Author Archives: vvblogman

Los Angeles, 80th birthday Party and Tons-o-Food!

As I sit here in my living room with my cat curled up on my side, and the cool autumn breeze blowing outside, I got inspired to write about my week in Los Angeles.  I went down with the intent to help my Aunt Sylvia, who was throwing an 80th birthday party for herself.  In all the years I’ve known her, she has thrown many extravagant themed parties.  All these parties have been for everyone else but herself.  I was very happy that she decided to throw one for herself.  She is a very special woman that gives to all and takes very little.

I flew down to Burbank airport on Monday; the party was set for Saturday evening.  Aunt Sylvia picked me up at the airport and from there it was a whirlwind week.  The theme of this party was “Rumble in the Jungle”.  Everyone was to dress up as his or her favorite jungle animal, tourist or warrior.  We went straight off to Target to buy some stuffed animals so the very few little kids that might show up at her party will have a memento.  On our way to her house we stopped at In-and-Out Burgers and we each ordered the same double-double with cheese and shared an order of fried.  We got home and gulped it down. 

This party took serious organization on her part.  She wanted to do all the cooking for the party which was to be mostly passed hors d’ oeuvres, with the exception of a couple buffet tables.  She hired a staff of two to handle the kitchen and re-heat things and place on the platters to pass, plus two staff to pass the food to the guests.  She started making her lists back in June for the end of October party.  One list was for the items to make, the other list was each recipe that went with each item, another list with the items to buy at the grocery store, and a list for the dates that these items could be made and frozen, then another list with the directions of reheating for the servers.  There was another list of errands that needed to get done, and which day they needed to be done.  We went through all the lists, looked at the freezer and lack of space.  One of the things that she had in her freezer that was taking up a lot of room was a roast beef that had been cooked and half eaten.  So we took it out of the freezer and I made up a big salad with the beef in it for dinner during the week.  We took a walk around the house and visualized how we were going to set up and decorate.  We had a casual night of eating tuna and watching the baseball playoff game.

On Tuesday we got up, had a casual breakfast with coffee and then we got to work.  This was our day to make the cheese blintzes.  First we had to make all the mini crepes.  I made the huge bowl of batter, which was consisted of milk, oil, eggs and salt.  The two of us stood over the gas stove and made the crepes, one-by-one.  We had a system going and we were determined to make 250 crepes.  Before we started making the crepes I made the cheese filling mixture, which is heavenly!  Basically it’s cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.  Cousin Berta came over and the three of us filled, folded and stacked up the blintzes.  We got it all done from start to finish in about 4 hours!  This was a big job.  We put all the blintzes but a few into the freezer.  We left out a few for us to have for dinner.  In late afternoon we went to go have a pedicure.  It felt so good especially after all the time we had just been on our feet.

Wednesday was our lightest day.  We went and did some errands and did some decorating and locating our platters and baskets.  I numbered each platter and basket and matched that number to the name of the dish that was going to be served in it on the buffet.  After dinner we contemplated going to a Chinese massage place to enjoy.  So we went.  We got there around 8:00 and each went in for an hour-long foot massage.  Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!  Not only did we end up with a foot massage, but we also ended up with a full body massage with our clothes on.  It was one of the most amazing massages I’ve had and it only cost $25.00 less a coupon we had for $5.00 off!  Afterwards we went to Baskin Robbins and treated ourselves to an ice cream.  I got Gold Medal Ribbon and Aunt Sylvia got Pistachio.  We sat there eating our ice creams with a glow to our faces and bodies.  We couldn’t believe the experience we had just been through, and wanted to go back the next day for another!

Thursday morning we got up and started in with the vegetables.  We cut the vegetables for the platter and I cut the veggies that I needed for one of the wonton cup items.  As I was cutting, the rental company came, delivered, and set up all the tables and chairs. 

