Fun Times Part 2

This is the second part to a 3 part blog.  Our visit to a few local wineries!!!  Lots of fun stuff!

So Part 2 of this trip takes us to wine country!  We have some wonderful wineries in the area and we actually have one of the oldest wineries in California.  We decided to tour three (originally four - but we ran out of time) of the local wineries for wine tasting.

Our first stop:

Sobon Estates (click the link to check them out)  this winery is one of the oldest if not the oldest in California.  They have wonderful wines.

And the vineyard is beautiful and they have a museum that was so fascinating to walk thru.  Wonderful people work  here - and they are very knowledgeable.  We had a great time tasting the wines and checking out the museum.  I came here the week prior to the group tour and I had a great time.  I bought a few bottles at that time -  like the one below- this is a wonderful white wine - I enjoy both white and red wines.  Our area produces mainly reds but a few of the wineries do have white as well - like Sobon Estate.

Second Stop:  

 Dobra Zemlja (pronounced: dobra zem-ya) means "Good Earth" in Croatian.  Click on the link to check it out!  We had a good time here - great wine and a wonderful atmosphere!  They have beautiful gardens and a pond - so very relaxing.  Great wines! (did I say that already - LOL) One of my favorites is the Kikas!  I think a lot of people in the group liked it as well.  

I love their label - I keep a wine journal and I enjoy looking thru it on occasion to just look at the labels I have collected.

This is a picture of the entrance to the tasting room.  See those doors well this picture does not do them justice they are huge and beautiful!  I love these doors!

Here's a group shot of us inside the tasting room!  We sure did have a good time here as well!  But we had to head out after purchasing a few bottles - it's on to our next winery.  

Third and last stop:  

Our last winery visit of the day is a very special one to me and my family it's The Bray Vineyards (click on the link to see more).  This is a wonderful vineyard and of course we love their wines so much!  My only regret they are not related to me! LOL  I truly wish they were related!  I am actually a member of the wine club though and we get bottles of their wine on a regular basis.  One of their wines is called Brayzin Hussy a great red wine and it has the cutest label.  I have given these out as gifts at Christmas along with my Gorgonzola Cookies (savory and very yummy).

Isn't this the cutest label. They have this tub at the entrance to the tasting room! To cute! I think my favorite is their Barbera or the Cabernet Sauvignon or Sangiovese.

This is a signed bottle of the Bray Vineyards wine we won at an auction - you can't really tell but this is a larger than normal bottle of wine.

We also had a group shot taken in front of a cute truck that is just outside of the tasting room - but our picture didn't turn out!  So this is a group call out anyone who has that shot please send it to me via email if you can and I will get that pic posted!

Inlinkz Challenge #1

An invitation came to play along in the first Inlinkz challenge.  Okay I thought this is new for me and I have been wanting to try my hand at making a joy fold card.  Yes - I'll combine these two and see what I come up with.  Well I think it's cute - love that the challenge colors are terrific for a boy!

Fun Times

Boy have I been bad!  Well not so much bad as just sick and when I thought I was getting over it I would get sick again -Yuk!  I finally did shake it and I am feeling so much better!  In fact I was feeling so much better that when my DH's parents came for a visit with a few of there friends from Oregon I hosted a dinner for the group Sunday night and joined in on a few of the planned activities.   We spent time Saturday and Sunday together and we all had a great time.
BIG Thanks to Susan, Bruce, Jodi, Paul, Diane, Bill, Brenda, Ron, Sue and Kenny!  


Saturday
The group met at a local place for dinner on Saturday - not just any old dinner but a BBQ with a little bit of gold panning thrown in.  What fun we had!  The group had signed up with a local place called The Roaring Camp Mining Co.  click on the link and click on Saturday BBQ for some fun details.


We drove down to Roaring Camp after signing in and then loaded up on a huge pick up truck with bench seats for the drive down to camp.

Did I mention there were 12 of us!  We almost filled the truck up!

This is no little dinner it's a five hour treat starting with the drive down to camp, a tour of the camp, a little gold panning, entertainment and dinner.

See the beautiful river, the picnic tables and the entertainment stage.  You can see a few people hanging around waiting for the dinner bell to ring!

This is where you pan for gold.  You get a shovel full of dirt in your pan and swirl the pan in the water and hopefully find gold in that there pan!  :(  I was not lucky enough to have any gold but two of our group had a good hunk in their pan's.  Yee Haw!

This is after the dinner and since it was cold outside we all were invited inside for a little bit of Brandy, Coffee and story telling by our host.  We had loads of fun and a good time was had by all. 

We did have to load back up on the pick up and with music playing we headed back up top for an end to the evening.  

