Hey guys! Popping in for a weekend recap, which I’m splitting into two parts because this post started getting way too long! Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow. 🙂
Matt and I decided it seemed like a good weekend to get the heck out of DC, so a couple months ago we planned ourselves a nice little retreat in our favorite spot – the mountains of Virginia. We headed out on Friday after work – beautiful sunset views as we headed west!
Our destination was a spot called Rustic River Cabins near Luray, VA, and a short drive from our favorite spot for hiking, Shenandoah National Park. We wanted something low key and cozy and away from it all, and the cabin we rented sounded just right! One of the things we really liked about it was that there was no wi-fi AND our phones didn’t work – what a treat to have a real break from work/life/the internet.
We arrived on Friday around dinnertime and set to making ourselves a feast with food we brought with us from home/the grocery store on the way out of town. On the menu: homemade pizza!
After discovering Simple Mills via the partnership I did with them, I was perusing some of their other products and decided to buy some of their gluten free pizza dough mix for us to try. Great reviews and awesome ingredient list! We figured Friday was a good time to bust it out. After making the dough (you just add water, oil, and apple cider vinegar, which we brought from home for the occasion) and spreading it out on a pan, we pre-baked it for 5 minutes per the instructions and then set to adding our toppings!
Sauce + fresh mozzarella cheese + mushrooms + green pepper + onion + garlic + artichoke hearts + pepperoni!
While we waited for the pizza to cook we enjoyed our first course: some kale salad that I picked up at Mom’s Organic Market before we left DC. It had kale, cabbage, cucumber, broccoli, and avocado with vinaigrette – yummy!
We doubled the pizza recipe (used two boxes of dough – we wanted to make enough for leftovers for lunch while hiking) and made one massive pizza. We should have pre-baked the crust for a bit longer and it needed more time in the oven than we thought it would, but it still came out really well! We’ll definitely use their pizza dough mix again.
We added some fresh basil just before digging in!
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing! We loved the fireplace in the kitchen (we brought some fire starters from home) – so cozy.
When we arrived on Friday it was already really dark out, so we were excited to wake up on Saturday to a view of the Shenandoah River, which the cabin overlooked! It was foggy out but still beautiful.
We were also excited to see our new friend, Boots the cat, who we met the night before! Boots is an outdoor cat that belongs to the owners of the cabin, who live next door, but apparently she likes this cabin the best and always stays nearby, so they ask that their guests feed her! She even has her own little mini cabin with a bed up top just outside the cabin – how cute!
Boots LOVED ear scratches – what a sweetie!
We spent the morning being super lazy and also hanging out in the cabin’s hot tub! Hot tubs = THE BEST. I wish I could start every day like this. 🙂
We eventually got around to making breakfast. (We had some peanut butter perfect bars to tide us over when we first woke up.)
On the menu: one of our classic veggie and egg scrambles.
Plus a fruit salad with sliced strawberries and bananas. Delish!
And now, I’ll leave you hanging and will share the rest of our weekend adventures tomorrow because this post is getting too long! Stay tuned. 🙂
