A Day with Tom and Ann

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful if chilly day, a great day for the easy drive over to Tom and Ann's in Capon Bridge. Carter protested going over and over to the point where we had to threaten him with losing every privilege he has to get him to shut up. He sulked all the way over, but that silence was golden!

After we were effusively and hyperenthusiastially greeted by Levi, we spied that Tom had already opened four bottles of wine: a 2011 Sokol Blosser Pinot, a 2012 Owen Roe "The Kilmore" Pinot, a 2011 Hartford Court Old Vine Zin, and the star of the day, a 2010 Insignia. Insignia isn't generally my style of wine, but this one was delicious.

Wine Star of the Day

Neither of the Pinots really floated my boat, but the Owen Roe really bloomed when tasted with these bison meatballs with a gochujang-apricot glaze. Not only were the meatballs delicious in their own right, but the spice in the glaze and the ginger in the meatballs really made the Pinot sing. I have got to remember this for my own pairing dinners.

Bison Meatballs with Gochujang-Apricot Glaze: Culinary Star of the Day

Cornbread with Bacon

Cold Day, Hot Stew!

For dinner, Tom made a big pot of venison stew which he served with cornbread. That's a pretty good choice for a cold December day!

Venison Stew on Cornbread

After lunch, we adults watched "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" with a whole cast of our favorite actors, while the boys snoozed away the afternoon on the couch.

Levi and His Buddy Carter

Once again, thanks to Tom and Ann for their hospitality and kudos to Tom for another wonderful meal.

Linden Vineyards

2014 has been a tough year financially for the restaurant and that has really put a damper on our ability to get out and visit wineries like we had been accustomed to in the past. I knew it had been a while since we visited Linden, but it really struck home when we pulled up out front to see that they have undergone a renovation of the winery since our last visit back in April: new windows, some new siding, new doors, a new tasting counter, and one doorway closed off. The upstairs is also now open and looks much different with large, arched windows filling each of the gable ends.

Beautiful in all Seasons

I had figured that the weekend after Thanksgiving would be a great weekend to visit, the snow and the holiday keeping traffic low. And it was: traffic was minimal. Not good for the winery, but not unexpected, but very good for us. When I visit, I like to take my time and taste the wines and compare and contrast them with vintages past and that is nearly impossible to do when people are lined up three deep at the tasting counter behind me.

We tasted through the current line up very unhurriedly. Most of the wines I had not tasted before (well, I am sure I have tasted a bunch of them in barrel) as they are mainly from the 2012 vintage. It's pretty obvious that the lack of wine in 2011 is forcing Jim to release wines more quickly than I am sure that he would like. New to me were 2012 Chardonnay, 2012 Claret, 2012 Petit Verdot, and 2010 Hardscrabble Red. They are all delicious but the Petit Verdot needs a good bit more time before it is ready.

Lunch Outside on the Deck

Despite the snow on the ground, it was a very pleasant 60 degrees outside and we took advantage of the beautiful weather to have lunch out on the deck, the only people to do so. The venison summer sausage and the Meadowcreek Appalachian cheese are old stand bys. The smoked duck from the Marshall IGA is new and is a bit too heavily smoked for my liking. Delicious, but too much smoke. The Merry Goat Round goat brie from Firefly Creamery is new to Linden in my experience, but it is a regular on our cheese plates at the restaurant.

2013 Hardscrabble Red Barrel Sample

Unbeknownst to us, Jim was doing library tastings this weekend (a 30-year retrospective of Hardscrabble: had we known, we would have signed up). While we were out on the deck and between tastings, he came out to say hi bearing a small carafe of 2013 Hardscrabble Red from the barrel. It's a young, fiery beast with good minerality and structure. I am looking forward to tasting it in a few years when it calms down.

Tasting in the Cellar

We also did a cellar tasting where we tasted Boisseau 2012 Chardonnay against Hardscrabble 2012, Boisseau 2010 Red versus 2012, and Late Harvest Vidal 2007 with Late Harvest Petit Manseng 2009. The Boisseau 2012 Chardonnay is probably the finest Chard from that site that I have yet tasted; clearly it has been picked earlier than in years past and has more acid to help it balance. The 2012 Hardscrabble Chard is to me the finest Chard that Jim has ever made, very nicely balanced and very Burgundian. I'm very familiar with both dessert wines: we pour both of them at the restaurant. The Petit Manseng is always over the top.

It was a great day with Ann to be able to sit and savor delicious wine.

Christmas Feast

Ann decided that we should do a low-key Christmas Day, so she invited Tom and Ann over for movies and we munched on a lot of salame and cheese. Although Ann says I grumbled about watching Love Actually for the umpteenth time, I think I was a good sport about watching it yet again. I fall neither into the lover nor the hater category. I think there are parts of the screenplay that are very good and there are parts that are equally ridiculous. And so it is not on my list of must-see-again flicks.

