Friday I had defrosted some beef but didn’t have a lot of time to make a traditional stew, so I improvised a quick one on the fly. I used some stew beef we had in the freezer, as well as a potato and the rest of the cabbage from the CSA. It was decent, went down nicely with a Kona Wailua Wheat Ale (brewed with passion fruit). After dinner, Jill was wiped out and headed for bed – I stayed up and surfed and watched TV.
Saturday we on the HOA board had managed to schedule our twice yearly walkthrough then so that was canceled due to the snow, but we still had some interviews of management companies, and that took the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon, after which I stayed inside reading newspapers and watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary shows as the snow came down.
Saturday night my mom was performing with The Reston Chorale, and we decided it was better to go out early in case the roads started icing up. They played Vivald’s Gloria and a variety of holiday songs and it was nice, then we headed over to Flippin’ Pizza in South Lakes for a pie. It was our first time there, but I’d read we should get a whole pie, so we did, the Brooklyn and a salad. It was very good, filled us up quickly and we still had a half a pie for leftovers. I had a Moretti beer with it, hit the spot.
Later we cleaned the carpets. We usually go with the pros, but tried to save money by renting a Rug Doctor. I’m not sure how well it worked compared to the other guys, but we did get some mighty dirty water out of it.
Sunday we headed down to DC for brunch. I found out Friday afternoon it’s sometimes worth it to get on a waiting list as I was alerted we got into the Dogfish Head/Sierra Nevada four-course, seven-beer brunch to celebrate the first collaborative beers from both breweries, Life and Limb. We go to Dupont Circle early, but the farmer’s market happened to be open, so we wandered around (and Jill bought some wool). We still had some time to kill after that and it was cold, so we headed into Second Story Books where I found a Tom Holt book and Moxy Früvous CD I didn’t have.
We were one of the first in at Pizzeria Paradiso, but were quickly seated. They started us with a cream of zucchini soup and some zucchini bread french toast that was paired with Sierra Nevada Kellerweisse and Dogfish Head Theobroma. The latter was brewed with chocolate and paired wonderfully with the french toast. Next up was an arugula salad with Camembert and a creamy avocado dressing paired with Sierra Nevada Celebration and Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu. The hoppiness of the Celebration went nicely with the peppers in the salad, but the grapes matched the grapes in the Chateau Jiahu.
My favorite course was next. The brunch frittata was pretty good, but the pizza with potatoes, sausage, blue cheese and a fried egg was perfectly balanced, and paired well both with the Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest and the two year old Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. The dessert course of cinnamon coffee cake was ok, and I liked the Life and Limb, but it was hard to measure up to the previous course. We also had fun chatting with the guys at our table, some of whom were very knowledgeable in beer (and I don’t think I’ll ever have a beer as the wallpaper on my phone).
We weren’t quite ready to head back, so we walked around Dupont Circle a little and headed inside Teaism. Jill got some black tea, while I got some that was supposed to improve digestion (it seemed to help). It was crowded, but we found some seats upstairs and chatted until we finished.
We stopped at Home Depot on the way back to pick up a Christmas tree (less than half of what we’ve been paying at a lot in Sterling). When we got home I brought the tree in, then watched the Saints eke out a win in OT against the Skins (so close), then made hamburgers and grilled them while I baked some sweet potato fries and sauteed green beans (and one more beer, good ol’ Magic Hat #9).