Vegetarians Beware

A before shot of the turkey that I (successfully!) prepared on Thanksgiving.

Almost finished putting together Maureen's Christmas Mix 2.0....get excited!

Entry #32: Is that a dead bear? or "A Tazewell Getaway"

Last weekend my friend Tiffany's family was kind enough to invite a bunch of us to stay at their home for a couple of nights. After meeting their family earlier in the year at the EPIC Jimmy Buffet concert, I was counting down the weeks until the trip.

From DC, it took us about 7 hours to drive to T-Town (it's close to the Tennessee border but we never made it over there). We stopped somewhere along the way (I wish I remembered what town, but I was delirious at that point...it might have been Lynchburg) and got food. The restaurant was amazingly good and amazingly cheap. We all shared two rounds of garlic knots, too.

After arriving at the house we met Tiffany's "mini" great dane, Snoopy and watched Aladdin.

The following day, we went on a tour of the town...saw Uncle Lonnie's hair salon, a dear hanging from a tree, a bear in someones truck and ate at Tiffany's favorite restaurant. It was definitely cool seeing where my friend grew up and I think everyone had fun poking around the town...except for when we pulled her family's Escalade up to a couple of guys and asked them which way the man driving the bear went.

Later that night...the Catrons grilled us some steaks, Uncle Lonny made us an AMAZING salad and we roasted s'mores on a bonfire in the back yard. After a rousing game of kings, we fell asleep to "White Christmas."

Needless to say our visit to Tazewell was pretty epic. I need some more time to psych myself up for the 7 hour drive again...but I'd love to go back sometime soon.

Yofiore - My 'sweet' break spot in Annapolis, where I work

Entry #31: The Tomato Palace - Revisted

Today I was so excited for my friend, Katie, to come visit me from NoVA (That's northern VA). We drove to the Lakefront in Columbia, MD so that I could show her around where I grew up. We were both starving, so we grabbed lunch at the Tomato Palace.

We both felt like we'd been transported back to the 90s...The Gin Blossoms and Tracy Chapman playing over the the stereo probably had something to do with that.

Instead of giving us bread and olive oil, we started with garlic knots...they were so good and totally addicting. I would go back just for those.

The Tomato Palace also had a great menu. The food was reasonably priced and there were a lot of options. The combo special allows you to choose one half salad and either a personal sized pizza from their pizza menu OR a half portion of one of their delicious pasta dishes.

I had a small Caesar salad and the Tortellini Romano. It was delicious, and I plan to go back the next time I'm Columbia.

This could be dangerous

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/restaurants/bestbites/14105.html

Curbside Cupcakes, a mobile cupcake business operating out of a bubblegum-pink truck, landed in front of our downtown DC office this morning; it's been making rounds since Tuesday. An intersection of Washington's latest food trends—social-media marketing (follow the truck's whereabouts at twitter.com/curbsidecupcake), street food, and cupcakes—the concept was the brainchild of two friends who wanted cupcakes one day but didn't feel like schlepping to Georgetown to get them. Samuel Whitfield III, a former attorney, and Kristi Cunningham, who worked in freight forwarding, gave up their careers to peddle their sweets, baked by a third partner in the business. The cupcakes, which sell for $3 apiece, come in five flavors: classic vanilla, classic chocolate, red velvet, chocolate mocha, chocolate with vanilla frosting.

So how do they stack up against the competition? The price is a little steep for a cupcake that's smaller than most we've seen, but the base is moist and fluffy, and there's a good frosting-to-cake ratio. Of the three we tried—classic vanilla, chocolate mocha, and red velvet—it was the latter that we liked best, mostly for the cream-cheese frosting. We also liked that we didn't have to hike to Georgetown.

For more information, visit curbsidecupcakes.com or call 202-495-0986.