luray getaway

Had so much fun heading to the hills, where everything was coated with a magical layer of frost.

I say hills… you could say mountains, specifically the Shenandoah ones, except Skyline Drive (the ermagerd-such-amazing-views route traversing the mountain Chain) was closed. So the hills sort of near Skyline Drive.

A gorgey, if short, walk.

 

Short cause this (ooh so atmospheric!)

 

Became this (ooh imminent death!)

 

A few more parking lot shots…

     

And it was time for our next destination: a tour of Copper Fox Distillery. Nifty, right?! A hard likker interlude in the middle of a common wine tasting route.

Beautiful old building. I love these old doors (oh gosh I sound like the Instagram parody)

Cute sign.

We went in and parked ourselves in a cozy sitting area, next to an oh-so-warm fireplace that the animals enjoyed as well.

 

Feeling like an elderly Earl, I sat down with Whisky Advocate and smoked my pipe.

The distillery consists of good ol’ boys making whiskey and rye (teehee- when my sister was little she thought the song went, “And good old boys were drinking whiskey in bed”)

First stop is the grain room, guarded by a knight.

Li’l barley and rye bits hang out drying out.

Then they get smoked in the oven room across the hall. Copper Fox’s claim to fame is that they’re the only distillery in the world that uses fruit wood (from apple and cherry trees) to smoke their whiskey.

Various steps in fermentation. I’m going to be honest here: the tour was cool but our tour guide was sort of a first class d-bag who kept making terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE jokes. Do you want to hear a masturbation-related joke on a distillery tour? No? Me neither.

He was also just sort of vague and incoherent and didn’t truly seem to understand how the process even worked.

So… there are various machines. This is what they look like. Fermentation happens. Distillation happens. Aging in barrels happens. Etc.

    

They have kind of a nifty bottling conveyor belt contraption. Had to be very particular about how they do the wax seal on the top since Maker’s Mark has their wax seal trademarked (!)

  

We didn’t get to taste the whiskey, but we sniffed it. We did taste some of the soaking rye berries, pictured (looking sort of hideous) at right. Tasted like a vat of oatmeal!

Homebrew aficionados could take un-aged whiskey and rye spirits home and age them in these adorable mini barrels. Fun!

 

So concluded our tour.

Now it was about three in the afternoon and neither of us had eaten lunch, so we sat down for a… meal. Of some kind.

Steve and his man friends always go to this one pizza place every time they hike in the Shenandoahs. His eyes light up when he talks about said pizza. So off we went, to Rudy’s Pizza, in Sperryville.

It was… very very large. And very very cheesy.

 

I’m going to refer people to the common metaphor to describe pizza and another thing (when it’s good it’s really good, and when it’s bad it’s still pretty good) to discuss this pizza. It got the job done but I didn’t need to eat large quantities of it.

Back over the mountains we went to Luray. Specifically, to a lovely spot dating back to 1931, recently gore-jess-ly renovated, The Mimslyn Inn.

I cannot cannot say enough good things about The Mimslyn Inn.

I think you can often sense immediately how you’ll be treated at an establishment at how they treat you at check in. Maybe others can relate to the experience of arriving with a fairly fresh and dewy and youthful face, clutching a Groupon rather than an AmEx, and being treated rubbishly?

Well, such was not the case at this absolutely lovely inn, where the gracious and welcoming staff treated us like total stars the whole time we were there.

Plus, it was totally gorgeous. Welcoming, figuratively and literally warm lobby- the fireplace was fab!- and rooms that were comfortable, clean and well-equipped that still had furniture that reflected the age and character of the building.

  

Oh and BATHROBES! Every time I put on a hotel bathrobe (yknow, once every five years or so) I feel like Eloise at the Plaza. Initially there was just one, and I asked at the front desk if we could get another (so Steve could get the diva experience too, natch) and our wish was their command.

In general, I have a little bit of a love affair with Luray. Specifically this gem:

Gathering Grounds. The restaurant and coffee shop whose decor and baked goods I’d like to rip out and deposit in my own home. Note that the picture above was taken in daylight yet the pictures below were evening. That’s because on a less-than-18-hour trip to Luray, we went there twice.

So. Cute. Bookshelf ladders are the BEST!

 

Nice coffee bar with EPIC baked goods selection (how I wish I had the appetite for pie…)

The restaurant apparently used to be a hardware store (actually, all the buildings in town seemed to have some kind of cool history) and all sorts of neat architectural details and fixtures connected to that. Also thought the wine (whiskey?) barrels were a neat touch.

Seriously, if I were asked to describe my ideal home decor, I’d say, “Make my house this”. Cash register, customers, and all. I would happily sell cookies out of my house if my house were this pretty.

We sat at a wonderful cozy nook in the back on the couch with our tea and cookie.

