Restaurants and Hams..

Back in the formative days of the Bottom Feeder, I routinely asked: “where DOES that time go?” well, nothing has changed much… it still seems like it flies by.  Here it is Sunday already and another week looms.

Restaurants: existing and new:

Just Ducky:  Last Thursday, I ate all my meals (except breakfast which I never eat anyway) at both arms of the Ruddy Duck..  I decided I would join the crowd at the Brewery and Grill and watch the USA Soccer Match.   Kind of more fun that sitting in a quiet house by yourself.  With the noon kickoff (I still think that term applies) I got there about 11:30 and settled in in front of one of the many big screens

Ordered one of their excellent beers, and watched the game.  While most people were rooting for the USA – USA – USA, I noticed the gentleman to my left was kind of quiet.  Further observation revealed that he would surreptitiously pump his fist a bit when the Germans made a good play (which was often).  Bouyed by a beer or so, I finally said “you don’t seem to be pulling for the Americans!”.  No, he said, I’m from Germany.  We chatted a bit as the game progressed he was a very nice guy.  Eventually I had some empanadas to go with my beer which were quite fine.  Either my line is moving or they have the knack of adding just enough heat that it provides a nice punch to the meat filling..  They were quite good. 

As to the game, most folks will know that the Germans won as expected, but our loss was characterized by calling it a win, because the USA, along with Germany, will “go through”.

That evening we met a friend at the other Ruddy, the Seafood and Ale House.  You can’t ask for a better setting on the water, with both sides revealing nice views. We split a great oyster appetizer

Which was followed by a daily special of rockfish topped with shrimp.  Kind of a “Surf and Surf” dish

 All the food was well prepared, served properly, along with attentive service, which is what you would expect from people who have extensive experience in good food.  It was a great evening..

The King:  lots of buzz and press about “the Rex” soon (?) to occupy the space vacated by Cerro Grande II in Leonardtown.  Oddly enough, apparently it will be owned/managed(?) by the son of somebody I used to work with in the early days of the F-18.

Brasserie on the Bay:   Charles Street Brasserie, will be the latest occupant of the Harbor Lights/Sounds space across from the Tiki Bar on Solomons Island. I see that they have obtained their liquor license, usually one of the last boxes to be checked before opening.  They only have a FaceBook page at present, but boast that they will be a “Fine Dining Restaurant, Bands and Musicians, Tapas Bar and Restaurant”  Quite a tall order.  We’ll see!

Jerky:   Alerted by a friend, yesterday while on my way down to the City for Chapel duty I stopped in at the Charlie’s Deli spot which has been dark for a number of months (?). I saw this:

Originally when the friend said: “CoCo’s”, I immediately thought of the Cantina that had a run in Lexington Park for a while.  I contacted the former chef there and was told “It isn’t me!” and indeed when I saw the sign it was obvious.  I wish luck (?) to anybody who opens another independent restaurant, but you gotta wonder what motivates somebody to go into a spot that has closed twice (three times?) and think they’ll be different.  Not only that, but featuring a cuisine that is already kind of covered by Flex Island in San Souci Plaza.  As I said, we’ll see!

Ham it Up!

One of the benefits of having an archivist in the house is that occasionally she comes up with what is technically called: “Neat Stuff”.  The other day she brought home a copy of a 1988 article published in the Pittsburgh Gazette:

Foodies should perk up when they see the author is none other than the legendary food writer/critique Phyllis Richman, and then the subject of Stuffed Ham and St. Mary’s County.  It is kind of a review of the old Belvedere that used to be the centerpiece of Lexington Park.  Maybe if your technology is good enough you can read it, but I thought it contained some interesting statements.  One, there were twenty four REAL Tiffany lamps, specialized in blue margaritas, and family style veggies.  But the thing that kind of caught me up short was that she claimed that the Belvedere was most famous for their Stuffed Ham.  As you can see, she sort of took the slant that the Belvedere was preserving the dish.  Well, I certainly am not a “County Boy”, but I have to think there were a lot of stuffed hams out there besides theirs.  Mattingly’s was always “famous” for theirs.  She gives (her) history of the dish, saying it grew out of slaves using hog jowls when the “good cuts” went to the Masters, along with whatever was in the garden (Kale, cabbage, peppers).  Anyway, it is an interesting piece of history.  I do remember being here off and on during that time, and even stayed at the belvedere.  Remember the bovine on their sign?   Great place to live, eh?

