Food Critique: The Berryville Grill

well after we devoured pizza on a steamy Saturday afternoon of painting, we couldn't do pizza the following day so my b.f. & my b.f.f. & I decided we'd try a place on "Main Street" in Berryville.

enter - -

The Berryville Grill - Berryville (duh)

now this place, let me tell you. The first time I went (okay, and the second time because I enjoyed it so much) I ordered the Pulled Pork Salad with ranch dressing. This salad is SOOO good. I especially like the coolness of the lettuce & the dressing versus the warm bbq pork.

The second time we went back, the b.f. ordered the rack of ribs - he was very hungry - and a small bowl of soup. He said the soup was amazing & I can attest, the ribs were out of this world. You barely needed to touch them to get the meat to fall off the bone.

The service has always been awesome & everyone is very friendly.

VERDICT: This is my go-to place in Berryville when I want great customer service & awesome food.

Food Critique: Mario's Pizzeria

To continue my saga - after having my best friend & father work their butts off painting & fixing up my new house, I figured I'd treat them to some pizza from the place down the street...

Mario's Pizzeria - Berryville

I have been informed by 3 or 4 people that they serve great pizza. I, of course, can not tell you from personal consumption, but I choose to believe that no one is lying to me.

We have never actually sat down to eat but the service at the cash register can be hit or miss as to whether or not they're pleasant towards you.

vicarious VERDICT: great pizza & a really great price.

Food Critique: Knossos Cafe

So while driving to Front Royal yesterday to meet up with Kath, I had a sudden inspiration for a new blog "series". I'm going to tell you what's good & what's bad in regards to restaurants that I've been to* & keep a nice running list of one's I'd like to go to. Now, I live in Berryville, mind you, so there's not a whole lot going on in the restaurant department around here, but I may spread my restaurant wings to Winchester, Leesburg, & surrounding areas.

So to start with - - I can tell you - that when I first moved to Berryville in April/May, I did not have a thing in my refrigerator, so of course I located the closest thing to my house that served food & ate there. Well, let me just say, this place is directly across the street from my house:



Knossos Cafe - Berryville
this place has a great steak & cheese sub (no bun, of course!) & a bangin' Greek Salad that has slices of their gyro meat on it along with feta cheese & olives. It is Ah-May-ZING.

sadly, I did a little searching to see if they had a website (yeah right, they don't even have central AC! juuust kidding!!) but in searching for their website I stumbled across several things; 1 - a blog post from a year ago written by a guy from Hamilton/Leesburg stating that he actually had food poisoning from eating here & 2 - a report from city-data.com stating that they had several health inspector violations (last one dated August 2009) & 3 - they do NOT in fact have a website.

The service here is sometimes a little frosty as it appears that no one really likes to work at this cafe, but many times you'll get some pleasantries.

VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoy their food but after these findings, eat at your own risk! =)

* note - - a co-worker of mine has decided to take on the list of top 100 restaurants in the D.C/Metro area & visit each one within 2010. He has a better plan than mine & is actually doing well, having visited close to half of the restaurants on the list already

update!

i know, i know - people that take pictures of their food are annoying, but i was in a "i've got my camera out so i'm going to take pictures" mood last night & i just thought the plate looked really appetizing. =)



so when i moved to the new casa, there were already two rose bushes planted & i thought of tearing them out but have recently decided (see reason below) to allow them to continue to grow & bloom the beautiful flowers below.

so my friend Kathleen showed me the calla lilies that she had planted at her house & it inspired me to plant some of my own. I found the beautiful calla lily that had already bloomed at Wegman's on Friday for $5.99. I thought that was an awesome deal, as Kathleen said her's was fairly expensive & I know what they cost when you go to the flower store...well I didn't plant mine in the ground as I have yet to determine what brush & plants I'll leave planted at the house & what I'll tear out, so I figured planting it in a nice, big planter would work for the summer.

on an obviously unrelated topic, with no transition what-so-ever, here is the "rain barrel" that i created last night:
i decided yesterday, that i'm going to try to grow a massive pumpkin in our pumpkin growing contest at work (there was a 600 pound pumpkin & a 700 pound pumpkin grown!). I'm not sure that i could get one to grow that large, but it'd be sweet as the boss-man will pay $5/pound to the person who has the largest pumpkin.

