At the start of each autumn I head out to the farms and pick up some cheap tomatoes. 20lb's of tomatoes for $20, that's a bargain if ever I saw one. The quality of tomatoes aren't the best, a few bruises here and there - it is the back end of the season after all, but they're more than good enough to make a hearty batch of sauce. Enough for a few meals, short-rib lasagna anyone?
Read MoreDining: Patowmack Farm
Cherry Blossom weekend in DC means one thing, at least for many residents of the city - get as far away from the tourists as possible, this involves avoiding Downtown, Georgetown, the National Mall, and well pretty much anywhere in the city where you see pink. I'm not a hater when it comes to tourists (except for those who don't stand to the right on the Metro escalators), I just like the city a little less hectic.
Escaping the city meant a day in Virginia's countryside, an hours drive West and you're in the middle of rolling hills playing host to farms and vineyards, which is where my friends and I took ourselves. For our first stop we found a 400 acre vineyard outside of Purcellville, Breaux Vineyards is one of the few Virginia vineyards that produces a wine I actually like, it's worth a visit for the Vidal Blanc alone. We didn't visit this vineyard by chance, it's close to The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm where we had reservations for their monthly Sunday Supper, a prix fixe family style dinner which is a little less expensive than the usual menu, but I can only imagine no less satisfying.
There's no choosing at Sunday Supper, everyone gets everything on the menu, which is a meal broken down into four components: snacks, appetizers, entrees and desserts - you could say the view is a fifth course, no other restaurant in the area can touch it, savor every moment.
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