Chapel Duty

Spent the afternoon yesterday at Historic St. Mary’s City out at the reconstructed brick chapel of 1667.  I had quite a few visitors, but was kind of partial to this little fellow

He didn’t have much to say, but my guess is that he is

DFD

Suds and Sips..

Well, it has been a busy (last) week for the feeder - hence the little gap in publishing... For the third weekend in a row, there were events.  Friday night was “charter night” for my Rotary Club, an event otherwise known as a change of command, wherein the new officers and board were installed.  I was pressed into service as King Oyster for the most solemn ceremony of crowning this year’s King Oyster

No rest for the... whatever, so up early the next morning for this year's:

We've been planning this for a long time, and at last the day was here.  Glasses were stuffed with programs and tickets

(we gave out many times this amount)

Food vendors set up:

Brewers (beer is quite necessary for a beer festival) began to show, besides our local Ruddy Duck Brewery, we had others from around the state such as  Baltimore's “The Raven” 

Baltimore is home of Edgar Allen Poe

setting up their tent

Musicians appeared for sound checks (along with some ardent fans)

Plus we had several “crafters” showing their jewelry, pottery, wood things, and other hand made art pieces.  In short, there were all the ingredients for a great festival.  Finally all the setup was complete, and at noon, the people began coming, and coming, and coming!.  After that, the Feeder was pretty much full time handing out the glasses, explaining about the tickets (one per taste, four per glass) where you can get more, generally where the brewers were, food, and stuff like that.  And oh yes, where the bathrooms were located.  Turned out that the forecasted storms never materialized, and it was a great day all around.  And best of all, the fun and tastes of beer will result in funds to support the programs at Historic St. Mary’s City.

And speaking of libations, MFO and the Feeder had an opportunity to participate in a session in Leonardtown at a restaurant (that has a porch) with a little group who were trying out new cocktails.  Their bartender developed several recipes and needed feedback, hence us lucky participants had the difficult task of sampling them and giving our opinions.  Mostly they reflected the current fad of multiple ingredients in interesting combinations.  Here’s a sample potentially dubbed a “Mitchter’s Mule”:

Without divulging proportions, it is composed of: Mitchter’s Rye Whiskey, Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice, Simple Syrup, fresh ground black Pepper, fresh rosemary, and topped with ginger beer.

As with anything it is mostly subjective as to what you like, and sure enough, some did and some didn’t.  Next time you go, you might find some on the menu!

And lastly, just a nice picture of the meal MFO prepared for us after the busy weekend consisting of potatoes, ham, onion, and cheese.  Can’t beat those..

Which of course was consumed by people who were

DFD

BOOM!

Pop quiz:

Here’s a little fast food…, er, I mean quick service quiz for you.  There has been a flurry of construction in our neck of the woods near the location of the anchor chain of Golden Corral.  I suppose build one and they will come, build another and they will still come.  Anyway, as bricks began to rise above ground, it started to look like a food outlet.  Today I took a little drive over there to get a closer look.  What is it?

Clue One:

See that aluminum canopy structure?  Remind you of anything?  Here’s the clincher for anybody who pays attention to the food scene (on the sleazy side)

Clue Two:

Although that arch of gold might make you guess something else, the real answer is revealed by the blank sign on the upper left.  You’re right it is a Sonic!  As I was thinking about this, I seem to remember a newspaper article that they were invading Southern Maryland, as the nearest one is currently up by Annapolis.  Oh joy.  A peek at the menu shows they are heavily into ice cream products, along with burgers and dogs, which I suppose is a nod to their drive through theme.  I got as far as looking at the burger offerings, and I think they are one for one with that other outfit that uses arches.  They do, however, offer a corn dog.  So one more franchise that has been vacant has been checked off…(and now you get the clever clue provided by the blogger in today's title)

Futbol

I have been enjoying watching the World Cup matches, and now I even know they are FIFA World Cup matches!  I am in general not a big fan of that sport, although I have nothing against it (but I will watch the NCAA matches).  I don’t normally follow the various leagues from Europe and so I am not cognizant of the players nor the teams with words like “united” attached to them.  I gather that the teams in the “cup”, are put together from various sources, I think I heard that one national team was composed of players from twenty three teams.

