Winning isn't everything...but it helps.

Sometimes a rainy day can breed laziness, but today's constant drizzle/downpour managed to inspire productivity around our household. On a whim, I decided to whip up an entry for Tidal Creek's 3rd Annual Pumpkin Cook Off, being held at their Fall Food Fair. I had read about the fair in the newsletter and thought it would be a nice leisurely thing to do on a dreary Saturday. So I knew there were three prizes to be had in the cook off: Best Looking, Best Tasting, and Best Vegan - and the winners were to receive a $25 giftcard and goody bag. I figured, what the heck - who couldn't use free groceries in this economy?

I was torn between a couple of recipes, since I love pumpkin in just about anything, but settled on our tried and true rainy day staple, Black Bean Pumpkin Soup. I changed up my original recipe to make it vegan friendly and put it in a crock pot to keep it warm. We headed out in the rain to try and make the entry deadline of 12:30 - at about 12:28, Sal hopped out of the car with our soup and dodged puddles while I tried to find a parking space. It was like a circus in there! A fun, earth friendly circus. Alas, in my hurry to get out the door, I forgot my camera, but hopefully the Co-op will post some soon.
In addition to the Pumpkin Cook Off, there were tons of free samples, a raffle benefiting local organic farmers, and good folks lobbying to keep Titan cement plant out of our county.

As for our soup, it was #7 of 7 entries, and made it just in the nick of time. I barely managed to get the recipe on paper before the judges sat down to eat. In the meantime, we meandered around the store, sampling food and picking up all kinds of useful freebies, like Burt's Bees facial cleanser and organic cat treats. By the time we had stuffed ourselves and our pockets full, the judging was done and the entries were opened up for everyone to try. As we waited in line, they put out labels by the winning foods. Sal peeked around the corner and...we won for Best Vegan! Okay, so I had close to a 50/50 chance of winning something, but still - I was proud. We sampled all of the other dishes, and there were some very tasty entries there. I got lots of compliments on the soup, as well as an awesome goody bag with the gift certificate, a Tidal Creek travel coffe mug - and some of my absolute favorite local Little Red Wagon Pumpkin Patch granola. Yum! We left the store carrying our samples, prize, and an empty crock pot. A very nice day indeed.
Here are both the regular and vegan versions of the recipe. I use mostly local ingredients, such as my own canned tomatoes, our homemade chicken stock, local butter and produce - but I'm writing each version in general terms so you can do whatever. You can also use baked butternut squash instead of pumpkin puree as we sometimes do:

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup (Non Vegan)
4 cans of black beans
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 stick butter
1 med. onion, chopped
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tbs cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth
16 oz can pumpkin puree

Puree tomatoes and 3 of the cans of beans in a food processor or blender. Heat butter in a large pot and saute the onion, shallot, garlic and spices until onion is soft. Stir in the bean puree. Mix well, then stir in the broth, pumpkin, and remaining can of beans. Simmer on low for about 25 minutes or until pleasantly thick. Serve topped with sour cream.

***For the Vegan version, omit the sour cream topping, substitute 2 tbs olive oil for the butter, and vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Photo: Jessica at Tidal Creek was nice enough to package up two bowls of soup for us before it was devoured.

Sal likes it hot.

To continue in the productive theme of the day, Sal came home from the Food Fair and got busy making some homemade hot sauce. He had been meaning to do so for awhile, since we had some extra tomato juice from canning, and a bumper crop of peppers. I am not a hot sauce kinda gal - I'll always pick "mild" when given the choice between levels of spiciness, whereas Sal has been known to calmly request the "Super Hot Atomic Killer Volcano" like version. He'll put hot sauce on anything. ANYthing. So it's only appropriate that he used his crazy hot jalapenos to make his own sauce.

These are the jalapenos that once made a friend cry and subsequently whisper to me through scorched lips: "Jessica, Pull. Those. Plants. Out. Pull them out. And burn them." Sal has since dubbed them "Salapeños" (pronounced with an accent on the PAIN), but continues to pop them in his mouth, fresh off the vine.

