almost heaven

A long time ago, Steve and I took a wonderful mini-break! And due to my lack of motivation and/or organization, you are just getting to hear about it!

Our destination for this wonderful weekend was Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, a place surprisingly accessible from the D.C. suburbs that simultaneously afforded us the feeling of having been transported somewhere far, far away.

Central to this was the presence of this claw-foot bathtub, aaaaaah.

I never wanted to leave.

My mom and my sister had taken a trip to Berkeley Springs and we ended up staying at the same B+B they did: the Highlawn Inn, which I highly recommend for its great ambiance and great service and great food and great TUBS!

But you do have to like/not be allergic to cats.

Look at Her Majesty on her throne :)

We arrived after a low-drama drive (hurray!) and checked out our digs, which had all the charm typical of a B+B.

Unsurprisingly we were hungry.

Our first stop boasted ice cream cones and $2 pizza, which had Steve real excited til he saw the lady behind the counter pull something out of the freezer and put it in the microwave…

Yeah, that pizza was pretty awful. He “accidentally” dropped it on the ground, he claims.

A few doors down, a coffee shop with great ambiance (and coffee facts on the wall!) offered a much better place to hang. Fairfax Coffee House had good java, good food, and promised live music that night.

 

I ordered a really yummy breakfast wrap (though since my pet peeve is inordinantly thick wraps drowning out filling flavor, I partially unwrapped it) as well as a cuppa coffee.

 

Steve, being on vacation and all (and the place was quite reasonably priced) ordered two sandwiches. Egg ‘n cheese on a bagel and a veggie and cheese sandwich, which came with a side of pasta salad.

Such a great veggie selection!

Though the town turned bleary and rainy in the afternoon, we did not despair. We stopped at the bookstore both to dry off and to grab a few selections to keep us entertained during the downpour. I ended up having a wonderful chat with the owner about our shared love of Barbara Kingsolver.

Then I read a collection of her short stories in the CLAW FOOT BATHTUB. Did I mentioned that I liked that?

For dinner we went to a place recommended by our B+B owners (and everyone around town): Panorama at the Peak.

Panorama had a lot of things going for it (which I’ll expound upon in a moment). Unfortunately, the view for which it was named was severely impeded by the gloomy, gloomy fog. We got occasional peeks at the surrounding mountains when the fog temporarily lifted, at least partially, but I want to go back someday to get the full view. Supposedly you can see three states!

 

So I knew I already loved the chef at Panorma because of this:

 

And unlike certain farm to table poseurs (*cough* Founding Farmers), they could name names:

And then there was this! Chef Scott, let’s be best friends!

And the fact that though it was a restaurant serving beautiful, refined food it also had folks in jeans and Christmas lights. West Virginia is pretty dope.

 

We began with beverages. I loved how much local beer they had on tap… but I don’t like beer.

So, I had a mojito with mint from their on-site garden.

 

We began with a dish that the lady at the bookstore had highly recommended: mushrooms. Oh, not any mushrooms. Mushrooms that involved a huge amount of butter, cream, and booze floating atop toasts, with their decadent gravy floating all around.

The kind of “appetizer” that makes you want to sleep for twelve hours before the entree arrives.

Ridiculously rich and delicious.

 

For my entree, I got a crab cake, figuring we’d been driving through the Chesapeake Bay watershed for our whole trip there.

Entrees come with potatoes and a side vegetable of your choice (I loved the old school Fancy Restaurant feel of this place!). I opted for the ginger carrots, which were a little bit of a yawn. The potatoes, though, were EXCELLENT- infused with this zesty seasoning, with I imagine a lot of paprika but I don’t know what else. And the crab cake was great, although I was so chock-full of cream from the appetizer I could not finish this plate.

Fortunately I was there with Steve :)

As for Steve, he got the lamb shank! I am so pleased how my Greek powers have totally converted Steve into a lamb lover. Lamb shanks are so great- my grandmother used to make them. These, like heres, were fall-off-the-bone tender. Steve opted for the summer squash for his vegetable and I was kicking myself for not getting it- it was SWIMMING in butter and so delicious!

