Tag Archives: local businesses

Ho Ho HoCo!

Posted on December 9, 2015 by AnnieRie

Today I spent most of the day shopping. The difference? Everywhere I went, I saw the owner of the business there. I didn’t set foot in one chain or big box place, but I had a great day.

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Then tonight, I finally finished updating all the links on my HoCoBiz page, but no, I’m not finished there yet. I do need to get to Old Town EC and add a few more once I finish Christmas shopping.

What did I do today? First, we hit The Cover Uph in Columbia to drop off our 31 year old dining room chairs, to get them redone. Tom Vaughn has been in business there since 1977. My dining room chairs will be my present to myself for this Christmas.

Then, off to Iron Bridge to pick up wine, and for me to have lunch. It is one of the two restaurants that get the majority of our business. If you are looking for a great gift, get a gift certificate from them. For us, we just picked up our third “red envelope” with this visit. You never know if you might have gotten one of those big prizes to be revealed at a visit in January.

I did say we, but today I meant me, as my husband headed off to Lisbon to the Town Grill to have his monthly Glenwood Amateur Radio group meeting.

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For me, I headed off to Greenway to pick up my poinsettias. I will be getting my tree closer to Christmas but with all the publicity about Greenways’ poinsettias, I didn’t want to miss getting my favorite colors. They also had large rosemary bushes, so I got two of those.

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My old ones died last winter. These two will stay inside in pots this winter. Next year, I will remember to wrap them in burlap once they are permanently planted. Healthy looking, aren’t they?

On the way home, I stopped in Casual Gourmet to pick up some pasta and some pepper jelly for gifts. Suzanne’s pepper jelly is another locally owned product.

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I got mild this time. Also called heaven. They have purgatory and hell. And, one called ghost, which I will not be trying. I am too much of a wimp for that heat.

All in all, a very productive day. Thanks to people like Tom, Steve, Mike, Kristen, and Alexandra, I can shop with people I know. Isn’t that a great way to get into the Christmas spirit?

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, People and tagged Food, Howard County, local businesses, small business shopping. Bookmark the permalink.

‘Tis the Season

Posted on December 7, 2015 by AnnieRie

Time to get into high gear and prepare for the holidays. A few things to do, and Christmas decorating to get started.

First up. The Lisbon Parade this coming Saturday. It has changed. It is now starting in the late afternoon. They had to change from a horse parade to a farm equipment theme. Logistics got too complicated, and the parade was so successful that it outgrew its boundaries.

Not to worry. The party still looks awesome. And that dinner at the Firehouse? Not a bad idea.

As for the other things. I need to head over to get my poinsettias and my tree.

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I love the varieties from the Greenway Farm greenhouses.

I also need to stop at TLV for my garlands, and for the beef for our Christmas dinner.

Then, it will be time to start making my cookies. I have been planning ahead this year, making the dough early and freezing it. Makes it simpler to just concentrate on baking.

Somewhere along the way I have to get to Breezy Willow, too. I need to buy stocking stuffers, like their soaps. Maybe a few of the alpaca items for presents. Tea. Jams. Honey. Cheese. Lots of things to buy from the locals.

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Doesn’t this beat the parking lot at the Mall?

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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, West HoCo and tagged farms, Food, holidays, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

Three Good Reasons …

Posted on December 2, 2015 by AnnieRie

… to attend the Howard County Conservancy’s Natural Crafts Fair this Saturday.

Reason #1 – it’s free. You don’t have to “pay to play”, so to speak. No admission. Come find that perfect gift while listening to live seasonal music. Bring the family, too.

Why?

Reason #2 – there’s a craft area to keep the little (and not so little) ones occupied making crafts from natural materials. All under supervision while you shop.

Reason #3 – the crafts for sale are from local farms, crafters, artisans and painters. All sorts of items. Greenery, too. A number of local garden clubs are selling greenery on the lower level of the Gudelsky Center, while the vendors and the crafts area are located on the main level.

Maybe some local honey?

Or, the perfect decorations for your holiday table?

Saturday, December 5th. 10 am until 3 pm. Mt. Pleasant site of the Conservancy. I will definitely be there volunteering, and picking up some Christmas presents.

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Posted in Community, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged holidays, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Here For The Food

Posted on November 27, 2015 by AnnieRie

An old favorite cookbook that made the turkey easy. A simple brine. A simple technique. Whenever people think it’s too hard to cook or bake they should pull out this book.