As for the sauce, the fumes alone sent me into a coughing fit and made my eyes burn. I rigged up a fan in the kitchen to blow the devil air back in, but still it was killer. He had just enough supplies to make one good pint of sauce, which he plans to unleash on his friends next weekend. Here is his recipe, if you're brave enough to try it. I recommend anyone in the vicinity to vacate the premises, unless you like feeling like you've been maced.

Salapeño Hot Sauce
7 jalapeño peppers, quartered
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove elephant garlic, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 pint tomato juice
1 cup white vinegar

Saute the jalapeños, onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened. Add tomato juice and vinegar. Simmer on low until reduced by about 1/3. Remove from heat and let cool until room temperature. When cool, puree in a food processor or blender until smooth. Place in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Ye Olde Farmer's Market Store

October brings exciting news on the local front! Ron Koster, of Tarheel Beef, has opened a small store in town that sells local products - appropriately named "Ye Olde Farmer's Market" as most of his inventory is from vendors who sell at either the Poplar Grove or downtown markets. Sal and I stopped by Ye Olde Farmer's Market during their Grand Opening on Sunday afternoon and were greeted by Ron and his wonderful granddaughter Cory. They showed us around the place and gave us an idea of where and who everything came from. The setup of the store is cozy, and prices are comparable to the market. Sal and I bought ground beef (from Tarheel), feta and blue cheese walnut spread (from Nature's Way), eggs (from Grassy Ridge) and peanut butter (from Carolina's Peanuts). It was nice to be able to get some staples on a Sunday, especially since there was no Saturday market due to Riverfest.

Of course there is a ton of Tarheel Beef available, in every sort of cut imaginable, as well as lamb and even rabbit. I haven't quite worked myself up to lamb or rabbit yet, but good to know that it's out there. If you'd like to stop by, here are the details:

Ye Olde Farmer's Market

2107 Carolina Beach Rd.

Wilmington, NC

(910) 256-3234

Hours:

Closed Mon & Tues

Wed. 2:30 - 5:30
Thu & Fri. 10:00 - 5:30

Sat. 2:30 - 5:30

Sun. 11:00 - 5:00

Summer on a plate

My fabulous sister went home to PA last week and brought me back five dozen ears of sweet corn, as they're still in season up there. There's just something about PA sweet corn that makes it superior to NC corn - there might be something about the soil, or temperature, but it's also possible that nostalgia may play a big part for me. Sal promptly boiled a couple of ears, while I fried us up some green Mortgage Lifters from the back yard. The result was heavenly.

Here's how we fry our tomatoes - you can also just be lazy and dip them in cornmeal before frying and call it a day:

Slice green tomatoes into about 1/4 inch thick slices.
Salt and pepper each slice, then dip in:
1. Milk
2. Flour
3. Beaten egg
4. Cornmeal with some spices mixed in

Drop the slices in a deep fryer if you're blessed with such a contraption, or just put about a 1/2 inch of oil in a large saute pan and fry until browned on each side.

Full disclosure: I am from the North. I had never even heard of Fried Green Tomatoes until the book/movie. If your grandma has a much better recipe that you grew up on, let me know!

Canning Tomatoes

This past Saturday we broke out the canning supplies and put up about 35 lbs. of tomatoes. Our plants didn't exactly produce as we'd hoped (though they're at it now, and will probably give us enough for a couple of loads of sauce, which we'll freeze), so we went to Swart's Gardens and bought two boxes of seconds and first run tomatoes - $1.50/lb or $0.75/lb for seconds.

We decided against making sauce since I mucked up about 20 lbs worth last year, and we didn't feel like hauling out the food mill. Instead we just quartered the suckers and called it a day. It's easier to make sauce from the canned tomatoes as needed anyway. We ended up with 9 quarts and 13 pints - a pretty good start, I may say.

Here's a step by step of the process from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, illustrated by us:

Quantity: An average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 13 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 15 to 21 quarts-an average of 3 pounds per quart.

Procedure for hot or raw tomatoes filled with water in jars: Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split; then dip in cold water. Slip off skins and remove cores. Leave whole or halve. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to jars. Umm, we totally forgot to do this. Hopefully we'll survive. Crap. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart to the jars, if desired. We don't add salt.

