Are you feeling lucky?

Because I am. We are, really.  Ben and I have been gifted with some amazing friends.  We were lucky enough to spend the last weekend in March with Michelle and Gustavo during which time we found out that Dan and Erin, two more fabulous friends, would be making the long drive from Ohio to spend the first weekend in April with us.  I have to credit Nicole since we met all of the aforementioned incredible people through her. What can I say, she has good taste in friends.  But then, I already knew that since she loves me (humble, aren’t I?). 

Dan and Erin arrived mid-morning on Saturday, having departed Toledo around 7 the night before  with a night spent en route in Breezewood, Pennsylvania’s premier truck stop and motel locale. These two were also metro-DC neighbors at one time, but life took them away from here, to their little piece of Ohio real estate. We were sad to see them go, but thrilled to see them come back, even if only for a short visit.

After their arrival and a few minutes spent catching up and giving Dan the grand tour (Erin had been here once before), we wasted no time in deciding where to go for lunch. Just like our weekend with M&G we were all about exploring places they missed from their tenure with us in DC.  Dan’s first request – Moby Dick’s.  Basically, this is quick, cheap Persian. And it’s good.  And, best of all, there is one right here in McLean, just down the road from our house.  Flash forward thirty minutes and Erin and I are enjoying falafel sandwiches while Ben and Dan chose more robust meat dishes, Kabob-E Joojeh and Moby’s Combo II (Kabob-E Joojeh and Kubideh).  Both dishes contain tasty, flavorful chicken, but Dan’s also combined a delicious tasty sausage-like meat (seeing a theme in my posts?).  For about $8 per person, you can’t beat this lunch.  

A washed out picture of a delicious falafel sandwich

Ben's dish of extremely flavorful chicken, rice and roasted tomatoes

Leaving lunch we decided to check out the wine tasting options at the Vienna Vintner (I swear I’m not a shill for this place, we just love it!).  This was a great decision. Most Saturdays they taste five wines, free of charge. This Saturday they were tasting nine!  We found a couple in the tasting collection worth taking home, including a spicy rosé that I actually liked, and a Spanish grenache-syrah.  Add this to the four other bottles we decided on and in a half hour we’d procured half a case of wine.  

After wine tasting we headed back to our place to figure out our next move. Strangely reminiscent of our prior weekend, an hour after we sat down to chat both Erin and Ben decided it was time for a nap.  Dan and I took the opportunity to drive over to Whole Foods to collect our dinner needs in prep for an evening in with the four of us, Nicole and Melissa.  Good friends, good food and good wine.  How can you go wrong?

We had opted to make an easy but delicious dinner of fajitas with various fillings – super seasoned and delicious chicken,  steak and sweet roasted veggies.  Add this to some homemade gaucamole, caramelized onions and Trader Joe's homemade tortillas and you have a recipe for one incredible meal.  

Not long after Dan and I took up positions in the kitchen prepping onions and other veggies for caramelization/roasting, Erin came down from her nap.  A few minutes later Ben joined us and we decided to crack open our first bottle of wine – a white burgundy Ben and I have been holding onto since last year.  This wine, filled with refreshing citrus notes, is a great sipping wine.  

Less than an hour later we were still in the kitchen making dinner, onions snapping in the pan and the grill heating on the deck.  But we’d polished off our first bottle of wine. So we opened the next one, the spicy rosé from the wine tasting that afternoon, just in time for Nicole to join us.  Perfect timing considering her preference for rosé.  It was as good as it had been earlier, maybe a little better in its full glass form.

By the time we sat down to dinner, we were on bottle #3, this time a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir that somewhat surprisingly stood up to the spice and heat of our meal.  By the time we got up from the table, a full hour and half later, three bottles in and a colossal amount of food consumed, everyone was whining about how full they were.  It may also have something to do with the fact that Ben and Dan are more than a little funny when put together, so there was a lot of too full laughter. 

Our grand plans to play games for the evening fizzled after one round of Trivial Pursuit since everyone was so full and tired.  But we ended the night the same way we'd spent the day, laughing and grateful for the company of great friends!