Blogger meetup and unexpected gift

Earlier today, I had a chance to meet up with someone that I’ve admired via their blog for years. We met over lunch. While we’ve chatted for quite some time via email, phone, etc. and have planned to eventually meet in person since we are only a state away.

Edited to add where we ate and what we had…

We ate at the Red Brick Station.

I had…

Ann’s Spinach Salad
Fresh baby spinach, mushrooms, red onions, toasted walnuts, smoky bacon, hard boiled egg & your choice of dressing. I told them to hold the bacon and they did.

This was a lot of salad for me and I could not finish all of it, it was good for restaurant food but I could not help compare it to what I get from my garden, stacked up against that it simple could not compete.

And I had this to drink…

Spooners Stout
A true Irish Ale for those of you who are brave enough to get into the darker beers. Spooners’ has a full roasted malt flavor and a perfect balance between the hops and malt. It’s smooth as silk going down and is sure to please.
ABV = 4.5%

K had…

Grilled Portabella Panini
Roasted portabella mushroom with roasted red peppers, onions, tomatoes, basil pesto and provolone grilled with olive oil on fresh French bread.

K had this to drink

Daily Crisis Drink
Don’t let the name fool you. This beer is no mistake. A light copper colored ale with an intense hop nose and a distinct hop flavor with mild body and plenty of kick. For the true beer enthusiast this beer weighs in at 55 IBU’s. A great beer with lots of flavor. Named after our friends at the Daily Crisis Dairy Farm here in Baltimore County, Maryland.
ABV = 6.1%

Today’s meeting was a bit unexpected. We only decided on meeting yesterday. I will say,the time spent in person, like in our emails flew by quickly and before I knew it it was time to go. But before we left… we swapped gifts. I don’t think either of us knew the other had brought a gift for the other person.

While I was tempted to share some of the veggie egg rolls that I’d made yesterday, I refrained and instead gave K a copy of the Lutheran Book of Prayer that I love so much. The gift bag that I put the book in was a bit of a joke shared between us, and I crocheted the “tie” that I’d wrapped around the book. If I’d thought about it, I would have taken a picture before it was given away. The yarn used was some of  my Malabrigo single ply yarn. The color is Amor Intenso.

What did K give me?

Well… I received two jars of raw honey from one of their beehives. If you look closely, the jar on the right includes the actual honeycomb! I noticed their honey is much lighter than honey I got from my own hive. Besides their garden, I wonder what other types of crops are around them. I’ll be sure to ask the next time we chat. With all this fragrantly delicious honey in our home, you’d think I’d dig right in… but I think we’ll hold off a bit before we do any taste testing. I’m in no rush to use the honey.

And I also received some of K’s homegrown Shiitake mushrooms! Wow, I’m truly blessed to have someone share some of their homegrown items with me. Next time, I’ll be sure to gift K with some herbs.

Thanks K, I look forward to hanging out with you again.