Blanching

Dipping in ice bath

Peeling and coring


Packing in jars

Raw pack: Heat water, for packing tomatoes, to boiling. Fill hot jars with prepared raw tomatoes, leaving ½-inch headspace. Cover tomatoes in the jars with boiling water, leaving ½-inch headspace. Also remove air bubbles - they don't mention this.

Packed tomatoes before adding water Removing air

Process: Adjust lids and process in a boiler water canner - 45 minutes for quarts, 40 minutes for pints.

Processing the jars, then Sal lifts them out

Voila! The finished product.

If you can't handle the heat...

Luckily it's been relatively mild for NC at this time of year. The past few days have been partly cloudy and in the low 80s - a well appreciated respite from the killer heat of the last few weeks. When it gets crazy hot like that, I can't even think about cooking. Here's a recipe I got from Real Simple that will keep you cool on those dog days, but still make you feel like you're eating a gourmet meal. Plus, it's ridiculously easy:

Cold Summer Gazpacho

Ingredients:

6 yellow tomatoes, cored and quartered (got mine from Swart's)
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (substituted two banana peppers)
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
Basil and feta to garnish

Blend up the tomatoes and bell pepper in a food processor until smooth. Pour into a serving bowl and stir in vinegar and salt. Chill for awhile if you want, but it's okay to eat it now. Spoon into individual bowls and garnish with fresh basil leaves and feta. Pretty and delicious!

Summer in review

As the tomatoes start to dwindle from the Farmer's Market, ours finally begin to appear. It seems the combination of lots of rain and near total neglect has been good for them - we've got a huge crop that looks like it's going to ripen all at once. Hopefully they'll ripen. If not, we'll be eating a lot of fried green tomatoes.

Our eggplant has also blessed us with some beautiful, deep purple specimens that will get sauteed up with some tomatoes and pasta this week.

The garden has fed us well in some aspects, but hasn't been quite what we were hoping. It's been a good learning experience though, in terms of figuring out when to plant, and how to better amend our soil. I have high hopes for our batch of Fall crops.

We started out the summer with a bumper crop of cucumbers, from which I made 4 pints of dill pickle chips and numerous cucumber sandwiches. This English tea time staple is one of my favorite summer treats, and should be enjoyed specifically like this:

• Butter two pieces of white or light wheat bread
• Thinly slice a cucumber (skin on) to cover one slice of bread.
• Layer thin slices of a sharp cheese (Nature's Way's Raw Carephilly is awesome!) over the cucumbers.
• Place the second piece of bread on top of the cheese.
• Slice your sandwich diagonally into quarters. Yum.

Of course, this is kind a moot point as cucumbers are out of season, but whatever.

We also had a promising start with our squash and zucchini at the beginning of the season. Our plants grew huge and had sprouted a few little veggies and was full of lots of pretty blooms. Then slowly, the plants started to rot from the bottom up, and then within a week were reduced to a sad little pile. I pulled them up as soon as I realized they were not going to make it, but wasn't smart enough to try to find a diagnosis right away. Now I'm afraid they had
Phytophtora Crown Rot, which can apparently hang out in the soil for years. Fabulous. Not sure how to amend that situation yet - any ideas?

Our first eggplants

Cucumbers at early season

Squash, pre-meltdown

'allo again

Yay! I'm back online. For the past say, 6 weeks or so, I've had no wireless connection from home, and Blogger was blocked at work due to some new hardcore monitoring system they were trying out. And our ancient Mac at home doesn't like me to use Blogger - it posts things all whacky and can't deal with photos. But now at least the work issue has been ironed out, and I can blog from here...doesn't say much about my work productivity for right now, but whatever.

California dreamin

After writing in my last post about the Green Goddess dressing at Chez Panisse, I realized that I never wrote about Chez Panisse. What a travesty. I've got a couple of minutes to spare, so let's take a walk down Memory Lane, shall we?
I'm sure I have mentioned before that Sal and I lived in the SF Bay Area for 5 years before moving here to Wilmington. We've been back only once since then, so decided to go for Spring Break this year. (Bless the career of Education and it's forced vacations). Here are some of the highlights.