More fun to come so check in tomorrow and read about the wine tasting tours!

Mojo Monday 138

Well since I have not had a chance to participate in any challenge over the past week I decided I would make time for the Mojo Monday challenge even if it is Thursday! Ha! You can check out all the goodness over at Mojo Monday at the link above.

This sketch is by Julee Tilman

Here is my take on this sketch - we've have had a few days of sunshine which I was needing very badly!  I've had a terrible head cold for the last few days and finally today am feeling somewhat normal!  Yay!  No more vertigo!

I think this is so bright and cheery!  I love these colors together!

{You are my sunshine - supplies}


Paper: DCWV/Brights, Citrus & PTI Cream
card stock

Stamps: PTI sentiment from the Frames 3 set


Ink: Orange Zest from PTI


Other: Flowers cut from Cricut/Plantin cartridge, pop ups

Cinco de Mayo and Friends

Well I have not had a chance to get any challenge play in of late.  But I did have a Cinco de Mayo party to attend this past weekend!  We had lots of fun and I would estimate about 40+ people showed up.  A good time was had by all!  This is a yearly event put on by a couple who announced last year they had gotten married!  Surprise! for sure.  So this being their one year anniversary I figured I should come up with a card to give them.  I wanted something elegant and not related to Cinco de Mayo and I think I accomplished that.  

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SANDY & LARRY!

Color Challenge Photo's

Kristina Werner is asking for photo posts for a color challenge.  When I saw this challenge I immediately thought of a couple of photo's I have always liked.  Of course - when you start to look for that one photo you end up looking at lot's of photo's.  So I ended up with a couple of choices to pick from.  I thought I would post the two photo's then make my choice.  So here are my photo's below.

So I thought once I posted the two photo's I would be able to choose one really quickly - Ug!  Not happening I really love both of these!  These photo's are a trip to Disney Land we took a few years ago.  In the first photo - Teacups!  I love the teacups they are just so colorful and pretty.  The second photo with the Sunburst and the Mickey Mouse outline and the reflection on the water I thought was fabulous.  To find out which one I chose to submit head on over to Kristina's blog and check it out.

French Bread Recipe "Easy"

A few weeks back I posted a yummy corn chowder recipe!  Very tasty and easy!  I also had made a loaf of french bread which I said I would post the recipe here.  Very easy!  Very Yummy!  I love the smell of bread baking.  Love warm bread with butter spread all over.  Oh my!

So you will need the following to make this bread.  Active Dry Yeast (not rapid rise), sugar, salt, flour, olive oil, and hot water (at least 110 not over 125 degrees).

Put your yeast into your mixer bowl along with one teaspoon of sugar.  Add hot water and proof until yeast is bubbly (about 5 minutes).  Add two and a half cups of flour, one teaspoon of salt into the yeast mixture.  With bread dough hook attached to mixer, mix the yeast and flour mixture until it starts to pull away from the mixing bowl.

Then take the dough out of the mixing bowl and dust your surface with a little bit of flour and knead until dough is no longer sticky (add flour as you go).

Place dough in a well oiled bowl and rub oil on top of dough and cover with plastic wrap.  Set in a warm place to rise (if your room is really warm it will take about 30 minutes) for approximately 45 minutes.

Punch dough down and spread out into an oblong shape - roll dough up gently and place in a french loaf pan or a cookie sheet cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.

Once bread has risen the second time remove plastic wrap and place bread in a pre-heated 450 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly before slicing and buttering.  Enjoy! (I put melted butter on top of this loaf after it cooled slightly)

French Bread Recipe

1 packet of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup hot water (110 - 125 degrees)

3 cups all purpose flour (I use unbleached flour)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Mix yeast, sugar with hot water until yeast becomes bubbly (proofing the yeast).  Add two and a half cups of flour and mix until dough pulls away from the bowl.  Place on lightly floured surface and knead dough until smooth and no longer sticky (use the remaining flour as needed).  Place dough in bowl with olive oil and rub top of dough with oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for approximately 45 minutes.  Punch dough down and gently spread out into oblong shape, roll up into jelly roll shape and put in french loaf pan or cookie sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for approximately 30 minutes.  Remove plastic wrap and bake in preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.  Enjoy!

Tip:  For those who do not have a stand mixer you can still do this recipe.  Follow the directions using a hand mixer but only add a half cup of flour at a time (do not add all the flour at once).  Depending on your hand mixer after adding one to two cups you will need to turn the dough out onto the counter and knead in the rest of the flour until it becomes smooth.  This process will take longer because you are actually adding the flour by kneading it into the dough.  Follow the rest of the recipe normally.