Faboo

That is way too broad a question. Maybe if you narrow it down to location --in Alexandria there's Eve & Majestic. Georgetown has Mendocino Grill -- you can get some suitable suggestions.

Thanks for the scoop. I'll check it out next week. It would be nice not to have to drive to Super H at lunch time.

NO!!!!!!!

I will pass on the beets, thanks, but do you suggest we make reservations at the Lititz Cafe? We're just going up & back for the day. All the food I haul home will have to fit in a motorcycle saddle bag. Definitely will do the pickled eggs (purple ), potato rolls, Wilbur buds & Sturgis pretzels.

Thanks, Kayakado! This will be my first time in Amish Country and I'm hoping to find a few things that were the same as they were 20 years ago We've always bought the Schmidt's and/or Martin's potato rolls in the grocery store. They're sold on the shelf next to the Wonder Bread, so trying a fresh potato roll for the first time will hopefully be a revelation. I did try making my own pickeled eggs a couple years ago. What a waste of good eggs that turned out to be. I didn't grow up w/them either. A nearby restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland serves them and I had my first at about age 20. How could someone not like them?!

FRESH POTATO ROLLS???? I never knew there was such a thing! I will be at the Kitchen Kettle and Lititz Cafe this Saturday. I must load up on these potato rolls. Any suggestions where to buy them? The pickled eggs too please!

You’ve already found Fiore Di Luna which is impressive in itself. Here are a few of my personal faves to tide you over till you find your own faves: LEDO Pizzeria at Hunters Woods Plaza. You’re from Jersey so you’d probably perfer my 2nd Fave Pizza: Rubino’s at the Clocktower For casual fun/playing pool & drinking beer: Great chili & fries at Hard Times Café in the K-Mart Shopping Center. For a romantic date: Excellent cuisine found at the Market Street Grill at Reston Towne Center. For light Mediterranean style carryout (or dining in too): Cafesano at South Lakes in Reston For Asian carryout: Kobe Grill at the Clocktower (if they answer the freakin’ phone!) Other fun places: Joe’s Dog House in Historic Herndon, The Diner Deluxe 24-hour diner in Herndon Where I’d eat breakfast on the weekends: Silver Diner

A Deli at Worldgate is currently making sandwiches as great as The Deli in Herndon (Elden Street Shopping Center) used to make. If you like great sandwiches, you will LOVE this place: www.adeli-inc.com. Speaking of Indian Cuisine at the Clocktower, I had the grossest food ever at Chutney's. Salty sewage I think it was. I'm all for championing the veggie restaurants, but Bleh! Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

Your new house is gorgeous! I am jealous. Anyways, the Russia House is very expensive and the food is good but not worth the money. Go there for flavored vodka shots. I've never had Pho, but there are many many Pho restaurants in the area. Recommendations come up frequently in Tom Siestema's weekly on-line chat at WashingtonPost.Com. Here is a link that, if you scroll halfway down, will have some reviews of notable area restaurants. Your new home is close to El Manantial, a popular place with over-priced wine. http://www.observernews.com/index.shtml Of the restaurants on the list, I get lunch from Cafesano frequently, it's a real favorite of mine. As is Jasmine Cafe, always romantic and delightful. There are just so many restaurants in Reston & Herndon, many little ethnic joints in strip malls plus all the big chain names, you'll never get bored. I am looking forward to hearing what places you try.

Here is a helpful list: http://www.friendsofanimals.org/programs/v...rant-guide.html

Sounds like a lost cause in terms of fun for you, however, the kids would probably enjoy eating at Hard Times Cafe in Herndon. They can play pool while you drink beer. Otherwise you can drop everyone off at the museum and go catch a movie at Worldgate.

Today we finally made it to It's About Thyme before they locked their doors at 3pm. I've passed their signs on Rt 29 for so long, I was determined to one day eat there. The service was unusually efficient (old european charm?) and they have lots of nice wines by the glass for $4.95. I might have sustained some internal damage from eating all this warm focaccia bread. I couldn't stop myself and they kept the refills coming. Hubby had the Penne w/Red Sauce: I had the Portabello Mushroom Sandwich. When it arrived, I was disappointed. It was not what I was expecting, open faced w/tons of mushrooms and had to be eaten w/a fork. At first I wished I'd ordered something else, but it was surprisingly delicious. Lots of good olive oil and the mushrooms were very clean & fresh. Really good quality. Now I just have to hit The Bavarian Chef one of these years...

Apparently I've ridden past your home quite a few times! Never knew I was on Route 230 till today! I'm really enjoying this! Congrats on your pregnancy! Staying on topic: How come ricing potatoes is so hard? What can be done to make it less labor intensive (pun intended)?

Hubby enjoyed his angel hair pasta w/tomatoes so much he'd been craving it all week. Unfortunately, they made it in a different way today, with very little tomato sauce, so now we wont be going to Lightfoot again for a while . However, my Eggs Benedict were good.

By mock meat I mean when the soy is made to look as much like real meat as possible. Vegetate's tofu "bacon" didn't look like or taste much like real bacon other than being in flat strips.

Today we were en route to/from Charlottesville and thanks to the WashingtonPost.Com Food article set the GPS to take us via Culpeper. The Frost Cafe was open for breakfast: It's bright and open w/fast friendly service. I regret not having gotten some pie to go, but they were all on china plates I had the two eggs over easy w/home fries & grits. Fresh, light and delicious. Coming back @ 3pm we stopped in Culpeper again to hit "It's About Thyme" but apparently it wasn't about time. The place was full while the front doors were locked. Some guy inside unlocked the doors to tell us dinner didn't start service till 5:30. Maybe another time...or not...

