Author: Julia B. Wilde
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Finding a Path Forward after Loss
Many of you have probably thought that I gave up on writing. I thought so too. This will be very different from my usual blog posts. I’m going to get personal. I don’t normally get personal in this blog, but I no longer have a “normal”. Last year, I lost my dear husband to glioblastoma,…
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Viewing the Local Fair through the Eyes of a Traveler
I spent the day at the Great Frederick Fair for the first time in decades. If I was traveling in another country and I visited a local agricultural fair, I would have been inspired to write about it. The livestock, produce, and regional foods; they would all be fascinating to me. So why wouldn’t I…
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Black Ankle Vineyards
Black Ankle Vineyards is one of our favorite places to take wine-loving guests visiting us in Frederick, especially those skeptical of Maryland wines. We enjoy seeing our friend’s reactions to the unique setting as we walk up the path to the winery. The first thing you see is the living roof, alive with color, providing…
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On Summertime, Octopus Balls, and the Joy of Eating Out
With this Memorial Day weekend comes the unofficial start of summer and the promise of a better year. We are finally fully vaccinated and ready to start living again. The restaurants in Maryland are open and we are slowly getting back out there. While it feels a bit strange to be eating in public, we…
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Wine-ing about Frederick Maryland
Our summer plans are starting to look up now that we’ve discovered we are surrounded by wineries. We always try to make wine a part of our life, visiting local wineries wherever we happen to be traveling and living. Frederick, Maryland is no exception. When I wrote this article about our visit to Big Cork…
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A Glimpse of Porto, Portugal
Originally posted on Julia Eats: This autumn we spent nearly a month in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal. Porto sits on the north bank of the Douro River, where the river empties out into the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal is historically a seafaring culture, so much of their food comes from the sea. We…
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Beautiful Wines on a Beautiful Day in Castellón: An Excursion to Bodega Flors
Originally posted on Julia Eats: With the arrival of autumn comes the desire to flee the city for the fresh air of the countryside. For us, that means heading to wine country. We went north out of Valencia to visit Bodega Flors, a small family winery that is a beautiful place to experience the wine…
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Confit: A Traditional Preservation Method That Can Make Anything Extraordinary, Even Chicken
I usually have a hard time getting excited about chicken. But duck…duck I can get very excited about. Especially duck confit: duck that has cured and cooked slowly in duck fat until the meat is silky smooth and the flavors intensified. The problem is that duck can be both expensive and hard to find. Chicken,…
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Floating Through a Fairy Tale: A Wine Cruise on the Vltava River in Prague
Originally posted on Julia Eats: The Vltava river became magical as the sun went down. We had escaped the crowded streets and cruised along the river at a leisurely pace. We sipped on Czech wines and took in the historical sights along the riverbanks. A Wine Boat cruise was the ideal way to begin our…
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Tapas in Granada, Spain
Originally posted on Julia Eats: Granada sits at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Andalusian region of Southern Spain. Visgoths, Romans, Moors and Christians have left their marks on the city that is now Granada. The Moors surrendered Granada to Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, completing the Reconquista and ending…