Blog for adaysouting.com

Elizabeth and I would like to thank everyone for making 2009 a wonderful year for A Day’s Outing.  Since going live in March, we have been so thrilled to see all of the wonderful destinations our users, their friends and family have found.  Thank you so much for telling us about the great outings you have taken, giving us honest feedback and helping our company grow and get off to a fabulous start.

A few great events in 2010 to look forward to are-

East Coast Canoe & Kayak Festival 4/16-18 Charleston, SC

Ohio State Fair 7/28-8/8 Columbus, OH

South Carolina State Fair 10/13-10/24 Columbia, SC

Travel and Transportation in Early Maryland 1/28-3/31  Johns Hopkins University Museum, Baltimore, MD

Afternoon Tea at the Maymont Mansion 3/14-6/21 Richmond, VA

Fourth of July at Mount Vernon 7/4  Mount Vernon, VA

We wish you and your family a year filled with happiness in 2010!

*Update- Here is a podcast with Elizabeth discussing Christmas visits to downtown areas small towns broadcast on XM radio Hidden America!

It’s the time of year when I am thrilled to get out and go shopping. It sounds crazy, but I enjoy the cold air and all the decorations. There are presents to buy, goodies to make and holiday meals to prepare for. With big shopping malls everywhere, it can be easy to overlook the local shops that line the Main Streets in small towns, but those shops can offer so much.

Here is Charlottesville, VA we have a vibrant downtown area. There are art galleries which feature regional artists, small bookstores that carry the newest writers, as well as hidden literary treasures, family owned pizzerias that make the best slices and an ice skating rink that’s open year round.

There are also many small towns around us with their own quaint and welcoming Main Streets. Culpeper, VA has shop after shop after shop. I love to have lunch at It’s About Thyme and then head down the block to one of several antique shops to hunt for a treasure or two. Staunton, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley, is a town with a rich architectural history and a downtown area with a great local diner and fun gift shops.

When you’re thinking about your holiday shopping keep in mind the wonderful local shops that are all around you.  You can take a quick drive to a nearby town or make a day trip out of it and really get to know a new Main Street near you.

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Every year since I was very little I have LOVED making sugar cookie cut outs for the holidays. I mix the little decorated cookies in with other traditional holiday cookies and deliver them to my neighbors. The only ones I ever get comments on are the little decorated gems. As the years have gone on I have tried to get fancier and fancier, adding in gold and silver dragees, and taking more and more time to decorate them. I have never been able to find a sugar cookie recipe that rolls really well and an icing recipe that dries hard and tastes good. I think this year I figured it out and the recipes are below. This year my daughter and a few of her eight-year-old friends also came over and helped. It was so cute to see how serious and slightly competitive they were.

I also bought a decorating kit by Kuhn Rikon that uses squeeze bottles instead of bags. It made decorating really easy, especially with kids. To get the icing easily into the bottles, spatula the icing into ziplocs by color, snip the very tip of the bag, and pipe it into the bottles.  The plastic containers you get at any grocery store salad bar also work great for kids to take their cookies home in.  You need to wait about an hour to let the icing dry and then you can set a paper towel in between the layers if you need to.

Sugar Cookie Cut Outs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
3 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs. vanilla

Have all ingredients at room temperature.

Sift together flour and salt, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the cream cheese and continue beating until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, increase the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolk, then add the vanilla.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating in each addition before adding more. Beat just until combined, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Using floured hands, form the dough into a smooth mound and divide into 2 portions. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

Remove 1 dough disk at a time from the refrigerator and let stand for 10 minutes. Place the dough on a floured work surface and roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut out with cookie cutter of your choice and place on baking sheet. If you are having a hard time rolling out the cookies try making them thicker or allowing the dough to chill in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until golden on edges, 10 to 14 minutes.

Royal Icing
1 pound confectioners’ sugar
5 Tbs meringue powder
1-2 tsp. of almond or lemon extract
1-2 tsp. of imitation butter extract (I didn’t even know there was such a thing)
1 tsp. of good vanilla
about a ½ cup water

Combine the sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add 1 teaspoon and lemon or almond extract and 1 teaspoon of the butter extract and a quarter cup of water. Mix on low speed until you have reached the desired consistency and taste, about 7 minutes. If icing is too thick, add more water; if too thin, beat icing 2 to 3 minutes more. Add more extract or vanilla as you feel needed. The icing should form stiff peaks.

