Lunchbox Drop Shot

• 5 oz Beer, light or lite beer works the best
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1 shot Amaretto

Fill a rocks glass with the beer.  Top off the glass with the orange juice.  Then fill a shot with Amaretto.

Gently insert the shot into the rocks glass.

Drink it up!

Repeat.

This is a perfect shot for the summer.  The flavors are crisp and clean.

Blackberry Bonanza and Wellness Festival – Saturday and Sunday (July 25-26)

Blackberries filled with anti-oxidants and health benefits so to celebrate blackberry season, this year’s festival is taking on a wellness theme. Join us for blackberry picking and blackberry wine tasting with Bluemont Vineyard.  Our blackberries are grown without any chemicals and are thornless so easy to pick!

The price is $10 per person and 21 and over get free wine tasting

18780 Foggy Bottom Road – Bluemont, VA 20135 – Roughly 30 minutes from Dulles.

http://www.greatcountryfarms.com/

Maryland German Festival – Saturday & Sunday (July 18-19)

Sausage and Beer.  Nothing sounds better than that.  Held at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, this year is the 109th annual festival. Entertainment will include local German bands, traditional folk dancing and choral singing.  There will also be  imported and local crafts and collectables, and, for kids, wall climbing, puppet shows, face painting, arts & crafts.  You can enjoy authentic German cooking, quench your thirst with imported or domestic beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages or schnopps; and for dessert have some German pastry or the usual fair confections.

Admission: adults $6, seniors $5. Children under 12 with paying adult admitted free.

Sat 11:30am to 10pm, Sun 11:30am to 7pm.

http://www.md-germans.org/md-german-festival.html

Princess for a day ice cream social – Sunday (July 25)

The court of the Virginia Dairy Princess Program will serve ice cream at an old-fashioned Ice Cream Social. Take your daughter or son, neice or nephew to be a princess for a day at the Heritage Farm Museum. The first 100 children will receive a complimentary tiara. Show off your princess finest in our princess pageant at 1:00.  Pre-registration required.

The ice cream social is from noon to 2pm.

21668 Heritage Farm Lane, Sterling, Virginia 20164

http://www.heritagefarmmuseum.org/events.htm

Festival Peruano – Sunday (July 26)

The free festival celebrates Peru’s independence from Spain with traditional dances, music and cuisine. The menu is full of traditional Peruvian dishes, from standard fare such as Peruvian chicken a la brasa and seafood ceviche to more exotic dishes such as anticuchos (marinated grilled skewers of beef heart), stewed beef stomach, and rocoto relleno (peppers stuffed with cheese and meat).  While living in Arlington, I fell in love with the charcoal roasted peruvian chicken.  This event is going to be awesome.

Hours: 11 am – 6 pm. Shirley Park/Gunston Sports Field, 2700 S. Lang Street.

Spike’d Sundays – Sunday (July 26)

If you didn’t go last week, Former “Top Chef” Spike Mendelsohn hosts this summer-long pool party, with burgers, drinks and swimming. Located at Best Western Capitol Skyline Hotel, 10 I St SW, Washington, DC. Entry is $10 and includes a Spike Burger.

SavorySights.com

Just a quick reminder. I just launched a new food photo blog – http://www.savorysights.com – Visit and drool over some awesome food photos or sign up and start uploading photos. No need to sign up just to stare at some awesome photos.

-Rex

The National Harbor was the perfect back drop for this event.  It also didn’t hurt that the event was located on the pier.  The location was awesome. 

With your entrance fee, you get a souvenir wine glass for sampling and two glasses of Stella Artois.

They had thousands of glasses which you also were able to take with you.  Not sure if you were supposed to, but everyone had their two glasses when they left.

But this wasn’t a beer event it was wine.  I visited all of the booths but one that really stuck was a local winery.  Tarara Winery in Leesburg, Virginia.  They explained the wines and gave me plenty of free samples. 

The Charval was my favorite wine of the day.  It was wonderful.  The Charval is a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris.  It had light fruity notes with a well balanced hit of acidity throughout.  I am going to head over to their winery this summer.  Plus, they said that their winery is dog friendly.  Tucker is excited.