We stayed with a friend who lives on a 44 ft boat instead of a house - because you may have heard that housing is ridiculously expensive there. Hence our move to Wilmington. Anyway, staying on the boat was such a cool experience - getting up in the morning to see the sun rise over the Alameda estuary (thank you, jet lag), falling asleep to the slight rolling of the boat, and having a glass of wine on deck while watching the other sailboats glide across the water. Beats the Hilton.

We saw a lot of old friends and visited some our favorite places from our past life. Wondered more than once why on earth we left such a spectacular place. We also spiced it up by doing a couple of things we hadn't done when we lived there - one of those being dinner at Chez Panisse. If you don't know anything about Alice Waters and her world famous restaurant, please check it out and prepare to drool. She is one of the pioneers of local and seasonal eating, and has made a career of doing it with simplicity and elegance.

We made reservations a month before for the upstairs Cafe. We chose the Cafe over the downstairs prix fixe menu. Since the menu is newly created each week, it's impossible to know what you will be eating a month ahead of time when you make the reservations. I am way too picky an eater to find out that there is squid or some other atrocity on the menu at the last minute, especially at $65 - 85 per person. So - the Cafe it was.
I had:

A gorgeous Butter Lettuce salad with yellow and red beets and the aforementioned to-die-for Green Goddess dressing.
Followed by Rosemary Free Range Chicken with asparagus and fingerling potatoes
Rhubarb Tart with Kumquat ice cream for dessert.

The menu at Chez Panisse mentions all of the local farms who provided the ingredients, as in this week's offering of "Baked Andante Dairy goat cheese with garden lettuces" - sounds delish. I was tempted to take photos of our meals while I was there, but thankfully resisted the urge.

The other new thing we did was to spend two days in wine country instead of our usual one. We used to go up about every 3 months, or whenever anyone came to visit. Normally we'd just drive the hour and half up there, drink ourselves silly, sober up at V. Sattui with some delicious picnic food, and head back home. This time we stayed in Calistoga after all the tasting, sobered up at a great little bed and breakfast called Craftsman Inn (with an emphasis on the breakfast - yum!) and headed back down through Sonoma the next day. We found a couple of great new wineries, and visited some of our favorites. Needless to say, we came home with a case of CA wines. Our plan is to return once we drink through them all.

Spring brings new things

Okay, so here's one of the things I meant to write about awhile ago: The Farmers' Market has started up again. Both the downtown and Poplar's Grove markets have been packed every time I've been there - it looks like business is booming. That's good stuff around here. There are all kinds of great new things coming in to add variety to my life.

Here's a sample of what we picked up this Saturday for less than $20:

Head of lettuce
Beets
(Black River)
Carrots
Romaine
Another head of lettuce
Tomato
Onions
Cauliflower
(Gilbert's)
Sweet potatoes
(Hanchey's)
Chevre
(Nature's Way)
Zucchini
Squash
(Swart's)

I made up a menu that will allow those staples to feed us for the next two weeks, along with what we've already got in the house. We've recently started adding in some non-local food to help stretch our food budget. Although we are still doing almost all of our shopping from local sources, we've added a few "luxury items" to make up a meal. This saves us from running out of food mid-week and deciding to just go out, which we've found ourselves doing more of these days. This is not good for the purse nor the plan we had for ourselves.

So, for example, here is our menu for this week. Everything non-local is indicated:

Mon - Roasted veggies (zucchini, squash, cauliflower, carrots, onion, sweet potatoes)
Tues - Salmon (not local) with snap peas and rice
Wed - Chicken gyros with cucumber, feta and tomato (pita bread not local)
Thu - Pork chops and Bibb lettuce salad with Green Goddess dressing and beets (using an avocado to make the Green Goddess)
Fri - Gnocchi with Pesto sauce (Gnocchi not local)
Sat - Curried veggies and rice

Looking at this list, I think - I could use a locally caught fish instead of salmon. Maybe I will if the Fish Market has something comparable. I could also leave out the avocado in the dressing, but I'm trying to recreate the salad I had at Chez Panisse. I could also make my own Gnocchi, and will if I have the energy, but I'm trying not to make myself crazy. It's funny - we've remained relatively ignorant of rising food costs, since so much of what we've eaten has been put up from last year, or purchased from local sources. So adding a couple of non-local items doesn't hurt us financially, and actually helps by adding to the variety of meals we can make with a majority of local food. For example, there's no way to make chicken gyros without pita bread - but if we spend $2.00 on some flatbread, we can use up our leftover chicken, tomato and cucumber in a way that makes us happy. That's worth the non-localness to me.

