A Birthday Lunch at FF

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!* Oh and how happy it was. Happy I shared it with MLK Jr. and happy I spent the entire birthday weekend (beginning on Thursday!) with my MAN, the big honcho… my main squeeze. As you will see from my post, I think HE enjoyed my birthday a little more than MOI! And it is all thanks to the wonderfulness that is FOUNDING FARMERS.

Enjoying the flying ducks and cotton-like clouds up there??

FANTASTIC concoctions for lunch. Of course it’s not too early for cocktails! On the left is the Constitution and on the right is the Farmers Smash. I got a gin mixed with blueberries, tea, ginger, and lemon, while Shek opted for the Founding Farmers Rye, muddled lemon, orange ginger syrup, and bitters. I really loved mine because it had a tasty kick whereas his was a little too strong for me.

Left: Drinks ———— Right: Mr. Handsome

Left: Lovely milk bottle for H2O ———- Right: Amazing app, Pitchfork

We got the combo Pitchfork, which was a combo of tater tots and glazed bacon. Both were amazing and wonderful and delicious. LOVED IT! Another customer accidentally bumped into our table and knocked a tater down, but fear not, our gracious hostess brought out another fresh one. So courteous, thank you Founding Farmers.

Credits for the above photo and the one of the cocktails goes to my sweetie. He loves his camera. For our main dishes, he ordered the Slow Braised Short Ribs. MELTS OFF THE BONE. yes. delicious. mouth wateringly delicious… comes with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. For the ribs, the sauce was so perfect, they put the appropriate amount and it was wonderful.

I had the pleasure of dining on one of the best fried chicken dishes OF MY LIFE. I ordered the Northern Fried Chicken,  which comes with potato latkes, apple sauce, sour cream and chives, and pickled beets. They also include a tin of a garlic oil sauce to dip the chicken. The Northern Fried chicken is crispier than southern style, but just as juicy. The chicken was perfectly moist and I loved the crispy outside. I’m dying to know how they made it! What kind of magical cast iron skillet do they have in their kitchens?!??

Of course, no visit is complete without the pressed coffee, and bread pudding with vanilla cream. mm. mm. good.

AND, they leave your check in a cute old fashioned tin mail box. A D O R A B L E. I am so enamored with Founding Farmers. Fondly infatuated <3

*Yes, my birthday was over a week ago and this post is unfortunately late AND I’ve already broken my NYE resolution (to blog every Sunday). I’ll keep up from now on, and really work on scheduling my posts better! Again, wonderful birthday weekend… oh yeah, another birthday post about a tea party, coming at you soon

Matchbox (DC & Rockville)

This post is extremely late. Oh well.

Among chains in this area, I do believe Matchbox is one of the better ones, especially for pizza. They should watch out though, because Pi pizzeria has moved in and their pizza is pretty damn good.

Below are drinks Shek and I had while waiting for our pizzas in the Rockville location. Do not get cocktails because they are overpriced for the combination of alcohol splash and juice/water Matchbox gives you. Definitely stick to the beer!

We got a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and the fixings. I love how they add herbs and parmesan to their ginormous onion rings. Very good. On the right is a Spicy Meatball Pizza… soooooooo yummy– one of my fave pizzas there.

On the next outing, Rockville again, we met up with friends and ordered the crab avocado appetizer. I first tried this app in DC at the Chinatown location. The picture above is much different from the first one I tried. In Chinatown they presented it as a salad with crab cakes and avocado sitting on a bed of greens. This was good, just a little more fancy. The pizzas were a combination of prosciutto, arugula, herbs, cheese…. pretty good, but meatball is still my favorite. And for dessert? A type of banana chocolate bread pudding, REALLY SWEET. Not sure if I would order it again.

So yes, Matchbox is a good chain, with expensive and weak cocktails, but good wood fired pizzas.

NYC – C = Rochester

A few months ago, my BFF (E*) and I flew out to Rochester to visit a good high school buddy (also college friend for me). I’ve never been to that part of New York and it was my first time seeing Niagara Falls! It was a really good, relaxing, and fun trip.

First set of pix is from Heart Island. Long story short– wealthy man falls in love and demonstrates his love to his wife by building her an island in the shape of a heart and a castle as well. Unfortunately, wealthy man’s lovely wife died before he could finish, and he put a full stop to construction immediately because of his heartbreak.

Read more here: Boldt Castle.

Boldt Castle on Heart Island is located in the 1000 Islands cluster of New York. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s true. The thousand islands dressing comes from this area. Tada! Before hitting up the island, we made a lunch stop at Koffee Kove in Clayton, New York. Sorry, I missed out on food pix. It was really pleasant, and definitely an island neighborhood atmosphere, quiet and quaint. Food was clean and simple.

Rochester is also the home of WEGMANS! This is only one of the BEST grocery stores in the U. S. of A. There are very few, but when you do come across one, go ahead and make a meal or two out of it, plus dessert.

Does anyone recognize what these plants are? Apparently they are Nertera, but I have no idea what that is. They look like miniature clementines, like itty bitty. I’m not sure if they’re edible, but I’m leaning towards decorative. Found them in Wegmans…

We picked up an assortment of olives, cheese, crackers, bread, grapes, and paired them with wine we picked up from a local winery near the islands. So delicious~

DINOSAUR BBQ! Our host LOVES this place, and claims it as the best BBQ in Rochester. We believed him. It was pretty fantastic. I’ve tried a variety of BBQ’d ribs now and realize that Carolina sauce is my favorite. The ribs here were more of a dry rub… what’s that one called? Well, anyway, we got a good assortment of beans, mac/cheese, fries, brisket, slaw, corn bread, and ribs. The meat and sides tasted pretty great. I wasn’t a fan of all the sauces, but again, I’m a Carolina girl.

And of course I have to end with pictures of Niagara. WOW. These are the biggest falls I’ve seen and were definitely worth seeing. We could only do the U.S. side because of time, so I still have never set foot in Canada. I guess that will be for another day. They say the falls look much better on the Canadian side, but I didn’t mind the US side so much. It was still amazing… plus we got to ride the boat INTO the falls!! Now THAT was exciting and funny b/c we were pretty wet… the rain that decided to fall after didn’t help much either.

               

All in all, a pretty awesome trip with my Dulaney friends, 1st time to 1000 Islands and Niagara, and some good eatin’ along the way.

2011 in review by WordPress

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,800 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

This was a pretty thorough and good report. It’s convinced me to stay on and continue my blog. So, consider this my first entry for 2012 (wow)! Thanks WordPress. And hope everyone will look forward to more great foodie posts with me

CHEERS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!