Veggin'

Happy Friday!~

I don’t know about you, but I’m soooo ready to get this weekend started!  My guy and I went on a last minute trip to St. Pete Beach, FL last weekend (I’ll post some more pics in my next post), and while it was absolutely amazing, I didn’t really feel “rested” when Monday morning rolled around again.  Don’t get me wrong though, it was totally worth every second of lost sleep to stay at the fabulous Don Cesar.   <3  I’ve been wanting to stay here since the first time I laid eyes on it.  My beautiful pink Barbie palace.  

Since I’ve been a busy bee lately, I decided to lay low and stay in tonight.  I have plans to go out for a friend’s birthday tomorrow night and I need some time to just veg before the work week picks up again!

While browsing the produce section in Wegmans last night, I grabbed up this package of veggies that looked perfect for roasting!

Nevermind that they’re intended for ratatouille.  They look like roasting vegetables to me… or maybe grilling veggies if this wicked winter ever ends!

I just noticed the countries of origin.  Nothing like having produce from USA, Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala all in one package! :|

Moving on… Even though I thought this pack of veggies looked awesome as it was, I also bought containers of grape tomatoes and baby bellas to roast along with them.  Lord knows what countries these guys were from!

Since I wasn’t really feeling the ginger that came in the ratatouille blend, I set it aside to add to my juice tomorrow morning.

A little organic red wine for the cook…      

After washing and chopping all the veggies, I tossed them with a little EVOO, minced garlic (two cloves came in the veggie pack), black pepper, sea salt, Italian seasoning, and thyme.

Before:

After roasting at 400* for about 30 min:

I plated about half of the cooked veggies and topped them with crumbled goat cheese.  I also had a toasted wheat hamburger bun with a little butter.

So simple, and so satisfying.

I rarely have desserts in my house because I tend to go overboard, but I did pick up a carton of ice cream at Wegmans last night.  I have a hard time resisting those free coupons!  My flavor of choice was chocolate peanut butter sundae, and it did not disappoint!

Now that I’m happy with a full belly, I’m relaxing and watching a little tv.  I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be right now than sitting on my comfy couch with my blanket, laptop, and rockstar by my side.  

And, of course, let’s not forget that second glass of red wine.  

In case you were wondering what the coaster says…. I love.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more St. Pete photos!  I may go into the office tomorrow, but I’m trying to talk myself out of it.   I think I deserve a free weekend.      Plus, I have plans to go to a winery with some friends for lunch tomorrow, then out for a birthday celebration later in the evening.  I’d hate to miss out on valuable time with my girls over something silly like work.

Goodnight!  Enjoy your weekend!!!

[Via http://thresholdofgreatness.wordpress.com]

My Visit To Supermarket Nirvana- Whole Foods!

So I am in Scottsdale for business, but that was not going to stop me from a side trip to supermarket Nirvana AKA Whole Foods Market.  I know, it’s a supermarket. Fancy, but STILL a supermarket. Please indulge me for a moment here… I am  a transplant from L.A. to a small (very small) town in Arizona. So now when I get a chance to visit a real supermarket it excites me!

The Whole Foods on Scottsdale Road is HUGE! And it has everything: all the great gourmet products, wine, etc. But it also has a wine and tapas bar, olive bar, 3 salad bars, pizza, sushi, sandwiches, coffee bar, gelato and more!  And yes SAMPLES!

I went down every aisle, drooled over every dish and generally stayed in a foodie bliss for two hours!

So, what did I buy? Sushi, prepared salad, fabulous cerignola olives, drunken goat, jarlsberg & mouriber cheese, Phantom wine by Bogle (great, but let it breathe), organic Kalamata olive bread, golden beets to roast, a $20 bottle of olive oil (worth every penny), Thai spiced cashews and olive crackers. While shopping we consumed cafe mochas and an espresso gelato!

When I die, I hope heaven has a Whole Foods like this one…

[Via http://foodwinejunkie.wordpress.com]

Queen Triggerfish

The fish of the week is Queen Triggerfish.

This is a beautiful fish with an attitude.  During the mating season they will try to take a chunk out of divers if they roam too close their nests.  The males will protect the cone shaped nests by swimming out the top and chomping on anything near.  The key is to swim horizontally because they shoot straight up to attack.

Its body is large and powerful, the eyes being set high up on the forehead. The base color of the fish is a light yellow while the fins are tinted in blue.

Why the name Triggerfish?  They have the unique ability to lock their first two dorsal spines in an upright position, providing a defense against the larger predators of the oceans that try to make a meal of them.  The first, (anterior) spine is locked in place by erection of the short second spine, and can only be unlocked by depressing the second, “trigger” spine, hence the family name “triggerfish”.

