Aw, honey honey!!

Last week I shared about my Mom's Garden and one of the things I mentioned they have up there is a beehive.  My parents purchased their own bees and harvest the honey every summer.  My dad even has the cool spacey bee suit! Too bad I don't have a picture of that!

I didn't win the Farmers Market Photo contest but this is one that did.  Taken by Staci Longest of Newton at the King and Queen County Farmers Market near Richmond, VA. I thought it appropriate to share her beautiful photo with this post.

Honey is amazing.  It can go with just about anything sweet or savory.  Use it as a sweetener in baked goods or in your tea.  Its awesome with certain kinds of cheese. I love it with feta cheese!  Sometimes I'll make scrambled eggs in the morning and top them feta cheese and a sprinkling of honey...its so yumma yumma!! The salty savoriness of the cheese combined with the sweet stickiness of the honey is delightful! I'm not a huge fan of maple syrup so I like to use honey on my pancakes and waffles instead. 

Check out these homemade secret-recipe waffles Superking made with some fresh blueberries straight from the farm, sprinkled with a little powdered sugar, a little dab of butter, and drizzled with honey from my parents hive!! Delish!

There are so many subtle flavor differences you can get from one honey to another. It all depends on what flowers and other pollinating plants are nearby the hive.  As the bees travel from one plant to the next, what combination will they come up with to flavor this year's honey?

There's something sort of mysterious about honey too.  It has these ancient healing qualities that have been around since the dawn of time that are still used today! Did you know honey can used as an antiseptic and promotes faster healing for cuts and scrapes? It can used as an antioxidant and cleanser for your whole body and skin.  Many natural beauty products include honey.  I love Burts Bees products!! One of my favorites of theirs is a cleanser that has royal jelly in it (which is a special honey made just for the queen bee)! I have very dry skin and that stuff makes my skin feel as smooth as a baby's bottom!

Honey can be used to fight infections and reduce inflammation.  As a singer myself and a voice teacher, I always tell my students the best thing they can do if their voice is sick or to prepare for a performance, is to drink a warm cup of tea with honey and lemon juice.  It does wonders to heal and soothe your throat and also lubricate your voice.

one of my favorite mugs with my bee themed tea infuser in my bee themed kitchen (see below)

yes even the curtains have little bees on them behind my beehive wind chime

Honey is an excellent remedy for digestive issues.  Have tummy trouble or maybe heartburn after eating a bunch of heavy fried foods? Take a spoonful of honey!  Mary Poppins sang about a "spoonful of sugar", she shoulda sang a spoonful of honey! Honey has been known to cure diseases and correct other health disorders such as yeast infections, arthritis, even fighting cancer.

Its great for an energy booster and building up immunities as well. So next time flu season comes around, try a spoonful of honey each day! Its at least worth a try. If nothing else, it'll help make your day a little sweeter!

August Farmers Market

Superking and I took a trip out to the Leesburg Farmers Market this morning.  The weather was a little muggy but not too hot. And the market was bustling and the produce was flowing.

Picture #1

I read this morning in the farmers market newsletter that they're having a photo contest...

              Farmers Market Photo Contest
  As part of the Farmers Market Week celebration, VDACS is sponsoring a Photo Contest in three age groups, as well as  for the most photographed market. The deadline is Wednesday, August 17, 2011, to send in an original photo taken at a local farmers market. Four winners, one child 12 or under, one teenager and one adult, will receive a prize package of Virginias Finest and Virginia Grown products worth at least $100. The farmers market with the most entries also will receive a special prize package. Complete details, contest rules and a release form are available online at www.virginiagrown.com

I was able to take a bunch of beautiful photos this morning. Do you think any of these have a chance at winning? Make your votes!!

#2. blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

#3. blackberries

#4. blackberry juice

#5. garlic

#6. grapes

#7. hot peppers-variety

#8. serranos, big bombs, anchos

#9. this is the warning label for the next picture..."when eaten is described as the equivalent to dying"

#10. ghost peppers (or bhut jolokia)

#11. yes, Superking had to buy some. let's hope we don't have to take a trip to the ER.

#12. green onion

#13. lamb fries...does anyone know what those are?? Take your guesses!

#14. little tomatoes

#15. melons

#16. peaches and plums

#17. purple peppers and green peppers

#18. more plum varieties

#19. variety of heirloom tomatoes and others

#20. tomato closeup

#21. more berries

Drunken Fruit Salad

Here's a great fruit salad you can take to your next summer picnic with a unique twist that everyone will love! I recently made this for a Fourth of July picnic and it was gone within minutes!

Fresh fruit is a must. Nothing frozen and thawed. Organic and local is preferable. But fresh definitely. Whatever fruits you want. There are no rules to what fruit should or should not go in a fruit salad. I say, go as crazy as you want! I chose strawberries (because they're my favorite and they're red, happy 4th!), watermelon (its the perfect summer fruit), blueberries (because there's lots of them and it provides the patriotic blue), and peaches (because they smelled so good when I walked by and it would be something a little different).

But I didn't want to do just fruit. It needed a special twist. So I decided to make a dressing. I went online and searched through all my favorite blogs and recipe pages to find the perfect dressing. I took an idea from this one, a piece of that one, and created my own Drunken Salad Dressing.

So what exactly is in this Drunken Fruit Salad Dressing, you say??  Here you go...