 

I knew I couldnt leave without getting SOMETHING from the Julia Child menu, so we had no choice but to order dessert :)

I was recalling the whole saga involving the preparation of Floating Islands in Julie and Julia, so it was an easy pick for dessert.

So French :) Complicated egg concoctions (that end up oh-so light and airy), heavenly cream sauces.

  

We went back to our B+B along the country roads (get it?!) and did an awesome puzzle. Puzzles are great.

One blissful food coma later (I want to add that this was just after the food bank stress CLIMAX, and I was so in need of a good night’s sleep- God bless you, West Virginia), it was breakfast time.

We strolled out at a very reasonable hour onto the front deck, with its beautiful early morning sun and garden view.

 

The innkeepers fetched us hot beverages and OJ, and then we went in to help ourselves to the beautiful breakfast buffet, laid out amid the antiques.

I mean really.

 

This meal was HEAVEN. On par with the fanciest of restaurants, but eaten in the comfortable situation of climbing out of bed and walking down the stairs. With kitties keeping you company.

Going around the clock, up at the top left we have oh so rich cheesy grits, a heavenly creamy herbed summer squash bake (so, uh, a serving of vegetables…), a fruit salad that was the only letdown (mostly frozen), creamy and perfectly soft scrambled eggs, and a DELIGHTFUL and perfectly flaky blueberry scone.

The neighbor at the next table kept us amused for the meal.

Then we went off to a state park. Which was…. interesting.

It began with pretty lake views.

 

But then the trail, uh… disappeared? We ended up wandering through a creek bed but then I was scared I was going to get West Nile (a particularly ominous threat since I’d already agreed to do my stem cell donation and needed to keep my blood safe) so we took off.

I am physically incapable of not pulling over for farm stands.

 

Got some goodies to take home :)

The most charming man professed his corn to be “sweet as sugar” and we agreed when we got a free sample. Straight up raw. Delicious.

 

It was a hot day and iced tea sounded FAB.

 

As did an unorthodox, small, but exceedingly satisfying lunch/afternoon snack of:

- Deviled eggs.

 

- Waffle fries

- And ice cream.

Then we hopped into the springs for which Berkeley Springs is named. The springs were alleged to have all kinds of mystical healing properties and have been visited for hundreds of years by very noteworthy people (George Washington, anyone?). We opted for the cheapest way to swim in them- a good ol’ pool. (There were all kinds of spa and massage options, but we were on a budget).

Anyway, it was my only time swimming all summer and the pool felt GREAT. And I’m sure it was highly restorative :)

The trip home was sad, but we got to enjoy the INCREDIBLE bluegrass tunes coming live from the Berkeley Springs station.

DC-ers, I highly recommend this place for a weekend getaway!

highs and lows and hunger in America

I am on my Spring Break. I am also on my couch. God bless Spring Break. (I do still have to go to work. But then I get to go home after.)

Last week’s highs:

At church yesterday, I held a baby. A cute, warm, good smelling baby. As I sang in the choir. Then she fell asleep in my arms. So. awesome.

On gorgeous sunny Saturday, Steve and I parked at Gravelly Point and strolled all over DC. We walked back to Virginia over Memorial Bridge (the bridge directly next to the Lincoln… Memorial, thus the name) and I discovered an astonishingly gorgeous stretch of grass, trees, and blooming daffodils between lanes of traffic. We walked in the balmy weather as the sun set. It was the best.

In my chem class, the professor couldn’t get the overhead projector to work. He gave it a look and kind of wiggled his fingers. I said to my friend, “He looks like he’s doing a Jedi mind trick”. My friend, not missing a beat, wiggled his fingers and went, “Those aren’t the chemical equations you’re looking for.” Humor in chem class is very very necessary.

Last week’s lows:

Getting talked down to. In work and academic situations. Even if I were stupid, would you increase my productivity or learning by treating me like a stupid person?

Enough about that.

Here’s something AWESOME that I got to do through work:

 

There is something called the Hunger Free Communities Network that does… many awesome things.

Including assembling us in the hunger-fighting business do to some learnin’ from each other. Working in rural areas, working in urban areas, working with specific populations, utilizing specific federal programs, coordinating with other nonprofits, collecting good data, etc. etc.