They looked great with either a zebra theme or a giraffe theme.  We finishing up on that and were ready to go do our afternoon errands which included going out to lunch.  We were waiting for Aunt Sylvia’s friend Cathy to drive up from San Diego.  We didn’t quite know when she was due to get there, but just as we were ready to head out, she arrived.  It was perfect timing.   We went to a nice Italian restaurant and sat outside.  The weather was really nice, in the mid-70’s, which could be considered cool for the Valley!  After lunch we went to do a few errands including picking up tealeaves to go on the platters as decoration and a cooked chicken and veggies so I could make dinner.  Cathy wanted to go out for all the meals, but I was more insistent on staying around the house and had no problem cooking and cleaning up.  We had a good time with Cathy.  I had never met her before but heard a lot of great things about her.

List of some of the food items to be passed or on the buffet tables:
Zucchini pancakes, mini-cheese blintzes, chicken wing pops, chopped liver, shrimp with cocktail sauce, wontons cups filled with fresh chopped vegetables, mini bagels w/cream cheese and lox, mini ruebins open-face sandwiches, Chinese wonton pockets, vegetable platter with ranch dressing, meatballs, mini franks in chili sauce, cheese selection, potato knishes, and spanicopita.

Friday, things were going to start getting a bit crazier.  I made the chopped liver first thing in the morning.  That consisted of slicing up four very large onions and caramelizing them in a pan with ½ pound of butter for nearly an hour.  When that was done I removed the onion and cooked the 4 pounds of beef liver just to medium rare.  I then added some salt and a hint of cinnamon then put all the liver and onions through a grinder.  This is called either chopped liver or liver pate.  The liver was then put into the refrigerator to set up.  During all of this, cousin Berta went to the airport to get Kay and Dick, who were flying in from Minnesota for the party.  Aunt Sylvia and Cathy went to get some baked goods for breakfast the next morning and to get the mini-bagels and rye bread. After I finished up the liver I started on making tuna salad and chicken salad for lunch.  During lunch it was great getting caught up with Kay.  I hadn’t seen her in over 20 years.  And I had never met Dick.  In the afternoon, some of us took naps or laid outside reading and talking in the 80-degree sunshine.  That evening the five of us went out for a very nice dinner to the Wine Bistro on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City.  I had their Duck ala Orange’.  In a word “YUM”.  We had ordered a nice pinot noir from Oregon to go with the meal.  I was the designated driver so I didn’t drink much.  I did however have too much of the chocolate mousse for dessert and it kept me up until 3:00 a.m.

Saturday we were rudely awakened by a phone call at 7:45.  It was just a friend calling to wish Aunt Sylvia a happy birthday.  As it turns out the day of her party was actually her 80th birthday day!  This day started off pretty quiet.  We had the delicious Danish with fresh fruit and coffee.  I took Dick over to the massage place so he could have the same experience we had and the girls went shopping for shoes.  My brother Marc and wife Angela arrived with my great-aunt Beatrice from Palm Desert.  Lunchtime was a very casual buffet of great deli meats from Brent’s, potato salad, coleslaw, pickles, chips, rye bread and bagels.  The house was filling up with people.  We were doing last minute preparations, taking out the items from the freezer, putting the nuts into bowls, putting the dips into their bowls, etc.  I was able to sit outside for about an hour and have a nice chat with my great-aunt.  Larry arrived around 3:00.  I helped him to set up his bar.  Before we knew it, the helpers were there and I sent Aunt Sylvia in to get showered and dressed.  I followed shortly after her.  The party was called for 7:00. 

About 70 friends and family showed up for the party and everyone had a great time.  I drank cosmopolitans all night, which really hit the spot.  I was so tired from not sleeping the night before I was really running on adrenaline.
     
