Showing posts with label Food Tasting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Tasting. Show all posts

Monday, November 5, 2012

Portland, Leavenworth (WINE) and Beyond

Wow, what  a crazy, amazing weekend I had.  I really do need to calm down and relax at some point!  Mom keeps telling me, I'll crash some day, Miss Energizer Bunny!

Portland--Blogger NW Christmas Party
Kendra from Adventures of Brad and Kendra and I headed down to Portland for a Holiday Party for the PNW bloggers group.  We go down there early enough to do some shopping.  I took us over to the Hawthorne district since I love this area!  I knew Kendra was looking for Scrabble games for her crafts and felt like she'd find some at the thrift and vintage stores, but no such luck. Kendra is a terrible influence, just so you know.  She wants you to buy lots and lots and lots of stuff!!  Ha ha.  I ended up in the middle of my budget and what Kendra wanted me to buy:)    The blogger event was interesting, that's all I'll say.  But, I do have to mention that I met some amazingly genuine fun girls, Mary and Alyson!  Once I met these girl, I had such amazing time!
Owls, owls everywhere, if it were up to Kendra, I'd have them all in my house right now.
Amazing dip set.
This reminds me of me and Bridge, or me and Daylon, or me and Mike. Ha ha. I love it.
Peacocks!!!!  These feather trees are beautiful!
Whoa, fresh pot?  Awesome, just picked?
We had an amazingly delicious lunch at the McMenamins.
Who would have thought, this really exists?
I know I'm crazy, but I'm totally drawn to creepy things.
POWELLS!
Ha ha!
MARY, this girl is freaking amazing.  Kendra even said that when she was talking to her she was thinking, whoa she is a lot like Alicia.
My car, Chette, has been a real bastard!  On our way home, my mirror was shaking violently. I was at the grocery store, shut my door and bam, my mirror fell off.  All day today I kept checking my mirror anyway.
Yes!  I bought one of these for Daylon a while back. I had to have this one. My friend told me the inventor is on Shark Tank.
 Living Social Event -- Wine tasting bus to Leavenworth
I invited my old co-worker, and amazing friend, Melissa to this amazing Living Social event I found.  It  comprised of a bus tour of two wineries, where you tasted many wines at each and had a four course lunch.  Then you ended up in Leavenworth for an hour of shopping, oh wait, no shops are open.  Ha ha, so you can go to the bar or the bar.  OK:) It was such a blast hanging out, we don't get to have fun enough!!

We got to the bus pick up point early so we decided to go to the Funhouse for a drink only to find out it was closed and they had this sign in the window.
Luckily the EMP bar was open, and we were able to have double screwdrivers!!!
Hanging out on the bus with my girl Melissa!
Fake smiles.
The winery had dogs that liked to eat the fallen soldiers, grapes.
Tub of grapes, Cab. Franc.

Tempered tanks, this is a batch of Pino Gris, note the duct tape label.


Semi-auto bottler!  They do about 3500 bottles a year. It's a boutique winery.


Labeling and capping station.
Barrel Room
Sweet potato, andouille sausage ravioli.  This was so delicous and the riesling was rocking as well.
Yummy!
Kind of a gross salad to be honest.  Not enough dressing and nuts and pears don't make me happy to eat salad.
Orgasmic food!  It was a chocolate blah blah sauce.  Usually I hate savory and sweet, but this was not that. It was so well done.  Some sort of fancy chocolate reduction with beef, cauliflower mash and mushrooms.  I'm drooling thinking about it!
Truffles, AKA BALLS!!  These balls were to die for.  There was one that was cayenne infused. MMM.
This tasting room was so beautiful and in an amazing location!
I had to buy this flavor!!  It was pretty damn delicious.
 As mom says, I'm an energizer bunny!  At some point I'll crash for sure, but for now, I love going and experiencing life with people I love!


Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday Fun-day: Shopping, Sample Boxes and Concert Recap

Franz Ferdinand Concert
Last night I went to the Franz Ferdinand concert at the Showbox with my friend Bridget.  On my way to meet up with her, I had to stop and take in the view of the new waterfront ferris wheel.  I think the ferris wheel is gorgeous, and an amazing addition to the waterfront.  However, I'm not so pleased with the price to ride; 13 freaking dollars!


  We pre-funked at the The Pike Brewery for some delish beers and decent eats.  I was super happy with the environment, the staff, the beer but was not so pleased with my food.  I ordered the chicken wings, which usually can't be bad.  These were really greasy, non-saucy, not spicy, blech!  Bridget, however loved her veggie quesadillas.

I am a Franz Ferdinand fan based on their first self titled album.  To be honest I haven't listened to anything more recent.  I ended up falling in love with the opening band, The Carnivores.  They were the cat's meow, for reals.  The girl keyboardist had an amazing outfit on and made the coolest facial expressions and head movements.  It was amazing.  I describe her top as being a tassle-y, moccasin shirt.  As my friend Daylon would say, "so navajo."  Franz Ferdinand was great too.  I had an amazing time.  My favorite part about concerts is paying $10 for a beer; I love sarcasm.

Carnivores!
Zulily:  My First Purchases
My friend Liz told me about Zulily over two years ago; she likened the concept to Groupon and Living Social.  The target audience is for mothers.  She knew I'd be interested because I'm obsessed with my niece Chloe.  I love spoiling her and buying her cute stuff.  I've always received the emails but just didn't get into it. The other day when I needed retail therapy I clicked on over.  I made two fine purchases and they arrived yesterday.

My amazing new tunic (I love that word)


Chloe's amazing new mary janes

Sample Boxes

I've recently learned of the concept of monthly sample boxes.  Where have they been all my life?  So I haven't received my first ones yet, but I know I'm going to love them.  I think it will also be fun to review what I receive with my friends and followers.

Beauty Box from Birch Box:  Monthly deliveries of trial-sized samples from both well-known brands and emerging gems.


Foodie Box from Petit Amuse:  Every month I will receive 3-4 samples of small batch artisan foods from hard to find specialty producers.


Weekend Wanderings
Brought to you by Shane @ Whispering Sweet Nothings

I totally agree with Shane about the crickets in the blog-osphere over the weekend.  So I'm linking up for a good cause!  Let's share our weekend adventures.

"It feels like the blog-osphere begins to die down come Friday, then trickles off on Saturday, with far less posts than Monday through Thursday. My quick fix? A rules free, anything goes link-up! Link-up your plans for the weekend, tutorials, giveaways. The best part? You can come back and link-up the entire weekend until Sunday at midnight! Then have fun wandering with some new friends!" -Shane


On that note, I'm definitely going to the South Lake Union Block Party this evening.  They have a bunch of local restaurants and food trucks offering samples for $1 each.  It's a true "Taste" much like the Taste of Chicago.  I'm so excited!  And I definitely will be stopping by the beer garden.

Have a great weekend all!