As a side note, Saturday's market was extra fun because my sisters joined me for the first time. They were astounded by how inexpensive everything was, compared to the grocery store. Having not bought produce in the grocery store for some time, I was unaware that ONE pepper can apparently go for $2.99. Mr. Gilbert was selling his for 5o cents each. I was warned beforehand by my youngest sister Rachel that they were not into "chatting with farmers", but they actually had a great time, got some delicious, inexpensive food and ended up doing some chatting after all.

This is my brain on blogging

Do ya'll ever do something that you like to do, but then other people start paying attention to it, and expect it, and then it feels like a chore? That has happened to me with various hobbies before, and I have to confess that it really has happened with this blog. I've got a ton to write about - there are all kinds of awesome local things going on, and yet - I'm too busy actually doing stuff to write about stuff. Then I get all frazzled and guilt ridden and bogged down by the idea that I should be writing about this stuff, that I put it off even more and it becomes this ridiculous cycle. So lets just put all my mental silliness out there: I am making a pact between you, anyone who reads this, and my brain, that I will write when I feel like it. That might be every other month, or every day. Cool? Okay, settled. :)

Wow.

It rained like crazy like crazy today, much to the relief of our eucalyptus tree that's been begging for water for months. I wish I would have read Stew's post about 20 minutes earlier, because then I would have known that it was also going to HAIL.

What?! Craziness. And painful, I might add. I panicked at first because all of our potted plants were outside, but they took the beating pretty well. Luckily I hadn't planted anything yet because I learned my lesson from last year. Nothing in the ground until the last week of April.

Hopefully we got a good amount of water in the rain barrel we just put in. We got it back in March at the annual county sale, but had to get gutters installed, which happened this past week. Sal assembled the barrel on Saturday and put it in place yesterday, just in time for the rain. I've got high hopes for this rain barrel - we'll let you know how it goes. It's got to be better than the bunch of random buckets we've been setting out on the first sign of an overcast sky.

So you may have noticed it's been almost a month since I've posted anything. This whole traveling thing we've been doing has taken a lot of time. Just returned from a week long CA trip and have finally caught up on work. I'll be playing blogger catch-up this week. There's exciting stuff going on around Wilmington, people!

Nawlins.

I should also mention that one of the reasons it took me forever to start posting again was that the day after I got my cast off I left for New Orleans for a week. It was a work trip, so most of my days were spent in training, but we got to explore in the evenings, and a bit on the weekend. Man, oh man, do I like that city! We stayed in the Central Business District, which was convenient for our conference, but also within walking distance of the French Quarter. If you get past the neon signs and drunken frat boys on Bourbon Street (which you really do have to see at least once in your life), New Orleans has some of the loveliest architecture I have ever seen. And, the food! My goodness.

I became addicted to coffee and chickory cafe au'laits and beignets about the second day there, and have been going through withdraw since I returned. For those of you who have not experienced the heavenly deliciousness that is a beignet (sounds like ben-yay), it's like a funnel cake, except in big fried squares instead of squiggles. At Cafe du Monde, you can get a plate of three of them (covered in more powdered sugar than you should probably eat in a year) for $1.82. You can see why they were hard to leave. Too hard, actually - I brought home a box of mix to try at home. We'll see what happens.

I tried to be a little adventurous in my eating while I was there. I'm a picky eater at my core, but have been forcing myself to get a life during the past year, and try different things - especially when travelling. Last year in Boston I ate clam chowder, even though the thought of clams make me dry heave...and it was good. So for my New Orleans visit I went for a local delicacy: crawfish. I couldn't bring myself to eat them just straight up, so I tried the much more subdued crawfish cakes at Felix's. That was the way to go for me: lots of cake, little crawfish. Once again my brain proved to be wrong and my belly right - they were awesome. Sal, ever the brave one, learned how to peel and eat them from a cook on the street.

More awe inspiring food from New Orleans that we tried: jambalaya, muffulettas from Central Grocery (the man who waited on us didn't bat an eye when I asked for one with no meat - he simply said "Don'tah worry. I take care of you."), hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's, red beans and rice, pain perdu, white chocolate bread pudding, and catfish po'boys. Twice.

