Travelling Lore

On our Presidents' Day off we decided to fit in a couple of winery visits before the snow hit our area.  With the snow fall projected to start around 3 pm, we opted to go to those a little closer to home than all that way at the top of Loudoun County. Our first stop was 8 Chains North Winery .  I was enticed by the mention of their 2010 wines on their website as 2010 was a great vintage for Northern Virginia.  Unfortunately, they'd already sold out of those bottles otherwise I probably would have bought one or two!  We still enjoyed our tasting, though, and our Tasting Associate, Sean, was very amiable and knowledgeable about the wines as well as the ins and outs of the winery. Currently they have five wines on their tasting menu for an $8 tasting fee: 2012 LoCo Vino (Vidal Blanc, Traminette, and Sauvignon Blanc blend); 2013 Chardonnay; 2013 Herencia Altes Garnatxa; 2013 Syrah; and a 2013 Tempranillo.  The LoCo Vino and Chardonnay are made from Virginia-grown grapes

I found this delicious recipe for Nutella truffles with Frangelico on My Baking Addiction 's blog a couple of weeks ago.  I had hoped to post this for Valentine's Day dessert inspiration, but didn't have the time to make them until the day of.  Valentine's Day or not, these homemade truffles are rich, nutty, and perfect for any time of the year. This recipe calls for toasted hazelnuts.  The grocery store had none in stock, so I bought raw hazelnuts instead and toasted them at home.  Raw hazelnuts have a dark skin, which you can choose to remove before toasting them or not.  I chose to remove the skins and followed a very helpful tip on how to peel hazelnuts .  It's incredibly easy to do and all you need is boiling water and baking soda. Bring two cups of water to boil, add 3 tablespoons of baking soda (the water will foam up), and put the hazelnuts in the boiling solution for 4 minutes.  The water will turn black from the pigment in the hazelnut skins, b

A couple of weeks ago a friend shared a recipe for this Butternut Squash and Beef Stew .  If you follow the paleo diet (which I do not), this recipe is perfect for you.  If you don't follow the paleo diet, this recipe is still perfect for you.  The directions call for the use of a crock pot, but since I don't own one I made stew the old fashioned way: in a regular pot. The first time I made beef stew (using this recipe , more or less) I didn't have the time to let the meat stew for a couple of hours; so while the flavor was great, the meat was still rather tough.  This time I let the whole kit and caboodle stew in a pot for 2.5 hours on low and voila, beautifully tender stew meat! After gathering the ingredients for the stew (see recipe ), lightly brown the stew meat on medium heat. Next add all of the remaining ingredients except for the mushrooms and spinach.  If you're using a crock pot, set it to low and let it cook for six hours.  If you're us

Yesterday my boyfriend and some friends spent our afternoon at Fauquier County's Wine Tasting and Competition at Airlie .  It was a wonderful change to have some of the local wineries all in one place instead of driving around to each one.  Out of the 10 wineries at the event I'd only been to one in person.  Since there are already so many wineries "near" us in Loudoun County, whose wineries I'm currently trying to cross off, I had never really taken the time to drive out to Fauquier County's wineries. Despite this being the first year for Fauquier County's Wine Tasting and Competition, there wa, unsurprisingly, a large turnout.  While at the event we were told that currently a lot of Virginia's wineries send their wines off to out-of-state competitions in order to receive accolades.  Aside from the Virginia Governor's Cup, there aren't really any other well known state competitions.  Hopefully now that those in charge have seen res