This is out on the pier by the Stella booth. Facing back at the Gaylord National Hotel.

Along with the wine vendors there was a huge assortment of food and kitchen vendors at the festival.  One group that I ran into was a group of guys from Pork Barrel BBQ.  They are a bunch of guys that worked on the hill in DC and decided to give barbecue a chance.  They have come up with a unique rub that is well balanced with just a kick of spice.  They are going to be competing in the National Capital Barbecue Battle.  Stop by their site and wish them luck.  I think that they have a great rub and wish them the best.  It is always good to meet other people passionate about barbecue.

The other vendor that was awesome was the Pepper Schlepper.  He offered every single type of hot sauce that you could imagine.  I love spicy stuff so this was right up my alley.  You can order any hot sauce that you can think of from their website http://www.pepperschlepper.com.

The food was a plenty this year at the festival.  I stopped by the Hard Times Cafe stand to taste all of the varieties of chili.  My favorite is the Terlingua Red.  It is their competition chili.  I can see why it wins awards.  It is awesome.

Along with the wine and food tasting there were cooking demonstrations and a the country fair cooking competition.  After watching the Top Chef cooking demonstration, I ran into Carla Hall and Ariane Duarte at the county fair tent.  They were the judges for Saturday’s competition.

I asked Carla to really concentrate on who the winner should be.

It was really cool.  Ariane and Carla were sneaking me samples of the goods.  I must say, the competition was quite fierce.  I got to try a couple bites of some extremely decadent cupcakes.  I didn’t stay for the winner but I was hoping for the strawberry banana cupcakes.  Delicious. 

Carla and Ariane were the nicest people in the world.  Heck, they shared their cupcakes with me.  You don’t see that too often.  I am going to have to take a road trip to Montclair, N.J. to try eat at Ariane’s restaurant CulinAriane.

Overall the Food and Wine Festival at National Harbor was a blast.  It is open today Sunday, June 7 from Noon-6PM.  If you don’t have plans for today, I recommend that you hop in your car and head on over to the National Harbor.  Click here for more information http://www.foodandwinenh.com.

The baked beans were soft, tender and delicious.  As you can see from the picture above the beans are laced with smokey bacon and some of the trimmings from my pulled pork.  Pork and beans is the best combination in the world.

Ingredients: (adapted from the boston baked beans recipe from Allrecipes.com)

• 2 cups navy beans or pinto beans or any other bean you have in the house 
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1/2 pound burnt ends from brisket or trimming from pork butt
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup favorite barbeque sauce
• 3 tablespoons molasses
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 can of only the finest american beer.

If you know that you want to make these beans it is preferred that you soak them overnight the night before.  If you are short on time let them sit at least 6 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 325.  This works in ovens from 325-375.  So if you have other dishes that need to bake, it is alright to turn the heat up a bit.  I would not go over 400 as that will cause all of the sugars to burn.

Next dump the beans and soaking water into a large pot and place on the stove.  If the beans have swelled you may need to add a bit more water.  Make sure that the beans are fully submerged.  Turn the heat to high and once it starts to boil turn down the heat and let the beans simmer until soft.  This usually takes between 2-4 hours.  Depends on soak time. 

Now drain the beans and reserve the liquid.

In a sauce pan, combine the beer, molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke and brown sugar.  Bring to a boil.  While the mixture is heating up, dice the onion and cut the bacon into managable sizes.  Then in a large baking dish or caserole dish, add the beans, bacon and onion.  Once the sauce pan mixture is boiling, remove from heat and pour over the bean mixture in the baking dish.  If the mixture does not fully cover the beans add some of the reserved bean liquid until the beans are fully covered.  Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 2 hours. 

At the 2 hour period, remove the lid, add either the burnt ends or some scraps from the brisket or pulled pork.  Mix well and return to the oven.  This time bake for 2 hours uncovered or until the beans are super soft and tender.

These beans definately took a lot of time.  They were worth it.  A little tip, make sure you boil beans till tender.  I was once again in a rush and I took them out after about an hour.  They were not soft and or tender in the four hours that I baked them.  I actually had to add water again and bake for another two hours.  Otherwise the recipe and the beans are amazing.  I hope you enjoy.