Chocolate Covered Lily Beans

Whoa what a weekend!  I feel like I need another 2 days to recover.  Good thing it is only a 4 day week for the State.  I will really enjoy my break on Wednesday for Veteran’s day.

So where did I leave off?

SATURDAY

After breakfast Dad and I headed to Fort McHenry (Oh say can you see!)

Cannons pointed to protect Baltimore and looking back into the fort from the same point as the cannon picture.  See us in the shadows???

Dad and I in front of the cannons.  Man it was such a nice fall day!

Experimental rotation devices used in the civil war when Maryland was part of the South.  I consider it northern these days, but I guess it is mid-Atlantic. 

After the tour we headed back into Fedreal Hill for some lunch and a walk around town.  I had seen a place to eat that was always closed while we were heading to the bars and I also had noticed it was a sustainable restaurant

Spoons!  The menu was unique and well thought out.  They serve breakfast all day and have things like steal cut oatmeal to eggs benedict.  Although I could always go for more breakfast I decided I needed some lunch type food in my belly.  I went with the melted brie, pear, spinach and honey sandwich on a chibatta bread.  Salad on the side (same charge as chips!  Loved that!)

This sandwich was perfect except I got honey all over my hands, which was not so fun.

After lunch we walked all around Federal Hill and I tried to find Sicily a Raven’s collar, but no such luck.  Around 2pm we went to pick up Nick for a tour of the Clipper City Brewery.

For $5 you get a glass and 5 1/2 beer tokens.  I used 3/5 of mine and that was enough for me!  I had their extra hoppy beer, winter lager and marz hon.  Then it was time for a tour with the owner.  What other place has the owner give the tour????

Bottling and hops!  Hops are exclusively grown in the Pacific Northwest and get sticky when you rub them in your hands.  They can also give off a sweet citrusy scent that remains in your hand.

Keg room.  They are planning a major overhaul of the whole company and this room with double in size and their beer lines will be changing to the Heavy Seas product line.

Embrace your inner pyrate! Argh!  Not sure why it is spelled that way.

After the tour I need an afternoon snack before heading to dinner.  I went with an oldie but a goodie.  Apple and PB&Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, which I had to get a new jar of today

And we were off again!  We were meeting my Step-brother and his gf in Federal Hill for Dinner at the Reserve.  It can be described as a bar with high class food.  It is almost like they couldn’t make up their mind if they wanted to be a bar or a restaurant.  The food was good non the less.  Everyone order the grilled calamari and I ate the greens with hazelnut dressing.  I also had a glass of the Malbac, but forgot to snag a pic.  I loved the big hunks of hazelnuts!

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat.  It was between the pistachio crust rack of lamb and bison steak.  I went with the steak; I like steak better than lamb.

Giant bison steak that I ate about 3/4 of with caramelized onion glaze, herb butter and mircogreens.  On the side we have parsnip puree and baby asparagus.  Nick got the seafood risotto along with my Dad and Stepbrother.  I had a taste and wasn’t really a fan, but they all really seemed to like it.  Mine on the other hand was amazing!  The parsnip was a great sub for mashed potatoes and the steak was cooked perfectly (after being confused with a bison burger –whoops!)

Of course we had to get a dessert to split between the five of us.  I was not a huge fan of what we ended up getting, which was disappointing.

pecan and pumpkin wrapped in filo dough with a raspberry mascarpone cheese.  The cheese did not work with it and it was a little greasy.  That is OK, kept me from eating seconds!

SUNDAY

We woke up early to make sure we could get a good walk into before taking my Dad to the airport.  I made French toast, that I think he really enjoyed.  The topping of course was the best part!

For the topping I cut up an apple and threw it in the micro with a little cinnamon, maple syrup and almond butter.

After breakfast we headed to Oregon Ridge Park and walked one of the trails and visited the nature center.  They had a huge turkey that was ready for Thanksgiving!  Nick’s football game was across the road so we stopped in for the second half of his first game.  He ended up winning the championship in the second game, finally!

After dropping my Dad off at the airport I drove home and got ready for a looooong run.  It was almost lunch time, but I didn’t want to eat a big meal before running so I went with 1/2 an Amazing Grass waffle with jelly.

This ended up be a little too much to eat and I had not hydrated enough before my run.

I went up to the NCR trail and busted out 9.5 miles.  I was HARD.  It is really hard to motivate yourself with no real goal in mind.  When I was training for the 1/2 I was able to remind myself that this run would ensure that I finished the race but today I was hot and thirsty they whole time but I had made a pack with myself to make it to the 5 mile marker and back.  AND I DID!

Needless to say I was not exactly hungry when I got home, but thirsty!  I downed 3 huge glasses of water while slowly cleaning the house!

I finally felt like eating something and make a melty wrap with cheese, spinach and tomatoes.  I had a handful of tomatoes on their own too while my wrap melted.

I then settled down to watch the Raven’s lose!  Ugh annoying!  They played like poo!  After the loss I headed to Whole Foods for a special personal treat to myself.  Lucky me, bison was on sale!!!!  I got a flank steak and ground beef to make chili from.

When I returned home from shopping I was staving.  I quickly threw in some kale chips while I word on baked chickpeas that I had seen on KERF and MamaPea.

My mixed contained:

• EVOO
• Maple Syrup
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Hot sauce
• mushrooms
• can of chickpeas

Baked at 350 for 30min.  I threw them on top of a bed of spinach, and had a slice of organic 12 grain bread, soft and chewy!

Does my camera look blurry????

Topped with a little parm.

For my sweet end to the day I had some pom chip dairy free dessert aka Nick’s favorite flavor of ice cream!

Probably the only reason Nick will be happy I went to Whole Foods.  They don’t have his sandwich thins or Boar’s Head deli meats…whoops!  I am mad because they didn’t have cans of flavored seltzer… that may have to wait til Wednesday.

Alright I am going to go enjoy what is left of my weekend…uh about and hour

Hope you had a great weekend!!!

See you in the morning for peppermint patty oatmeal.