The menu didn't seem much different from the last time I'd been there, about a year or so ago but it's definitely worth the trip for the Tomato Soup alone.

Wow! This is my best posting to date! Thank you Vegetate! It definitely wasn't real bacon. It was smoked tofu. Did not taste like real bacon but did taste good. The only "meat" in the place were the people The service was excellent! They have a great guy behind the bar who will really shine once they get their liquor license. Hopefully this week. The people I talked to were very cool. The whole vibe there is mellow. There were some local after- church folk w/all their kids dressed up which was really nice to see. The prices...well I thought they were sorta high personally, but I dont have any comparable dining experience in that neighborhood. I chose to order the entree ($10) and two sides because I wanted to try as many things on the menu that I could. The entree alone was more than enough food. So I guess it depends on your financial situation if you think the prices are high or not. If you can afford to live nearby, you can afford to eat there, let's say that. The menu notates the vegan items, but as said, everything is vegetarian. They dont do the mock meat thing that so many people dislike. (I like mock meat ). I intend to conduct more research, hopefully at dinner time. Thanks all for your responses

Six weeks after their opening, I finally made it to Vegetate.. The minimalist decor is brightened w/whimsical artwork... This kid doesn't know how lucky she is! Her parent's ordered her the Chocolate French Toast.. I had the Scrambled Tofu w/Potatoes, Bacon & Creamy Grits.. Tofu Scramble & Potatoes Creamy Grits If they'd had more food made up at the time, I'd have taken some to go. I'll be back for more.

I STILL have ONE Acorn Squash left to cook but here is the last of the Delicata Squash which was just roasted in a covered pot w/some olive oil, onions & thyme. Served alongside Rachael Ray's Veggie Scrambles. Weird combo, but it's my kitchen so I can serve what I want: and here's the last Butternut Squash in the form of Mario Batali's Palpattone of Butternut Squash alongside some roasted cauliflower... Redglass, did you get your last order?

After a little Christmas shopping today, we tried Lightfoot Restaurant to see if it was the same as it used to be when last we went, several years ago... That's not us...but that is our waiter in the background before he was plunged into the weeds... For those who don't know, Lightfoot used to be a bank. Some Swedish sisters renovated and now it is quite glorious... We started w/the Fried Green Tomatoes topped with Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese & sautéed Shrimp with Szechwan Chili Cream sans shrimp. The chili cream sauce on the side really made the dish. I had a cup of the Lightfoot Spicy Creamy Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic & Sweet Basil topped with Parmesan Cheese & Pumpernickel Croutons , intensely flavorful... Hubby has the Soup Du Jour, Apple Pumpkin, sweet & creamy... Then he had Fresh Tomato over Angel Hair Pasta finished with Rosemary Roasted Garlic Sauce, Parmesan & Fresh Herbs, as good as you'd find in Italy... I had the Café Cobb Salad ~ Fresh Grilled Chicken Breast set on Mixed Greens with Crumbled Blue Cheese, California Avocado, Fresh Plum Tomatoes, Hard Boiled Egg, Crispy Fried Bacon & Onion with Blue Cheese Dressing chicken & bacon served on the side...every ingrediant high quality Verdict: Lightfoot Cafe is reliably delicious.

The panade sounds really interesting, similar to a recipe for 'Zucchini & Country Bread Lasagna' I plan to make next year from Lidia's Family Table, however, your experience is why I usually make simple recipes w/few ingrediants. When Kim O'Donnell says toss in some of this and some of that and have fun! I'm like, well, if it sucks then I'm out the cost of ingrediants and have to find something else for dinner. Then it wont be so fun. I think I'm going to try to make a panade now though. My Yahoo! search turned up a nice recipe w/Butternut Squash & Chanterelles from Alice Waters. What type of puff pastry do you use for your galette? I plan to make one of those too. I had a piece of the pumpkin pie last night to try and determine what was not right about it so that I could answer your question. Well, it tasted good! The pie got better with age! So yeah, definitely give one a go with those sugar babies. Celeriac is great for a pureed soup. Thanks for the post, I learned about panade!

Good luck and come baaaaaaack!!! I miss you!!! I’m still plowing through my winter squash. Finally made a pumpkin pie using a recipe from the NYDaily News… Roasted the pumpkin… Mixed it in w/cream, brown sugar, eggs & spices… Finished product was unlike any pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. And not necessarily in a good way. More like custard w/pumpkin flavoring. I’ll try another recipe next time now that I know if was so easy to make. Used up my sweet potatoes as fries alongside roasted butternut squash and leftovers the other night… Just have two butternut squash and two acorn and I’m outta here for the winter!

John Hagan’s Tavern is so nice! The food, service and atmosphere are all stellar. (Looks like they lost a shutter) The moment I entered the restaurant, I forgot it was a gorgeous warm day and craved comfort food. Started w/the Mushroom Crepe w/Marsala Cream Hubby had the Vegetarian Vegetable Soup which he started to say was more delicious than the soup I make, but quickly regained his senses… I was stuffed from the crepe and huge brioche-like rolls by the time my entrée came, the Roasted Vegetable Ravioli. I had to take half home. Camera batteries then died. I can’t wait to go back!

Gosh I'm full!!!! So we hit Blue Ridge Grill today. Started w/the Bruschetta w/Basil & Goat Cheese.. Went on to the Brentwood Salad (sans chicken & bacon) per Chantilly Bob's recommendation: and finished up w/the Brownie w/Vanilla Ice Cream.. All exceptionally delicious! Leesburg is fortunate to have such great restaurants!