4 Tbsp orange juice (I prefer pulp free)
3 Tbsp honey
3 tsp Chambord (this is the drunken part)
1 Tbsp + 3 tsp lime juice (i know kind of a crazy measurement but I was experimenting!)
5 fresh mint leaves, finely minced
(Stir it all together in a small bowl until the honey is somewhat dissolved. This makes about a cup of dressing which was plenty for the large bowl of fruit I prepared.  You don't want the fruit swimming in it. You want just enough to give a little extra zing.)

Once all the fruit is cut, sliced, diced, whatever, pour the dressing in with it and gently toss the fruit and dressing together. Then let it sit in your refrigerator for at least an hour or 2 before serving. This gives the dressing a chance to soak into the fruit a little bit and for all the flavors to meld together nicely. Then you'll have a beautiful fruit salad thats both sweet and a little tart and completely refreshing on a hot summer day!

Cafe Renaissance Surprise

Warning: This is an epically long blog with lots of super yummy food!

Superking works for a small computer company. When I say small, I mean he's like one of 4 people that make up the company.  This month marks the 6th year anniversary of him being there.  It just so happens that his boss and her husband, er, I mean his boss and his wife (love ya Tony and Lisa!), who are also very close friends of ours, decided they wanted to take us out to a nice restaurant to celebrate this anniversary. Knowing what foodies we are, they wanted to take us somewhere unique and they wanted it to be a surprise. "Be at our house at 6pm Friday and dress nice!" were our only instructions.

See that table in the middle corner? That was ours!

The four of us hopped in their car and down the road we went. We arrived in Vienna, VA and pulled into the parking lot of a little strip mall. Where are we going? After driving in a couple circles around the building, we find a parking space and get out. Right in front of us was a tiny little place called Cafe Renaissance.

There's Tony and Superking waiting for me to take my picture

Superking and I had never heard of it before but apparently it has quite a list of restaurant accolades...Most Romantic Dinner in Fairfax, 2010 Annual Winners for Best Service in the Nation, Top 50 Restaurant List in the US, and many highly rated reviews on Open Table and Trip Advisor. The menu consists of a combination of French, Italian/Mediterranean offerings and the atmosphere has a cozy European feel with classic art on the walls and classical music playing in the background.

lovely art

huge wine bottles above Lisa's head

a view of the dining room

Thankfully our friends are always willing to share their food with us and help me take some lovely pictures of their dishes for my food blog. Again, not the greatest photos taken on my cell phone in a dimly lit dining room but hopefully you'll get the idea of how wonderful this little restaurant is.

our beautiful candlelit table with fresh flowers

Here's the rundown of the items we ordered...For appetizers, Tony ordered Escargot Bourguignonne.Deliciously hot, buttery, and garlicky!

escargot

Lisa ordered the French Onion Soup. A classic dish baked in its own adorable little pot with ooey gooey cheese pouring over the sides.

French onion soup

Superking ordered Veal Sweetbreads.  For those of you who may not know, sweetbreads is a nice collective term used to mean organ meats, in this case pancreas, we were told.  A brand new experience for us. A little nervous but anxious to try it. Surprisingly, it was amazing! Almost tasted like moist baked chicken but fattier and very soft.

veal sweetbreads

I ordered one of their specials, a crepe stuffed with crabmeat and topped with a creamy sauce. A deliciously perfect blend of creamy sweetness and succulent crab without being too rich.

crab crepe

Next we ordered some Caesar salads with a side of anchovies. The salads were served in these huge very heavy bowls. It was crisp with a lovely Caesar dressing and the anchovies added a nice salty touch.

Caesar salad with anchovies

The entrees were all served in a similar style. Large rectangular plates with the meat in the middle and a variety of vegetables (and a fruit) along the top. A poached pear, shredded squash, a parsnip, sugar snap peas in the pod, a beet, and a couple potato slices. Each added a surprising unique element to the dishes.  I was especially surprised at how sweet the parsnip and the beet were, having never eaten them before.

Tony's entree was a special Lobster in cream sauce. Sweet and juicy!

Lobster

Lisa's entree was Veal Scallopini Normand, which has fresh apples and a Calvados Cream Sauce. One of the favorite dishes of the table. The apples added a lovely sweet crunch to the veal.

veal with apples

Superking's entree was also Veal Scallopini but was served with a Cognac Cream Sauce. Also very lovely.

veal with cognac sauce

My entree was the Rack of Lamb. Beautiful presentation. Prepared medium, it was delectable.

rack of lamb

here the lamb rack leftover

For dessert, we picked three to share. A Dark Chocolate Cake. Rich with a mousse interior, drizzled with a raspberry sauce and accompanied by a few berries.

chocolate cake

A Limoncello cake. I'm not usually a huge lemon fan but this lemon dessert was so light and fresh and lovely! What's not to like?

limoncello cake

And my favorite part of the night...FIRE!!  A Mixed Berry Jubilee flambeed at your table in brandy and raspberry liqueur served on top of creamy vanilla ice cream in a fancy dessert glass! The berries were strawberries, blueberries, and cherries (a lovely surprise).  Oh so heavenly!! And a beautiful entertaining presentation!

cooking the berries

here comes the fire!

its hard to capture a good picture of a man dancing around making fire

very elegant

very yummy

Our waiter and all the servers were amazing. All of them greeted us with smiles and bows as we arrived and did the same as we left. We felt like royalty. And when I forgot my take-home box containing my leftover lamb, the waiter even ran to bring it to us in our car before we drove off! Definitely a hidden gem of Vienna! When are we going again, Tony and Lisa??  :)

Superking and I revelling in the afterglow of our meal and time with friends