Queen Triggerfish is on the menu tonight at the Bistro.  I have 2 wines that pair very well with this dish.  Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc and Annabella Chardonnay.

See you soon…

[Via http://mariosbistro.wordpress.com]

Sonoma Wineries: Blackstone Winery

Man, check out the scenes from Blackstone Winery. This place looks fabulous with some hearty reds for you to try.

It looks like you can visit and tour the vineyard on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays plus there are several other intriguing activities as well. I plan to swing by next time I am in town!
Link to Blackstone Winery

[Via http://sonomawineries.wordpress.com]

Master of Good Ideas

You know those moments when you get a really good idea and you’re so proud of yourself for coming up with such a brilliant answer, you actually walk around with a smile on your face chuffed with yourself and being such a Master of Good Ideas.

Yeah? Well I had one of those a couple of days ago. I was ever so pleased with myself.

Refreshing my Twitter account mariannewhooley after months of hibernation, I added ladies from BMB and Judith’s room and all of a sudden a brand new world opened up. I struggled to keep up with it all. RT’s, @soandso’s and it was whilst I was coming to terms with all this new tech stuff on there that I noticed a Brand New Challenge.

A photography blog workshop!

Now I love taking photos. I don’t have a flash camera, I have no training about light and the how’s and when’s but I am snap happy when it comes to capturing moments. Returning from our holidays with 100’s and 100’s of images and dead happy with myself. Sometimes, very occasionally I take a good snap.

So off I pop to the site in question to check out the theme ‘Beauty’ A synch!

I allow myself to think about it for a while.. What shall I do? How will I show Beauty in all her glory.

My beautiful chess set. Of course!

Said chess set has lived in packaging practically every day since I bought it back in 1997 thanks to its fragility. I spotted it in Bolzano’s Christmas Market. I had had a couple of Vin Brule’s, or Gluhwein’s as the Bolzanese would argue, I was with a wonderful group of friends and we were having so much fun. We were meandering through the market filled with the most beautiful art and craft pieces, I wanted to buy the lot!

And there she stood magnificent. I made a bee line to the stall and listened to the softly spoken man explain what materials he had used (Swarovski crystals, cut painted glass) and his thoughts on the Elf Kingdom and the Fairy Kingdom.

Did you hear the scratched record noise halting this post just then?

Elf and Fairy Kingdom?

This guy, I’ll have you know, actually believes they exist. He showed me a photo of himself with an elf in his back garden (yeah right!) but we were enjoying the day and the Vin brule’ was warming us to the idea, ‘Look, a real elf’ we ahhhhrrred amongst ourselves, almost in tears of gratitude with this man for sharing something so touching.

I HAD TO HAVE IT

The chess set cost me £1,000,000 Italian lire, which sounds a massive amount. It was! I didn’t have a million Italian lire and I’d bargained with this man to trust me to pay in 3 installments paying the first there and then. He accepted, I wrote out three equal cheques the first with that day’s date and ‘Bob’s your Uncle’, the set was mine. About 300 quid’s worth in ‘97.

Each piece is individually crafted from ceramic, painted and fired. The knights are dragons, and the pawns are tiny fierce-looking elves. Each piece has been given a name, Re Elrond, (that’s King Elrond to you and me) of the Elves’ kingdom and his wife Regina Niamb, the Fairy kingdom instead has Re Finvarra and his Queen Regina Donagh.

You get the picture.

So excellent idea now all that needs to be done is the photo.

I unwrap each piece and place it carefully in place after a good clean and sparkle and set it up on the table, but I’m not convinced…

It’s a beautiful sunny day so I carry out the set to the garden and place it on the grass – a contemporary look – but none of the images are doing what I want.

None of my efforts come close to the image of beauty I have in my head.

And this is where I have become unstuck. I cannot translate the glorious image in my head onto my digital camera

It’s just not happening for me, and yet I could see it so well in my mind’s eye.

What’s happened?  Why can’t I do it? 

I think I’m going to have to miss out on this week’s Beauty theme these images aren’t the beauty I wanted….and in my haste and excitement of having such a good idea, I forgot to bookmark the site holding the workshop!

One day I’ll get it right.

[Via http://marisworld.wordpress.com]

Orange, NSW

One thing I love about my current job is the travel – I’ve been to places I’d have never made it to (for FREE!) thanks to the generosity of my bosses, and last weekend was another great trip to a pretty cool little country town. Orange is in NSW and is about 5 1/2 hrs drive from Newcastle (that part SUCKED). One thing I would like to comment on, in regards to the little town in the middle of nowhere (in my opinion!), is how INCREDIBLE their food culture is. As much as possible, the food is local (or at the very least regional – they love the ‘100 Mile’ thing in Orange), organic, handmade and REAL – and it’s not unusual, it’s just a given. I wish more towns/cities in Australia would take up this challenge, because it’s such a great way of eating.