While we were there we also got to catch some jazz at Preservation Hall, take in the St. Patrick's

Day parade where they throw cabbage and potatoes, as well as other festive junk. Don't worry - the veggies don't go to waste. There were a bunch of ladies hauling that stuff away by the bagful. Irish Stew...yum.

There is something about New Orleans that I haven't been able to shake, and I can't exactly put my finger on it. It started the first night I was there, when I couldn't sleep. I thought it might be just a first night adjustment; staying in a strange hotel and all, but no - it was every night. It was kind of like when I'm in Vegas - here is the whole city, alive and awake and I'm missing it. And now I'm here, and it's there. Maybe that's it. At least I brought back the beignets.

I heart Sal.

As I mentioned before, being one handed for two weeks was a big pain in the behind. This is not meant to be disrespectful to people who have only one hand all the time. But being that I am used to having two functioning hands most of the time, it was a huge annoyance. I'm really dominantly right-handed, so when I had surgery on my right wrist, I needed help showering, getting dressed, and eating. So obviously, cooking was out of the question. Lucky for me, my husband is awesome and took over like a champ. In addition to putting my hair in a ponytail, and pulling on my socks, he also made sure that I had food to eat. Here are a couple of the yummy local meals he whipped up while I was out of commission:

Chicken and tomato saute

Turkey Meatloaf

He made lots of other great stuff too, but having not documented it on camera, I can't remember. Pain medication will do that to you.

I'm baaaaack.

Why, hello ya'll! I have returned from the land of the one handed, and can now type a sentence in less than ten minutes. Yes, it is a happy time. I still have a splint on my wrist (not the giganto cast you see in the photo), but at least I can use the fingers on my right hand, which means I can now brush my teeth without poking myself in the eye. Ahhh, the things you miss when you're one handed. Anyway, look for some updating posts in the next week or so.

Oh, I do want to remind local Wilmingtonians that Lewis Farms is now open for business. Hoorah! For now they've got strawberries, plants and oh yes: their blessed ice cream. We walked down yesterday for their opening day and had ourselves some waffle cones for lunch. Delish.

Peace out for now

Hey ya'll - I'm having surgery tomorrow, so I won't be blogging for at least a week or so. Nothing major, just repairing some degenerative damage to my right wrist. I've had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since age 5, and a lot of my joints have deteriorated to the point of needing repair. I didn't expect to be having this surgery so soon, but I guess it's another way for the universe to reiterate to me that everything in life cannot be planned out. I'll be off work until next Monday or so - I'm going to try to relax in my time off, and not stress about all the stuff I'm not able to do. Anyway, I'm practicing typing with my left hand, but fine motor tasks in general are going to be kind of difficult for the next few weeks.

Any suggestions for good books to read/movies to watch while I'm recovering?

PS - Check out this awesome bag my grammy and Val made me! I have got to learn this cable stitch for myself...once I've got the use of two hands again.

Duck Rabbit Brewery

On our way back from the Outer Banks, we decided to take a small detour to visit one of Sal's favorite NC breweries, The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. Sal had some sort of divine inspiration on the way up to Kitty Hawk, and decided to see if Farmville, where Duck-Rabbit is brewed, was anywhere near our travelling path. He checked out their website, and lo and behold - it was an easy detour on our way back to Wilmington. Filled with anticipation of a brewery tour and stocking up on cases of beer, we headed back home with our sights set on Farmville.

Driving into Farmville was a little like entering the town where I grew up, but actually slightly more run down. There was at least one stop light, which is a big deal for a small town, but other than that, we didn't see a whole lot that inspired us to hang around. We followed the directions I wrote down from Google Maps, but even I started to wonder if I had missed something somewhere. We turned right onto an apparently dead end road near an industrial site - nope; I was right. We pulled up in front of 4519 West Pine Street and started laughing. To say that the building was unassuming would be an understatement. Not exactly what we expected, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

So glad we did. After wandering around the outside of the building, we finally decided to try the brown door in the front. We pushed it open and yelled hello (we know from experience to loudly introduce your presence in small towns or sketchy residences in case the owner is a trigger happy gun owner). We didn't hear anything, so we followed the sound of voices and made our way through the office into what turned out to be the huge brewing center/warehouse of The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery.

