Holiday Entertaining on 9 News Now

On Monday, November 30th our very own John MacPherson will be preparing a few holiday cocktail party dishes on WUSA's 9 News Now program. He'll be preparing some easy and delicious hors d' œuvres and a holiday sangria on the morning news program. He'll also talk about the new National Geographic book, Food Journeys of a Lifetime, that lists the Blue Ridge of Virginia, Foster Harris House and Tour d'Epicure as one of the worlds top destinations for food, wine and cycling.
Hope you can tune in Monday at 9:00!

A Year of Tours

Here we are on the eve of our last Tour d'Epicure event for 2009. It's been a very busy year for us thanks to Southern Living, Washingtonian and National Geographic magazines. We've been very fortunate to have been featured in these publications, each doing a great job in getting the word out about our tours. But even more than these magazines, our past guests -- both FHH and TDE -- have been a tremendous help in passing the word along about what we do here. We offer our sincere thanks to everyone for helping make Tour d'Epicure the number one cycling tour destination in the world as written by National Geographic.
For now we'll hang the bikes in the garage and look forward to the Spring when we get back out on the road and do some more eating, drinking and riding. What a great way to experience the beauty of Rappahannock County.

Food Journeys of A Lifetime

We're still a bit in shock... We've just learned that the Tour d'Epicure and Foster Harris House have been listed in National Geographics new book, Food Journeys of A Lifetime. The list of top ten bike tours for foodies includes Burgundy, Napa and Argentina as well as a bunch more, but the number one destination is the Blue Ridge of Virginia and Tour d'Epicure!!! We are so thrilled for our little corner of the world to be recognized as the best food, wine and cycling destination. Check it out here: http://away.com/feature/excerpt/national-geographic/top-ten-foodie-bike-tours-1.html

Surprise Package

A package arrived at our back door yesterday from Jim, a good friend and Foster Harris House guest of ours. It was from Amazon and when I opened it I was very pleasantly surprised. It was Thomas Keller's new cookbook Ad Hoc at Home, which I was eyeing on Amazon just a few days earlier. It was as if Jim was reading my mind! Keller's new book is fantastic, filled with great dishes that are interesting and relatively easy to prepare. Check it out!

A Bear In the Woods...

Ahh country living. While taking Finn to school yesterday morning, driving down one of our favorite cycling routes, a large black bear ran out from the woods and right into the passenger side of our car! I saw him dart out from the road side and managed to swerve enough so I didn't hit him straight on but he hit the passenger side doors with enough force to dent both of them! We stopped and turned around to see if he was on the road but he was gone. I'm sure with quite the headache!

Fritter Experiment

Well my attempt to recreate the Blue Crab and Rock Shrimp Fritters at Coastal Flats went well, I think. Everyone gobbled them up at dinner last night along with a ginger seafood white wine butter sauce for dipping. The recipe turned out to be three recipes that I combined. A simple risotto, a shrimp mousse and a chiffonade of phyllo dough for dredging. I have yet to actually put the recipe together but the photos should give you an idea of the proccess.

This is the risotto with the shrimp mousse folded in with crab and shrimp.


This is the chiffonade of phyllo to roll the crab and shrimp mixture in.



The raw fritter rolled in the phyllo


And the fried fritter with its crazy "hair".

I'll put together the recipes and post it soon enough. I tell you, it's so much fun experimenting in the kitchen!

Tasty Tuesday on Monday!

Although its definitely a Monday, we'll be eating like a Tuesday today with our Tasty Tuesday group. Once a month(on a Tuesday) we get together with nine of our friends here in town and eat, drink and socialize. Tasty Tuesday tonight is hosted by our good friends Kevin and Jay at the Gay Street Inn. These guys know how to entertain! They are making the main dish, duck I believe, and everyone else brings the supporting dishes. We will be bringing the "Happytizers" which will be my version of crab and shrimp fritters with a ginger lobster sauce. If this dish sounds familiar its probably because you've had it at Coastal Flats up in Fairfax. If you haven't, give it a try, they are fantastic. If I end up with something nearly as good I'll post the recipe. Off to the kitchen to start experimenting!!