Thank you to everyone to who came to our shopping parties!

We had several wonderful events and are so grateful for your participation. Thank you! Happy Holidays!

More photos from olive harvest

It was such a beautiful day. It makes such a difference – in past years you are bundled up in all sorts of rain gear and you starting picking olives and as soon as you reach up to grab them the water goes sliding down your arm. The olives are slippery but that is nothing compared the tarps. Once a couple of olives have been stepped on the tarps are very slick, and don’t forget we are picking most olives on the hillside. So you are standing on an uneven ground covered in slick olivy muddy tarp. That is why it is so nice that it was sunny!

This is a photo of me as I sorted the olives, taking out the leaves and but mostly the squished olives. Then when the olives get to the press they get washed and the leaves get seperated from the olives.

Olive Harvest and its not raining!

Another gorgeous day here, not too cold at 6:30 am just a little crisp and the faint smell of a wood fire burning. We are off to a good start on the olive harvest. Here are a few photos. Starting with photos from yesterday.

Getting ready for harvest

My son looking at the olives the day before harvest. He really wanted to help and be there for the harvest but he had to go to school!

Fire Fighter Museum Adventure

Fire Fighters Museum on the corner of Pearl and Main street – 1201 Main Street.

We were so happily surprised. This is a must see with anyone with children. They are allowed to climb on several of the trucks and ring the bell. We were shown how a fire alarm used to work and all sorts of things. My son is planning his next visit and wants to be sure that all his friends join us.

http://www.napafirefightersmuseum.org/

707-259-0609

Taylors, Model Bakery and the Oxbow Market are just across the river and are child friendly. For our visit the power was out so we picked up some delicious sandwiches at the Model Bakery and a couple of cupcakes from Kara’s. So much to be thankful for yet again!

And then we saw Santa on a fire truck as we drove away!

Thanksgiving turkey

I really think that using a remote thermometer makes all the difference for a moist turkey! It also probably helped that we cooked it breast side down for about 1/2 of the time and put herb and lemon butter under the skin.

We also tried a new recipe for cranberry chutney with quince, apple, onion, raisins and star anise. It was good but we are set in our ways with the standby relish with dried cherries, meyer lemon, tangerine and cinammon.

For dinner I had the mache with goat cheese, crutons, persimmon and sliced turkey with our vinegrette. Perfect ending!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Beautiful day here in the Napa Valley… on the menu today we have:

roasted butternut soup

salad with persimmons, goat cheese, pomegranate and croutons

upside down turkey

cranberry relish with meyer lemon and tangerine

stuffing with portobello mushroom, chestnuts, onions and celery

yams

green beans

pumpkin pie with whipping cream

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are so blessed and looking forward to sitting down to lunch and hearing what everyone is thankful for.

2nd Ode to the Olive starts tomorrow

Fri, Nov. 20

Olive Oil Dining Experience

Join Wine Country Inn for a wonderful four-course dinner at the Inn with Diane De Filipi, a chef, former innkeeper, and currently owner of “Let’s Go Cook Italian” Italian cooking vacations. Each course will include, in some form, olive oils that will be used in our Saturday olive oil taste-off. Cost is $95 per couple, including wine. Dinner begins at 7:30 p.m., and will be limited to 12 people (six couples).

Sat, Nov 21

Olive Oil Taste-Off

4 p.m. – Join Wine Country Inn for an Olive Oil Tasting Party

5:30 p.m. – Join us for our second annual Olive Oil Taste-Off, with celebrity judges Jim Smith, Innkeeper at the Wine Country Inn, Diane De Filipi, and Lars Kronmark of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Greystone.

Dinner – Wine Country Inn suggests that you visit Silverado Brewing Company, who will prepare several olive-related dishes

Thank you for making the Shopping Party a huge success!

Good Morning! I woke up really early because I was so excited after an incredible day yesterday. I am sitting here having a pumpkin bagel with our honey butter and some hot mulled cider. It really feels and tastes like fall! I’ll post the honey butter recipe on our website because it is so easy and so over the top.

Yesterday we had so much fun! We kicked off holiday shopping with a party at my house. I met wonderful women and was able to catch up briefly with old friends. I want to thank everyone who participated because it was a special day.

I tried out three new recipes. The first was fabulous – persimmons with prosciutto topped with balsamic and olive oil. The second was dried pears topped with pureed tomato, peppers and cream cheese and a dot of the balsamic. The third was goat cheese toasts topped with walnuts and rosemary drizzled with honey.  I’ll post all three on our website and we had some old favorites including; marinated flank steak, sweet potato fries and the baked brie with balsamic.

Sarah Oliver of Sarah Oliver Handbags had her sophisticated and whimsical handbags, knit by the ladies from the Redwoods Senior Community.

Joy Schiffmann of Bunnytail Blankets will be selling her cozy, colorful and weather-resistant baby blankets with endless uses including picnic blankets and capes.

Paula Escher and Barbara Fritz of Strings, Unique Necklaces will be displaying their collection of jewelry made of semi precious stones and pearls.

Donna Miller Casey of Snap To It Photography was showing her photo cards and her matted 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 photos, as well as Paola Casey’s smocked dresses from Chile.

Laurie Rohrbach of Lobird had beautiful printed paper with vintage inspired illustrations and custom stationary.

Suzanne Ingalsbe Interiors sold her hand-painted decorative items. 415-775-7078

Amy Kelly’s Pink Pineapple’s linens 415-812-2685 with Ann Gerard and Stella & Dot fashionable jewelry. 415-286-3692

Cathy Bennett showed her How Fast Time Flies, a “Scrapbooking 2.0″ website which allows you to make 12×12 pages for babies, weddings and other life milestones.

Usha Burns of UB Chic had her fabulous little purses, perfect for an evening out, plus handmade gift tags, bangles and shawls from NY. 415-653-8656

Sara Curran of Polka Dogs had her reversible handcrafted belts from exquisite ribbons…fabulous cosmetic bags and key chains.

Tina Schreiber of Velvet & Tweed had her adorable children’s clothing line, because growing up is a special occasion!

Plumpjack had cool wine accessories, wine club memberships, & goodies for the men in your life.

Cindy Helfrich of C Treasures with her vintage jewelry-embellished memo clip boards. 415-435-3860

Kim Meek of Sausalito Style had her preppy chic ribbon belts.

Alexandra Skillman of Vivanista was here to show off the beautiful website.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible!

After sunrise…

Just incredible…so beautiful…

I hope you can see the hot air balloons.

Last day of harvest