I made a pork and bacon terrine which you see in the top middle of this photo. Also we had venison summer sausage, chorizo picante, two quasi-local cheeses: a Valençay clone (the white goat cheese) and Grayson (the washed rind cheese with the golden paste). Also, a 5-year old Gouda that is fantastic.

We love Olympic Provisions salame (to my knowledge, they make the best salame in the US) and we got three of our favorites: Loukanika, Nola, and Salchichón. Everyone loves Salchichón; it is the best salame that OP makes: the spicing is incredible. And naturally, it was the first to go.

My Ann baked two loaves of her fabulous bread on which we spread this little crock of nduja, that I got from La Quercia in Iowa, a leader of the American cured meat renaissance. I'm tasting as much nduja as possible, gearing up to cure my own. This, I am sad to say, is not a great effort, being made from prosciutto scraps and not raw meat. It takes like slightly stale spicy ham salad. Not what I hoped for.



Olives, Peppers, and Lupini

I have found a marinated olive mix that contains lupini, often called lupini/lupine beans in English. I really enjoy them and tried making them once. They are the seed of the beautiful lupines that you see growing roadside all over Europe. The raw seeds contain toxic alkaloids that are leeched out of the beans via continual soaking in many changes of salted water over an extended time, just like curing olives. And then they have to be peeled like favas. Can you say giant pain in the ass? I knew you could. Buy them already prepared; too labor-intensive to do yourself.

Fredericksburg, VA

I have lived in Virginia most of my life and have visited quite a lot of it, but I had never spent any time in Fredericksburg until the Monday before Christmas. Sure, I have passed through it on US highways 1 and 17 heading to DC and to the beach respectively and sure, I have driven by hundreds of times on I-95, but I have never stopped to take in the city until just now. The restaurant being closed on a Tuesday (Christmas Eve) afforded us the opportunity to get away from Funchester for an evening of adult fun.

Our friends Pete and Laurie moved from Gainesville (within visiting range) to Fredericksburg (outside visiting range) about three years ago when Pete was able to buy an insurance agency down there. And in the interim, we just haven't found a way to get together. We finally did manage to get together and because they live right downtown in an old converted factory, we got a great look at downtown Fredericksburg all decorated for Christmas as we made our way to their house. It's quite a beautiful town full of colonial and Civil War history and lots of historic architecture. I'd like to go back and see more of the town than we saw on our 18-hour whirlwind visit.


Venison Summer Sausage

Old Gouda, Always a Favorite

They had munchies all laid out for us when we arrived and after 90 minutes driving through the pouring rain, we were happy to be warm and having cocktails. Believe it or not, Pete made me my first Martini ever. I am not a liquor drinker and the thought of drinking gin up in a glass didn't appeal too much to me, but I really didn't mind it: it was much better than I thought it would be.

Laurie...

...and Ann Kibitzing over Cocktails

This sign is appropriate: we took our two beasts to meet Sadie, Pete and Laurie's lab mix who was a good sport and shared her beds and toys with our dogs.

Don't All Dog Lovers?

After cocktails, we bundled up and walked a couple of blocks to kybecca for dinner. Given that it was Monday night, our options for dining were limited and I for one am very thankful that others were working so that I could play for a change. It doesn't happen very often. And the place was hopping busy, clearly much busier than they expected and were staffed and prepped for. I'm guessing that so many people had the night before Christmas Eve off that they wanted to go out and socialize. Our server handled it like a champ though and I certainly tipped her well for running all night long.

kybecca is primarily a small plates concept, something that I have tried to get to fly without any success in Winchester for years, and so we ordered all the small plates on the menu, except for the boquerones which were 86'ed when we got there.

We ordered lobster spring rolls, shrimp and pork cigars, apples and Manchego, crispy pork belly, frites with cilantro aïoli, Spam and kimchee sliders, and fried Brussels sprouts along with a beet salad from the salad portion of the menu. The spring rolls and pork cigars are standard drinking food. The pork belly was just barely OK; the product we make at the restaurant would embarrass this. The frites were among the best I have ever had and we had to have two orders, they were that good! The Spam sliders were awesome drunk food, but we each only got a nibble because they too were 86'ed when we tried to reorder. The sprouts and the beets were good enough but not memorable. The apple and Manchego salad really was a throw away. I would either rework it or take it off the menu.


Lobster Spring Rolls at kybecca

They have a great selection of wines in Enomatic machines for glass pours, but we ordered off the bottle list, which, compared to what I am used to is a little small and mostly composed of wines that are not my style. Rather than push my palate with one of the many fruit bombs on the list, we had a couple bottles of 2008 Linden Hardscrabble, tried, true, food friendly, and always delicious. I don't usually play it safe when going out, but our server was clearly way too busy for us to play 20 questions in the process of finding a palate-friendly wine. Next time.