                      One of the buffet’s                                                                 The beautiful waterfall cake

The food, the drinks, the people, the cake was all-perfect!  The cake was a beautiful three-layered cake, which had a waterfall and the animals drinking from the pool of water.  It was half chocolate half lemon with a white butter frosting.  Delicious.  It seemed like just a few minutes after the party started that we were sitting in the living room with our shoes off, our feet up on the couch talking about how the party went.  So much planning and preparing for such a short time to be had.  Aunt Sylvia was very happy how everything went, and that was my main goal for the week.

On Sunday morning one of Aunt Sylvia’s best friends had a nice brunch for her at her home.  Charlene lives in Malibu right on the ocean.  The weather was perfect as the fog had just lifted and it warmed up to about 65 degrees.  But we sat outside with the waves and sand as our backdrop. 

  
            Aunt Sylvia (on right) greeting a guest                        Brunch at Charlene’s house on Malibu Beach

It was nice to see Aunt Sylvia enjoying herlady friends from her teaching days, mahjong, her volunteer work at WeSpark and the temple.  There were about 35 ladies all having a greattime.  We had a delicious catered lunch of vegetarian tortilla salad, then a full plate of a Mexican food sampler.  There were empanadas, tacos and quesadillas.  There was fresh guacamole, salsa and sour cream being passed around the table.  The bar tender was pouring a white wine, Arnold Palmers, iced tea and water.  The cake was amazing.

 

It was a white chocolate cake with a fresh fruit filling. 

As soon as the crowd left we left too so we could get ready to get on the road to head home.  Since Larry drove down on Saturday we drove home together.  I was not looking forward to our 6-hour drive home.  We got on the road around 5:00 with a playmate full of leftovers and some cake.  I was exhausted from all the work from the week and the lack of good sleep.  I had a great time helping my aunt but I was also glad to be home and to try and get on with my normal routine.


 

My weight loss journey has a detour


Here I am at week 4 and I’ve gained 1/2 pound.  I haven’t lost any weight!  I feel pretty discouraged at this point and I’m going tol be stopping my weekly updates.  I will keep you informed from time to time as I will still be trying to lose weight, but I don’t want to bore you will all the details when I’m not losing anything.  I am heading to Reno to celebrate two life cycle events this weekend then I’m heading off to L.A. to help my aunt with her 80th birthday party.  I will try to be good, walk and eat properly, but I also know that there will be temptations that will be hard to ignore.  If you have been following my blogs and are having success at losing weight, please tell me your story and how you are doing.

Trip to Santa Rosa for Hugs, Pizza and Winery Tour

Today was a great day.  Larry and I did some work in the morning then we got on the road about 11:00 to meet Brandon and Kim (our son and daughter-in-law) for lunch in Santa Rosa.  It took us less than 1 1/2 hours to get there.  We met at Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar.  The main purpose for this visit was to give them a hug to congratulate them on their first pregnancy.  That means this spring we will become grandparents.  We are way too excited about the whole thing! ☺

Anyways, the lunch we had at Rosso’s was great.  The four of us shared their Fritto Misto, calamari and green beans fried in arborio rice flour and served with a green chile aioli.  This went down really fast.  Then we shared two pizzas.  One was called Uovo.  It has a red base sauce, prosciutto, oven roasted artichokes, olives, Sonoma organic egg and basil.  The other pizza was their Funghi.  This has a white base sauce with oven roasted shitake and crimini mushrooms, taleggio and fontina cheese, shaved artichokes and fresh thyme.  We added cooked prosciutto di parma on top of that one.  Both pizza’s were delicious, the crust nice and crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside.  We ordered just the right amount of food for the four of us.  The meal came to about $12.00 per person.  The atmosphere there is great.  They have booths around the periphery and tables in the middle.  They also offer casual dining outside, but the restaurant is in a shopping center so the view outside are the cars parked in the parking lot.  The service was great, the wine list incredible with a great selection of wines from around the world.  Each day they have a special that is cooked in the wood oven.  Today it was clams.  The wine bar is beautiful with a large television in the middle, only showing soccer games.  Rosso’s is in the southeast end of town off Third Street.  It’s very easy to get to, but if you didn’t know about it you would never see it.