Anyway, one has to marvel at the skill level of these players.  What little soccer I have seen at a local level is (understandably) mostly kick it and go get it.  Watching these elite players (like Brazil’s Neymar) control the ball while running at full speed, putting passes right on the foot of another flying player is indeed impressive. Their "stick handling" is amazing. Taking a ball from mid air and having it drop at their feet softly is great.   If you didn’t see the USA Ghana match (late breaking: or the Mexico Brazil one) you really missed something.

Another big plus for me is that MFO’s brother is a rather accomplished soccer referee.  He has been helping me understand terms like “caps”, “own goal”, “clean sheet” and so forth. 

But after all that, aside from the action on the “pitch” with one “side” competing with the other, what I am really enjoying is the overall grandiose pageantry of the event.  It’s almost like three super bowls a day.  The fans in the stands are just great.  They are dressed in elaborate costumes on the level with Mardi Gras, women have makeup suitable for a formal ball,  some have instruments from their culture and all are having a really, REALLY good time.  It only happens every four years… enjoy it!  

A couple of random observations:

1. I don’t think those neon shoes do much for them.  Kind of give them the Donald Duck look
2. I note the referee has a little can of spray paint or something that allows him to draw a little circle for free kick ball placement or a line where the players are to line up for same.  Prevents that inching forward, ref pushing back, inching forward dance.
3. I know this is trite, and always the cliché, but I have to say it:   Why do they have to fall down and roll around in mortal agony when it looks like they are barely touched?  I know, trying to elicit a yellow card on the opponent, but geez.  Maybe if my legs were worth about twenty million each I would fall down too…

Blogs without words

Images of cheese can stand on their own without some wannabe food writer waxing (get it?) eloquent about the nuances of them  They are so varied in shape, texture, color, that they are nice to look at (let alone eat). So I thought you would enjoy them.  In answer to a few queries, they are a compendium of pictures from of our journeys in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, and even the USA.  Just for fun, I googled “how many cheeses are there?”  One answer that came up was over four hundred in France alone, and over nine hundred in the world.  But the one I liked the best was “not enough”.  I have a long way to go..

DFD

No Words Necessary

May I serve you, Sir?, I see you are

DFD

Raiding, Invading, and Exploring...

Lots of words today...but wonderful words...

I spent the better part of last weekend volunteering in (and recovering from) the big “Raiders and Invaders” celebration over in Leonardtown.  Friday, I was helping at MFO’s place of "work", in historic Tudor Hall.  They hosted a reception as part of First Friday and the kickoff to the weekend.  One of the artists from North End Gallery set up an exhibit of her “period” portraits.  Some of the subjects were local folks.  We had a great time and wonderful weather.  After helping set up the food and stuff, my duties were to pour wine for the guests.  Darn the luck!  Of course my professional obligation was to make sure that the wine stayed of sufficient quality to pour for everyone, which entailed sampling each opened bottle and some along the way as it was consumed.  

We had four wines from the Port of Leonardtown Winery , two reds (Chamborcin, and Captain's Table) and two whites (Vidal Blanc, and forgive me the name escapes me, an “apple wine” sort of like hard cider, although it did reach 12% ABV).  We displayed but didn't pour the special bottling of "Raiders Red" made especially for the weekend.  I was able to sample it the next day, and it is very nice. Of the four we did pour, I preferred the Chamborcin, it was a nice fruity wine, next the Vidal Blanc a tried and true southern Maryland winner for soft summer evenings.   Captain’s Table was a little too “off dry” for my taste, and the Apple wine was also a good summer drink.   

Speaking of “off dry” it always amazes me how many people say “oh, I don’t like those dry wines, I prefer something sweeter”.  Of course to us self styled wine snobs, anything but a dry wine isn’t considered worth too much attention.  Okay, yes, there are exceptions.. wines like a Sauternes from Chateau d’Yquem are in a class by itself, and certain rose’s can be enjoyable, and then there's port.. However, comma, I still stick with my DWTHYL theory of wine.  If you like it, fine.  I am not about to preach to you what to drink.  Enjoyment is the goal, not how many things like: “hints of mushrooms and summer truffles” one can come up with.  However a gorgeous Burgundy or Bordeaux have much to offer.  Something to grow into perhaps.  Anyway, it was a very enjoyable evening, saw many friends and had a good time and kept up the quality of the wine served..

