The Birthday Extravaganza Part II

We began our day at Oakville Grocery picking up sandwiches, olives and cheese for lunch. This is my kind of store. I picked up an olive and fig tapenade which I can't wait to try when we get home.


Our first winery stop was Newton Vineyard which was wonderful. The scenery on our tour was absolutely breathtaking. You can see a wonderful view of the Napa Valley from Spring Mountain. They have beautiful gardens, great views and delicious wine!













We tried their Red Label Chardonnay, 2008 Unfiltered Chardonnay, 2008 Unfiltered Merlot and 2008 Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2007 Puzzle during the tasting. They had some wonderful food pairings with the unfiltered wines and the Puzzle. I think this was my favorite winery visit on our trip.

We quickly got down Spring Mountain and headed over to ZD for our next tasting.



Prior to our visit I had only had their Chardonnay which is great, however I found out yesterday they also have some wonderful reds. I don't even think I could begin to go through all of the wines we tried on this tour because we had a lot of them.



Our next stop was just down the road at the Miner Family Vineyards. We had a blast on this tour/tasting. They also had some great wines.











We continued on to the Auberge du Soleil for drinks on their terrace where we met a friend who moved back to San Francisco a few years ago.





We ended our evening at Redd for dinner. The food was spectacular. We ordered the pork belly, lobster risotto and heirloom tomato bread salad for appetizers to start. Everything was delicious. We all thoroughly enjoyed our entrees and the desserts were phenomenal. This was Chris's favorite meal of the trip, which worked out well since we went for his birthday.

I would say our trip was a great success! We had some wonderful meals and phenomenal wines. Thanks to Becky for carting us around. We ended up only joining 3.5 wine clubs so we have a lot of great wines to look forward to enjoying. I also bought the Domaine Chandon cookbook so hopefully we will also have a lot of great meals to look forward to as well.

While I had a great time I'm definitely looking forward to getting home to my baby...I miss her so much!


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The Birthday Extravaganza

My husband and I both celebrated our birthdays on our trip, my birthday was Monday and his was yesterday. We had a busy two days with winery visits and dinner reservations. We started out Monday morning back at Domaine Chandon since we didn't have enough time to do the tasting on Sunday. We did a sparkling wine and still wine tasting; Chris and I shared. The étoile Brut and étoile Rosé are both delicious and a perfect pairing with fresh oysters. I also really enjoyed the Chandon Reserve Chardonnay Brut. They have a wonderful Carneros Chardonnay but I think my favorite still wine of the tasting was the Pinot Meunier.









Our second stop was Joseph Phelps for a Terrace tasting. The property was beautiful. The pictures below crack me up because it looks like we were super imposed in the photos. We tasted a total of 8 Wines which included the Freestone and Joseph Phelps Vineyards. We had a 2010 Sauvignon Blanc which was quite good. I'm typically not a big Sauvignon Blanc fan but I really enjoyed this. We also tried the Freestone Chardonnay which was really good. When we moved onto the reds this is where Chris got really excited. We had the 2006 and 2008 Insignia and the 2005 Backus. We ended our tasting with an ice wine which I thought for sure I was going to hate because I do not like sweet wines at all. I was completely wrong in this case, the 2009 Eisrebe was absolutely delicious!



















We took a quick break for lunch at Rutherford Grill. I highly recommend the French Dip sandwich, it was quite tasty.

Winery number 3 was Elizabeth Spencer for another tasting. The tasting room is so quaint and they have a great patio area to relax and enjoy some wine. I'm a big fan of their Chardonnay but they also have some great reds.








Last stop was dinner at Bouchon Bistro in Yountville. We had another delicious meal here. I had a chilled pepper soup as my first course and their Alaskan Halibut special as my entree. Everything was so fresh and delightful! Chris and Becky both had the fresh onion soup as a starter and they both thought it was excellent. Chris moved on to the Croque Madame as his entree and Becky had the Pork Belly special which looked divine. Thierry started with some fresh oysters had the Steak Frites which both looked excellent. We ended our meal with the Profiteroles.

Overall it was a great way to celebrate my birthday!

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Headed to Wine Country

We left San Francisco Sunday morning so we had plenty of time to stop in Santa Rosa so the boys could get their beer fix before several days of drinking wine. Along the way we stopped at Depot Garden Cafe in San Rafael for breakfast. It was a great find, the food was delicious. I had their Californian Eggs Benedict which consisted of avocado, mushroom and tomato on an English muffin with poached eggs and a delicious hollandaise sauce.

Our next stop was Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa. Thierry and Chris were in their glory, Becky on the other hand was less than enthused about her lemonade.












For dinner Sunday night we went to Etoile at Domaine Chandon, it was spectacular. We did their six course tasting menu and wine pairings; each course was better than the next. I think the Foie Gras was my favorite course.