After lunch Larry and I went to go visit Brandon at Dutton Goldfield Winery.  There was a lot of action going on there.  They were washing and sterilizing brand new French oak barrels and racking them so they will be ready to be filled with the red wines that are in the tanks going through their second fermentation.  The interns were putting dry ice into the open top fermenters and covering them which keeps the grapes at a controlled temperature. We took some samples of the chardonnay, pinot blanc, gewürztraminer and pinot noir.  Mostly we were tasting grape juice that was just turning into wine, but you can still taste the great different flavors of the grapes with the acids and sugars.

We got home before rush hour and went back to work.  Another good travel day to the California Wine Country.

Wine tasting? Head for the Hills! Murphy’s, in Calaveras County that is!


If you like to go wine tasting without the pushing and shoving and high tasting prices then you should head for the hills!  I’m referring to the Gold Country, specifically Murphys, in Calaveras County.

There are over 23 wineries in the Calaveras County.  Some you might recognize, like Twisted Oak Winery whose specialty is Rhone varietals, and Ironstone Vineyards which amongst the many things to see there, is a heritage museum and a deli for a snack.


                             The Twisted Oak Tree

But, you need to check out some wineries that you aren’t so familiar with, such as Black Sheep Winery, Frog’s Tooth Winery, and Lavender Ridge all of which have tasting rooms on Main Street in Murphys.  A number of other wineries offer their tasting rooms on Main Street as well, so you can walk from one to the other.  You should of course explore the foothills and other wineries by car.  

Heading to Murphys makes the perfect weekend getaway.  In the Fall see the foliage.
 
     

                       Fall Foliage in the Vineyard                                                           Autumn Grape Leaves

In the Winter you are close to the snow, the spring brings out the poppys and apple blossoms, the summer is perfect for camping, hiking and fishing.  Calaveras County offers much more such as golfing, spas, museums, caverns, panning for gold, etc.  

There are many quaint inns and bed and breakfasts for you to lodge at.  One place you should try is the Cottages at LaHonda Park. 


                                           Angels Creek at the Cottages at LaHonda Park

They offer individual cottages on 6 acres of land with a swimming pool, picnic area and Angels Creek winding through the wooded grounds.

If you go to these places make sure to mention that ViciVino.com sent you and have a great time!

Lompoc Wineries are on the Map

Lompoc, is a small community between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.  The Lompoc Chamber of Commerce hasjust put out with their very first wine map.  This consists of 9 wineries that are open to the public.  They will be re-printing this map every 3 months as new tasting rooms will be continuously opening up.  Lompoc is located on scenic Pacific Coast Highway (California Hwy 1)and Highway 246, 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, 155 milesnorthwest of Los Angeles and 270 miles southeast of San Francisco.  Below is a list of the nine wineries to go and check out if you are in the area.

1. Palmina

2. Flying Goat
3. Samsara
4. Nicolaysen
5. Fiddlehead
6. La Vie
7. Pali
8. Ampelos
 9. Dragonette

Chronicles of Lori’s Slim Down Journey – 2nd week

OK, something isn’t right!  Maybe I’m just not doing something right?  I weighed myself yesterday, it being my second week watching what I eat, drink and exercise and I still am up the same 1/2 pound!  Damnit!

Now, I know that I didn’t exercise like I did last week, I also really watched the desserts that I was subjected to.  I drank less alcohol during the week, but I did splurge on Thursday and had a margarita with lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  I was very careful to only have a handful of chips with salsa, and I ordered an open faced burrito which had no cheese in it.  I did however eat about half of the re-fried beans.  That is a serious downfall.  Mexican food is really hard when you are watching your weight.  You have the tortilla chips, the alcoholic drink, the beans with cheese on top.  If I had ordered a tostada instead of the burrito it would have come with cheese, a fried shell that I would have been tempted to eat, etc.

