Hi strangers! I know, it's a never ending cycle, right? I blog twice a day, the just a few times a week and now it's been a whole week since I've posted. Your sick of my excuses, I'm sure. I'm pretty sick of saying them, too. The fact is, life is just crazy. Sometimes I don't want to get on my computer at night.
A lot has happened this week though. Things like Reddick eating my eye glasses, me having an intervention with myself, Reddick making the nastiness disaster in a crate (believe me, you don't want the details), week ten of culinary school (holy crap), 5 straight days of rain, I assisted my first recreational culinary class and it all concludes with the 9/11 anniversary. I'll spare you all of the pictures.
I'll bring it back to last weekend and give you another update on my little trip to Vermont. On Saturday we headed up to Burlington. Our first stop was Church Street, a must-see if you are in Northern Vermont. Church Street is full of chain stores, privately owned shops, great restaurants and friendly people. Our first stop was checking out (yet another) Borders going out of business sale and then a few other shops. I almost went wedding dress shopping.
There was a cute little boutique on the corner that we thought it might be fun to go in and just browse through the store. Well, we got up to the door, saw that no one was in there and that we would have to take off our shoes and put on white gloves. Like a complete baby, I wimped out and decided to bail. Plus my Mom wasn't with me, and it just didn't feel right. I think I might try a bigger store, like David's Bridal, first to get used to trying on these crazy white dresses. I get a little anxious when all of the store's attention is on me. I'm not sure how this is going to fly on the day of the wedding, but we'll worry about that later.
After all of that, I needed a beer, so we headed to The Farmhouse Tap and Grill. My sister and her boyfriend love to eat out and have tried a lot of places in Burlington, but luckily this was a first for all of us. The restaurant focused on local, sustainable and organic foods and of course, amazing beers. I ordered the Dogfish Festina Peche, a beer I can usually get right around the corner from my house in Maryland, but is already off tap to make room for Punkin Ale. I was really happy to have some Festina before the summer ends.
My sister and I ordered two burgers to split - one grass-fed beef burger and a vegetarian portabella white bean burger. I couldn't pick my favorite. I love a good medium-rare burger. I especially love a good grass-fed medium-rare burger. It was cooked perfectly and was big enough to maintain the juices but not too big we couldn't get our mouths around it. The vegetarian option was a pureed burger with a big piece of mozzarella melted on top. It was full of flavor and didn't taste like a burger made of baby food, which some veggie burgers seem to look like. There wasn't a complaint at the table and we had a great lunch sitting outside enjoying one of the last summer days in Vermont. The wait staff was very friendly and I was really impressed with their knowledge of all of the beers. They had an entire booklet of beers on tap and bottled to interpret.
After lunch, we decided to head to the gas station to load the car with some beverages for tailgating. We found a random chiropractor's parking lot that let us set up some chairs and have a few beers for a teeny price of $20. Then we went into the fair and waited for the concert to begin. I won't blabber on about how awesome Lady Antebellum was - but they were incredible. It was such a fun concert and a great way to spend the night with my sister, her boyfriend and my aunt.