It was at a lovely downtown hotel in a room filled with super cool people.

And there was a BREAKFAST BUFFET, oh joy!

A scrambled egg, cheerios and flavored yogurt parfait (I used to snarf those down in college… I miss flavored yogurt… it’s just too Frankenfoody and unethically sourced for me to eat now; sad), and enough EXPENSIVE BERRIES TO FILL UP MY BELLY! I love love love buffets. I never eat enough berries to leave me truly happy. I love berries. I should really grow them.

We had a nice introductory session, where various current and former politicians reminded us (this is a direct quote): “Most members of Congress are caring human beings”.

Hahahahaha.

And then it was breakout session time. I went to one that discussed data (because I am a thrill a minute) but it really WAS thrilling because it ended up starring my new HERO. Mariana Chilton. Director of Center for Hunger Free Communities.

Awesome things Center for Hunger Free Communities does:

-Pushes for food insecurity screenings in hospitals.

In a nutshell, this captures the most vulnerable people when they’re in a crisis situation: in a hospital, either because they lack health insurance, because they or their child has had a medical emergency. Perhaps they deal with issues of domestic violence (the incidence of which increases in households that are food insecure). The idea is that these people, in crisis, are asked by the doctor/nurse/health professional who admits them, whether or not they are in a state of food insecurity (a lot of the time, proxy measures are used: for example, you might ask, “Did you have to choose between buying food and paying rent this month? Or between buying food and paying for medicine?”) Last year, I thought all the time how our kids were definitely in need (they were low-income to qualify for our program, and they received food bank meals every day after school, AND they took home food for the weekend), but that in some ways they were the lucky ones, whose parents were on top of it enough to put them in an afterschool enrichment program. When you’re screening in a hospital, you’re catching the most vulnerable people you might not catch anywhere else. If you’re interested, you can read more about it here: Children's Healthwatch

- Documents hunger from the perspective of actual hungry people

Rather than a bunch of people like me who have (blessedly) never faced food insecurity, why not hear about it from the people who have? See the real environment and real challenges. Here: Witnesses to Hunger

-Combines nutrition and public health research

As someone who’s obsessed with both (and hopes, maybe, someday, to have my name followed with RD/MPH), I was hugely inspired by Mariana Chilton’s research. The latest of their organization’s impressive reports demonstrates (I’m talking to you, Newt Gingrich) that feeding the hungry, along with being the morally right thing to do, also reduces health care costs. You can read it here: The SNAP vaccine

(FYI, this jargon is really familiar to me, working at a food bank, but SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. In general, if any of these subjects interest you, please get in touch! They’re what I deal with at work every day and what I’m passionate about. Drop me a line at lelelurvesplants@gmail.com)

On a less deep note, I was super excited for lunch. My supervisor, Amy, had gone the previous year and spoke highly of the food.

I was immediately excited to see iced tea at every seat. I love free iced tea so much.

 

They made a big hoopla of asking who was vegetarian/kosher/gluten free and put stickers on our name tags… and then it was a buffet?

Silly.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my mound of Caesar salad, roll, assorted roasted veggies (Amy and I spent an amusing amount of time speculating which veggies), potatoes, a giant vegan butternut squash ravioli with eggplant tomato sauce…

… and there were mini Crumbs cupcakes! Hugely exciting.

But then I hadn’t had a chocolate one.. and they were so small… and also so good.

The nonprofit world is so female. (Single dudes,, you are really missing out on an opportunity. Start volunteering!). We spent a long period of time at lunch chatting about cupcakes. And having to go to the bathroom a lot. And weddings. In retrospect, it was kind of embarrassing.

Breakout session #2 was a bit less awesome, just because getting food to kids in after school programs (what I do, under a federal program called CACFP) is a bit complicated. Do you send prepackaged meals? Do you do a vendor? Etc. etc. etc.

The day concluded with a candlelit, atmospheric gathering that involved chocolate fondue (!)

 

Random roast turkey (?)

 

Passed appetizers (this was a fried artichoke that was surprisingly just okay)

 

And an open bar!