During the week I had a tough time getting my butt out of the house to go for a walk.  I don’t know why?  Some days it was too hot, but other days it was very nice.  Poor Elmer, (my dog) would really love it if I would take him out everyday. 

I found myself craving chocolate the other day so I took a half handfull of chocolate chips.  I ate them very slowly and that seemed to satisfy my urge.

I think what I’m figuring out is that I eat too much at each sitting.  We went to a lecture the other night in Berkeley with Michael Pollan the author of the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
 

He had some very funny and practical things to say about trying to eat right and buying the wrong foods (processed) in the grocery store.  One thing that stood out that he said, is that “Americans eat until they are full, but French people eat until they are no longer hungry.”  If you think about that, it’s is a big difference.  So my goal this week is to stop eating when I’m no longer hungry as opposed to when I’m full.  I need to shrink my stomach, I need to exercise and drink more water. 

Ristorante Barolo, Italian Dining in Aptos

I don’t always write a review about the restaurants I go to.  I go to hundreds and hundreds of restaurants, I try find something I like in each restaurant I go to so I can leave there somewhat happy.  I however had my worst restaurant experience EVER recently, and I just have to write about it.  Having gone through culinary school I know what is involved in the front and the back of the house.  They are both hard jobs and they have to come together to make one great experience.  Sometimes, if the food isn’t up to par, I don’t have a problem going back another night to give it another chance.  But if the service is lousy for no particular reason, I usually don’t have the patience for that and tend to not want to go back again.

The restaurant I am referring to is Ristorante Barolo, 8041 Soquel Drive Aptos, 831-688-8654, is located in the historical Bayview Hotel in the Santa Cruz area.  This hotel and building dates back to 1878!  That is old for California!  Anyways, my son Jacob, his girlfriend Brittany and I had 1 1/2 hours to have a nice leisurely breakfast before Brittany had to head off for school.  We were aiming at the Cafe Sparrow, across the street from Barolo but they didn’t open until 11:30 and it was 11:15.  We decided to try Barolo instead of waiting the 15 minutes for the Sparrow to open.  When we walked in we weren’t greeted.  After a couple minutes we walked around looking for someone to seat us.  We found a server and she sat us down in the nice patio room.  After a few minutes we realized that she wasn’t going to bring us menus so I got up and got them.  We were there just as breakfast was turning over to lunch but we were still allowed to order breakfast.  Breakfast is from 8:00-11:30 and lunch is from 11:30-2:30.

Our server finally came over and took our drink order.  We ordered decaf coffee and one orange juice for Jacob and Brittany to split.  We received two glasses of juice and my coffee.  We were curious, but didn’t say anything.  She took our order of eggs benedict, French toast, and an omelet with salsa and avocado.  Nothing too taxing.  We waited and waited and waited for our food.  To give a little bit of background, there was one other couple being served at the same time, there was a family who was done eating and us.  One server, and hopefully a chef.  Brittany was getting antsy as her time was getting closer for her to leave and we hadn’t even received our food yet.  In the time that we waitied I could have gone into the the unfamiliar kitchen and cooked everything and been faster than the current chef was!  Jacob’s French toast finally came out and Brittany ended up munching that down, even though she had ordered the omelet, because she needed to go.  Just as Brittany was leaving we received the rest of our order.  The food was good but nothing to come back again for.  I liked the atmosphere in the front porch room and the bar area seems nice and rustic.  Jacob and I finished our meal, asked for the check and were out of there after TWO hours!  On top of everything else we were charged for two orange juices!  This experience was over a month ago and I still have a very bad taste in my mouth.

I hope that for their sake they have better service for their dinners, but I’m in no hurry to go and try it out.  If you dare to go, please let me know how the experience was.

Helping Winemaker B and Kram Harvest Their Grapes


I have a little story about going to work with my son.  You’re like what; you can go to work with your son?  Yes, we can, we did, and we had a blast. 

