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Ladies’ who Lunch? The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA: SF Bay Area Day Trip

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Do you need to pretend you are among the ladies who lunch, even though you have to head out on the one day of the weekend that you don’t actually have to work? This is California right … everyone works.  The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards is your spot for a ladies who lunch outing.  Wente is also a good place for dates with your honey, hubby, or daddy too (we saw all of the above).  The complimentary lunch valet also makes you feel like your out-for-lunch, aka on vaca.  You even get to head out of town a bit for a nice drive in the country to get there, a true San Francisco Bay Area Day Trip for sure, without having to go all the way to Napa or Paso Robles.  It is about a 45 minute drive from Mountain View and from Oakland to get out to Livermore, CA.  As you get closer to Livermore you will find fruit stands along the road.  We bought cherries along the way and had a cherry spitting contest, FYI, not at Wente (don’t get yourself kicked out).

We liked snacking on: Cayenne Spiced Roasted Nuts, Maple, Garden Herbs & Warmed Nicolau Farms Goat Cheese, Herbed Bread Crumbs.

We liked sipping on: SEASONAL COCKTAILS such as the Lavender Martini and local wines at Wente.

Posted in Around California, Eating Out, Out of Town, SF Bay Area Day Trips, South Bay - Silicon Valley | 1 Response »
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Squash Risotto with Buttered Apples & Sage: Ardenwood Historic Farms • Fall SF Bay Area Day Trip

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Ardenwood Farms is like Colonial Williamsburg Lite. And not having a large family to pile out of a mini-van at Ardenwood Farms made us feel a bit like adults without kids at Disney Land.  We decided next time that we needed to rent some children for this colonial fall farm excursion on our SF Bay Area Fall Day Trip (or maybe parents would rent us, aka babysitters).  The reason we probably felt this awkward was because we still joined in all of the family activities without a family in tow.  I swear we didn’t jump ahead in line to make an herb sachet, or hop onto a pump-car on the train tracks, eat fruit off the trees, or take more than our share of popcorn from the sampling station or anything. However, jumping from one step of the kid filled straw bale pyramid to another step, while holding my husband’s hand instead of a small child’s hand, was kind of cute, I guess, like a first date or something.  After that initial experience, I was a bit underwhelmed and ready to go after just viewing the pumpkin patch.  Then, I was glad we stayed and paid to enter the historic farm with actors and everything.  We did opt out of the family filled spooky railroad ride and walked ahead to the historic farm re-enactment portion and watched the blacksmith and kids making herb filled sachets.   Then we wandered around the farm eating walnuts  from one tree and an apple from another and then checked out the animals and picked our own popcorn cobs from the cornfield.   From a mom visitor we found out that the weekend before there was a huge harvest event for families that attracted thousands of people.  We were then relieved that we hit the farm on a rainy Sunday, free from the crowds.

On the way out we stopped at the Perry’s organic farm market and bought a winter squash and a kabocha squash for our fall cooking tradition.  This year’s recipe happens to be a Gluten-Free Recipe.  Check out last year’s SF Bay Area Fall Day Trip yummy recipe Pumpkin Tagliatelle Recipe from baking pumpkins we bought at a pumpkin patch on HWY 1.

Squash Risotto with Buttered Apples, Creme Fraiche & Sage Recipe Click to continue »

Posted in Home Cookin', Main Dishes, SF Bay Area Day Trips, Salad | 2 Comments »
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More Than Just a Good Rolling Stones’ Song; Brown Sugar, SF Bay Area Day Trip to Oakland

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Brown Sugar Oakland, CA & An Oakland Day-Trip Itinerary

• A Creative Soul Food breakfast joint so good that your old-school grandmother and your hipster cousin from LA can come together and love every minute of it.  A bonus is also the fact that you won’t feel greasy or smell like the fryer when you leave.  The décor is very modern and has an updated tasteful diner feeling with a brown sugar color palette all around you.

Brown Sugar offers such specialties as Cornmeal Waffles and Fried Chicken, Pulled Pork Sandwich with Lime Slaw, Black-Eyed Pea Salad, Roast Pork Hash, and the Mac & Cheese.  You WILL wait in line to get a table at Brown Sugar because it is that popular even though it sits nearly by itself (at this point … hint, hint) in West Oakland.  You can watch the chef, Tanya Holland, prepare your food with precision alongside her other cooks in the kitchen.  I look forward to seeing the cook/chef who sports a green mohawk rockin’ out on the cooking channel with his own punk-rock palate show.

An Oakland Day Trip Itinerary – SF Bay Area Day Trip:

(Must go on a first Sunday of the month)

1st Stop Eat breakfast at Brown Sugar @ 8-10am

2nd Stop First Sunday of every month go to the Alameda Flea Market @ 10am-12pm

3rd Stop Go on a tour at Hangar One Distillery Tasting & Tour in Alameda @ 12noon – 6pm

  • Get Directions: http://www.hangarone.com/visit.html
  • Taste Creatively-Crafted Flavored Vodkas, Absinthe, & Whiskey
  • Take a tour with the Vodka Vixen
  • You can bring a picnic lunch or snacks to eat out front on the picnic table and admire the view of SF from across the bay

4th Stop (if you have time and feel up for it) Oakland Museum of California Sunday, 11 am–5 pm

  • Get Directions: http://www.museumca.org/directions
  • Get an overview of CA history in this interactive exhibit
  • See artwork made by CA artists (historical to contemporary)
  • Great Dorothea Lange Archives of photographs from the 1930’s

    Posted in Eating Out, Oakland, SF Bay Area Day Trips | No Comments »
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    Pumpkin Tagliatelle • From HWY 1 Pumpkin Patch to the Dinner Table: SF Bay Area Day Trip

    Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

    You have to start your own seasonal traditions and this is our new fall tradition.  For the past few years we have headed to the beautiful Rodoni Farms Pumpkin Patch on HWY 1 just north of Santa Cruz to grab a pumpkin for an “all pumpkin” dinner.

    The cute girls that sell the pumpkins at Rodoni Farms eyeball the size of your pumpkins and calculate the price as you walk up to pay.  Not only do they have a way with judging size, but they know a thing or two about their produce and always advise us to buy the Jarrahdale Pumpkin, light green in color, for making any pumpkin foods.  Last year we bought one that was so huge that it took about four Tupperware containers to store all of the puree.  So this year we chose a smaller pumpkin, which made a huge difference in our prep and clean-up time.  We were able to make the entire dish and a batch of chocolate chip pumpkin cookies with the smaller size pumpkin ($4 pumpkin) and still have leftovers for another dish and second batch of cookies.

    Recipe after the jump… Click to continue »

    Posted in Home Cookin', Main Dishes, SF Bay Area Day Trips | 2 Comments »
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