friday went down to DC to visit a friend and found this awesome belgian bar Granville Moore's on H street. like a rowhouse bar version of the downstairs of brewers art. they also had a sweet old school wooden fridge above the bar where all their yeasty treats took up home. we all shared some frites and a giant bowl of blue cheese/pork belly/shallots/spinach mussels.

saturday stopped into Don't Know, where they are offering $2.50 crabs on saturday and sundays now. they say they're #1's, which might not be entirely accurate, but i'm no crab size expert and it didn't matter because they all had a ton of meat and considering the price it was a great lunch. (bonus points for old-bay corn on the cob and all the good taps to celebrate craft beer week).

sunday stopped by Frisco Grille in columbia after a visit to the maryland homebrew shop to have some lunch and a beer. went with the mahi mahi taco's, which were good but were extremely chincy on the fish.

the bar itself is impressive with a huge row of beer taps, a wall of tv's not unlike the mlb fan cave, and two tv's which show their tap selections and ABV's. price's would have been nice to have listed too, as it was semi-surprising that the beers we chose ranged in the $8-$10 variety. live and learn.

Three of us went to Donna's on the corner of St. Paul and 31st streets. This is generally acknowledged as the best Donna's. We started with a shared plate of the roasted vegetables. Then we had the ricotta gnochhi with a sage cream and spinach, flat iron steak and tenderloin quesedillas. We were all happy.

Two of my favorite dogs in the whole wide world, and I knew who they were without the caption even. These are the girlfriends (they don't know it yet) to my two boys, Baxter and Archie, who are Sophie and Betty's male doppelgangers.

No dining out for us this weekend, except for some carryout last night. Dinner on the deck that got moved to the dining room on Saturday night. Made a huge batch of white sangria, of which we drank every single drop. Hors d'ourves were homemade Boursin, some sundried tomato/olive/feta tapenade I whipped together, leek and blue cheese toasts from Smitten Kitchen, and these nuts that I implore everyone to make, for they are ridiculously easy and yummy. (Union Station Bar Nuts: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/the-union-square-cafes-bar-nuts-recipe/index.html) Dinner was my husband's famous BBQ Chicken, along with pineapple and asparagus from the grill. Birthday cake for the birthday boy was chocolate with French buttercream from Sugarbaker's in Catonsville, using up my Groupon I have had for months.

Great success of a dinner party, and I am hoping to get Sophie and Betty's mama over for one soon!

ryan97ou, I can see mussels with shallots and spinach, and even a bit of pork belly--but blue cheese??? Really?

We had dinner at Roy's Hawaiian on Saturday, because my wife was curious about the place. Service was excellent, but the food was rather on the underseasoned side. I don't think we'll be back.

Oh, and that's the most adorable sleeping pets picture yet!

Those 2 pups mirror my 2 male labs: Boomer is black and Riley yellow. It's amazing how angelic they look when they sleep - often touching or snuggling like the 2 sweet pups in the picture - because when they play one would think that there is a battle going on between wild beasts, complete with all the requisite sound effects!

dahlink -

it might seem excessive, but as long as you didn't overscoop too much blue cheese into your mussel shell, it really added a nice touch to the white wine broth.

Thanks, ryan97ou. I love mussels, love blue cheese, but somehow I just can't imagine them together in one bite.