Virginia Bloggers

Tag: richmond

  • Guest Post: Whirl & Whisk

    Today’s guest blogger is a self-described bakeaholoic who makes some crazy-delicious goodies! Spend 10 seconds on her blog, and your sweet tooth will be itching for a bite! Today, she’s sharing a recipe for some homemade hazelnut candy bars! Enjoy!

    I love living in Richmond. I grew up hearing (and believing) that Richmond was boring, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to find that Richmond is full of extraordinary places! Especially when it comes to food. I adore my city’s love for food and it has inspired me to start my blog whirl + whisk where I bake up something sweet daily.

    One place in RVA that I love is Pasture. It’s a little restaurant located on E. Grace Street. They have THE most amazing homemade hazelnut candy bar. It is borderline life changing. So naturally I had to try to make it myself.

    I’m not a huge fan of the actual hazelnuts in the candy bar, so I didn’t add any to my recipe, but there’s lots of Nutella flavor to make up for it! Feel free to add whatever you like to this recipe!

    Hazelnut Candy Bar

    Prep Time:†10 minutes (2 hours cooling time)
    Bake Time:†0
    Yields:†3 candy bars

    Ingredients:

    • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 1/2 cup Nutella
    • 1 cup milk chocolate morsels
    Directions:

      1. Mix chocolate and nutella in a bowl. Set aside
      2. Heat heavy whipping cream in a pan until it is about to boil (when bubbles start around the edges) and poor it over the chocolate and nutella mixture and whisk on med-high for about 2-3 minutes
      3. Line a square baking sheet with parchment paper and poor the mixture in. Let cool for 2 hours
      4. Remove the parchment and cut into 1 inch strips. Cut the strips in half
      5. Stack 4 pieces on top of each other (they will stick together) putting melted milk chocolate in between
      6. Add more milk chocolate to the top and set in the fridge for 20 minutes
      7. EAT!
    It came out amazing, and very close to the real deal. As a dessert and snack blogger, I can say that Richmond offers up a ton of inspiration for me and I wouldn’t be happier anywhere else.
    Be sure to follow my blog to keep up with all of the crazy desserts and snacks I make daily! Like…

    See more desserts and deliciousness @ Whirl & Whisk

  • Lunching Richmond: 52 Lunches

    It started as a game. Of course it started as a game.

    We (Adam & Ethan) work for the same company and had briefly worked together, but didn’t realize at first how much our interests overlapped. Cyclists, dads, gamers, geeks. We started a weekly lunch and on the way to the second one, Adam turned it into a game. “You know what would be fun? If we never ate at the same place twice.”

    The rules were simple. One of us picked a new place to eat and also paid. The following week the other would do the same. The first to repeat a choice, loses.

    We made it to somewhere around week 30 before a repeat (for the record, Ethan lost). Instead of giving up though, we started round two and doubled down. We added reviews to the mix. Whoever picks still pays, but the recipient of the free lunch has to review the choice. We’d both blogged with some regularity previously, so writing was something we already enjoyed. At the time, a years worth of new restaurants seemed like a monumental undertaking, so we went with 52 and were off to the races. We also started capturing our Lunch Topics. Regular readers know we’re very much into games.

    The learning curve for restaurant reviews was surprising at first. Expanding our culinary vocabulary beyond “that taste good” took some time. Eventually we got our sea legs though. We know what we like and are more than happy to share it with our readers. When we finally hit review 52, we discussed briefly resetting the game. A season 2 if you will. We quickly did away with that notion however and are now on the brink of 100 reviews. At this point it looks to go on to the bitter end, neither of us yielding until Richmond runs out of restaurants. And given the turnover in the Richmond restaurant scene, that doesn’t seem imminent.

    Adam & Ethan @ 52 Lunches

    You can check out all their reviews of Richmond restaurants on their blog, but here are some of our favorites (all pictured above):

    Anyone have some suggestions to pass along to Adam & Ethan?

  • Thursday Feature: Volunteer Gardening

    Hi again! It’s Adrienne. You may remember me from my healthy snacking post back in May.

    Not only do I like to attempt to take good care of myself but I also enjoy helping others. I strive to regularly volunteer and this past weekend I had the opportunity to do so over at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

    In the back of the park hidden from the regular visitors, they have almost an acre of gardens that produce vegetables for FeedMore’s Community Kitchen. This year they hope to produce 10,000 pounds of crop. Last year they only missed the mark by about 80 pounds!

    The garden depends heavily on volunteers to help with all tasks from tilling the land to harvesting at the end of the season. I enjoy gardening at my own house so I thought it’d be fun to help out.

    We spent the morning moving through various tasks.

    The first thing we did was check squash plants for squash bug eggs. It’s a tedious but necessary task that helps prevent the bugs from killing the plants. To get rid of the eggs, we snapped off any leaves that held the tiny, copper-colored eggs. Pretty easy to do and rewarding.

    We planted tomatoes next. Many plants are grown from seed on site but others are often donated like the ones we dealt with. We planted about 30 plants in a very short amount of time. It’s amazing how much you can achieve with a good amount of volunteers!

    After planting another 20 or so tomato plants, our last task was to do some weeding in the wheelchair accessible beds. Yet another task that seemed to go quickly. Did I mention that I love weeding? Not normal. 🙂

    I really enjoyed the morning – talking to the other volunteers and learning a little from the head gardener all while helping the community. I hope to visit again soon. It’ll be fun to see the results of our work!

    If you’re interested in joining me one Saturday, please visit Hands On Greater Richmond to sign up. I usually click on the ‘Project Calendar’ at the right-hand side of the page to find opportunities. On the calendar you’ll see that you can volunteer at Lewis Ginter every Saturday and Monday for the next couple months.

    You don’t need any experience to come help! Just wear some clothes that you wouldn’t mind getting dirty, closed toe shoes and bring gardening gloves if you have them. Water and sunscreen are good to have too!

    Feel free to email me at hippieitch [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions or comments!

    Adrienne @ HippieItch