Anniversary Trip: And We’re Off!

This month my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary! To mark the occasion, we took a quick two-night trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, one of our very favorite places. Our kids were excited for us and encouraged us to take the time away for ourselves while they took care of things back at home. Our girls did a lot of managing schedules and household tasks, and even planned a couple of surprises for us while we were gone which I’ll tell you about later. Joel and I two very blessed parents, let me tell ya!

I’m sharing some photos from our trip in three posts, one for each day we were gone, starting with our first travel day.

We enjoyed a gorgeous day of driving up to the mountains! The trip for us is about 5 1/2 hours so we we just took our time and soaked in the scenery and the uninterrupted talking time.

We arrived that evening and had dinner at Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Village. My friend, Missy, found this restaurant back in December on our girls’ trip with our daughters. I enjoyed it so much, I told Joel I’d really like to go back. We sat in the patio area and the evening temperature was very pleasant.

Joel got the charcuterie board which was called the plowman’s lunch last time we were there. I guess plowman’s lunches are just so “last year” and charcuterie is where it’s at now! Ha!

I had a delicious chicken salad made with a chilled lavender grilled chicken, pickled onions, celery, and apple vinaigrette. This might have been my favorite meal on the whole trip! It was light, clean, and flavorful. I came home and worked on recreating it and I think I’ve got it down now, or close anyway. I’ll share that recipe at the end of this post.

After dinner we checked into our hotel. Usually when we travel to Asheville we stay in a Hampton Inn about 10 minutes from Biltmore. For our anniversary, though, Joel took advantage of a vacation package at the Biltmore Inn that included our 2-day Biltmore tickets, a specialty tour, and free breakfast both mornings at the Inn.

Our room and view were stunning! I will never forget it as long as I live!

After unpacking, we went outside to take a walk around the property and take in the peaceful mountain views.

I got a lot of planting and patio ideas from this area.

As the night darkened, we went inside to explore the hotel a little more. Everything was exquisite–the wood, stone, flowers, lighting, and overall ambience!

I slept like a queen that night and sent the photo below to my girls. I was so tickled over these Vanderbilt slippers in our bathroom! I’ve never been one to post “feet photos” from vacation, but this one I couldn’t resist.

Here’s my version of the chicken salad I ate at Corner Kitchen:

Chilled Lavender Thyme Chicken Salad

Wash and trim chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels. Rub with olive oil and lemon juice. Next, season with salt, pepper, onion powder, thyme (fresh or dry), and dried lavender flowers. I went a little heavy on the lavender because it’s mild (Rub it between your hands first to wake up the flavor before sprinkling it on the chicken.)

Grill the chicken breasts or roast at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes depending on how thick the chicken is. Cool enough to shred and place in the fridge to chill.

Toss the chilled shredded chicken with apple cider vinaigrette, thinly sliced celery, and pickled purple onions, and fresh thyme. Toss again before serving to get the vinaigrette distributed back in and add some thyme sprigs for garnish. I served this at a baby shower this week and I forgot to toss it one more time right before serving so the top layer may not have been as flavorful as the bottom. I don’t know.

Corner Kitchen served their chicken salad with mixed greens, walnuts, tomatoes, more apple cider vinaigrette, goat cheese, and pesto bread, which I’ll recreate sometime. For now, I’ve just enjoyed it for a quick lunch with veggies and humus.

Can you spot that pesky old fly trying to get into my salad?! Where there are flies, it must be summer!