Devils Backbone Brewery in Nelson County will play host to the inaugural Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival on August 22. Not your typical beer fest, this live music festival will however feature great beers from “Brew Ridge Trail” members Starr Hill, Dev…

I got this picture via the series of tubes from my brother (shameless plug: check out his own two hate-blogs, On The Right and Orange, VA Independence Day Tea Party). It was taken yesterday, you can see in the background Shiloh Baptist Church and its cemetery:

Not cross-posted at any other blog for once.

I’d like to start off with tickets are still available for this year’s RIFF right here. There are a lot of options, and the all access pass not only gets you into all of the movie screenings, but also the “VIP Lounge,” which is conveniently located at the Athenaeum (109 Amelia Street), so it’s a […]

Terry McAuliffe:
When Bob McDonnell’s campaign said Virginians would rather be on welfare than work, Creigh Deeds didn’t miss a beat. Earlier this week, he launched an online petition demanding that Bob McDonnell apologize to the people across Virginia still struggling to find work.
Please take a couple of minutes to read Creigh’s message and sign his […]

What happens when you take two Silicon Valley geeks and plop them in a Utah dairy farm?! You get the Beehive Cheese Company, makers of delicious, artisan cheddars, each with a unique twist. My favorite (today, anyway) is the Barely Buzzed, rubbed with fresh coffee and lavender. This cheese screams for a dry red wine, but try it also with figs and beer!

As we have grown and developed the wine bar it was always within our sights to develop relationships with local farmers who could supply us with fresh, seasonal produce. One of our favorites is Miller Farms who are located in Locust Grove (we also encourage you to go shop at their store on the farm, always great stuff).

They supply us with these lovely zucchinis which we use with our Romesco sauce ($4) and about which the Washington Post said:

We were most surprised at how much we loved a simple dish of roast asparagus with a romesco sauce of oven-roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers and sherry vinaigrette. We used up two baskets of bread trying to get every last red scrap.

We keep the Romesco sauce throughout the year and serve it with seasonal produce. Right now is also tomato season and we make sure to use perfectly ripe Miller Farms tomatoes in our Caprese salad. Get it while you can, because once the season has passed, the dishes are gone.

Does anyone remember the Caroline County constitutional officers debate back in 2007 at the Bowling Green Town Hall? Perhaps when the question of gangs and gang crime came up to the candidates for Sheriff? Tony Lippa stated that we only had “wannabes” in the county.
Here are some pictures that were taken of graffiti found in […]

There’s an article in today’s New York Times about negotiating the beach house kitchen: the pans that stick, the dull knives, the stale spices and oddities left behind by other beachgoers. We once rented a beautiful house on an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida. The groceries came over on the boat with us, the kids were very young, it was way too much work for a vacation. The stale spices in that kitchen were occupied by some exotic Florida wildlife.

I’ve pared down our beach packing a lot since we’re driving a Prius now, but I still take a good knife and a few recipes and groceries for our favorite beach meals. At the Outer Banks you can get most anything you’d like at the local grocery stores, but I still take a case of wine from kybecca. It’s a lot less expensive than the beach wine shops, and I’m guaranteed to find my favorite bottles here.

I like to plan ahead for the first meal at the beach. After the drive, the unpacking, the last thing I want to do is compete with all the other Saturday arrivals for space in the supermarket and wine shop.

Most houses have one, but don’t take it for granted: bring your own corkscrew!

Sen. Warner is not an automatic ‘Yes‘ vote on several items in President Obama’s legislative agenda: health care reform, cap-and-trade,  EFCA, etc. However, disagreeing on an issue is no excuse for some of these “arguments” coming from the right lately. But what do you expect from a political party made up mostly of people who […]

SPC has our area under a 5% severe risk for tomorrow, not enough for a slight risk designation. After skimming over a couple of models I tend to agree given that there won’t be much upper level wind support overhead the Mid-Atlantic. However, with th…