11th Anniversary

Charles and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on July 14th.  One of the gifts that we received from my mother was a "kid-free" night so that we could go out and celebrate.  We finally got around to doing just that on Saturday.  I have been bored lately with the restaurant offerings in Harrisonburg, so I planned an evening for us in Old Town Winchester on the pedestrian mall.  We arrived in Winchester a little past 5pm and decided to find a place to have appetizers.  We both found something that looked good on Union Jack's menu.  Charles had a buffalo chicken dip with chips and I had asparagus spears wrapped in puff pastry with a tangy garlic mustard sauce for dipping.  Both were very good.  We sat at the bar because we wanted to walk and explore the pedestrian mall after having our appetizers.

Waiting for our appetizers at Union Jack

After walking for a bit, we were disappointed to see that not many of the stores and shops were open, despite it being a "special" weekend where places were supposed to stay open later.  Many of the storefronts were also empty.  Since we are accustomed to the vibrant Charlottesville downtown mall scene, Old Town Winchester was a bit disappointing.  There were several good restaurant options, however, so we decided to do a bit of a progressive dinner.  We debated between Italian and Thai for our main meal, deciding to go with Violino's Italian Restaurant.  The service here was excellent, and the food was good as well.  Charles had a four-meat special, and I had an angel hair primavera that was chock full of good veggies.  We were treated to a cold peach soup sent out ahead of our entrees, and we also enjoyed a live violinist.

We thought he looked like a frat boy

After finishing our meal at Violino's, we definitely needed to try out Red Fox Creamery, where they make their own homemade ice cream.  It was delicious!

Enjoying ice cream at Red Fox Creamery

On our way back home we stopped at the Spring House Tavern in Woodstock for a second dessert and coffee.  Here I had a very sweet apple dumpling with ice cream, and Charles had the peanut butter pie, which was very rich.  After partaking in two desserts, I might have fallen asleep a bit on the ride home.  It was definitely past my bedtime!  We did watch a bit of the Olympics when we got home and enjoyed sleeping in since the girls were staying overnight at Grandma's.  Overall, it was a nice way to celebrate 11 years together.

Sunday was all about the garden, once again, as we continued our quest to preserve as much food as we can while it is in abundance.  Charles bought 5 dozen ears of corn from Lohr's farm on Saturday, and we froze that, yielding 10 quarts of corn for the freezer.

Corn cleaned and ready for blanching

We also harvested the first of the corn from our garden, eating it on the cob for both lunch and dinner.  Also from the garden came a number of cucumbers and tomatoes.  I'll need to can my first batch of tomatoes and perhaps make some cucumber salad.  Here's what Charles harvested:

The day's harvest