Woodberry Kitchen - Baltimore Blogger Dinner (10.02.2008)

Last night was a first for me: attending a blogger dinner! It was a fun experience, great meal, and so nice to meet everyone. We (kevin came along with me) were running late because of atrocious traffic, but made it there only about 20 mins late. The menu was overwhelming because everything sounded SO good. I started off with a glass of Pinot Grigio that was crisp and refreshing. I savored this throughout the entire meal.

My first course was sweet potato bisque with toasted pine nuts. This had great flavor, was light, and a great fall color! For my main entree, I decided on one of the specials - Braised Short Ribs. I had never ordered these before, but since the special sounded delish, I figured it was a perfect time. This was a great decision by me. Kevin wanted my meal. ;) The short ribs came served on top of a puree of potatoes topped with soy beans a.k.a edamame. The sauce surrounding it was a demi-glace -I think. I know it is horrible that I dont remember this and I cant access the menu from this computer! But the sauce complimented everything perfectly. The meat was so incredibly tender that I really only needed a fork to pull it apart. This was a huge portion, so I made sure to eat slowly and listen to myself when I was full, so I didnt over indulge. Kevin was happy to polish it off for me when I finished. His chicken dish wasnt that great - the chicken was cooked perfectly, but it needed more flavor or a better side dish. It came with some sort of bread salad that had toasted croutons, peaches, and cranberries. It was weird.

Room for dessert? Maybe just a little...:) Kevin and I decided to split the apple dumpling that came with homemade cinnamon stick ice cream and caramel sauce! It was great - there wasnt a ton of crust, just the top part, so the entire bottom was a whole baked apple! And the ice cream tasted like it had snickerdoodles broken up throughout - YUM and very cool.Woodberry Kitchen is a restaurant with a great concept (from farm to table) and tons of creativity. We will definitely be going back! (Most likely for a special occasion because it can be a tad pricey.) It was great to meet you - Liz, Jessica, Renee, Courtney, and Jake!

As far as exercise goes, so far this week I have run 2.5 times. The .5 is from the night we had to make an emergency shoe "run" and only got in about 1.5 miles. So I am going to try and leave work a little early to squeeze in another shorter run with Oscar. Since we are only doing a 7 miler tomorrow, I figure I will be ok to get in this light run!

Then I am off to DC for a dinner with friends at CoCo Sala. This place sounds pretty HIP, so it should be a fun time! Time to start the positive thinking about DC traffic around 6:30 on a friday...