My cousin Beaner, aka Caroline, moved to Australia and fell in love! She and Kris are here on a tour of the East Coast, and Charlottesville made their list! On behalf of the city of Cville, we are honored.
Joined by my aunt and uncle, Matt and I were excited to take them to Beer Run tonight, as Kris is quite the beer aficionado (even more so than Matt, perhaps!?)
Since 66% of our table was left handed, we were pleased to find a large selection of Left Hand Brewing beers on the menu.
I went bold and tried a 10 ounce of the Terrapin Left Hand Collaboration Depth Charge Espresso Milk Stout.
Holy stout, it was good!!
For dinner I tried the Butternut Soup with a Spinach + Walnut + Bleu Cheese Salad
With the beer [and all those walnuts], it hit the spot.
Our family has an affinity for desserts, perhaps stemming from my grandmother’s excellent pies and chocolates over the years ; ) For the table we shared a Guinness Chocolate Ganache Cake (which was excellent!!) and a Pumpkin Pie (for Kris, who had never had one!)
The pumpkin was not as good as my mom’s pumpkin chiffon pie, but the chocolate ganache was pretty good!
The boys bonded over beer and a few more were sampled – taste testing is fun!
Currently sipping hot water, debating starting a new book and excited for my first visit to Monticello tomorrow!





{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Never had pumpkin pie before?! What did they think? I love it… but its my second favorite behind pecan
Yeah! I’m living in Australia right now, and there’s no pumpkin pie here. Pumpkin is popular, but it’s always eaten as a savory dish and they find the idea of pumpkin pie quite strange.
yeah, i didn’t have pumpkin pie till i moved to the states. jamaicans don’t do pumpkin desserts.
oooh, chocolate ganache!
Are you one of the people who made up the 66% lefthanded’ness? If you are, I totally could have guessed you are a lefty. I am toooo!
Yes!!
Pumpkin chiffon pie sounds so good. Is your mom’s recipe somewhere on the site??
And no. But if you ask her here, she might be kind enough to post it!! (She reads every comment
)
I would love to have the pumpkin chiffon recipe too
66% of your table was lefthanded? lol. How weird.
Ooooooo–Monticello in the fall. Hope you love it! It’s a beautiful place.
Mom’s recipe please???
Pumpkin chiffon pie sounds so good itself sounds good!!
What a fun visit with fellow beer lovers:) Looks like you had a great visit .
Have a fun time tomorrow!
COOL. I’ve always wanted to visit Monticello. TJ’s one of my favs!
I hope you started a new book. I’m such a bookworm. If you did, what did you start? I’m currently reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It’s incredibly sad, but I’m not sure if I like the writer’s style or not.
i didn’t like this one…the writing style just wasn’t for me. would love to know your thoughts when you’re done!
I thought you were talking about my post when I got this comment in my email! Ha
Looks like so much fun!
i can’t imagine never having experienced pumpkin pie before! have fun tomorrow!
That ganache looks way better than pretty good, it looks insanely delicious.
Lefties rule!
WOW ummm I cannot even begin to fathom how good your Mom’s pumpkin chiffon pie is…PLEASE do share Mama!
Have a great evening, kath!
Someone MORE in love with beer than your dear husband? No way.
Go lefties
xoxo
Chiffon pie? That sounds heavenly! Please share
I love the orange circles on that salad, haha. And I have to agree, chiffon pie sounds amazing!
I lurve me some stout!
YUM.
woohoo for lefties!!
Never had pumpkin pie, not something that we make in New Zealand, but interested to try it one day! I don’t actually think you can get canned pumpkin here either…I hate chopping up big pumpkins lol
They definitely need to try a homemade pumpkin pie — so much better than any restaurant!
Why wouldn’t she love Australia? I’m pretty sure it’s the best country in the world, even if we don’t have pumpkin pie. And okay, okay, I’m probably a little biased
New Zealand! New Zealand! :-p
our family has a renowned sweet tooth, too. it’s hard to out-sugar us with our love of sweet desserts! generations of excellent bakers have helped, too!
my mom just finished “the help” and said it was one of the top 20 reads of her life. she’s passing the book on to me – excited to read this one!
happy hallowe’en!
i’ve been wanting to make a guinness cake after having a really good one about a year ago, yum
I bet Kris and Matt had a good time talking about beer all night.
Australian accents are the beeeeeessssssttttttt!
Yeah for Left Hand Brewery! I like all the love our Colorado microbreweries get on your blog.
My husband is a homebrewer, too, and has a goal to visit all the microbreweries in CO…a big goal, considering a new one opens up every couple of weeks!
Australia? My homeland! Your cousin sounds like a smart gal
MMMMM pumpkin chiffon pie…my most absolute favorite pie!! My mom has her own homemade recipe too and she does it with a graham cracker crust – heaven!! It’s the pie I look forward to her making every Thanksgiving