We arrived pretty late on Friday and headed to the amazing Racine’s for a really incredible dinner. Chef Shaun Arantz of The School House fame (a once-hatted restaurant in Orange’s ‘CBD’ and previously at the Mayfield Vineyard) and team moved the restaurant to the new digs overlooking the La Colline vineyard; these digs could rather ungraciously be described as a big shed, though it’s much nicer than it sounds!

But really, it was about the food. I wish I’d taken photos, as the presentation was fantastic – I was too hungry to even think about it at the time! I ordered  goats’ cheese puree with tomato sorbet – it was so light and fresh and delicate, I wish I was less tired so I could describe it better. The little cherry tomatoes that accompanied the dish were fresh from the Racine’s garden, and were so ripe and juicy, and the non-GF members of our dining party commented on how yummy the little bread sticks that accompanied their meal were – they reminded me of enoki mushrooms, and looked very crunchy, which would’ve been a great contrast to the soft textures of the puree and sorbet. We washed this course down with some lovely champagne.

My next course was the ocean trout, and I can’t even work out what they did to my trout, but by golly it was good! I can’t even remember the accompaniments, and as it’s not listed on the current website’s menu, I guess I’ll never know, but safe to say it was delicious. This meal was rather poorly paired with a gorgeous 2006 shiraz voignier from a local Orange vineyard, but I got over it and drank the wine anyway!

I had to skip dessert, but the darling waiter brought out little treats anyway to end our meal – macaroons with lemon butter and mini-cones of sorbet. Both were DELICIOUS, and I have a new benchmark for excellence in desserts! I am going to desperately try and recreate these treats at my next dinner party.

It was such a great meal, and if you get the chance, GO THERE!!

A quick drive to our B&B (Black Sheep Inn) and we were greeted with a fridge full of delicious food for the next morning’s breakfast and a lovely handwritten note from our hosts (such a nice touch!).

After breakfast and a meeting (and a snoop around the property!) we headed into downtown Orange, and bought a few treats. Lunch at the Union Bank restaurant was excellent, very fresh and yummy, and matched with a lovely local chardonnay.

We then headed out to Bloodwood Wines, and this visit quickly became a highlight of the trip for me! We met the winemaker, Steve, and got to help crush the pinot graps that had been hand-picked the day before, and then taste the wines at all their varying stages.

You would not BELIEVE how delicious the ‘wine juice’ from the various varietals is! I was adamant Steve bottle and sell the juice, my boyf and I even went so far as to say it’s better than ACTUAL wine…that is, until we tasted Steve’s wines. They were soooo good. We brought home a bottle of chardonnay and a sticky (we sound like retirees, with our weird taste in wine!), and I was impressed with Steve’s shiraz and reisling – if I’d had more money I would’ve bought a couple of each. I would say they’re real food wines – they had strong, interesting flavours and Steve and his wife seem to be very keen cooks, so I would imagine they have many a great recipe to pair with their yummy wines. They also had a GORGEOUS Australian kelpie called Biff, who lived in a cognac barrel, which I thought was SUPER charming!

After our arvo of drinking we headed home to take a nap (doing nothing to dispel the ‘retiree-ness’ you’re seeing in this post) and then headed out to a gorgeous little Italian restaurant. I think I ate FAR too much, as I got to the point of not even enjoying my wine I was so full, but the meal of smoked mozzarella, creamy garlic prawns and garden salad was delicious.

We polished off a few bottles of plonk back at the B&B and again hit the hay, seeing as we had another 5/6 hour drive ahead of us. Ugh.

The drive back was pretty fun, actually, we visiting some very kooky towns (rural Australian towns are SO BIZARRE) – this one called Gulgong was like stepping back into an episode of Deadwood! We also spotted some huge mines, which are so devastating to see up close – they’re terrible blights on the landscape, and such unsustainable behemoths.

We arrived home tired, well-fed and ready for a huge nap. It was a great trip, and if you get the chance, head on out to Orange, it’s a cool place to see and there’s an increbile amount of great food and wine waiting for you to eat it!

[Via http://twentyfiveproject.wordpress.com]

Chef's Corner with Chef Jeff LittleField

At The Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort, the Pacific Ocean is your playground with 8.5 miles of fun in the sun in the heart of  Huntingdon Beach, CA…Surf City, USA! And this is where Chef Jeff Littlefield pulls out all the stops at Shades Restaurant & Bar.  Check out their chef…

[Via http://journeypod.wordpress.com]