Our boy Pete likes to eat so we also ordered a couple big plates: a hanger steak and a confited duck leg. The steak was well enough cooked, but didn't do anything for me in that I am totally spoiled by the local beef that we get at the restaurant. Moreover, the duck confit was just passable and well intentioned but didn't have the depth of flavor that it should have. I should give classes in how to confit things.

In any case, we had a great time at kybecca, great service considering the circumstances, and it is a concept after our own hearts. We'd certainly give it another shot.

Pete and I finished the night back at the house with a touch of whiskey, a local small batch product from Bowman's (known in my day across Virginia colleges as suppliers of some really bottom end aka "affordable" stuff) called Abraham Bowman Pioneer Spirit, a very nice bourbon-like whiskey and as good as any bourbon that I've had recently.


Breakfast at 2400 Diner

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we started by clearing cobwebs with coffee. After coffee, we got a mini-tour of town from Pete on the way to his office, which sits oh-so-conveniently cater-cornered from the 2400 Diner, where naturally, they know him by name.

After checking in at Pete's office in a repurposed historic hotel, we popped across the street around 11:15 to the diner, thinking that we had good timing: after breakfast and before lunch. No such luck. It was jammed and we had to leave a phone number and take a walk down the hill to the Rappahannock River while waiting on a table to clear.

It's a classic Greek diner with a few stools at the counter and booths around the outside. The Greek influence becomes apparent on the lunch and dinner menus, but we came for breakfast. I ordered chipped beef and the server asked me what I wanted it served on. Seriously? Toast. Duh! I then asked her why it was even a question and she said some people like it on biscuits, but then she opined, "Biscuits are for gravy." And so they are. Ann ordered scrapple because she had never had it before and it was pretty decent scrapple, though I like a touch more cornmeal to mine so that it is a touch firmer. Not sure that Ann would ever order it again, but I am so happy that she is open to trying anything.

Prices are extremely reasonable for breakfast and the food is decent enough; needless to say, the portions are vast. We did have to wait about 45 minutes from order to food arriving, so the kitchen was clearly backed up and I didn't really see the reason for it. I could have knocked out breakfast for all the tables in the house in 20-25 minutes. Maybe they just work in slow-mo there. If I lived nearby, I might visit once or twice a year, but I cook a lot better breakfast at home, though that's true for most things.

After breakfast, we got another little tour of the downtown and then we finally had to hit the road back to Winchester, driving through a few crazy snow squalls as we crossed into the Shenandoah Valley and home territory.

Dinner with Dan, Yael, and Naama

Sunday evening we went out into the north part of the county to have dinner with Dan and Yael Ben-Daat and their daughter Naama. Carter went with us, making our party six. In 18 months, Yael has most industriously carved a large organic garden and orchard out of what was nothing before and she supplies us things at the restaurant that other growers don't grow: chickpeas, artichokes, borage, and so forth. She wanted us to come see her farm, of which she is obviously and justifiably proud, and so kindly invited us to dinner. It took about a nanosecond to agree to come: people who are willing to cook for a chef are few and far between. Most people miss the part that chefs pretty much eat anything and are not at all critical when other people are cooking for them: it's such a rare treat.

Artichoke in Bloom

Chickpeas (tiny green pod upper left)

When we arrived, we got the grand tour of the gardens and orchards and then went into to a huge three-course feast. It is clear that Yael and Naama love cooking and that they had been at it all day. We started with a beautifully arranged appetizer plate (enough for a whole meal!) of shredded cucumber salad, a moussaka of venison (from the back yard), and a pattypan squash stuffed with mushrooms. I would have been very satisfied to stop there, but then they started bringing platter after platter of dinner from the kitchen to the dining room.

Smoked Turkey in Pastry

How gorgeous is this smoked turkey breast coated with sun-dried tomato pesto and wrapped in pastry? Dan smoked the turkey himself and it was very moist and delicious. If I weren't so full, I could have eaten a lot more than the half slice that I did eat.

Roasted Veg, Yum!

These roasted vegetables were awesome! I love roasted vegetables of any kind and these all scattered with cloves of roasted garlic were amazing. My favorites were the beets, but there were also butternut squash, three colors of potato, sweet potato, and broccoli. I loved them all.

Wheat Berries, Roasted Beans and Tomatoes

I could have gorged on this platter of wheat berries, roasted green beans, and roasted tomatoes but I just didn't have the room. Somehow I failed to get a picture of the big pot of braised lamb that had cooked for a long time. For dessert, we had profiteroles stuffed with ice cream along with chocolate and caramel sauces and fresh berries.

I would be very remiss if I did not mention the gorgeous condiment sauce that Yael made from tahini, garlic, cilantro, and parsley, sort of hummus meets chimichurri. This dinner reminded me how much I like this sauce on falafel. Outstandingly delicious and I definitely plan to make some soon!

Dan, Yael, and Naama, thank you for your gracious hospitality! תודה לכם