The next day (Saturday), I had just volunteered for the general event and was told I would be the “Green Room Manager”.  The description sounded very important; things like making sure all the musicians and actors knew where and when they were to perform, cater to any needs, and generally help them out.  Well, much of my time was spent looking at

Which, while it IS a room, is NOT green.  I guess it is a generic term.  When folks were there, it was fun to hear them talk, practice their British accent, play a couple of tunes and things like that.  I especially liked the “Whimsey” pair.  They were fun.  He tried out a couple of jokes on me like: “How was the Roman Empire dived in two?  Answer: with a pair of Caesars”.  --Insert rim shot here--.  So, it was a long but interesting day and I was glad to return home for a cooling DMOTRWAT.

Along the way, I think I developed a new law.  You might remember I coined the “Moody Law of Docenting” that says that no matter how dead a site may have been for hours, patrons will show up the minute you pack up to leave.  Well, a new law might be along the lines of “Nobody ever finishes a bottle of water”.  To while away the time I gathered the many bottles of water (almost) consumed by the Players and Musicians.  I would say in about 90% of them, there was maybe a half to quarter inch of liquid in the plastic bottle.  I really didn’t think that they would be coming back for that last drop.. Hence the proposed new law: Nobody ever finishes a bottle of water..  Check it out.

A fun project

Ha!  Thought I would let you get away without mentioning food?  Wrong-o oh Gulliver!  MFO and I will be going on two trips this fall, a river cruise on this side of the Atlantic, and another tour on the other side of the Atlantic, visiting Wales.  For the Wales trip, many of the lunches and dinners are included in the package, but several are “on your own”.  This of course delights the Bottom Feeder as it affords him a chance to explore dining opportunities in faraway places.  Some stops are in larger cities some are not. So I have a great time with Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Chowhound, Urban Spoon, and the like.  Googling "Restaurants near Podunk" tends to drive you to Chamber of Commerce sites but it is a good start.  The others rely on readers “reviews” and hence are prone to a degree of subjectivity.  It is fun to see the string of reviews..  they go from “XYZ  Restaurant enjoyed the best meal I’ve ever had in Podunk” to “Don’t go to XYZ, the worst meal I have ever suffered through”.   But, however, comma, if you read enough of them, in general what are probably good restaurants generally rise to the top. So a narrowing process gets you to two or three highly rated place. Next stop, look at their menus. Indian food?  Feeder says no thanks.  French?  I’m in.  again personal preference is your guide.  Then see how far they are from your hotel.. walking?  Taxi?  Out of the question?  So eventually I will develop a list of places that we hope to visit “on our own”.  Of course anybody can do this, but I enjoy travelling by keyboard.  I will share my list with any traveler interested.   Great fun, and of course I will also include the level of

DFD

Book Talk

Well, what does the feeder write about when he really doesn’t have anything to write about in particular?  Well, just kind of banal stuff, like some books I have recently read related to food and cooking (go figure). 

One was “Sous Chef – 24 Hours on the Line” by Michael Gibney. It is another in the “Kitchen Confidential” genre, that is, it takes you through 24 hours in the life of a Sous Chef in a “modern American” restaurant in Manhattan.  It is written in the second person which kind of brings you into the experience.  “you check the walk-in to make sure the deliveries….”;  or “you hear chef call out the ticket, and you respond “yes, Chef” as do all the line cooks”. It takes you through the morning checking duties, through lunch service and then dinner service and the pressures to get the food out.  A pretty thorough accounting of how things go from ticket to the pass for serving.  I thought it started kind of slow but you get sucked in.  It has pretty graphic language and a host of terms related to kitchen equipment, tools, processes, etc. Most of them are not explained in the text (do you know what the “piano” is?).  Fortunately there is a pretty exhaustive glossary included in the back.  I of course have never worked or observed such a situation, but I suspect it is fairly accurate, it sort of mirrors Gabby Hamilton’s “Blood, Bones, and Butter”.  Both are pretty good reads.

I just finished “The Life of the Restaurateur”, by Nicholas Lander. 

