Perched on a rolling hillside complete with brick walkways, Lamberts Vintage Wines hosts wine tastings. The picturesque stone building features large wooden doors, a fireplace and rocking chairs, and is surrounded by a vineyard.

The building is located at 190 Vineyard Drive in Weston, W.Va., (304) 269-4903. Hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

My friend Vicki and I stopped here after our adventure in Ireland (W.Va.) to watch road bowling. The day had been drizzly, and it was a chilly. We made our way up the road back to the tasting building (passing a banquet hall and another gorgeous building along the way). And as soon as we opened that large wooden door, the inside of the tasting room was welcoming, cozy and warm.

Local pottery and products decorated the room. Vicki even ended up buying a stained glass pumpkin they had for sale.

Our tasting was so fun, as we just chose various wines to choose from this list. They increase in sugar level, so I stayed near the middle range. I ended up buying a bottle of the Symal (which is a blend). I've tried many of Lambert's wines before, as they are a mainstay at the WV Wine & Jazz Festival in Morgantown. But the symal was one I needed again in my life.

It's a perfect little day trip out to the area if you want to get out of Morgantown. It's a cute property, with tons of space to relax and drink wine.

Has anyone tasted the wines here at Lambert's? If so, which ones are your faves?

"Sweets for the Sweet" is a local restaurant dessert competition hosted by the Caritas House Inc., which assists people living in 25 counties of northern West Virginia who are living with HIV/AIDS. The Caritas (Latin for charity) House was created in 1994 and is one of three organizations in the state who assist these individuals.

The 19th annual event was held on Saturday at the WVU Alumni Center. It cost $20 and the proceeds benefited the Caritas House. The event featured the dessert tasting competition, the Fairmont State University Jazz Ensemble, door prizes and auctions.

We started with some heavy hors d'oeuvres - sliders, corndogs, pepperoni rolls - before devoting our evening to straight sugar. 

We picked the restaurant nearest to us and made our way around the room.

Table 9 - caramel pot de creme & devil's on horseback. This set the bar pretty high. While I've had the devil's on horseback, which are really quite tasty, the pot de creme was really quite good. The top was a salted caramel pretzel almost, and the consistency was smooth.


Ramada / The Heritage Grille - tiramisu. When we went to this table, there was no one there to talk to us about it, but it seemed fairly standard tiramisu. Nothing too outstanding or different.


Erickson Alumni Center - pineapple toasted coconut cake drizzled with warm pineapple sauce made with Heston Farms moonshine & fruit (kiwi, strawberry, blueberry) shooters & chocolate-covered strawberries. They really go hard. I had the cake and a shooter, and both were really pretty good. The pineapple cake was familiar, but a little different at the same time.



Rising Creek Bakery - "gone bananas" buttermilk banana cake with a buttermilk custard mouse, malted chocolate ice cream, caramelized white chocolate sauce and hazelnut sand. This was one of my favorite desserts, for sure. Tons of different texture and flavor here. And it all comes together seamlessly. A well-thought out plate here with a delicious dessert.

Jameson's Pub & Eatery - salted caramel brownie with a pretzel crust. This sounds like it would be my be-all, end-all dessert. But I was getting some odd coconut notes I wasn't super crazy about. I DO love that a lot of the places this year have gotten the "salted caramel" dessert, because it's my absolute favorite.

Tutto Gelato Cafe - salted caramel pretzel cake. I loved this idea, but I think the pretzel crust was more salty than the sweet part of the ice cream. But it was still tasty.

The Cupcakerie - fluffer nutter, strawberry lime margarita, mudslide and orange crush cupcakes. The Cupcakerie tends to do the same sort of cupcakes at these events, so I've had many of these before. I went with an orange crush one, and it was good.





The Preston Co. Inn - beignets. The Preston Co. Inn had a really cute theme going with the props and whatnot surrounding their dessert of choice: beignets. They were fresh from the fryer and covered in powdered sugar. Just like a donut, but airy.


