Double Date, Quadruple Date {friends & food}

When the weekend comes, I race out of the city and vow to not ride more than 10 minutes in a car for the next 48 hours. Commuting will make the most social butterfly a weekend exiler quicker than you can say Back-ups on the Beltway! How Mr. W and I managed to score a Friday AND a Saturday being social this weekend, far away from the burbs, I'll never know....but it sure was fun!


Friday - Dinner at The Tasting Room

Kim, Dave and some peach sorbet

Everybody has their number one, favorite, go-to dining place, and for our friends Kim and Dave, it's The Tasting Room in Fredrick, Maryland.

Every time Mr. W and I go to our number one, favorite, go-to dining place we say, I wonder if Kim and Dave are at Tasting Room? And most of the time we later learn that they were. For months and months we've tried to go with them and see if the food and wine list lived up to all their hype, and at long last I can say that...it absolutley does!

In fact, the food and wine paired perfectly with the fun conversation the four of us always have.

Tasting Room  is SO worth the drive from D.C. (and all surrounding burb towns!).  Fredrick's downtown is really charming, parking is easy and cheap, and the food and service at Tasting Room is especially incredible. It's tiny, though - so don't show up without a reservation. And don't skip out on dessert.....

Though it appears Mr W is stealing a glance at my chest....

the truth is he was eyeing up this cherry cream cheese bread pudding....

De-lish!



Saturday - Old Roomies Cook-In


Back in the day, Fran lived with Virginia and I lived with Julie. We were thick as thieves - think the girls from Sex and the City just not as tawdry or as glam.

Julie, Fran, Virginia, Me a zillion years ago

Then, my best guy friend Aaron decided to play Three's Company and live with Fran and Virginia, too.

Julie and Three's Company

For years in D.C.,  we all lived within blocks of each other. We'd walk together to our offices because we all worked in the same building, then hit up happy hours and receptions after our workday ended. Come Saturday morning we'd meet whenever the last person (usually me or V-A) woke up for a  greasey breakfast at some diner to rehash Friday night adventures,  then we'd end the weekend with Sunday dinnners, family-style. Sometimes Aaron would even humor us and join, too!

These days, we all have differerent roomates - our spouses.

(I was a horrible friend and couldn't make it to Fran's wedding; at Aaron's, I didn't snap a group shot)

We also have different zip codes, new jobs (except for yours truly, who has her "old" job again) and lives that don't quite cotton to living like the cast of Friends as we did for a few years, years ago.

Virginia now lives in St Louis, Julie and I have both gone burb, but Fran and Aaron (and his bride, Becky) are still in the city. On Saturday, Fran and her husband Matt hosted us all for a mini-reunion cook-out...only it was cold, so we had to eat inside.

That was fine, because Fran's new house is very, very sas...

and includes a chalkboard wall in the powder room...

Fran is also sas - she encouraged me to put avacado on my cheeseburger. I did not regret it.

After dinner, the night turned very 7th grade dance-ish. The boys stayed in one room...and the girls gabbed a whole lot in another room and then watched Betty White.

Julie, Me, Betty, Fran, and Becky (not pictured: Virginia)

The burbs offer pretty easy living (save my commute), and while Julie was a fantastic roomate, I'm happy to have signed a permanent lease with Mr. Dubs.  Still, I do miss the days when we were all neighbors!