You will have to excuse the foodography coming up, we didn't have our good camera with us at dinner. I also forgot to foodograph the California King Squab course and the canapé course at the beginning which included oysters, lobster, salmon mousse with salmon roe and pork roulette. Delightful!

Yellowfin Tuna Carpaccio

Pan Seared Dayboat Scallop

Seared Sonoma Foie Gras

Roasted Sirloin of Masami Beef

Blackberries and Goat Cheese Gratin

Overall, it was a great night and a perfect way to start off our stay in Napa.

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San Francisco

We said goodbye to S at 8:15 a.m. Saturday morning for five days and I was much more calm than I thought I would be. This was our first vacation without her. After a couple weeks of anxiety about leaving her I finally realized that by the time she made it down the street she probably had already forgotten about me. She was going to be splitting her time with Chris's parents and my parents which means she was going to be spoiled like crazy while we are gone. I will say I was very happy when we got to the security line at Midway and headed right for the expert line as opposed to the family line. There is something to be said about traveling without a stroller, car seat, diaper bag, etc. The whole security and boarding process is so much easier.

We got to 10,000 feet so I turned on my iPad with the hope of entertaining myself for the next 4 hours. I soon realized that I should have taken Chris up on his offer to load some additional items on it. All of the apps I use regularly are web based so clearly the are not accessible while in airplane mode. I really haven't loaded too much music on it yet so there was a very limited selection to listen to, thankfully I had my iPod in my purse. The video selection consisted of Sid the Science Kid episodes or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. While I find Sid to be cute I think I deserve a break from him for the next few days, so People magazine had to suffice as my entertainment.

Once we landed in Oakland mission #1 was to get In-N-Out Burger which was a success.








Mission #2 was seeing the Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. I had envisioned a lot more of them but we got to see them so this was also a success.




The remainder of our San Francisco stop consisted of dinner and some drinks. It was quick stop but we had a good time. I definitely would like to go back sometime so that we can see more of the city.

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Puff Pastry

Last week I asked Chris to pick up frozen puff pastry for me when he was at the grocery store.  He said that was an odd request which I thought was a strange comment but didn't question it.  When he came home I was unpacking the groceries to find the following

I immediately starting cracking up and explained what I was actually looking for. 

My original plan was to make some fruit danishes however I never got around to making them before we ate all of the fruit.  I started experimenting with a few things last week using the puff pastry.

The first experiment used the Crab, Avocado and Mango Salad from my California Inspired Appetizer post.  I simply cut a square of puff pastry and place a spoonful of the salad in the middle and then folded the pasty in a triangle. Sealed the edges and brushed the top of the pastry with an egg wash.  I cooked the pastry at 375 degrees until the pastry was slightly browned on top, approximately 20 minutes.  I drizzled the Citrus Vinaigrette on the plate so that I could "dip" each bite, it was surprisingly delightful!

I forgot to photograph the second experiment, which turned out to be a more of a roll up.  I took a square of puff pastry and spread some of my Apricot and Pluot Jam, placed 2 slices of Speck and crumbled some goat cheese.  I then rolled up the pastry into a log.  I brushed the outside with an egg wash and baked again on 375 degrees.  This tasted good but didn't keep the formation of the log as much as I had hoped. 

My next goal is to figure out how to make the Haitian Pâté that my sister's mother-in-law makes, it's absolutely divine.  Her mother-in-law makes her own pastry dough which is delicious but I was going to cheat and use puff pastry. The filling is this delicious spicy ground beef filling.

Recipe Review

My sister made my Cream of Celery Soup with Roasted Beets recipe earlier this week. She tried posting her feedback but was having some technical difficulties so I am posting this for her.  She followed the recipe exactly except she added a dash or two of hot sauce.  If you know my sister she adds hot sauce to EVERYTHING!  Even 6 months pregnant she still likes everything spicy.  I personally have no idea how that is possible since I got heartburn from water when I was pregnant with Stella.  She also served it hot rather than chilled. They accompanied the soup with BLT sandwiches. 

She rated the soup 4 asparagus spears.

Mario Batali's Ragu Bolognese

I was looking to use up some carrots and tomatoes that I had on hand and found this recipe on Food Network.com.  I know Bolognese focuses on meat versus tomato but I added a little anyway.  I roasted three tomatoes, peeled and seeded and then hand squeezed them into the sauce.

Ingredients

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 carrot, finely, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 rib celery, finely diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 pound veal, ground

1 pound pork, ground

1/4 pound pancetta or slab bacon, ground

1/2 tube tomato paste

1 cup milk

1 cup dry white wine

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Parmigiano-Reggiano, for grating

Directions

In a 6 to 8-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and garlic and sweat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the veal, pork, and pancetta and stir into the vegetables. Add the meat over high heat, stirring to keep the meat from sticking together until browned. Add the tomato paste, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.

When ready to use, the cooked pasta should be added to a saucepan with the appropriate amount of hot ragu Bolognese, and tosses so that the pasta is evenly coated by the ragu.