While I’m pimping my “real work” for Mountain Xpress, I thought I’d point you in the direction of cute blogger mom, Mari, who is using her blog to look for a husband.
Also, I wrote about Biltmore’s first flower carpet this week. And I took lots of colorful photos–and made an unscripted, off-the-cuff short video about the story. For me, watching the gardeners construct the carpet was more interesting than the final product.
My column this week covers kid activities at Asheville’s Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Fest. If you’re in town on Sunday, it should be a hoot.
This afternoon, from 4-5 p.m., I’ll be on WPVM, 103.5 FM, Asheville, chatting with the hosts of Listen2Women. I imagine we’ll be chatting about kids and parenting and, I hope, beer. The program streams live from wpvm.org. It may be available later as a downloadable podcast from their archive page. In case you’re really bored.
Looking for something fun to do with the fam this weekend? Rock out to Secret Agent 23 Skidoo at The Grey Eagle!
The Asheville local and hip-hop for kids king performs Saturday at 2 p.m.
We’ve been listening hard to his album, Easy, at home. Check out Skidoo’s website for video goodness, including the most adorable hip-hop song ever sung–Family Tree–by Skidoo and daughter, Saki.
This is Frank. He’s not someone you want to meet in a dark alley. Or in the still woods after midnight.
Frank’s tough. He’s strong. He’s mean as a junkyard dog. In fact, he owns several.
Frank’s my friend.
He says, “If you mess with Edgy Mama, you’ll get more than just the wrong end of my cane up your backside.” He’s carrying the cane because he broke his ankle kicking a brick wall when he heard someone disrespect Edgy Mama. Then, limping in pain, he ripped the head off a live bat and ate it. Just to emphasize how pissed off he was.
Frank likes me. Frank also likes photos of flowers, whiskers on kittens, and herbal tea.
Beware.
Did you have fun at Downtown after 5 last night? The boy and I didn’t stay long, but decamped to Jack of the Wood for dinner. The place was quiet and practically empty–a welcome change from their typical Friday night.
Just a quick note about Sunday–if you need a drink and want to support a good cause–visit the newish Rankin Vault Cocktail Lounge (opposite the Rankin parking deck, kinda behind Tops for Shoes). Starting at 3 p.m. on Sunday, they’ll offer Cocktails for a Cause–50 percent of all sales will be donated to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity. Food is included if you shouldn’t be imbibing on Sunday evening. Enjoy!
In other news, our home construction is complete. Hurrah! I’m still cleaning, re-arranging and moving furniture (also, still haven’t unloaded the Go-Mini that’s lived on the street in front of the house for almost 4 months–I figure we own it by now!). At some point, I’ll update photos.
What’s the news out there?
If you live in or near Asheville and are planning to hit the Southeast’s largest street festival this weekend, here’s my no-nonsense guide to taking your kids along. Have fun!
(Crossposted from the CFSA blog)
Enviro-spouse and I hit Bar 100 in downtown Asheville last night for our anniversary. I chose the restaurant because of the Eat Carolina Challenge. Our server told us that some of the foods may come from over the border in Tennessee, because Bar 100 provides food from within 100 miles–in all directions (thus the restaurant’s name). I figured a bit of Tennessee thrown in with my Carolina would be OK for a night.
We sat outside on the patio for the people-watching on Wall Street. The weather was steamy, but a brief rain cooled the patio off. When we said we didn’t want to go inside, our server pulled over an umbrella to protect us from the spitting raindrops. Sadly, the rain didn’t last long.
The Bar 100 menu is simple and short, which I like. To start, we shared the cheese platter featuring Spinning Spider camille with roasted beets, Meadowcreek Dairy mountaineer with pickled fennel, Spinning Spider cheddar with strawberry jam, and my fave, Clemson blue cheese with roasted pecans. The plate was served with housemade toasted crostini that we supplemented with wood-grilled flatbread topped with olive oil, fresh rosemary and Celtic sea salt. Amazing! The cheese plate costs $15–not inexpensive, but worth the variety of taste and freshness.
I drank a Highland gaelic ale with dinner. I’m slightly disappointed that Bar 100 doesn’t offer more local beers, particularly the organic Pisgah, because they don’t stock draft. I guess the foodie crowd there is more of a wine-drinking group.
For the main course, we split a butter lettuce salad topped with Benton’s bacon and house-made green goddess dressing. Simple but succulent. We also shared a pan-seared trout from Sunrise Farms. The trout was served over coarse milled grits and wilted greens, including a delicious peppery arugula. I wish I could cook trout as well as Bar 100’s chef–the fish’s skin, normally not very tasty, was crisp and crunchy, while the ,meat of the fish was fork tender. Yum!
The salad was $7 and the trout was $16. Again, a bit pricey for us, but worth the occasion.
Another entree that I noticed others enjoying was the smoked chicken with summer vegetables. Unfortunately, the veggies mostly consisted of squash, which I’ve about had enough of already this summer!
We’re lucky here in Ashvegas to have a number of restaurants that make use of local and organic foods: Early Girl, Tupelo Honey, The Marketplace, The Green Sage, and Sugo, to name a few. But I wish and hope that more would embrace the 100-mile concept. It rocks!