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I had a bold vision this past weekend. I thought I would make several Christmas wreaths — two for the sides of our front door, one for the back door and another to put out by the mailbox.  Four in all, which sounded reasonable at the time.

Several years back, I took a wreath making class at Monticello. I learned all the basics and I even went out and bought different wreath making supplies from an art store.  Of course, I needed fresh greenery.  So I cut some boxwood from the bushes, collected pine cones in the woods, clipped cedar from the tree and saved several Frasier fir branches from the bottom of our Christmas tree. With all these supplies and my prior lesson, I was sure this was going to be great.

What I forgot to factor in was our huge hound dog, the bitter cold day and my two Christmas crazed children. The dog snuffled around the different cuttings trying to make them into a nice bed to lie down on, the cold December air was freezing my hands outside and my two children were running around the yard happily screaming and playing a game. Apparently, this was one too many things for me and I ended up with only one wreath.  Now, it is a beautiful wreath, but there’s only one. So I’m off to my local nursery to buy the other three.  Next year, I’ll lock myself in my office and try again.

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I love this recipe. I adapted it from one I found online after having fabulous Pasta Bolognese out to dinner one night. I made it recently to send to a friend’s house after she had just had a baby. I also like to serve it with fresh pasta from our local Mona Lisa Pasta, Yum! It makes a very easy dinner that everyone will like during the hectic holidays.  It really is easy to make, the ingredient list just looks long.

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 medium celery rib, finely diced
2 ounces thickly sliced pancetta (or bacon), finely diced
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground veal (I know, you can substitute ground chicken)
1/4 pound ground pork
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine
One 28-ounce can peeled Italian tomatoes–seeded and finely chopped, juices reserved
1 cup chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4-6 ounces Parmesan rind
1/4 cup heavy cream (you can skip it, but it’s not the same ☺)
2 pounds Penne Rigate, Conchiglie (my favorite), or Rigatoni
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Minced parsley and/or basil for garnish

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan until shimmering. Add the onion, carrot, celery and pancetta and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Scrape the vegetable mixture into a large bowl.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the saucepan and heat until just shimmering. Add the beef, veal and pork and cook over moderately high heat until just barely pink, about 5 minutes. Return the vegetable mixture to the saucepan. Add the garlic and cook over high heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost evaporated, about 8 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices, the chicken stock, Parmesan rind, thyme and bay leaf. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover partially and cook over moderately low heat for 1 hour. (your house will smell heavenly!) Discard the bay leaf and rind. Stir in the heavy cream and cook the sauce just until heated through.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain well, return to the pot and toss with the sauce. Serve the pasta in deep bowls, top with minced parsley and pass the Parmesan at the table.

Serves 8-10  Extra sauce can of course be frozen…

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A Poinsettia says the holidays like no other flower, but just what is a poinsettia?

Euphorbia pulcherrima, commonly called a poinsettia, is a tropical plant indigenous to Mexico and Guatemala. What most people think of as the flower petals on the poinsettia are actually colored leaves called bracts. Really, the flowers are the small yellow petals found in the very center of each leaf bunch. The “poinsettia” was named in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant into the United States in 1828. Since then, poinsettia varieties have been introduced in a wide range leaf patterns and colors from deep red, to pink, white and marbled.

Contrary to popular belief, poinsettia plants aren’t truly poisonous. Apparently, an adult would have to eat dozens of leaves to be ill. If a child eats the leaves or stems of a poinsettia plant, they may develop a mild stomachache, but severe symptoms are unlikely. Still, you might want to keep the plants out of the reach of children and away from the mouths of crazy pets.

And what do you do with the plant after the holidays? Since poinsettia won’t grow outside in Virginia, I simply add the plant to my compost pile. Some people do try and get them to rebloom the following year, but this takes a greenhouse and a lot of patience. In Oakland, CA I once saw a 10 foot poinsettia plant growing beside an old warehouse.  I can imagine that one year someone simply stuck the poinsettia in the ground in January and somehow the plant thought it was happily living in Mexico.

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I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show recently with Cathy, my partner in crime at A Day’s Outing.  The show was so amazing that I don’t think the term “Craft” is sufficient. It should be something like the, “Philadelphia Museum of Art Show of Extraordinary Artists that make you Want Everything they Make”.  Cathy and I were so excited about the art we saw that we are going to highlight the work of a handful of artists over the coming months.  Here are two to get us started….