If you want a turkey this good, they should google orange juice brown sugar brine. It will take them to Amazon where this recipe was featured.

The turkey was perfect. The brining took 15 hours for my 13 pound turkey from Maple Lawn. Their web site will be updated on December 7th for those who want to try turkey for Christmas.

For us, the small hen was easy to handle and fit into the dorm sized refrigerator for brining.

I put a platter out for our Thanksgiving dinner. I made soup with the wings and the one drumstick my husband didn’t eat.

I also made 5 quarts of turkey broth with the innards, skin and bones after making the Thanksgiving meal.

Three jars went into the freezer, and two quarts went into that soup. I will be making sandwiches for a few days, and a turkey casserole this weekend. All told, that bird will yield at least a half dozen meals. Not bad for $33.

And, I gave my mom about a half pound of perfectly cooked moist breast meat to make sandwiches and a dinner.

Local food. Easy to make. Worth the time it took. If you haven’t tried making a turkey, you should get over to Maple Lawn and buy a small 10-12 pound hen. You really don’t need to brine it. But, it really improves the taste.

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Posted in cookbooks, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, holidays, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

It’s Turkey Day

Posted on November 23, 2015 by AnnieRie

The rush is on. At Maple Lawn Turkey Farm. Our local farm that raises free range turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

From 7am until 5 pm, before Thanksgiving, and then they still have hours after Thanksgiving, but these are the busy three days. I am brining my turkey overnight tomorrow, and cooking it Wednesday. Getting ready ahead of time and then I only have to brown it for the dinner. I am finding that to be a bit more manageable.

I also picked up a few extras.

Drumsticks. Six to a package. Seven pounds. $5 for the package. The ultimate winter staple. Destined to become a number of pots of turkey noodle or turkey rice soup. I split them into two packs and vacuum sealed them. They are back in the freezer. The smoked breast will become a meal sometime next week. I put the breast and the turkey in the little fridge in my laundry room. Set to 35 degrees to keep them fresh.

I got a 13 pound hen. Wrapped in butcher paper. Brought it home. Cleaned it up. Plopped it in a big bowl and put it away. Tomorrow I will make the brine and get it ready to cook.

It wasn’t that bad there this morning. At 10 o’clock, there was still close in parking and no real lines. You have to pay by cash or check. They do have a portable ATM outside, for those that forget. You can also pick up turkey bacon, ground turkey, wings and tails/necks, frozen, to take home for future use.

Can’t get any more local than 10 miles down the road. The price is great, too. Thanks to the Iager family.

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Posted in Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, holidays, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Sixty Five Years Young

Posted on November 20, 2015 by AnnieRie

Yesterday. My better half’s very significant birthday. Normally, I cook. We open a special bottle of wine and have a leisurely dinner at home.

This year, we celebrated in a bigger way. With a dinner at Bistro Blanc.

Paired with wines from our cellar, and a few from our friend, Raj Kathuria, who has always made Bistro Blanc a favorite place for us to dine. We had friends from radio, and friends from wine dinners join us. “Marrying” his two favorite hobbies.

Chef Diego met with me last week to put together a menu. Using many local items. Very small plates. Paced so we could talk and laugh and enjoy the company. I only took the phone out to record the very last course. The small treats finishing the meal.

Peanut butter and vanilla macarons, and bourbon toffee bonbons. The dessert courses were accompanied by one of our very old bottles of vintage port.

From the year we were married. Bought decades ago at Wells Liquor in Baltimore, from the liquidation of the wine cellar of the Brentwood Inn. On very special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, we have opened four of the six bottles we splurged on in the early 1980s. Back when we started putting wines under the steps in our town house basement. Most of what is here now is local. Good stuff from Linden, Black Ankle, RdV, Glen Manor, Barboursville and more.

This was the first time I ever put together a private dinner party. Bistro Blanc did an incredible job. We used the private dining area that holds up to sixteen people. We have been in that room a number of times for their wine dinners.

Thanks to all our friends for the pleasure of their company and for the thoughtful gifts and cards given to my husband. It was a memorable birthday in so many ways. Now, he just has to finish signing up for Medicare. Does that make us officially “old”?

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Posted in Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Wine and tagged Food, foodie, hoco loco, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, traditions, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The Thanksgiving Wine Decisions

Posted on November 18, 2015 by AnnieRie

From the local perspective.