       

I sort of can’t convey the awesomeness of that soft, buttery, gently spiced, cream-filled oatmeal cookie pie. I just hope all of you get to eat something as delicious some day.

Then we went to the equally awesomely-decorated movie theater (plush seats, random faux Greek statues and neon lights in the lobby; wonderfully campy!).

Annnnd… saw Silver Linings Playbook.

Guys, I cannot even put into words how much I love that movie. We can discuss that later.

In the meantime, we went back to the hotel lobby and enjoyed wine by the fire (note: they have a bar in the lobby that has a great selection of Virginia wines. LOVE.)

 

Sleepytime!

Woke up at the crack of dawn the next day. Boyf did not. So I wandered down to the lobby and had a free coffee and muffin (yum!) and the most delightful conversation with an older gentleman who’d been to the same inn in the sixties. He also discussed the potato chip factory (!) a few miles away where they do an annual tour/party in the summer (dude. happening). And traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway by motorcycle. He was basically awesome.

Steve finally awoke (sort of) a few hours later and we made our way down the big hill below the inn for a proper breakfast.

We went once again to the Purple Door, the place we visited last time we were in Luray (by which I mean camping near Luray with inadequate provisions).

My tea arrived in a mini pot, <3

 

Omelet was aight. Spinach, shrooms, and pepper jack.

Then we wandered around town for a bit. There was the COOLEST antiquey store- I think it was a co-op, with all these little stalls that had a wide variety of things. LOVED this:

The label read: “Old Original Vintage Labels: these vintage labels were removed from old factories mostly located around the town of Luray, Virginia. They date back to the 1930s-40s. They have never been used.”

I want to decorate my entire house with these. LOVE.

 

Then… time to go back to our favorite cafe!

Split a tomater soup. And Steve ordered some decadent creation involving white chocolate and cranberries.

 

And then we went for a stroll on Luray’s beautiful greenway! Love love love public works projects like this. Under the train tracks, next to a beautiful creek, all along the town’s edge. It was recently constructed, and was packed with people enjoying the sun. Why can’t all towns do this?!

 

korean and “thai”

Below, a tale of authentic and not-so-authentic ethnic cuisine experiments.

First, a trip to Lighthouse Tofu. That place is so great. I’ve blogged it many times, but always feel compelled to yet again on each visit, because the experience is such a delight. Mostly-Korean clientele (being in an ethnic minority in a restaurant for me tends to indicate that I’m about to eat really good food), Korean writing on the walls, cute silly bows on the windows.

I went to Lighthouse Tofu with my sister (er, so this was like two months ago, when she was still home on break) and my best friend, who was preparing for her move to Western Massachusetts by eating all of the delicious ethnic cuisine our multicultural area has to offer.

Like always, the menu was small and we all got the soon dubu, tofu stew of awesomeness.

But first, the parade of delights.

Hot barley tea, all smoky and comforting.

    

This soup stuff, like… tangy liquid salad. I think it’s a kimchi variation. It has crunchy, incredibly fresh tasting cabbage and an acidic and fabulous broth.

Then lotsa pickleys!

The traditional cabbage kimchi.

Cucumbers- though that sauce looks chili-y it isn’t at all hot. It’s got a spice I try and fail to identify but it skews slightly sweet.

Bean sprouts, vinegary and sesame-y.

And oh so delicious MYSTERY PICKLE. Does anyone know what this is? I LOVE IT.

 

Then it’s stew time! The arrival of the stews is an extremely exciting event. Everyone gets their own individual, screamin’ hot tureen. You grab a raw egg and crack it in while your dish is still bubbling, cooking the egg.

If you do it right, after a few minutes, you can pull out an intact yolk. Mmm.

(apologies, vegetarians, for that shrimp face)

All of the stews come with a wonderfully flavorful broth and the most perfect soft, silken tofu. I ordered the seafood variation, which had shrimp (heads on! vair flavorful), mussels and the like. I opted for the “spicy”, rather than the “spicy spicy”, since I didn’t need to cry that day :)

You’re given white rice on which to ladle your stew (which I recommend even with just one “spicy”; it’s nice to have something to cut that hotness!). The rest of the rice stays in a communal hot pot, getting a little toasty on the bottom and steeping with s’more of the barley tea to make a post-meal beverage that’s the perfect end to the meal.

      

And now for something completely different!

I lost a bet with Steve and generally our bet terms involve food. So I made a meal for Steve of the cuisine of his choosing- Thai!

It ended up being kind of a soup-a-thon, which is definitely my favorite kind of –a-thon.

First, a pretty tasty vegetarian tom kha. I loved using real lemongrass- I actually had a lemongrass paste that had been in my freezer Lord knows how long… and it worked!

 

Also, since we’re all friends here, I’ll tell you I added extra coconut milk. Is anyone surprised? Also added one of my favorite H-Mart purchases, oyster mushrooms. Those things are incredible- such depth of flavor. Real meaty-like.