While a speaker discussed a conference I lack the funds to attend, I tried my first Cosmopolitan. I did not like it, and was glad it was free.

one year

Steve, bless his heart, got his days mixed up and thought November 6 was a Saturday, meaning he accidentally arrived at an oil pipeline protest 24 hours early and made delightful anniversary plans for us for a day that was not our anniversary.

What it basically meant is that I got a multi-day anniversary extravaganza celebration weekend of delight :D And get ready, cause we did some serious, serious eating. In one weekend, we did a year’s worth of eating to celebrate a year’s worth of being together, essentially.

One of the fun things we did was the Appalachian Trail! Stove was very excited. (And, for the record, requested that I take this dorky picture)

We embarked at Sky Meadows, a park with great views that I’ve visited many times. It’s particularly dazzling this time of year with the foliage and whatnot.

Also, I knew for a fact there was an actively-fruit-producing apple tree adjacent to the parking lot, having scaled it and harvested some on a previous visit.

This time Steve did the honors.

Chomp chomp! This was a surprisingly sweet and delicious even late in the season. Yes, clearly it was a little cold.

 

Butt, warming me up quite nicely with some serious cardio, the first hour of the hike was almost entirely vertical, so I was quite happy when we took ourselves a break to refuel.

I’d packed sammiches.

TJ’s whole wheat flax tortillas; smear of fava bean dip; sprinkling of that awesome Arab cheese I was raving about; shredded carrot; arugula. Smashing.

I also had a few bites of buffalo jerky I’d picked up at the farmer’s market (chipotle flavor was better than teriyaki) and the roasted sweet potato (why not?) that Steve brought. He dominated those items, though :D

We ended up spending three and a half hours on the trail, reveling in the sunshine. Steve’d been excited to hike the Appalachian Trail because it’s generally nice for a Midwestern boy to experience actual changes in altitude and there’s just a whole cool mystique surrounding the Appalachian Trail.

It was beautiful up there, but with the signs that go, “West Virginia- take a left and walk for dozens of miles” (okay I’m paraphrasing) you really do kind of get the interstate feeling. A big, pedestrian highway on the mountaintops.

Anyway, we were deliciously tired upon the completion of our hike, and ready for serious eats.

Steve looked at me imploringly and said, “Can we go to the all you can eat Korean place?”

Ladies and gentleman, the delicious and troubling named Il Mee.

I had told Steve about it, he had salivated, I had wanted to save it for a day when I’d gotten a serious quantity of exercise.

Seriously, what ISN’T this place?

You arrive to a table with a grill on it, so you know there’s the traditional cooked-tableside Korean barbecue.

Sure enough, a wide variety of meats and seafood in various marinades.

But you look at the action-packed buffet through the pretty dark wood booths and realize… this will be so much more.

There are scads of covered hot dishes. If you are interested in sort of the food court experience, you can get every typical Asian thing- spring rolls, pork, noodles, and the like.

I am always drawn to the uniquely Korean selections like thin crepe-y pancakes made of seafood and/or kimchi

And the local specialty of Korean double fried chicken (!) and something I’ve only seen here- glazed Korean sweet potatoes, which are paler in color than American

Totally unique kinds of fish I’d never even heard of

     

And an absolutely epic display of kimchi and other pickled vegetables. By far the most unique and exotic part of this buffet.

 

But lest we forget…

Oh. My. God.

So. Much. Sushi.

All kinds of dazzling selections of sushi, with unique toppings (slivered almonds?!) and shapes (lookit the lovely cucumber rolls!)

Wash it all down with exotic beverages, sweet rice or cinnamon flavored. Some so-so fruit…

A baffling but entertaining soft serve machine!

Obviously, we were going to get our eat on.

Okay. So let’s suffice it to say that when I eat at an all you can eat buffet, I really eat  all I can eat.

This happens for several reasons

1. I want to get my money’s (or, after tense negotiations over the past several days, Steve’s money’s) worth
2. I am an indecisive Libra and want to try everything
3. How often does one get to eat enough sushi. Sushi is so expensive a la carte!
4. I was a genuinely starvin’ Marvin, having hiked for three and a half hours with a smallish lunch
and finally
5. I am addicted to food.