I always try to serve local wines with our Thanksgiving meal. Since I go to the trouble of getting a local fresh turkey, and I have local organic CSA vegetables around here, I like to make the whole meal local. Sort of like those original Pilgrim meals. Food from near where you live.

I will be picking up my turkey at Maple Lawn this year. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I feel like being part of that tradition, or really, just maybe I want to get a few other items to put into the freezer for later this winter.

As for the wine selection, I am slightly changing my candidates this year.

I am leaning towards serving the Ankida Ridge Pinot Noir. We have yet to make it down south of Charlottesville to visit this winery, but we have bought their wines at Early Mountain, north of Charlottesville. I will probably take the Linden to my brother’s house, as it is light and refreshing.

I considered that dry Petit Manseng.

For red wine drinkers, the Big Cork reds aren’t that heavy yet, as they still have younger vines. Their Cabernet Franc is light enough to match with turkey.

Big Cork is a Maryland winery. Another good local Maryland winery to pick from, is Old Westminster.

They are one of the closest wineries to our home. They make some lovely wines, like their white blends. You can buy them at the Wine Bin in Ellicott City.

No matter what you choose, pick one or two local wines to serve. Make it a real Maryland Thanksgiving.

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged Food, foodie, holidays, local businesses, MD Wine, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Talking Turkey

Posted on October 31, 2015 by AnnieRie

Yes, it’s time to order that Thanksgiving turkey.

We have all sorts of options around here. I can order directly from Maple Lawn Farms. If I want to pay by cash or check, and stand in line a very long time. I can get a free range bird for around $2.50 a pound.

I can pick one up at other sites, like Boarman’s or MOM’s or David’s or Roots or Whole Foods. I will pay more at these places but they do take credit and debit cards.

Whole Foods will also sell you all the fixings. Easier than DIY, but pricey.

As for other options, there are restaurants open for dinner. Check out Richard Gorelick’s new blog, with a list of places that are open in the area. I did leave a comment that The King’s Contrivance is also open.

Other sources. Friends and Farms, just slightly more expensive than Maple Lawn. Lancaster Farm Fresh, my CSA, is offering organic turkeys but they are closer to $5 a pound. I will probably get mine from Boarman’s like I always do.

I will also head over to Maple Lawn between Thanksgiving and Christmas. To get some drumsticks for the freezer. Maybe a smoked turkey breast this year for our Christmas buffet here. You can pre-order all of these items.

Somehow the holidays are sneaking up on us. Even though the weather is still really nice.

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Posted in Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged CSA, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Nighttime Hiking

Posted on October 27, 2015 by AnnieRie

What are you doing this Friday night? How about hiking under an almost full moon, with flashlights?

Out at my favorite volunteer location, where I spend way too much time having fun (yes, tomorrow I get to chase first graders all over the property on a field trip about owls), this Friday at 7 PM, they are having a flashlight night hike for anyone interested in what is out there in the dark. As an aside, how is that for an epic run on sentence?

What can we see in the dark? What can we hear? If you really want to have a great beginning to your Halloween weekend, go to the web site and guarantee a place. Howard County Conservancy. Mt. Pleasant. Woodstock. If you haven’t been there, you are really missing something. Worth the time to check it out. Your family will love you for it.

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Posted in Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, nature, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Updates

Posted on October 26, 2015 by AnnieRie

To the Local Resources Page. I have been doing some maintenance on my pages. Added a few items to my local page. And, subtracted one place.

I try to keep my pages up to date. But, sometimes I do get behind. I will be doing other pages the next two weeks, but today, I cleaned up my Local Page.

I deleted Bonaparte Breads. A few years back, they were an excellent source at the DuPont Circle Market. Since then, change of ownership and other issues. At Savage, I see review after review saying they don’t open on time. They sell older stale breads. I haven’t been there in a while and when I got there last year, they weren’t open. So, they’re gone.

I added Canela for bread. They sell at many local stores, at Olney Market and other markets. Check them out. I buy mine at Boarman’s. I buy a few loaves at a time and freeze some of it. That gives us bread for toast, or to clean our plates after a really nice dinner.

I added a “newer” winery. Old Westminster. The closest winery to us in Howard County. They are opening their tasting room in two weeks. For a great fall dinner, pack a picnic. Head up there on a Friday night or Saturday. Listen to some great local music.

I added Shepherds Manor Creamery to our cheese listings. I love their sheep’s milk cheeses. We get them from Friends and Farms, but the Creamery has their product all over the area.