Nicholas is a Brit, and is the food writer/reviewer for the Financial Times.  While the two books above (along with Anthony’s “Confidential”) are pretty much the back of the house stuff, Nicholas moves us to the front.  He was the owner of the highly successful L’Escargot in Soho during the ‘80’s.  His book is basically a series of stories distilled from interviews with other restaurateurs from all over the world.  Most of the names I was unfamiliar with, but some not.  You may have heard of Hazel Allen of Ballymaloe, Ireland, or perhaps Joe Bastianich of Babbo in New York, but how about Juli Soler of elBulli in Spain or Marie-Pierre Troisgros from Maison Troisgros in France.  Most of the restaurants are Michelin starred and enjoy national recognition.  Each profile goes into how the particular individual came to opening or renovating a restaurant, whether through the kitchen or a love of food and people.  It is fairly illuminating, and made me aware of things that go into making a restaurant successful over a long period of time.

You don’t just hire a big name chef plunk down a bunch of tables and stand back and wait for the cash to roll in. I thought this was an interesting quote: “Neither Drew Nieporent (Nobu, New York) or Alan Yau (wagamama, London) could have been more specific: the success of their diverse restaurants over the past twenty five years has rested firmly on the intense management of their internal space, and this element has become almost the most fascinating part of their plans for any proposed new site. The issue is that those whose space has not been correctly planned, discussed, and then laid out will always be less profitable than they should have been.”  He goes on to talk about “dead space” (non revenue producing) like reception, walk ways to lavatories, storage facilities, manager’s office, etc..   Those thing have to be carefully thought of and put into the plan.  It’s a fascinating book, has lovely illustrations, of the restaurateur

And their restaurants

A food book with kind of a different slant… 

In that book there was a reference to: “The Great Chefs of France”, published over thirty years ago that for the very first time documented the professional lives and achievements of the all the three-Michelin-starred chefs of France (at that time).  The magic of credit cards and Amazon had it in my hands three days later.

Besides the bios of the chefs, there are wonderful black and white photos by Anthony Blake

It also has a nice history of the evolution of French Cuisine, from Escoffier forward.  Another good read.

What all of these books do for me is further convince me that I never want to own a restaurant, or cook in one.  Long hours, tortuous conditions, often difficult personalities, and usually not very much money.  In the beginning of “Great Chefs” the author goes through an almost hour by hour day in the life of the chefs beginning with entries like:

6am:  Francois Bise is already in his kitchen making croissants for breakfast for his overnight guests

…….

11:45am Raymond Thuilier is tasting sauces, while his patissier’s handiwork is being arranged for the dessert Trolley

 .......

And so on, up until

12:00(Midnight): Roger Verge and Louis Outhier may still be offering hospitality as if they had all the time in the world.

He concludes by saying: “The chefs who live through such a day as this are not slaves, nor are they driven by financial greed.  They are artists dedicated to the pursuit of excellence.  They could come from only one country – France”  While the latter part of that thirty year old statement might not be quite true today, the sentiment is.  Thank goodness there are those that dedicate their lives to putting wonderful food on my plate.  It’s a tough life.. Thank you.  and one of the reasons why I

DFD

Let's do Lunch and memory lane

During the course of a (busy) holiday week last week, I had lunches here and there, plus a disappointing look into the past.

Lunch Here:

The “Here” was when I joined some friends at the local (independent) Mixing Bowl restaurant which has occupied the same spot in Lexington Park for a number of years now.  My friends pretty much lunch out every day, and have kind of a luncheon rotation, and Tuesdays is Mixing Bowl day. They also drive a Hyundai Genesis, and so we like to compare car foibles and odd auto symptoms occasionally.  The list had grown beyond texting, so that provided a reason to finally meet up.  It had been too long since we talked so I was happy to get together.  Since they go to the Mixing Bowl so often, they pretty much don’t have to have a menu as they normally order the same thing (chicken salad) most of the time.  Fortunately I was early enough that I could peruse the menu a bit before they arrived.  There are appetizers, but the menu is mostly populated by sandwiches of various sorts (about fifteen choices), all with "names" such as: “the Gobbler; Kickin’ Chicken; Hog Heaven; No Bull” fortunately there is a description included. They also offer Big Salads, and some heavier dishes if one cares for that.  I presume that the same menu applies for dinner, but I think their main rush is for lunch.  It has always amazed me how many people leave the base for lunch every day. Most places in the area are jammed at lunchtime.

