Food

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Family Birthday Dinner

April 9, 2012 in Food by traveleatlove | 9 comments

This week is going to be bananas. Weeks after weekends away are always a little off for me; the house is a mess of laundry and luggage, I didn’t get to cook all weekend, and I didn’t work on the weekend like I usually do.

This week just happens to also be chock full of meetings, events, and getting my body ready to run the Boston Marathon. I am exhausted already!

Luckily, I had a fantastic Easter weekend with my family, complete with a belated birthday dinner celebrating yours truly.

My sister hosted, and we kicked off with some playing outside with my niece and nephew while sipping on Gloria Ferrer Va de Vi, undoubtedly one of my favorite sparkling wines.

My brother-in-law manned the grill, cranking out a feast of grilled sweet peppers (SO good!).

He also grilled perfect filet mignons; you could cut them with a butter knife. I had a few bites; I don’t eat a ton of red meat, but these were too good to pass up!

And grilled shrimp, as I requested. Brushed with garlic and oil and quickly grilled, these were perfect and tasted like summer.

Dinner also included corn on the cob, baked potatoes with sour cream, and an ice cream sundae bar. A great meal paired with people I love the most is more than I could ever ask for.

In an unfortunate “twist” I was running around with the kids searching for Easter eggs on Sunday when I stepped into a hole and landed hard on the side of my ankle. Not the best timing! It’s throbbing as I write this, and I can only hope there’s enough ice and Advil in the world this week. Fingers crossed. . .

Now I am off to Newburyport for a long afternoon meeting and hoping to make it back in time for a last yoga class before the marathon, modified for my ankle, of course.

I hope to see some of you tomorrow at the TAPEÑA Meet Up at Tapeo!

How’s your week lookin’?

Tags: celebrations, filet mignon, Food, Gloria Ferrer, grilling, holidays, shrimp

Bistro Sabor, Napa

April 6, 2012 in Food, Restaurants, Tasting Room Series, wine by traveleatlove | 10 comments

Happy Friday! How’s your day going so far? Did you have a good week? I’m happy to say that this week was significantly better than last week. I had a lot of fun work projects and a fun night out with a friend. I also discovered a Yoga station on Pandora which has allowed me to spend some time practicing yoga on my own and keeping calm while getting these muscles ready for the marathon.

My major gripe this week is people who just don’t respond to emails, especially after I’ve taken the time to write a lot of helpful information. Ignoring emails seems to be a growing trend, and I don’t like it.

But I’m not here to gripe, I am here to share with you one of our favorite places to eat in Napa, Bistro Sabor. Located in the heart of the town of Napa, Bistro Sabor serves contemporary street-style Latin American food, has Happy Hour with great beer and wine options, and even offers Salsa dancing on Saturday nights. It’s an inexpensive, delicious, must-visit for us when we are in Napa.

Bistro Sabor was our first dinner on our last wine country trip. I was actually in the mood for a beer, and since I love their beer and pit bull logo, I had a Lagunitas IPA.

As always, we decided to share a couple of plates, the tamales of the day which were filled with pork and resting in a spicy habanero sauce, paired with beans and pico de gallo.

We also had the Dungeness crab quesadilla with cream cheese, salsa verde and pineapple salsa. Amazing. These were seriously stuffed with crab and cream cheese, kind of like crab rangoon only 100 times better because they were paired with the freshness of the salsa.

After a leisurely dinner, we walked down the street for a Passaggio wine tasting event at Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery. We met the winemaker from Passaggio the last time we were in California, and as she is great and we love her wines, we were excited that our trip coincided with this event.

We got to taste her delicious unoaked Chardonnay; trust me, if you think you don’t like Chardonnay, I can almost guarantee you will like this! We also tasted a beautiful Pinot Grigio, and Pinot Noir. I wish this wine club shipped to Massachusetts, because I would join in a heartbeat!

I’m working a half day today, and then we are headed to see my family for the weekend. This week has been go-go-go, and I am super hyper because of the marathon, so it will be nice to unwind with family for Easter.

What are you up to this weekend?

Tags: beer, events, Food, Napa, Napa Valley, Restaurants, wine

Farmstead

April 3, 2012 in Food, Restaurants, Travel, wine by traveleatlove | 7 comments

I have to tell you that while I was getting ready to write this post, I just ended up staring at the pictures for a good 10 minutes, completely losing myself, my thoughts, and any motivation to write, just remembering and trying to transport myself back to the day that we visited Bardessono and Ma(i)sonry.

When I came to, I was still in my chair in Boston, and I’m okay with that. I could spend my time wishing I was somewhere else, but at the end of the day what a waste of time that would be. Someone we know experienced a terrible tragedy over the weekend, and as always, it has me thinking and trying to build in being grateful daily, not just when everything is sunny and spectacular. Life is short and beautiful, even when days feel never-ending and frustrating.

But memories, whether they be of vacation or people, or in this case a little bit of both, are pretty amazing.

After we finished our tasting at Ma(i)sonry, we were all pretty famished. Luckily our fabulous Napa Valley local and new friend had made us reservations at Farmstead in St. Helena.

The drive from Yountville to St. Helena has some pretty breathtaking spots along the way; if we weren’t late for lunch, I would have stopped and photographed more, but I think you get the gist. Mountains, vineyards, open sky, repeat.

The grounds surrounding Farmstead were beautiful with old gnarly trees that seemed sort of magical

Everything about the place seemed cozy and laid back, the perfect wine country vibe.

It had gotten a little chilly and gray, so we piled into a big booth and got started on the menu.

Farmstead lets you bring your own wine and does not charge a corkage fee, so we enjoyed just-purchased Black Bird Arriviste, an elegant, beautiful rosé that has summery written all over it. It will be back.

I was in a big meat-eating stage on our trip and decided to have the special of the day, a spicy sausage link with blue cheese cole slaw. I mostly wanted the blue cheese cole slaw, but when I tasted how spicy and delicious the sausage was, I was happy with the whole plate. It made my hair hot!

I cooled off a little with biscuits and honey butter. . . simply divine!

Farmstead is a place I would return again and again. The atmosphere was beautiful and relaxing, and the food was farm-to-table, local, in season, and made with organic and sustainable ingredients. I’d say it was pretty much the perfect place for lunch.