Laura Breitman - The first time I saw Laura’s work, I thought I was looking at a black and white photograph of a tree.   As I walked closer, I realized the “photograph” was really a collage of finely cut pieces of material.  I found myself backing up to see it appear as a photo and then coming closer to see all the fabric pieces. It’s hard to express just how breathtaking Laura’s work is and how much it really fools your eyes into thinking you are seeing a photograph.   You really have to see her work in person to understand just how amazing it is!

Carolyn Morris Bach - It was a treat to see Carolyn’s jewelry for the first time at the craft show.  In her jewelry there are hand carved faces of owls, birds and bears that have been wrapped in gold and adorned with stones.  In Carolyn’s work there is a spiritual aspect that draws you in.  No two pieces of jewelry are the same and the individual personalities of each piece truly shows through.

If you can get the chance to attend, the show is annually the second weekend in November.  The work displayed there by all the artists is awe-inspiring.

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Here’s a guest blog post from a A Day’s Outing Fan, Pam Connolly -

We traveled from Richmond to Roanoke to stay with great friends this Thanksgiving.  Of course Thanksgiving with friends, family and food is special, but another event begins the day after Thanksgiving.  At Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke, the fabulous jolly old elf awaits.  As we headed from the country to the city, snow flakes swirled around, just as Santa was arriving…. that certainly set the tone for our visit.

Visiting Santa at the History Museum of Western Virginia was magical.  At the first showing Santa greets us with handshakes and hugs, gushing over how big everyone is getting and how good it is to see us.  We all gathered around Santa’s story telling room, it was like a cozy living room with a fireplace, with The Christmas Chair.  Santa picks up his guitar and starts to sing.

Oh, yes, Santa is a very talented musician!  We sing some favorites and talk about how remembering  holiday traditions is so important.  Santa reads a story and sings a song about Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer including Holly (Rudolph’s sister and Buck who has been trying to be on Santa’s team for a while).  Another fun part was Santa’s Good and Bad list. Santa lets the children and adults check for their name in the books.  We all had a great time with this. Wrapping up our time, were pictures and hugs with Santa, sending us off with happiness into the Museum and the wonderful downtown market.

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Great Roanoke Restaurant Reviews!

An old family tradition was renewed this past holiday weekend, with a new Virginia twist.  My husband’s family in Michigan always bundled up and went for a walk on Thanksgiving afternoon together before the big feast.  Depending on where they were celebrating the holiday, the walk could have been around a small town neighborhood or a stroll through a larger urban park.

Now that we are all living in Virginia, the family’s Thanksgiving walk was through the beautiful woods.  Being that it is the Virginia countryside and it was November, there were hunters in the woods, as well. So a new tradition was added – everyone has to wear something blaze orange on the walk.  I knew that the photos from the walk wouldn’t make it into a Martha Stewart catalog, since we all looked like clowns.  But, we had a great time, we were safe from hunters, and an old family tradition was revived with a little twist.

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I visited Charleston, S.C. for a meeting awhile back.  Arriving in the morning with 6 hours before my first meeting, I took the opportunity to take a taxi to the historic downtown area to visit the Gibbes Museum Museum of Art on Charleston’s Museum Mile.  Now all this sounds so wonderful, but you have to add in the bone chilling wind and the rain, and the fact I didn’t pack an umbrella.

Accidentally, my taxi cab driver dropped me off in the wrong place and said the museum was just up the block. It wasn’t. So, there I was walking around in the rain. I walked a block and stopped in an old pharmacy and bought a $7 pink umbrella.  For some reason I had to learn the lesson once again..” you get what you pay for.” So there I was walking around with a pink umbrella dripping water down my back. Then I saw a cute French café and decided food would make everything better.  Just across from the historic Old City Market building was Mistral. I was a little hesitant to go in given my drenched condition, but I immediately felt better as I was shown to a cozy corner booth.  After a Caesar salad, French onion soup and a glass of Cotes du Rhone, I was ready to head back outside.

With directions in hand from the owner of the restaurant, I headed off to Gibbes Museum. Shortly after I walked in the door, I fell in love with their miniature paintings, displayed in their own small room. I have never seen such tiny, marvelous paintings that can fit in the palm of your hand. Climbing the stairs in the museum brought even more wonderful surprises. There is no doubt that the Gibbes Museum’s exhibits were worth all the effort I had made to get there.

If you happen to have little children with you, the Hands-On exhibit is fun, but all in all, I don’t think they will enjoy this museum as much as you will. But, the Children’s Museum of the Low Country is nearby; just make sure you have good directions and a great umbrella if it is raining!

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