Anyway, the "Bowl" is always clean, and has fairly fast and courteous service, and the food is fresh.  All you could want for a lunch on a business day.  The owner usually comes around and checks on you, and since my friends are very regulars, she stopped and chatted with us.  She is a nice lady.   During our conversations on radio knobs, warped oil pan washers, funnies with the software, our food arrived.  Everything was as it should be, my salad was fairly large and had ham, chicken, tomato, cucumber, and shredded cheddar distributed around the side.  As noted on the menu, dressing is served “on the side” in a 3.5 oz. container.  The meats were sliced lunch meat, but they were fresh and tasty.  Anyway, The Mixing Bowl deserves be on any regular rotation for lunch outside the gates of the base.  Better than a chain.

Lunch There:

Friday, I braved the traffic of the beltway to attend a conference with a potential caterer for a Gala this coming fall.  We met in their showroom of rental stuff, a HUGE building chocked full of table linens in all colors of the rainbow, chairs of every ilk, dishes in all shapes and sizes, glassware and everything needed for the non-food part of an event.  We discussed the menu and will most likely go up for a tasting later this summer.  We asked about places to have lunch following our meeting and were directed to a place in “The Village At Shirlington”, called Carlyle

The Village at Shirlington is a pleasant two or three block tree lined area with an enclave of cafés, bistros, brewpubs, and restaurants of all sorts.  Just what you would expect in the “big city”.  And so is the inside of the restaurant, a fairly large, sleek contemporary space

We were led to the table by the lady at the desk who gave us menus as we were seated.  It was a nice table at the window, which gave us a good view of the goings on outside, including diners on the patio and the passers by.  Very civilized.  Their menu for lunch was divided into categories: Starters; Small and Large Salads; Sandwiches; From the Pan; and From the Grill. 

At just about the appropriate time a server approached in a crisp white shirt, and announced: “my name is <…> would you care for something besides water to drink?”.  As alert readers know, I have a big problem with the all too common "Hi, I'm.... be taking care of you", but this is acceptable.  So we ordered iced tea and a glass of KJ chardonnay, and then he told us about the specials, among which was a pan fried Halibut, and a soft shell crab sandwich.  He left us to ponder our food selections and went off to fetch the drinks.  After a brief discussion of the nuances of soft shell crabs and sandwiches, we both sort of settled on the “regular” crab cake sandwich which came with “remoulade sauce, cole slaw and fries” a sort of ho hum description.  After a bit of people watching and pleasant conversation our sandwiches arrived

The cake was barely bound big lumps of crab, perched on a bed of remoulade that made you notice it, tasty shoestring fries, and a very nice tart cole slaw.  We couldn’t quite put our finger on it, but I think there was fennel in there, and maybe celery root.. it wasn’t just a bunch of chopped cabbage.  All in all a very nice dish, kind of belying its plebian description.  Time and road pressures led us to not linger any longer than necessary, but it was a very nice lunch.  It must be nice to have options like that available.  I guess we do, its just that 65 mile drive to get there. 

Fluffy

The team that educated me about Crab Fluff is in with another find.  They were up in Pasadena, Maryland and found a place called Anne Arundel Seafood.  From peeking on the web, it looks like one of those places where you go to the counter and order.  Apparently Crab Fluff was an option so they tried it and sent along a picture. 

As you might expect, paper, plastic, and the fluff.  And also as you might remember (as I had to be refreshed) the fluff is basically a crab cake and dipped in batter (in this case pancake) and deep fried.  Somehow this dish and the name “fluff” don’t seem compatible.

Sad

We had a meeting of a local board the other day, and for some reason the convener settled on “the Lexington”, the current incarnation of the Roost.  I was quite surprised upon entering.  Gone was the venerable “salad cart”, long a fixture of the place, and to the right no tables except a couple of the pool variety.  The bar was still to the left, but of course with none of the classic aviation memorabilia, leaving only a couple of flat screens and some Keno monitors.  There were a few apparent regulars seated at the bar sucking Bud Light drafts. Our meeting was in a back room that we shared with an upside down kitchen sink, and a few other relics (which some might say applied to us) strewn about.  Kind of sad that what once was a “go to” place is now just another victim of the northern movement away from the middle of Lexington Park.

Well, hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Next weekend will be the Raiders and Invaders weekend, filled with events marking the local impact of that seemingly endless War of 1812.  Maybe you’ll have to be

DFD