With that in mind, Plate #1, a mixed bag. Things I thought were old friends were less great on being reunited.

 

The mussels were fat and pretty good. The green beans were in an excessively thick and sweet sauce (they were at the bottom of a pan that was later refilled; perhaps party of the problem). The kimchi and oyster pancakes, usually one of my favorite Korean foods, were SO disappointing: bland and cornstarchy. Barely ate any. The glazed sweet potato slices (the mahagony colored cubes) were also something I had fondly, fondly remembered from my previous visit to the restaurant and were a whole lot of blah. The tempura was the saving grace of the plate. I mean, I only ate a bit, picking out the hot peppers. But dang, hot peppers in tempura batter? Count me in.

Next: sushi plate. Now we’re cookin’. Now we’re feeling good.

Everything on this plate? AWESOME.

You will never in a million years get me to describe every roll, but I will tell you that I basically tried one of everything- minus ones that included fake crab, since I don’t like it; and that the highlights included any of the ones that contained pickled veggies (the Korean trademark!)

^^and that shooter thing in the cup which tasted- I swear, fish, fish roe, pickled veggies, zippy sauce and all- like a taco.

Plate 3, slowing down but not daunted:

   

A few more nibbles of some of my favorites on the sushi; the green beans, which were better and fresher once the tray was refilled; a tempura shrimp; a mini-crab cake with a tangy and spicy soy-based sauce drizzled on it; a squid ring, a tofu strip, and in the center:

 

The most curious rice cake blob stewed with veggies. Totally great.

While you’re all judging me for the amount of food that was, let’s check in with the boy, shall we?

He also enjoyed healthy helpings of sushi and buffet items, but he experienced true joy right at our table, watching the barbecue happen.

Spicy marinated beef, pork, chicken and squid went onto the grill raw…

And came off it smelling amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. And tasty, too :D I tried a bit of each thing (more than a bit of the very tasty beef and squid, which I greatly preferred to the fatty pork and dry chicken).

Vastly overestimating his need for condiments, Steve went a little nuts by the pickled vegetables.

Tried to help him finish them off—they were all super tasty. That stuff in the lower left hand corner seemed to be, to the best of my description… pickled omelet shreds? Like, someone had cooked a flat pancake, thin sliced it, and tossed it together with a spicy sauce. It was totally great!

Back to my consuming and consuming :D

I enjoyed cups of both of the drinks, cinnamon and rice. Both were quite sweet and quite tasty.

 

Then I thought I was nearly finished but I happened to pass by the hot pots that I thought merely contained steamed rice and observe someone helping himself to PUMPKIN SOUP!

So I went crazy on that.

Times two.

Tasted rice-y, somehow. Hmm. Oh and great, too, obviously. Love all pumpkin always forever the end.

And some mediocre fruit (ate only the soft white parts of the melon) and I thought that might be a sweet red bean rice creation but it was only a regular red bean (and slightly undercooked at that) rice creation so I tried a bite and headed off.

The evening concluded with a riotous impromptu 90s dance party (it all began when Steve burned me an anniversary CD featuring a 90s dance remix of Total Eclipse of the Heart, one of our karaoke signatures).

Okay, actual anniversary.

We swore to each other we wouldnt’ plan something fancy, as we both get a little neurotic when something becomes an Occasion and a Big Deal and there are all these high expectations and it gets a bit competitive and we liken it to an “affection arms race”.

So we kept it casual and just hung out at Steve’s.

But then I felt compelled to dress up cause my boyfriend so often sees me dressed like a bum. So then he felt compelled to look nice.

He also did a snazzy ‘round the back movement while setting the table.

On the menu Steve decided to cook one of his favorite things I’ve cooked for him (and everyone else on earth; it’s one of my favorite summer recipes): corn and basil cakes. Agh it’s so good.

Even in November. With frozen corn :(

A lot of it has to do with the fact that I use cooking spray… and Steve fries it in butter!

 

Quite beautifully golden, eh?

 

He also made some olive-oil heavy roasted asparagus that was marvy

And roasted sweet potatoes, an ingredient Steve didn’t know could come sans marshmallow topping til he met me.

 

Here’s to many more, Honey Badger.