitchen when the waiters and waitresses walked out.  Our table was also near the door to the next dining room, so most of the waiters and waitresses had to walk right by our table.  Sorta high traffic, but also a nice distance away from the other diners in the room.  It was also nice that we could see the different meals as they went by, which helped us make our decisions.  Our room was decorated very nicely with carpeting and wallpaper and nice candle holders and looking glasses (mirrors).  We had an early reservation at 5:00pm because we had an evening program to attend, so the room was lit by daylight.  Our waitress was amazing!  She was so friendly and knowledgeable, and very entertaining. 

Not long after being sat, we were told all about the history of our dining room.  Then our napkins, and their size, were explained to us.  The napkins were like mini-tablecloths!  Why so big?  (good question... same one I had... so happy we are on the same page!).  Well, the napkins were traditionally tied around the neck since the tavern was frequented by your upper class or gentry level of society.  The diner could tie the napkin around their neck to catch any food they may drop and protect their beautiful clothing.  Apparently they didn't have quite the clothing collection I have in my closet.  :)  The waitress then noticed the puzzled look on my face and said "I bet you are wondering why they may have dropped food?"  Please tell!!!  Forks were different... they really didn't hold food like they do today, so diners would use their knives to shovel food into their mouth.  (I know, red flag... mom always said "don't eat your food with your knife!"  Good thing times have changed.)  Since I was wearing a summery button-down shirt and a skort, I opted to place the napkin in my lap.  The table of teachers from California opted to tie them around their necks. 

We started our meal with a cheese plate.  There were four cheeses: gouda, sharp cheddar, bleu and brie.  There was also some green grapes, two strawberries cut into slices, and a piece of French baguette bread.  It was all delightful.  I really enjoyed the bleu, it wasn't super strong.  It was dry but spreadable.  The brie was a mild brie.  The cheddar and gouda were pretty standard.

Remember how I said this was more of a dining experience than just a meal?  Well, it was time to learn about relishes.  Our waitress brought a sample of three different relishes.  There was pickled watermelon rinds, a corn and pepper relish, and then a very salty ham mash relish.  I tried the pickled watermelon a few years ago on another trip to Williamsburg and did not enjoy it then, so I skipped it this time.  The corn was interesting, it's served cold.  I could taste the corn and red and green peppers, and then I'm pretty sure there were pickles as well.  I don't like pickles.  I did not care for the ham relish at all... again I think I tasted pickles.  I'll admit, I have trouble being adventurous with my food.  Upon serving these relishes our waitress explained that now-a-days, if you relish something, you cherish it.  Back then, if you relished something, it meant that you put relish on your food to hide the stale taste of the meat.  Don't forget, they didn't have quite the same methods of preserving meat like we do today, nor did they have refrigerators.  I know I don't like my meat once it's lived in the refrigerator for more than a few days.  During the "relish" stage of our meal, we were also presented with a basket of bread, again a bread that would have been served by the tavern in the 1772.  It had the density of a pound cake, but it was not as sweet.  Definitely more dense than bread that would be served at a restaurant today.  I enjoyed it with some butter that melted right in.

Meal time!  I ordered Deuling Beef Collops: two fillets of Beef that were served over a bed of roasted red potatoes with a brown sauce and some yellow and green squash.  If you have read my other posts, it will not shock you that I only took a small bite of my squash.  It was cooked nicely, but it's a vegetable and and really didn't have any more of that.  My potatoes were wonderful.  They were nicely roasted with a hint of rosemary.  The beef was good.  I did ask for medium-rare.  It was slightly more done than I would have liked, but I also order knowing that each own cook has their own idea of each level of doneness.  And really, only one of the beef pieces was more medium, the other was just about perfect.  They both still had an amazing taste.  The outside was nicely seared with the simple flavor of salt and pepper.  It paired nicely with the brown sauce.  Speaking of the brown sauce, you could taste the complexity of flavors, from the first layer of carrots, onions and the bouquet of herbs, to the second layer that had more onion and tomato.  Really the sauce was a perfect complement to both the beef and the potatoes.  It was also a useful tool to hide the fact that I was eating some of my veggies. 

It's a good thing I proof read... I almost forgot.  During our main course, the waitress brought out a bowl of creamed spinach.  This was another traditional item that would be found on the dinner table.  There was shredded Parmesan cheese on top.  I tried the cheese, but I'm sure you've already guessed that I skipped the green part.  Sorry, I just can't do spinach.

When our waitress came to collect our empty dinner plates, she asked if we enjoyed it.  Our answer "we definitely did NOT relish our meal!" It was perfect and did not need to be hidden by the relish.  :)  She cracked up laughing and you could tell she was impressed that we had listened to her earlier.

Time for dessert.  I had the Chocolate Williamsburg ice cream.  It was amazing, but I was a little disappointed to find out it was no longer actually made in Williamsburg.  Williamsburg rather contracted with Eddy's to produce it.  It does make sense from a cost standpoint, and it is the same recipe as before.  It was rich and creamy and amazing.  Darryl had a signature dessert called a Syllabub.  It is a wine-laced cream whipped to a froth, seasoned with lemon zest and garnished with seasonal berries.  He really enjoyed it.  There was a strong lemon flavor.  I was only able to grab a very small spoonful to try before being told that if I really wanted it, I could have ordered one for myself.  :)  There is a recipe for the Syllabub in the cookbooks I bought, so I do plan on making it at some point.  I'll need help eating it though, the recipe serves 8. 

So, back to the "experience," we had the chance to meet the tavern keeper.  She was excited to hear that we were from Fredericksburg and wondered if we knew her cousin.  We played along and said we'd visited with her many times and she is doing well.  We learned more about the history of the tavern and heard stories of some of it's more famous visitors.  I bet you would like to hear who those visitors were... but you'll have to visit the tavern yourself to find out.

We were also entertained by a roving musician.  Our dinning room had the pleasure in participating in a few sing-a-longs, the most memorable being about Nottingham Ale, the finest of all the ales.  After the song, we asked our waitress if we could try this ale and were disappointed to find out that they didn't carry it.  We didn't actually expect them too, so we weren't truly disappointed.  But we did jokingly give our waitress a hard time about it.  She was really wonderful.

As our meal finished and we paid the $150ish bill, we walked out very full.  Our waitress did give us some pointers on some of the things to see and do while in Williamsburg and promised us that our dining experience at The King's Arms Tavern would be our best.  She definitely was not wrong.  It was by far the best dining experience we had while in Williamsburg.

Thank you for reading!  I hope you enjoyed my tale of The King's Arms Tavern.  If you wish to visit from home, you can check out this website to The King's Arms Tavern.  The history of the tavern can be found on the last page of the dinner menu.