Those Weeks: February 14th to March 3rd

Mary bagged all the wines so we tasted blind.

I am so far behind! We've been busy, too, so I have a lot to report.

First up, when I last left off with my "this week" posts, we were gearing up for a Valentine's Day wine tasting party (Malbecs only) at the Barger's house. It was super fun - of course - and Alicia's combination of aphrodisiac inspired foods (oysters!) was a success.

The winning wine - Tamari - belonged to our friends Kerry and Larry...who were both at home with the flu. At least they won?

Later that weekend, we celebrated our friend Will's 40th birthday with an afternoon at the Greene Turtle in Hunt Valley. As a general rule, I don't think of any Greene Turtle as a culinary hotspot - I associate them more with lacrosse and Natural Light. (Which is not a bad thing!)

But the food that Karen, Will's wife, organized for the party was totally good - especially the soft pretzels with queso and the Buffalo chicken dip. I ate way too much that day.

CJ, me and Rob...ginger friends since 1980.

Weekend before last, while Cooper was in South Carolina, fruitlessly hunting for boar with his dad and our friend Bert, I celebrated another birthday - my friend Rasim's 39th. (This month has also reminded me how busy we're going to be over the next couple years, as we all turn forty.)

Rasim pulled together a big group, including his childhood friends (that's me) plus good friends from college and his residency. We started with a surprisingly good dinner at John Stevens in Fells, where not only was our waitress incredibly patient with our ever-changing group of twelve-ish people, the food was also really great. I had scallops and they were lovely.

After dinner, we had drinks at Willow then Bertha's before heading back home (it was late). I'd forgotten, actually, how fun Bertha's can be. There was a band and a good crowd...good times.

Fast-forward one not-complete school week. On Thursday, we celebrated Scarlett - Audrey and George's baby - as she turned one. George made burgers and we watched Scarlett smear cake all over the place. That never gets old.

And on Saturday, we had dinner with Cooper's parents to celebrate his dad's birthday (so many birthdays - it's crazy). Dinner was a big oyster fest at the Country Club of Maryland, where we ate fried oysters, raw oysters, oyster stew, gumbo with oysters, oysters Rockefeller...you name it. Oysters are so great.

This week is another busy one...capped off by Fake St. Patrick's Day on Saturday! So busy but so fun!