January 31, 2025

Queued Up

Beaches - beabadoobee

Scorsese Baby Daddy - SZA

Sunny day - beabadoobee

Baby I’m Yours - Arctic Monkeys

Fast Times - Sabrina Carpenter

DENIAL IS A RIVER - Doechii

Take A Bite - beabadoobee

To Playlist

Jonno’s

I am proud of my parents for so many reasons, but the one that comes in a bottle? My father’s Worcestershire sauce, Jonno’s.

For several years, my dad would make his famous homemade Worcestershire sauce to give out at Christmas presents. Our friends and family loved it so much they begged for more. When he realized there was an actual demand for this kind of sauce, he started production of Jonno’s in March 2021. From there, he put in so much time, dedication, energy, and passion into this business that has turned into something truly special.

Growing up, my dad was a financial advisor who travelled quite a bit. Seeing him put his energy into something he has built from the ground up, fills me with such pride. He brings all the ingredients to a local cannery and then drives to all of his vendors between Virginia, Maryland, DC, and North Carolina to distribute cases.

Take a look at thespiritedpalate.com to learn more about Jonno’s, find a store that sells it near you, and recipes! Take a peek in the ‘local’ section of your Food Lion or Publix too.

Budget Eats

in RVA

One of my favorite places in RVA is Sugar Shack. Not only has it been convenient to the two places I’ve lived here, but they have a fantastic selection of doughnuts for reasonable prices. These are my go-to’s: chocolate with sprinkles and Samoa.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the perfect bowl of pho, but Pho Thien Phat 2 nailed it. A small bowl filled my stomach to the brim, and due to the RVA water situation earlier this month, a Dr. Pepper ended up being a great pair.

Typically, I wouldn’t consider a place like this ‘budget-friendly’, but I wanted to share this deal. Brenner Pass in Scott’s Addition has a fabulous deal of $1 oysters on weeknights from 5-7 if you sit at the bar. There are other happy hour deals, but this reeled us in. Definitely worth it!

Budget

Meals

at Home

Breakfast

I have always loved cinnamon raisin bread, but this one from Trader Joe's is one of the best I’ve had. It's perfectly dense and moist. It’s wonderful, I would definitely recommend it.

Lunch

This is an easy pastina recipe that is the perfect way to warm up in the winter. After boiling mirepoix in chicken broth, I blended it and set it aside until I’m ready to cook some farfallini in it. Finish it off with salt, pepper, and some parmesan … chefs kiss.

This soup was inspired by @tiffyycooks. It was so filling and easy to make. Start by cooking down the tomatoes, adding water and bouillon, and finally, I added udon noodles, shrimp dumplings, and enoki mushrooms. So yummy!

Dinner

This quick dinner consisted of marinating some tenderized pork chops in soy sauce, onion, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, brown sugar, and black pepper. As a sauce on the side, some fried green onions. The cucumber salad was mixed with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and Mar Mar.

For this, I made my homemade tomato sauce to have with ricotta. The pasta I was using was Trader Joe’s bucatini fusilli but was running low by the time I realized I wanted a picture.

Frosted Coffee vs Coffee Frappe

One of my fast food favorites is Chick-fil-a’s frosted coffee. It’s just their vanilla ‘soft serve’ and cold brew coffee blended together and it’s so simply delicious. While looking for new dessert spots, I saw on Spotty Dog’s Ice Cream has a coffee frappe which has their malted Madagascar vanilla ice cream and Afterglow cold brew. I was really wanting to try it, especially for those Sundays I’m really craving some CFA.

Spotty Dog was such a cute shop that had a great selection of flavors. Some of them are definitely adventurous but there are also options for a more simple treat. When I ordered the frappe and was asked ‘which flavor would you like’, I knew I would be back to try another. One sip, and I was sold. It was so creamy and the coffee was subtle but so good. I’d love to try their chocolate orange ice cream as a coffee frappe. I was very impressed with Spotty Dog!

Mocktails

I recently stopped by Shields Market in the Fan and grabbed a couple mocktails they have! I haven’t been to a store that has a little hub of drinks like these so I was very excited and wanted to share my thoughts.

Lyre’s Amalfi Spritz - to be quite honest, my roommates and I all took one sip, then poured the rest down the drain. I understand the replication of an Aperol spritz, but the aftertaste is what really made it bad.

Manhattan Berry - I was really excited about this one because I expected the main flavor to be blackberry along with pear shrub and ginger. The ginger really overtook the blackberry because I didn’t taste it at all. I could really taste the shrub in the aftertaste, but overall the ginger was the ‘star’.