Fiesta!

Austin and I hosted a Mexican fiesta over the weekend, and we had a great time hosting the party.  With our wedding coming up, I had my first bridal shower earlier this month.  I received so many amazing presents, and I couldn't wait to use them.  My philosophy is that we can use the gifts once thank you notes were sent out, so I wrote those notes and mailed them right away :)  Our fiesta was the first time I could use some of the great serving pieces family and friends gave us!

Fiesta Menu
Seasoned ground beef
Homemade Tortillas
Taco Fixings- Tomatoes, Cheese, Sour Cream, Salsa, Lettuce, Sauteed Onions, Guacamole
Cilantro Lime Rice
Sangria
Chips and Salsa
Dos Equis, Budweisers' Lime-A- Ritas (surprisingly taste like a margarita), and Corona
Brownies and S'mores Cookies

Austin decorated the house with red, green, and white streamers, and we were even able to show off our new dining room set (yay Craigslist!).

I made a lazy person's Sangria- 1 large bottle Arbor Mist Sangria, 1 bottle red wine, orange slices, lime slices, and cut strawberries.  Yum!

The tortillas were super easy to make.  I bought a Quaker mix for tortillas, and all it took was adding water to the mix.  While they were easy to make, they were very time consuming, especially because I made 36.  I'm glad we have an electric griddle, so I could make 3-4 tortillas at a time.  With my next attempt at tortilla making, I will do my best to make them circular :)

Making tortillas!

Finished product- I think they look pretty good!

I also made Cilantro Lime Rice.  I think it might be a little healthy than Chipotle's version since I used brown rice.  Thanks to Two Peas and Their Pod for the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked brown rice

1 teaspoon butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

1 (15 ounce) can vegetable broth

1 cup water

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

4 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Directions

In a saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 2 teaspoons of lime juice, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice, sugar, and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice and mix.

It was a wonderful fiesta!!

Pre-party!

Post-party...

Red, White, and Brew (Wine on Highway 151)-- Part 3

Along Highway 151 in Nelson County, there are over a dozen wineries and breweries.  We went to about half of the wineries and could have spend another couple days there to visit them all.





The first one was Veritas, and they were open at 10 am!

The next one was Afton Mountain, and we drove on a 1 1/2 lane dirt road hoping we were on the right road.

Austin was the cornhole champion at Afton Mountain.

After that, we headed to Cardinal Point.  This winery was a little less formal than the first two.  The entrance to the winery had love spelled out in wine barrels...very cute!

The next day, we went to two more wineries.  Hilltop Berry Farm was once a pick-your-own blackberry farm, and they only made berry wines-- with none of the wines being grape-based.  Their wines were really different from the others we drank during the "weekend," so I'm glad this was one of the vineyards that the winery suggested.

Check out the vines-- they're berries instead of grapes.

The last winery was Wintergreen Winery.  They had the prettiest logo and good wine to finish up our wine tastings.  Our B&B even had two bottles waiting for us when we checked in.

At every winery we visited, we bought at least one bottle of wine.  Check out our loot!

Food in Nelson County-- Part 2

Yum-- that pretty sums up everything about the food we had during our mid-week weekend.  Every meal was better than the last.

First dinner was at the Blue Toad Pub.  It was right down the road from the Inn.  They had bottled beer representing every state, but of course, we got beer that was brewed right down the street at Blue Mountain Brewery.

The next day we started our wine tastings (and visited three wineries), and let's just say we needed something hearty for lunch :)  We went to the Blue Ridge Pig for BBQ.

I think we knew this would be great BBQ solely based on the sign.

Pork brisket sandwich with potato salad and macaroni salad.

Clearly, I thought it was delicious.  Great picture too, huh?!?

Dinner that same day was at Devils Backbone Brewing Company.  The history of the brewing company and restaurant was really neat since much of the exterior and interior of the building was re-purposed from county barns and buildings that were no longer in use.  All the food was local if not grown by the restaurant itself.  We started with their flight of beer-- 4 2 oz tasting glasses (I was done with alcohol for the night, but Austin had a pint of his favorite).

Beers were yummy, but the food was even better.  We started off with the nachos.  Fresh corn chips, topped with roasted peppers, black beans, and smothered with spicy, melted queso.  Topped with Pico de Gallo.  Amazing!

For dinner, I had pan-seared trout, and it was excellent.  Pan-seared cornmeal-dusted Rainbow trout served over smoky-bacon cheese grits and sautéed Brussels sprout petals.  Topped with roasted tomato butter and accompanied by smoked-corn guacamole.

Austin has a man's man burger:  the smokehouse burger.  A half-pound, all natural beef patty.  Piled with house-smoked pulled pork, bacon, o-rings, Muenster cheese and our house-made Backbone BBQ sauce.  Loaded onto corn-dusted jalapeno toast.  

The whole experience at Devils Backbone was great.  We sat outside in an enclosed porch.  It was chilly out, but the restaurant had blankets on the back of chairs for me to wrap myself with.....so thoughtful!

Wild Wolf Brewing was our last destination in Nelson County.  The brewery is the old high school building, so it was cool to eat and drink in an old school :)  Their beer was the best we had all weekend, and my favorite was the Blonde Hunny Ale...tasted like Blue Moon but even better!

I had a delicious fried chicken salad.  They grilled romaine lettuce and topped it with gorgonzola, bacon, and lemon vinaigrette.  I need to learn how to make this at home...I was licking the plate clean!

Dessert was also heavenly.  I lived in central Pennsylvania for three years and went to almost all the fairs in the countries in and surrounding where I lived.  The best part of the fairs (not counting the great country music, tractor pulls, kids showing their animals, etc) are the deep-fried oreos.  Wild Wolf had deep fried oreos (oreos inside funnel cake batter) for dessert, and I was required to order it.  AMAZING.

The whole "weekend" was great, but I would go back for the food.  They also have live music in the summer at both breweries, so I see a repeat trip in our future...    

Mid-Week Weekend-- Part 1

Last May, I got a great deal from Living Social-- 2 nights at a B&B in Virginia Wine Country for Austin and me to take advantage of wine and beer tasting in the area.  Austin and I were so excited to use it before I started my job last September.  Time got away from us, so we decided to use it during spring break (and before it expired!).  The deal was only good Sunday-Thursday nights, so we had a wonderful mid-week weekend.

Our destination was Nelson County, VA and the Mark-Addy Inn.  We didn't pass one stop light during our mini-vacation and not a chain restaurant or fast-food restaurant in sight.  Weather was beautiful, if you don't count the wind :)

The inn was super cute with each of the rooms having different decor.  Ours was Rue de Monet, and as one could guess, Monet prints were everywhere.  It was bright and cheery-- the epitome of what I think of as a room in a B&B.

Highlighting our time at the B&B was of course the food!  Breakfast the two mornings there was delicious.  The first day was a breakfast quiche and fruit oatmeal.  Day two's breakfast is below in picture form:

Yummy fruit cup with homemade whipped cream. 

Eggs Benedict and homemade breakfast potato chips. 

Every part of our trip was amazing....stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of our mid-week weekend-- Food in Nelson Country and Red, White, and Brew (Wine on Highway 151).