The next soup was GREAT! Inventive, whacky combination of ingredients (mango nectar plus peanut butter, anyone?). I recommend it just if you’re interested in trying something new: Thai style pumpkin soup. I used kabocha squash and just baked it up and scraped it out and added it midway through cooking. Worked great.

 

And finally, duh, this is Thai cooking, pad thai! I used this Cooking Light recipe as a jumping-off point and then we made some adaptations based on what we like (bean sprouts instead of cabbage, etc). I’m going to be honest that even though Steve won this bet and I was supposed to be his slave, he did the vast majority of the work on this :)

Just look at those strong arms!

And so a feast was laid.

It’s not quite the experience I had in sunny Thailand… no elephant riding or anything. Still, for a bunch of American cooks, it was pretty impressive, and VERY tasty.

the grain bowl

Once upon a time, I spent wayyyyyyy too much money on lunch.

I spent the morning working out and studying my booty off. It was cold and nasty and I couldn’t envision any food at home that seemed to meet any parameters in terms of hunger satisfaction or delivery of nutrients. And I was (kind of) in the neighborhood of the new Mom’s, which I’d yet to check out. It was thoroughly, thoroughly mind boggling, and had a terribly convenient (albeit ludicrously overpriced) little take out market where they’d make you a steamed bowl of joy. I managed to restrain myself from paying another $5 for fresh juice, and came home with this:

The Peruvian Bowl! (Note: that is what they call it. I can just imagine someone Peruvian looking at this and going “…”). Anyway, it was DARN good. Brown rice, black beans, avocado, tempeh, and the thing that made it awesome times 1,000: chimichurri! Crazy flavorful, tons o fat chimichurri.

It was also warm and stick to your ribs-y on this icky, icky day I ate it. So basically we were best friends.

 

 

It was a rather large meal, and had also cost me $$$, so I was delighted when I was pretty full and there was still a decent amount of the bowl left.

The next day I set about revamping it into Grain Bowl: Take 2. Somehow all of the avocado and tempeh had mysteriously vanished (… weird) so I jazzed it up with:
- crispy kale (loved the textural dimension this added to it!)
- roasted mushrooms
- hardboiled egg

STILL great! Uglier…

  

Obviously this meal would have been considerably more attractive had I moved it to a new bowl. But washing extra dishes wastes water. And also time.

   

So THEN I went: Self, you can’t drop that kind of bank on lunch every day. Furthermore, it is morally and intellectually ridiculous when you know how inexpensive those ingredients actually are. So, you are just going to have to MAKE YOUR OWN.

And this will make a great default meal. Oatmeal has always been my default meal for breakfast. I can make it in my sleep, it is physically and emotionally satisfying to me, I can customize it in a variety of ways to keep myself from getting bored, etc. A salad with a poached egg on top serves the same purpose for me for dinner.

So the grain bowl. Breaking down its components:

- Grain (duh)
- Vegetables (for some reason it is much easier for me to eat vegetables in this form than in a salad. I think it’s all weather related. I’ve started to notice an alarmingly strong correlation between the weather and my mood- yet another reason I should never live in Siberia- and the same seems to be true for the weather and my appetites)
- sauce for jazz that ideally incorporates a healthy fat

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

To make the grain bowl happen, I recommend making a megabatch of whole grains at the beginning of the week. Quinoa was my jam this week: complete protein, holla!

This bowl had grains; scads of roasted mushrooms; chickpeas; egg for protein; walnuts for crunch, healthy fat, and awesomeness; and finally, some sort of green sauce that I cannot for the life of me remember. I actually can’t remember making this meal and was baffled to find it on my memory card. Always reassuring, memory loss at the age of 24.

 

It’s good that this had walnuts. Walnuts= omega 3’s= memory. Clearly I need them.

 

This one I ate yesterday, and I do remember it.

Grains, roasted carrots ‘n broccoli, avocado, egg on top. And for the piece de resistance, homemade cilantro pesto! Mark Bittman’s recipe. Just cilantro, oil, garlic, and salt. Lovely.

Sooooooo many cooooooooolors!

  

And this one was my absolute favorite, due mostly to methodology, because I made everything stovetop and I think it amped up the flavor.

I began by cooking some mushrooms just in cooking spray. Then I added leftover roasted carrots ‘n broccoli (from the day before: win!), a few leftover grilled peppers from a meal out, and 1/2 a cup of Trader Joe’s fat free refried black beans. And the quinoa. And then that got sticky and I added the cilantro pesto to help unstick stuff from the bottom of the pan… but it still got nice and crusty :)

Served atop a bad of greens for extra veggie love (and because the greens were looking rather dismal and needed using!). Topped with avocado for extra awesomeness.

    

Fact: quinoa is really good when it gets toasted. Less airy. More stick-to-ya-ribs.