There we discovered Paul and Ryan, the two men behind Duck-Rabbit, hard at work creating an experimental brew. We apologized for barging in, but they were completely welcoming, even though they were obviously in the middle of some labor-intensive beer making. They invited us to look around until they were finished, and gave me permission to take some photos. When they were done, Paul took the time to tell me a little bit about Duck-Rabbit and what they do. Here's what I learned:

Paul Philippon, the founder, was working on a Ph.D in Philosophy at the University of Michigan when he started doing some home brewing. Seeing that the job prospects kind of suck in the world of Philosophy, he decided to start his own brewery and produced the first Duck-Rabbit beer in August of 2004. He chose Farmville for it's inexpensive real estate and the possibility to expand if needed. His partner in crime, Ryan (on the left in the photo), got a job simply by calling him up and asking if Paul needed help. He did. Duck-Rabbit now distributes to four states, having just added Georgia this week. They produce four standard brews: Milk Stout (YUM!), Brown Ale, Amber Ale (Sal's current fave), and a Porter, plus seasonal a variety of seasonal offerings.

The brewing set up was pretty cool, with giant drums holding from one to three batches of beer. One batch of 520 gallons produces about 270 cases in 2 weeks. That seems like a lot of beer, and must be a ton of work for two guys, but it really isn't that much as compared to say, Miller Brewing Co. that produces something like 3.1 million cases per year. Needless to say, Duck-Rabbit kicks the behind of Miller, taste wise.

If you want to pick up some Duck-Rabbit beer for yourself, don't plan on getting it at the brewery; they don't sell it there, much to our disappointment. You can, however, pick it up in Wilmington at Tidal Creek, as well as a bunch of other places locally and all over the state.

Many thanks to Paul and Ryan for their hospitality, and for taking the time to teach us about brewing. Next time we drink a Duck-Rabbit beer out of our new pint glass, we'll be able to picture exactly where, and by whom it was created. Mmmmm. Beer.

On the road again.

The month of February is a busy one for us. As you know, I was in Florida last week - Friday we're going to Charleston, and this past weekend we visited the Outer Banks. We were really fortunate to have received a generous gift of a free weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn at Kitty Hawk. We love the Outer Banks, and hadn't been up that way for over 9 years (a travesty!), so it was a great getaway.

As usual, we tried to get the local flavor when looking for somewhere to eat. Last time we were there, Sal and I had to search hard to find somewhere to eat during the off-season. On this trip we could have eaten at any one of the fast food places that have unfortunately popped up around town, but of course, we have more sense in our heads than that. We opted for the RunDown Cafe the first night, a cool little place within walking distance of our hotel. Both of us opted for the mahi, which was delish.

The next evening we decided to try the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which had the obvious draw of locally brewed beer. I'm telling you, if the Mack-Daddy Stout wasn't $19 for a growler, I would have brought home a kegful. Sal tried the Compass Rose ‘Secret-Spiced’ Ale. I immediately identified the secret spice, which was confirmed by our waitress, but I won't reveal it here in case you want to solve the mystery on your own. Email me if you're curious.

Okay, so fabulous dinners abounded, but the best meal of all had to have been the breakfast we got from Duck Donuts. Holy goodness. Right across the street from the Hilton is this little, unassuming place that serves made-to-order hot cake donuts that you can have dipped in the icing and coating of your choice. Oh my lordy, you have no idea. I'm actually not a huge donut fan in general, but I could probably eat these every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. I tried to just order one, but the super cool woman who runs the place, Paulique, gave me two (but only charged me for one) because they were "small." Total price: $3.08.

Sal mixed it up by choosing a strawberry icing/chocolate sprinkle combo as well as a chocolate icing/rainbow sprinkles one. I kept it simple and went for a double dose of the chocolate/coconut. You know how I love the coconut. We took them back to our room and ate them on our oceanfront balcony with a cup of coffee. Seriously? These donuts were beyond believable: warm, gooey, sweet and perfect. Mmmmm. We may plan a trip back just to see Paulique.