Looking for small in-kind donations 4 charity event for Haiti at Tortilla Press Cantina on 2/28–we are having our CUPCAKE THROWDOWN!!

I’m all ready for the weekend. We’re stocked with food, wine, DVD’s and good books.

• Last week, I mentioned the Wine & Chocolate weekends that many of our wineries are having this weekend and next. I thought they were worth another mention. I’d definitely call ahead this weekend if you’re venturing out to make sure the snow hasn’t shut your destination down.
• There’s a prepared food store in Haddonfield that I’ve been in a few times called Apron. I’ve been meaning to talk to them there about what they do for a piece for this blog. They use fresh, seasonal ingredients and their website says “they are proud to be able to make use of the many natural resources of the Garden State.” They have a special Valentine’s menu (opens to PDF) with four different dinner menus and one breakfast in bed menu. Deadline to order is Feb. 10.
• You can have a light dinner at Mirabella Cafe in Cherry Hill – a member of South Jersey Green Dining – and learn “How to Implement the Whole House Approach to Energy Efficiency” at the same time. On Thursday, Feb 18th the restaurant will be hosting the event. Click here for more information and pricing.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your weekend.

I’d like to do something with the beef cubes, too. I have a perfectly wonderful baked stew recipe that I made frequently, but what else could I do with them? I need ideas. A crock pot recipe would be ideal, but I’m open to any ideas.

I spent last weekend in D.C. Wine Country which is actually in Loudon County, Virginia. My friend  Susan and I took a weekend trip to do a little shopping, a little wine tasting, a little dining, and a little pampering. The weekend didn’t turn out exactly as planned. It snowed heavily on Saturday and we wound up sequestered in our hotel room with some food and wine we’d bought early in the day at the local Wegmans. We did get to a couple of good restaurants that support local food producers. We were also able to hit two wineries on Sunday as we made our way home.

I think that it’s important when you’re traveling to keep local in mind. At this point in my life, I’ll always chose an independently owned restaurant over a chain restaurant. There were chain restaurants close to our hotel but I did some research before hand so I could support local even while away.

The Wine Kitchen – Our hotel was in Leesburg, and this little gem was smack dab in the middle of historical Leesburg. A small menu with several local dishes offered (I had a delicious Coq au Vin made with local chicken) was accompanied by a wine list that included a flight of three Virginia wines. A really friendly staff rounded out this restaurant’s appeal.

Tuscarara Mill – We ate brunch at this local favorite. The brunch buffet had offerings for both breakfast and lunch, and I loved being able to eat an omlette accompanied by a big serving of mashed potatoes. The restaurant supports local farmers and has events centered around local breweries.

Fabbioli Cellars – What a great little winery. They grow their grapes sustainably. A few examples – they use natural pesticides, reuse leftovers from their harvest for compost, and have a solar deer fence. They source most of what their own lands don’t provide from as local as possible. I was particularly impressed with their 2008 Tre Sorelle, a full bodied red and their Aperitif Pear Wine which is something like a port. I brought home a bottle of the pear wine that I’m looking forward to serving with cheese – particularly stinky cheese. We were taken through a tasting of all their wines by Susanna who seemed genuinely happy to help us out and talk to us.

Tarara Winery – I can only imagine the property at this winery is beautiful when everything is in bloom and when the trees turn colors. There is a lot of land associated with this winery along with a pretty lake. We were told that the grapes are grown as naturally as possible. I walked away with a bottle of their Long-Bomb – a big bold red blend.

If you’re trying to pick a region for a weekend away, I’d highly recommend Loudon County with its great restaurants and wineries (so many of which we didn’t even get to go to). It’s about a 3 hours drive south from here – not too long for a weekend trip away. If I were to do it again, I’d try to find lodgings right in the heart of historic Leesburg instead of further out at a chain hotel. There were lots of interesting looking second hand and thrift type stores, coffee shops, and other stores that I would have loved to explore if I could have just walked out the door from my hotel and roamed the blocks.

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.

- Julia Child

The app is associated with the Neighborhood Fruit website, and on the website if you have an edible tree or bush on your property, you can register it on their share fruit page and give others permission to come pick from it.

If you have an edible fruit tree on your property that you would allow people to come pick from, why not register it with this site. It might keep a lot of good fruit from going uneaten.

Image: lepiaf.geo

• Dates for the 2010’s East Coast Food & Wine Festival have been released – June 26&27. Last year, I really enjoyed the festival, and I plan on going this summer.
• Winslow Township’s Sharrott Winery made the front page of the print version of The Philadelphia Inquirer this week. Their food and drink writer Craig LeBan showed our South Jersey wineries lots of love with his piece Wines of S. Jersey draw fans. The article talks about the increasingly quality wines our region is producing. It highlighted Sharrott Winery but mentions some others, too.
• Treehugger has an interesting piece on canned beer’s 75th Anniversary. Know which state introduced the container that makes beer taste worse? Yep, good ‘ol NJ. There’s a lot of good information about refillable vs recyclable containers in the piece.
• The Northeast Organic Farming Association of NJ is having a winter conference this Saturday, Jan 30th at Rutgers in New Brunswick. The sessions are open to anyone and in addition to the sessions you can stop by the vendors and exhibitors sharing information and selling locally produced foods.  Their website says, “You will find products such as amazing cheeses from Cherry Grove Farm, Heirloom Tomato Ketchup from the Purple Dragon, Popcorn from Farmer Steve, Fresh bread from Village Bakery, and books from Rodale Press and Bountiful Gardens, as well as information on topics such as 
Soil Testing and Raw Milk.”
• The High Street Grill in Mount Holly will have its 2nd Annual Winter Beer Fest this Saturday, Jan 30th. Lots of craft breweries, including several in our region, will have their beers there to sample. Dress warmly – the event is outside!
• John and Lisa are Eating in South Jersey continues its series on interviews with our local chefs. This time it’s Chef Geoff Johnson from Copper Fish in Cape May.
• A couple of weeks ago I wrote about New Jersey’s local maple syrup. On Saturday, February 6, The Mercer County Park Commission will mark the beginning of the maple sugaring season with tree tapping workshops and a tape sale at Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell Township.  Other activities are planned, also.

Enjoy your weekend. I’ll be spending some time in DC’s Wine Country this weekend and checking out the small, local wineries in that region, and I’ve got a few restaurants that support that regions local farmers on my radar. Just because I’m traveling doesn’t mean I stop supporting local.

Wine barrels outside of Cream Ridge Winery.

Auburn Road Vineyard, Pilesgrove

Bellview Winery, Landisville

Cream Ridge Winery, Cream Ridge

Hawk Haven Winery, Rio Grande

Sharrott Winery, Winslow

Valenzano Winery, Shamong

Laurita Winery, New Egypt

Natali Vineyards, Cape May Courthouse

Some of the wineries are very prolific tweeters, others haven’t tweeted in a while. I hope that more of our fine wineries become active on Twitter. It really is an effective way to reach many people.

- Barbara Kingsolver from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Has anyone seen this film?

Locavore Local Diet healthy Planet (Movie Trailer) from Jay Canode on Vimeo.