well, it seems that there is quite a bit of work involved in growing a vegetable... you are supposed to dig a 5' long x 5' wide x 2' deep area & fill it with compost, manure, straw & leaf mulch... & the area needs full sunlight & TONS of water (hence the new rain barrel so i don't go poor trying to water my massive pumpkin). well the contest ends at first frost or on Halloween, whichever happens first & you get the most growing time if you plant your seeds by Father's Day weekend. HA! that probably won't happen with this pumpkin. I'll keep you updated.

another somewhat unrelated topic - - i was in Lowes yesterday at lunch time to buy the trash can for my rain barrel and decided that i was going to buy a composter. I had been eyeing them for quite awhile and $50 for my first one didn't seem too steep. Granted, it's not the super nice one that is off the ground that is a full barrel that you can turn, but i think it will do.

i am told (by the label on the composter) that owning it will help to reduce the amount of trash that i throw out. i was, and still am, pretty excited so i immediately started a jug of stuff that would go into my composter. here's a nice picture with some raspberries, green beans, potatoes & dying roses:

here is the composter all set up & about 1/4 full. as i was told today, it will take about 3-6 months in order to actually get "compost".


here are some other things i've learned from various websites:
- grass clippings can be added but you need to add "brown" materials as well
- shredded newspaper is great
- coffee grounds are great worm food
- during the winter, keep your compost bin in the direct sunlight & keep it insulated
- the items in the pile should remain damp
- the compost should be turned/aerated frequently
- you should apply your completed compost to your garden about 2-4 weeks before you plan to plant
* all this info was summarized from: Composting101

well, i may need to move my composter since i put it behind the garage so less people would have to see it, but it's under a bunch of trees. i guess i'll see how things go for a little while.

ta-da!

so here's the house. the thing that will take 1/2 of my monthly income. i think it's worth it =)





here is a nice sequence of before & afters:
** note ** please disregard the fact that i still have unpacked boxes & that i don't clean =)

dining room:

(pretend there's a before
picture here because I
fail & didn't take a picture
before starting to paint)

after:


living room:

i didn't paint it but here's a couple pictures:



kitchen:

again - i didn't paint but thought i'd show some pictures.



here's the pantry:


master bedroom:

(again - no before picture. Sorry!!)

here's the "during" & the after!

computer room (/abby's room):

before:


after:



guest bedroom:

before:


after: (this would be rob's clothes' room...)


upstairs bathroom:

before:


after:


here's the upstairs hallway:

the long awaited update

ha! so i'm sure that everyone has just been chomping at the bit while waiting for me to write another post. well here you go!

things that have happened since January 4th:

- January 4th in the PM: i gave up my new years resolution =)
- i traveled to CA in February for work
- i didn't eat for 30 hours & participated in my church's 30 Hour Famine to support hunger throughout the world
- i've been to about 1,334,439 horse shows that my sister has ridden in (not really that many but quite a few!)
- i helped build a ramp for project-mend-a-house in March
- i went wine tasting for the first time (oh so much fun!!!)
- i went with my mom to The Farms at Potowmack for a gluten-free cooking class
- i helped a pregnant friend weed & plant flowers
- i became a first-time home buyer in April!!! (pictures to come) **
- i traveled in May to CO for work
- i attended the 6th annual "Bauserman canoeing weekend"!
- i went to Corolla, NC for a week =)
- i saw Riverdance live for the first time (and apparently last time in the U.S.)

as you can see - i have been quite busy in the last 6 months & a lot of times, i don't feel i have anything interesting to say so i don't blog. =)

** another post to come in a new series called "hey you bought an old house so you'll have projects to do / issues to resolve for the rest of your life!"

new year!

so i may be 3 days late in posting my "new year's resolution" but i'm not a fan of getting on the computer at home any more for some reason.

this year - i'd like to not watch t.v. during the week day except for Friday nights, Saturday & Sunday's (unless I'm off work for an unknown reason). i think that if i chose to find other activities to do at night during the week & let my (relatively expensive) DVR tape the shows i'd like to watch during the weekend - then i will feel less sedentary. I'd like to walk abby each night for longer, work out, read, clean, etc.

mom doesn't think this will last very long & that may be the case, but i'd like to do it just for me, not for anyone else.