It all began last Saturday, ah…I remember it well, like it was just three days ago.☺  This is how my story goes…we woke up at Brandon and Kim’s house and Brandon, who is the assistant winemaker at Dutton Goldfield winery had  already gone to work at the winery before we awoke.  So Larry, Kim and I had a light snack of fresh fruit knowing that where we were heading off to was going to serve us breakfast.  We left the house around 9:00 and by 9:30 we were at our destination in Glen Ellen, Sonoma Valley.  We were at Dave Kram’s father and stepmother’s (Jerry and Lily) house.  They have a small weekend ranch home that was originally built around 1900, on 18 acres of land.  The house has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen and an enclosed front porch.  A perfect size house for two or four not the eight that were staying over.  The property has about 1/4 acre of grape vines, mostly Syrah with some Viognier, that they planted nearly 4 years ago.  Brandon is the winemaker for the Kramatage wine and Dave is the vineyard manager.  The goal for the day was to harvest the Syrah, as they already harvested the Viognier Labor Day weekend.

  

               Larry and Jerry after Breakfast                                      View from Kram’s vineyards

We got introduced to the whole mishbucha (Yiddish for group) and preceded to eat banana pancakes, bacon and fruit.  We sat outside on their patio while we ate and got to know each other.  The dogs Truman, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, that weighs 115 pounds and Dotty, a 14 year old Dalmatian, were trying their hardest to beg some pancakes off of us.  A little background on Dave Kram.  He and Brandon are friends from their teenage youth group days.  They were paired up as buddies when they went to Israel with a large group from the Bay Area.  They both ended up going to U C Davis together and Dave ended up joining Brandon and graduated in Fermentation Science as well.  However, as Brandon works in the wine industry Dave currently doesn’t so winemaking is a passion and hobby of his.

  

              Brandon and Dave

After a bit we got together and started picking the grapes.  Unfortunately by the time we went out to the vineyard to pick the grapes it was 90 plus degrees outside!  So we melted very quickly.  We were out there for about 45 minutes and got her done.  I love the feel of a bunch of grapes in my hand.  They are delicate yet substantial at the same time.  Then we cooled off under the big oak tree, I had water in one hand and beer in the other.  There were some snacks of guacamole, salsa, chips, cheese and crackers.
    

          Lori harvesting grapes                             Lori and others de-stemming these grapes

After rejuvenating a bit we got to work on part two of the days task.  We had to de-stem all the grapes.  We used a piece of equipment that Brandon had rented.  You put the grapes in from the top, turn the crank and the skins and juice come out the bottom into a bin and the stems come out the side.  Very cool.  It took a number of people to get this done though.  Fortunately, as the day went on we acquired more invited guests that we roped into helpers.  We needed four or five people to hold the de-stemmer down, one cranking the wheel and two to three adding in the grapes from the picked bins and one or two to lift the machine every couple minutes to remove the stems that didn’t come out on their own.  This was a good hour of work.  Once that was all done it was clean up time as this was a very sticky proposition.  Luckily the water pressure that died earlier was back working again.

Brandon labeled the barrels, put them in his truck to take home cool down and let sit, before crushing and letting the grape juice start to ferment and turn into wine.

We sat and hung around as more and more people arrived.  Then supper was served.  The Kram’s had made a feast!  There was bbq chicken breast with a Habanero sauce, pork ribs and lamb chops.  Besides that there was a fantastic cold Chinese noodle salad with a choice of a spicy or soy dressing.  There was a green and a fruit salad as well.  No one left there hungry.  There were nearly 30 people there to celebrate in the harvest.
      

                      Supper ala Kram style                                                          Beautiful grapes

Larry and I had never harvested any grapes other than our own in our backyard.  We have two vines; they had over 180.  It was fun getting the little kids involved, the sister, cousins etc.  

