by Kimberly | Dec 31, 2010 | photo shoot
Cary is home to an eco-friendly, all organic wine store that is celebrating 8 months tomorrow – Sip. You need to make it your New Year’s Resolution to make a trip to their store, have a tasting, and love the wine you taste.
Not only is the wine superb, the staff, owned by April Schlanger, is friendly, knowledgeable, and not overwhelming. The owner invited us to her tasting table and gave us knowledgeable information about her favorite wines of 2010.
They have designed their store in such a way where you feel like you are almost in a cafe, a coffee shop, somewhere to stay all day. And I needed a wine for dinner: shrimp angel hair (the sauce needed a good white), and April gave such an excellent recommendation.
The store will also special order wines for you. And they have different levels of “wine of the month” clubs as well. They sell cork art, beers, wine racks, bottle charms, chocolate, and other wine accessories.
Some of the best on the tasting table tonight were:
2009 Lioco
2008 L’Aventure
by Kimberly | Nov 13, 2010 | chocolate
A friend who had one of these brownies said they were like fudge. Not fudge brownies, just fudge. I’ll take that as a compliment. These were delicious. I made them to celebrate a friend’s birthday. She liked them with some coffee ice cream. I just used dark chocolate sauce and cool whip. Either way – just eat them. Thank you Dorie.
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
3 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used baker’s)
3 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used hershey’s dark)
2 T coffee
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
6 oz milk chocolate chips (I used hershey’s milk)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (down from 1 cup)
Glaze:
6 oz white chocolate (I used hershey’s white)
1/3 cup heavy cream
Sift all the dry together and set aside. Melt chocolate and butter and coffee over medium heat. Add in sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, add in vanilla. Add in dry. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.
Bake at 325 in greased and foiled square pan for 35 minutes (I had to cook mine for another 9), so just check it. You don’t want to overcook.
Cool for 20 minutes. Flip out onto cooling rack. When completely cool, then glaze. Heat cream to boiling (watch carefully as not to scald), pour over white chips, then pour over brownies. Set in fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
by Kimberly | Nov 8, 2010 | weight loss, writing
Daylight savings time and colder weather. But pretty red trees on my way to work. Almost makes up for it.
1. I love fall. Everything about it.
2. I love really long meals with friends (at a restaurant) where you are just talking, sipping, and you have a great waiter.
3. 13 miles hiking through downtown Richmond on Saturday have made my feet really tired.
4. But, that doesn’t negate the really cute boots I got yesterday at Kohls. I love Kohls.
5. I’m doing pretty well on my goals I’ve set.
6. This week is Bstudy, baking, CMA awards, bday dinner for a friend, trip to Asheville and Ridgecrest, youth discipleship weekend with Troy Temple, and a conference with Tedd Tripp (even though I’m not a parent).
7. Vacation is coming soon. 4 WHOLE DAYS. Can’t wait. That means I’ve got some things to accomplish before I go.
8. Here is what is on my coffee table right now: InStyle, Durham Foodie, Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Cookbook, a recipe I must share tonight with pictures.
Link Love:
1. Thank you Katie McCoy for this post on single girls waiting for Mr. Right.
2. And while we are on relationships, Ken offers this bit of advice for single guys in Toy Story 3.
3. I have always wanted a map of the world…how cool is this one?
4. Mom and I are going to try this over Thanksgiving, Thanks CasaBrasi!
5. Love how Carolyn McCulley presses on with hospitality and shares with the rest of us!
6. Another thing I’m getting over Thanksgiving…my Christmas tree!
7. I’m going to a holiday open house here, can’t wait!
by Kimberly | Sep 13, 2010 | Festivals, food, Uncategorized
Heading north on HWY 50 gave us opportunity to hit up Our State Top 100 Number 6 on Saturday. Oxford, a little quaint town about 35 minutes north of Raleigh, was having its Hot Sauce Festival that day. I can’t imagine how dead the downtown would have been without the festival, but this restaurant I’m sure still would have been packed out.
Then line in Sunrise Biscuit Company never got any shorter while we were there, people just kept coming in. It was about 8:30am on a Saturday morning – people having more leisure mornings without having to rush off to work.
To be honest, this wasn’t the best biscuit I’ve ever had in my life. I’d rather have Bojangles any day of the week. The grits had no flavor and even after I put the salt and pepper in it – still they didn’t do anything for me. The biscuit was decent – but the sausage was better.
So…I think I’ll stick to Bojangles. But, the closest one to downtown Oxford was about 10 minutes. So…if you want a cup of coffee and a biscuit for a cheap price – you can go there.
by Kimberly | Sep 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
I’ve written about Foster’s Market before on my other blog, but I wanted to highlight it here. This is such a gem of a place to sit all day if you really wanted to:
1. Cup of coffee and the newspaper
2. An old friend over lunch
3. Dinner with the family
4. An afternoon smoothie out on the lawn (this was the second thing I had there, my first time at the Chapel Hill location)
5. A hot summer day with an iced latte under the covered patio.
6. Parking it at a table with lots of books and a laptop – or just a legal pad and a pen.
Sara Foster has done an amazing job creating two cafes that are as distinct as the cities they are in. Foster’s Durham is more of a home-town feel. Locals are from Durham, moms come in after dropping their kids off at school, young twenty-somethings hang here for lunch or for a coffee break from studying. At Foster’s Chapel Hill the cafe is always filled with students, professors, athletes, moms, the elderly.
This place is local in every sense of the word – even the employees being able to offer help with directions (always helpful).
The best things on the menu (from either personal experience or from other’s personal experience):
1. The breakfast burrito – the first thing I had, and probably the best thing I’ve had there.
2. the Spinach avocado BLT. Crunch bacon – basil pesto aoli – good eats.
3. Any of their scones or the chocolate whopper cookies
4. Snickerdoodle coffee – that you can buy by the lbs in whole bean.
You can find a plethora of spreads, jams, mixes to buy there – many of stonewall kitchen products. You can pick up dinner on your way home as they have many of their popular dishes available for take out by the pound. They have a whole slew of candy to pick from – a kid’s dream! They have luna pops – simply great for a hot summer day.
The other things I like about Foster’s:
1. You can find Sara at either of the cafes and she’ll talk with you and she is glad you are at her restaurant
2. Local ingredients and wines
3. Not expensive (I don’t think there is anything over 10$ on the menu)
4. Daily specials
5. Her cookbooks, and one forthcoming
6. Her good, stable, innovative food with fresh ingredients.
What is your favorite local place? (Even if its not in the Triangle…)
