Vacation finds

We just arrived back home yesterday after a secret getaway planned by my oh-so-thoughtful husband. He took us to Charlottesville, VA! Home of the University of Virginia, Monticello, and endless supplies of local/organic foods. It was on the cold side, but the mountains (large hills?) there are still quite beautiful. We stumbled across several firsts on this trip that I have been eager to share. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to enhance these finds, though, because we left town without our camera!

1. 200 South Street Inn. Almost a B&B but not quite. They have discounted rates a few weeks out of the year, and this just so happened to be one of those weeks. There are two buildings, 12 or so individualized rooms (some with fireplaces, some with jacuzzi tubs like ours), a common room with a fireplace as well as a nice big porch to sit out on when the weather is warmer, and lots of yummy goodies to munch on throughout the day. There is no formal breakfast, which is why this is almost a B&B, but there is a breakfast spread available all morning long, including homemade breads and granola and yummy little rolls called popovers. In the evening they put out wine, fruit, and a spread of gourmet cheese. We did enjoy trying all the fancy types of cheese we would never pay for regularly at home, but the best treat of all--and possibly the best part of our entire stay there--was the always fresh supply of homemade cookies left out all day long at the front desk. These were quite possibly the best cookies I have ever eaten...even better than Justin's! Which is saying something. And that brings me to Find #2.

2. 200 South Street Inn Cookie Recipe. The employees at the inn were very gracious in sharing as many of their recipes as we wanted to take. (The popovers, by the way, are a Martha Stewart recipe with only 5 ingredients. The woman who made them omitted the butter and added whatever leftover cheese they had on hand.) After consuming probably a dozen cookies each during our 3-night stay, you can bet we jumped at the chance to get the recipe. I was surprised to see that the recipe for these oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies is surprisingly simple. We found the best batches of cookies to be those with few to no walnuts (perhaps they were just more finely ground) and slightly overdone, which made the texture simply irresistible. I am curious to find out whether my oven (not a convection oven like theirs) will produce the same results. So, without further ado:

200 South Street Inn Cookie Recipe

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine four, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat brown sugar, butter, and sugar in large

bowl until creamy. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Add in oats, nuts, and chocolate. Mix well.

Chill dough in fridge at least an hour before baking to help the cookies "set up."

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto a cookie sheet, about 9 per sheet, as the cookies spread out quite a bit. Bake at 325 for 10-14 minutes.

You're welcome.

3. Apple cider and "the next Honey Crisp apple." Justin decided to go to a farm that advertised tastings of "true" apple cider. Well, it turns out that "true" apple cider is alcoholic and is similar to wine. The overwhelming taste in wine to me is a bitter taste from the alcohol. The same proved true for the apple ciders. I was not a fan. Justin wasn't terribly impressed either, but we are unsophisticated bumpkins in that particular area, so I don't expect many people to agree with our assessments there.

However, we were treated to a taste of "the next Honey Crisp apple," which we were both completely won over by. We ended up taking home several of these wonderfully sweet with just the right amount of tart Gold Rush apples. If you are picky about apples like I am, I highly recommend keeping an eye out for these.

There were other firsts of course and other things I could recommend from our trip, but those were the biggies. We really enjoyed Charlottesville and definitely recommend a vacation there!