Auberge Du Soleil - Napa Valley

On a recommendation from our friend Michelle, we dined at Auberge Du Soleil, Restaurant one night while we were in Napa Valley. I only have 1 picture of the sign as we were driving out though. The ambiance was so nice, dim, and tranquil, I dared not pull out my camera. Not to mention, I was going to have to flash the heck out of everything and the mood was so right, that I didn't want to ruin it for us or any of the other diners. The dinner and service was truly an amazing experience! We had a 5 course menu, that I honestly cannot recall, but it was delicious! Everything we had was mouthwatering! The wine was superb! The dessert consisted of molten chocolate fondant balls covered in pastry! Oh-dear, were they good! So warm and they would melt in your mouth like butta! This was a meal and experience that definitely worth every penny!


Interesting facts about Auberge Du Soleil, the Inn, it's a luxury inn on a private road, Christina Aguilera stayed there for her honeymoon & had her rehearsal dinner at the resort. Many celebrities are known to dine at the restaurant although we didn't bump into any when we visited.

Celadon Restaurant, Napa Valley

It was an odd hour and we literally had Celadon all to ourselves! The waitress was very happy to see us! She said the winter is always hard on the restaurant business in Napa and hoped that our being there for a late lunch would start the trend for the spring tourist season. We sat on their covered outdoor terrace, close to the fire place, but not too close since my hubby would melt (unfortunate for him, I'm ALWAYS cold and there was a slight chill in the air!). Since it was almost dinner time, we ordered 3 small plates (appetizers) from the dinner menu. We were starving and they hit the stop perfectly with some nice Merlot!

We ordered:

Macadamia nut crusted goat cheese with port poached figs, apples and crostini

Endive and pear salad with blue cheese, candied walnuts and honey mustard vinaigrette

Beef satay with cucumber, green papaya and pickled ginger salad, spicy peanut sauce (I forgot to take a pic of this one)

Everything was fresh and came to our table super quick! I think being the only customer at a restaurant sometimes has it's privileges :) I also think we did start a trend, as we were leaving more tourist were waltzing in for early dinners. I will definitely go back to Celadon, the port poached figs were my favorite and I'm dying to have them again! Not to mention, that there was a ton of other things on the menu I want to try!

Bistro Jeanty - Napa Valley

Napa Valley is filled to the brim with fine dining establishments and Bistro Jeanty is definitely one of them. You walk in and you're suddenly transported across the Atlantic to a quaint French Cafe. Ooh - la-la! We didn't have reservations and had to wait about 15 minutes, not bad at all! I do recommend getting reservations though, we just happen to be there at a time of year when things are just starting to pick up, basically we were very lucky that we only had to wait that little. We were offered the opportunity to sit a their community table, a long table for 12, that you can sit at first come - first serve with other patrons. Not a bad idea, but we were going for that whole romantic Napa type feel and just weren't feeling the community table.

The food is to DIE FOR! Oh my lord! Our favorite thing on the menu was the "Creme de tomate en croute". That's tomato soup in puff pastry for those of you that haven't brushed up on your French lately :) I told the waiter, "this is the best tomato soup I've ever had" and he responded "it's the best tomato soup ever made!" He was so right! I'm salivating as I write this, that's how delicious, smooth, and decadent it was! I can seriously go on forever . . .here's a picture I took of it! Make sure to wipe the drool off you keyboards folks!

We also order and onion tart . . .c'est magnific! To top it off, it had goat cheese on it! I was in French food heaven! The onions were caramelized to perfection, the pastry was perfect, and the little side frise salad with the light vinaigrette was a wonderful compliment. Lord, maybe I shouldn't be writing this post before dinner, I'm so hungry and writing about all of this delicious food is simply torture!
For the main course we shared the Coq Au Vin, a creamy blend of chicken, mushrooms, bacon, and red wine stew. It was yummy, but it wasn't our favorite, but then again I think we just wanted more tomato soup! We ordered a side of Frites (aka French fries) as well!

I can't remember for the life of me what we had for dessert! I know, I must be getting sick! I can forget a lot of things, but a dessert???? Such a travesty!!!

Don't forget about Bistro Jeanty when you're in Napa and order the tomato soup, maybe order two servings of it just for yourself! Mmm!

Many, Many THANKS to our friend Gena for recommending this fine restaurant! We will definitely be heading back there on our next trip to Napa!

You "MESA" with me?