Morgantown Brewing Company - pineapple upside down cake (but fancy). This was one of my favorite desserts because it was different. I always love that Morgantown Brewing Company brings it to these competitions. They do something new and fun and incorporate their beer. It is always inventive, but I think some people just don't know what to do with a non-traditional dessert. Pastrami crisps on my cake?! What?! People don't know how to handle it. But it was great, and these guys deserve some more recognition for all the cool shit they do.

The Flying Fish has opened up an "express" location in Suncrest. There's no dining in, at least not yet, but you can get to-go and delivery from this location - 973 Chestnut Ridge Road. The restaurant location is at the end of Chestnut Ridge Road with a few other businesses in the same building. If you remember the short-lived Mr. C's Wiseguy Cafe, that's your place.

Place your order online, and you can choose delivery or take out. Since it's close to me, I simply placed my order online for a fish sandwich and shrimp jambalaya (it has to be $15 minimum) to pick up. There are small fees for local delivery. The restaurant called to confirm I wanted the fish sandwich and not just the fish and chips. After the confirmation, it was just about 10 minutes until it was ready.

After I parked, I went to the far left of the building - outside and around to the bottom floor - to pick up my food. There were a couple workers outside smoking, which was odd. But at least I knew I was in the right place. As soon as I stepped inside, they handed my food right to me at the door. I didn't even have a chance to go inside, really.

I got home and unwrapped everything. The food is in plastic containers, so it will start to steam if it's in there too long. I first tried a french fry, which had begun to get a little soft. They were still a nice golden brown, skin on one side and a nice bit of flavor.

The jambalaya had a little heat to it and a nice texture. I hate when jambalaya gets too mushy. A little on the pricey side, but not bad.

And my favorite - the sandwich - was ginormous, as I remember. A delicious crisp batter covered the filet, and a tangy tartar, fresh lettuce and hunk of tomato dressed the sandwich. The end part had started to get mushy, maybe from being in the container or maybe the grease just had time to sink through.

Best fish sandwich in town? Yep. I think maybe some containers that allowed them to breathe a bit better would be nice. And some signage to direct people where to go.

But perfect for a Friday, eh? eh? eh?

Grade: B

I went skiing.

I had never been, and I feel like that's a problem. Especially since I'm trying to tick off as many of the "55 Unique Things to Do in the Mountain State" as I can. So, Lisa and I purchased the billion dollars in equipment necessary to fall gracefully down a mountain - ski pants, waterproof jacket, hat, goggles, gloves ... plus renting skis, helmets and poles.

We took a lesson at Winterplace. I only fell once! And that was mostly to avoid the gaggle of children skating circles around me. When it was time to actually go down the hill, I did pretty well. *pats self on back*

And, it's actually pretty cool once it stops being terrifying. I think after I initially fell, I was like "OK, got that out of the way." And the one rule is to just never lean back at all. I started to go to fast and, not thinking, I tried to correct myself and that caused me to fall. But I learned to "pizza" my skis pretty quickly (make them into a wedge shape) to go slower.

OH, food. That's right. This blog revolves around food.


So, Winterplace does have a few restaurants. There's "The MountainHouse," which is mid-mountain and features nice views. I doubt I'd be able to make it up there.

Then there's Mickey's Mountain Cafe, which has burgers, hot dogs, chicken ... but it was closed, as we were near the end of the season. There's also the Snowdrift Lounge which has action skiing videos, music, etc.

The quickest and most convenient, though? Mountain Mama's Food Court.

The food court has breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. They have sandwiches, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, salads, desserts and more.

I went for a fried chicken sandwich. That is essentially their chicken tenders placed on a bun. But, after driving for three hours, skiing for a couple and not having eaten -- this tasted amazing.

A bin of tomatoes, onions, etc. was off to the side, and I helped myself to some toppings.

I also picked up a brownie for dessert. So, overall, it's a food court. But, it was exactly what I wanted after skiing.