Twin City Taps & A Birthday Dinner

What a busy Saturday.

Today was the second annual Twin City Taps Craft Beer Festival, sponsored by the North Carolina Brewers Guild. (Apparently, North Carolina has the greatest number of craft breweries in the American South.) Last year it was particularly delightful, because it was held just down from the house at BB&T Ballpark, home of the Winston-Salem Dash, AND good friend and former student Byron Hoover was also on hand for it.

Not sure what all was going on, but I get the feeling this year's Twin City Taps was not as well-organized. Apparently, they didn't take care of all the permitting that they needed to, and so the festival was held at Ziggy's. That by itself is not a bad thing; it's still walking distance, albeit just a bit farther. And the day was still a good one, even though we were rained on for about 20 minutes.

Just not the same as being at the ballpark, as I'm sure you can understand.

A pretty fun crew took in the Twin City Taps today, including fellow UNC alum Steve Zorn, who was also celebrating his birthday. Steve graduated a year ahead of me from Chapel Hill, worked in DC for almost 20 years, and moved back to Winston-Salem to be closer to his aging parents, who live down in Asheboro.

Steve had a lot to do with getting the Roediger House nominated for recognition from Preserve Historic Forsyth.

After hitting most of the brewers' tents a second time, we strolled back home in time to beat the rain that hit late afternoon. But we'd already begun some outside basketball time, and we just kept on playing.

To ease any late afternoon hunger, I'd already made some southwestern dip to serve with tortilla chips:

Dinner was ribeye steaks, baked sweet potatoes, and salad with homemade blue cheese dressing.

This was Meal No. 567 in the kitchen, since the completion of the addition and renovation project.

All this activity seemed to take its toll on Cyprus.