Of course not, you can't mess with Bobby Flay or his restaurant Mesa Grill in Las Vegas! I'm a Food-Network-holic. . .I have a serious problem, I know! But the only way to cure the problem is to go to the Food Network chef's restaurants and inject their creation into your bloodstream! As you know, we were in Vegas last month and I was dying to go to Mesa Grill. It must be all those Bobby Flay Throwdown matches I've been watching lately. I must say that the food and service at Mesa Grill was magnificent! Everything was delicious, I was on a Bobby Flay food high as was my husband and the whole gang we were with. Fabulous food, fabulous times!

My husband and I shared the Goat Cheese Queso Fundido, Smoked Chicken & Black Bean Quesadilla, the Sixteen Spice Crusted Chicken and for dessert Profiteroles. Oh and I can't forget the 2 Margaritas that I washed dinner down with, whoo-hoo were they GOOD!

Here are some pictures of the quesadillas, of the gang, and of us acting silly :)


Bobby Flay's food rocked our world!

Viva la France, Viva le Buffet!

You can't go to Vegas and not experience at least one buffet. Buffets are a dime a dozen in Las Vegas, they're taking over the city! Ha! Seriously though, there are many and they appeal to every size wallet. On of my favorites, Le Village Buffet at the Paris Hotel, is $17 buckaroos for lunch, it doesn't exactly break the bank and that's a good thing :) Considering I've been back for three weeks already, this post is a little late, but when have you known me to blog on time? Hee,hee!

For my main lunch course, I loaded my plate with (clock wise starting from the top). . .Pesto Penne, Garlic Broccolini, scalloped potatoes, cauliflower mash, turkey with gravy, Apple wood sausage (My Favorite!), creamed spinach, pork something, and 1 ravioli (since I'm on a diet), J/K! See the lovely non-retouched pictures below.

As you can see above, my dessert plate was about the same size as my main course, no little dessert plates for me! I'm a baker with a sweet tooth, can't help it! Again (clock wise starting from the top), you'll see I had a lemon filled macaroon, a cheese blintz (Which I didn't like and didn't eat all which is so rare for me!),a generous portion of bread pudding with fresh whipped cream, a mini creme brulee, a delicious cannoli, and last but not least . . .a chocolate chip cookie.

Everything other than the cheese blintz was fabulous! If you're ever in Vegas and don't know what buffet to choose, give Le Village Buffet a try, you won't be sorry.

What happens in Vegas, STAYS in Vegas. That includes calories :)

An Ethiopian Dinner sans utensils

Having never had Ethiopian food, I was quite eager when my Husband's friend suggested we have Ethiopian food. We ate at Sheba in the Miami Design District and it was truly delicious! As the title states, Ethiopian food is eaten without the help of utensils, but we were quickly given some forks as we started enjoying our two appetizers. One appetizer had shrimp, which I'm allergic to and the other one was meatballs. The Shrimp M'charmel , is a shrimp appetizer sauteed in olive oil infused with traditional Moroccan herbs and garnished with sliced carrot and parsley. The meatballs or Kefta are made from lean ground beef a blend of traditional herbs and spices onions and crushed peppers. I forgot to take a picture of the Kefta before we starting eating. . .they were pretty good, because this was all that was left. We then got two combination platters, one with seafood and one without. The meat platter (Pictured below) consisted of a medley of meat dishes served with three fresh vegetable dishes. The seafood platter was the same as the meat platter with the addition of a few seafood specialties. We did run into a little snafu when the meat platter showed up with some shrimp on it. Darn it! The waitress offered to put in another meat platter without shrimp, but I decided it would be okay if I only ate the food from the edges that were not close to the shrimp. We started to eat the Ethiopian delicacies using the injera a "springy sourdough crepe, made with an indigenous Ethiopian grain called tef" as our utensil. "Pieces are torn off and used as scoops to pick up food with the fingers" Sun-Sentinel.
A few minutes later the manager offered to bring me my own plate of food, she didn't want me to have to risk myself and be eating off the edges of the platter. I appreciated her offered and ordered the Minchetabesh, finely chopped sirloin ginger onions and cardamoms pan browned and sauteed in Ethiopian key wat sauce. For dessert we order a refreshing Key Lime Mousse dessert and enjoyed the sounds of the live music playing in the background. Dinner at Sheba was a wonderful experience, we look forward to our next dinner outing there!