Latest Gastronomic Adventures

I have family (my mom) in town right now which means eating food I typically wouldn’t. Since starting the Four Hour Body lifestyle, I have been eating really well and drinking very little. However, this all came to a pause when my mom came in town. It’s quite hard to stick to a diet when someone with great taste is in town, ready to try it all.

So here’s what I have been enjoying on my cheat week, well a few of the things.

From Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar in Healdsburg:

Lobster Roll and Raspberry Lemon Drop Martini
Lobster Roll and Raspberry Lemon Drop Martini
Sweet and Spicy Calamari with Raspberry Lemon Drop Martini
Sweet and Spicy Calamari with Raspberry Lemon Drop Martini
Washington and California Oysters with Dirty Martini and Sidecar cocktails
Washington and California Oysters with Dirty Martini and Sidecar cocktails

From Absinthe Brassier and Bar in San Francisco (forgot to shoot the amazing onion soup):

Roasted Strawberry Panna Cotta with Baby Basil Meringue
Roasted Strawberry Panna Cotta with Baby Basil Meringue

Wish you were here, bet you do too!

Wine and Friends

You might remember that I went to court just a couple of weeks ago to deal with a squatter who had been living in our family cottage in the wine valley. We won the lawsuit and he was to be evicted 5 days after the judgement had been made official, ie, after he was informed and the Sheriff had posted notice on the house.

Well the day came that I was going to have to meet the Sheriff’s deputy and do the official turning over of property from the squatter back to me.

Not a fun trip to make really. Luckily my dear @KaylaGettys organized a super fun blind wine tasting with some of her friends in Healdsburg. So, the night before I had to be in Forestville, I went to Healdsburg, met some really amazing people, drank some fun wine and generally had an amazing time.

Without that night I don’t think I could have made it through the day that followed.

The Princess’s Birthday

Holy cow. I had a ton of friends with birthdays yesterday.  It seems like people that had birthdays yesterday are just really awesome friends. Kohl, Patrick and of course, Karen in particular.

Karen (@ok2baprincess), it turns out, is super popular.  Nicole, who set this whole deal up, had something like 30 people at Sycamore’s for her birthday dinner.  How she got everyone together from such different circles, who really knows.

The wait at Sycamore was pretty intense, but a few of us decided a bottle of wine would fix that.

Oh, and for this post, just click the little pictures to see them larger. Didn’t want to make the page super slow to load. Also, you can click the right side of any picture to go to the next one.

After our delicious dinner, we headed over to Top Ten Wines for a few glasses and some ping pong. Just about our entire troupe of people made the voyage. We totally took over that place haha.

Oh, and the wine was amazing.

Uh oh, now I’ve gone into a rant…

I don’t understand how people can NOT just love a good wine. Here in Missouri, many people don’t know what a good wine is. There are several Missouri wineries but most make crap wine, in my opinion.

Those who think they are connaisseurs of wine out here TYPICALLY think Yellow Tail is a top notch wine and Korbel, or worse, André are fabulous champanges, don’t even try to explain sparkling wine to them.

I’m not hating on Missourians, just leading up to how incredibly happy I am that most of my friends aren’t these people, especially those I was with last night.  And even if you do love André and even Riverboat Red, that’s totally fine. I’m glad that you like those wines. Just saying, I don’t and can’t stand when people compare their $8.00 bottle of Hahn Estates’ Cycles Gladiator to my Seghesio.

See it isn’t about the price so much, there are awesome bottles of economical wine. Just do the research.  A bottle of Seghesio costs you under $25 and will mop the floor with that stupid Hahn Estates’ Cycles Gladiator that my father’s side of the family is so obsessed with right now.

Though I pretty much love anything from the Dry Creek Valley.

Where the hell did that come from? Back to the festivities. So we played some ping pong and drank our wine, had our conversation. Awesome time.

Time for some more pictures!

After Top Ten, we broke up a bit, some went for karaoke while others headed home.  Of course, @bigred77 @ericcox and @turtis couldn’t help but model for the camera as we walked to our cars haha.  I love those tweeple!

The night was so much fun. We talked about changing out Sunday mornings around a bit too.  Very excited about that, oh and Cake and a Movie night.  The next one is tomorrow, Monday night! I need movie and cake suggestions.

Happy Birthday Karen! HUGS!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Great Debate

Or, the night Justin drank himself into a tizzy.

The night started off normal enough.  I had my television finally setup to receive high definition broadcasts just in time for the final presidential debateChase came over to watch it with me, along with a 40 of Pabst Blue Ribbon.  I took to a bottle of red wine.

DSC_5659

We started the drinking and the debate, it was a great one.  By far the best presidential debate we’ve seen this political season.  After I finished my bottle of wine and Chase finished his 40 ounces of PBR, we decided it was time to switch to white wine.  Jeremy came over for a bit but had to go back to studying.

About this time Corey came over.  He wasn’t feeling any drinking so we just watched the rest of the debate and printed a picture for him on my new printer.  Chase and I however, took after that bottle of white.

DSC_5681

Classy.

Shortly after that picture, Chase went all out and took the camera for a bit to get some pics.  He had the crazy in his eye, as you can see…

DSC_5714

So I let him have it his way haha.

DSC_5763

140 pictures later… LoL I guess someone figured it was “take pictures of Corey time” because that’s what we did.  Poor Corey, having to deal with our drunk asses.  But the pictures came out nicely 🙂

DSC_5777

And Corey as Jesus…

DSC_5784

Look at those eyes!  Am I the only one who thinks he at least a little bit resembles Christ?  Hmmmm

Then we add Chase to the mix.

DSC_5786

Awe, what an adorable couple 😉

Now is when things get a little fuzzy.  After my 1.5 bottles of wine and Chase’s 40/ half bottle of wine, we break off from Corey who went home to bed, and headed out to hit the town; but not before I could drunk blog.

First we went to No Gas (which is a gas station downtown that doesn’t sell gas) where we bumped into some homeless guys.  One had just been released from the ER.  Being a former emergency room employee and just finishing an episode of House earlier in the night, I took it as my duty to examine the wound…

Apparently he had been stabbed, twice, in the back near his shoulders.  Good work Dr, haha, things seemed to be healing nicely?…

Then to Eastside Tavern where we drank some double rum and cokes.  Then to Hollywood Rebel Tattoo where I asked for all sorts of piercings and a full sleeve tattoo… So glad they don’t tat/pierce drunks! OMG!!!  I am pretty much positive I made a fool of myself in there, argh.  I even know ppl that work there, Jawwny.  Sorry!

After leaving Hollywood we walked to The Blue Fugue where we drank a NASTY drink, yucko, and bumped into Katy.  And then apparently I bumped into this guy named Alex, who Geoffrey had a crush on like a bazillion years ago.  He’s very attractive and smart aaaaaaaand, I kinda made a fool of myself there too haha.  But I apparently pulled off my philosophy knowledge for him.  Whew, since that was his major and I think his masters program.

Back to the apartment where I drunk iChatted with Kayla.  Chase passed out on my couch and I on my bed.

Woke up the next morning and started putting all of the pieces together LoL.  It was a really fun night and each day I remember a little more haha.  I guess this is why I don’t let myself get drunk like that!  Good times either way.

Oh and if I offended anyone or made a total fool of myself, please accept my apologies!  Can’t believe I didn’t drunk tweet on Twitter though!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]