The only disappointing thing about all of this is that we will be missing the pressing of these grapes next weekend.  That would pretty much complete the harvest cycle for me.  But I did have a chance to crush my grapes this summer.  We did it the “Lucy” way.  That is another story to tell at a later date.

Chronicles of Lori’s Slim Down Journey – 1st week

Well, I weighed in on Friday and to my surprise I gained ½ pound!  This is why I hate trying to lose weight.  I’m going to rationalize it by saying that the weight I gained is due to muscle weight since I walked 3 times during the week and started to lift weights.

I originally was going to write more often, but I’ve decided to write about once a week.  This way it’s not too boring for you and it will also give me more time to write other things on my blog.  I’m writing this while I’m eating chocolate chips.  Why, you might ask are you eating chocolate chips if you gained ½ pound?  The answer is because I’m craving chocolate and I can weigh the chips on my scale and know how many calories I’m ingesting while soothing my horrible craving.  Today also was Yom Kippur, the day to atone.  Larry and I stayed home and fasted all day (another reason why I feel that I deserve chocolate).  While the chicken for dinner (see recipe below) was cooking dinner we did our closing prayers for the holiday and we broke our fast by dipping apples into honey.  Yum!

Lori’s Sweet Honey Baked Chicken:
I took 2 eggs and ¼ cup of honey and whisked them together in a baking dish.  In another dish I had 4 cups of Natures Path, Organic Flax Plus – Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal that I had bought at the natural food grocery store.  I put the cereal into the food processor and gave it a few clicks.  Some of it was ground and some of it was still whole.  I put it into the dish and added salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder.  Mixed it all up.  Took the cleaned chicken thighs and soaked it in the egg/honey batter turning it several times then placing it in the dish with the cereal.  Tossed the chicken on both sides to make sure that the cereal got all over the chicken.  Then placed the chicken in a different baking dish that was sprayed with Pam.  I placed the chicken in the oven at 400 on convection bake for 45 minutes.  Do not turn the chicken.  It will get nice and crunchy on the top and stay moist on the bottom.  I served this dish with baked sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach with garlic.

Happy New Year!  I hope it’s peaceful, sweet and healthy for you, your family and friends.  

Festivals and Other Wine Activities – October-December 2009

                                           

                                  Wine Festivals 2009
                                 September – December

September 26th – 28th – Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival 10 am – 5 pm – Historic Sonoma Plaza The oldest festival in California, 112th annual.  There is wine tasting, food, arts & crafts, beer, and all sorts of things to see.  Along with this there is the the Raising of the California Bear Flag Re-enactment. The first Bear Flag was raised in the Sonoma Plaza. Then there are grape stomps, live music all weekend on two stages, and Sunday the local parade.

October 3 & 4 – Amador Vintners Harvest Wine Festival “The Big Crush” – 10 am – 4 pm Amador County, Sierra Foothills (35 miles east of Sacramento).  Over 32 wineries, $30 Sat/Sun $20 Sunday only, $10 designated drivers. 

October 3 – Mt. Veeder Appelation Wine Tasting – 3 pm – 6 pm – Vintners Golf Club, Yountville.  $50 per person.  Over 14 wineries represented.

October 10th – Celbration of Harvest Festival – 1 pm – 4 pm – Rancho Sisquoc, Santa Maria – $65 per person.  Join the 100+ members of the Santa Barbara CountyVintners’ Association tocelebrate the joys of harvest and the season. They will all be therepouring their latest releases.  They we’ll be joined by their culinarycolleagues from the areas finest restaurants, caterers and specialtyfood purveyors. There will be live and lively music to fill the air,and a silent auction full of large format bottles, verticals andhorizontals to benefit local charities and food banks.

October 17 – 1st ever Carneros Harvest Passport – 10 am – 4 pm  Over 18 wineries pouring their award winning wines.  $49 in advance, $59 at the door. 


More to come, keep your eyes peeled.