And the Bar is OPEN!

Got the most important part of the house decorated. 

What is YOUR favorite Christmas cocktail?

Christmas Decor ~ the Wino Way

So I had some fun making an ornament wreath and have since gone bonkers, making another wreath and 3 topiaries. One of the wreaths and topiaries has a wine theme.

What do you think?

With 24 Days Left 'til Christmas, I guess it's time...

Really do love the Yamhill AVA

A couple weeks ago, we decided the fall color warranted a trip into wine country. We headed west at first, but found the coast range was already putting many vineyards in the shade now that we've turned back the clocks and the days are shorter. We headed into unknown territory and ended up at Lemelson.

Unfortunately, the tasting room had already closed for the day, but they let us take some photos and made a recommendation for us.

They sent us over to Anne Amie, and indicated their tasting room would still be open. As we turned in the driveway, the sun was making the maples behind the grape leaves glow.

As we headed up the hill, we had a feeling there'd be pretty views.

We we not disappointed, although the sun went down too quickly!

The wine was good. The pinot blanc was too sweet for us, but the 2011 Winemaker's Selection pinot noir was very tasty, as was the 2011 syrah.

We took a couple tastings outside to catch the last rays of sun. Very pretty spot in the Yamhill AVA.

Playing with the new camera at Silver Falls State Park

So, I finally upgraded to my first digital SLR. The Nikon D3300. It is awesome. I'm still getting used to it, but its maiden outing was a pretty hike in the Willamette Valley.

This is Silver Falls State Park. You can actually walk behind this waterfall, which is very cool. There were lots of photographers out the day we went. AND a marathon in the park. It was still a splendid day.

Cute baby mushrooms growing inside a log. These were about half an inch tall at most. Adorable! We took a nice, leisurely hike, staying out until our tummies rumbled. 

On our way back north, we stopped for lunch in a little dive Mexican joint. Delicious! Hope we can find that place again! The fall colors were definitely peaking. Thank you, new camera, for getting me out into nature!

Hee hee ~ too true!

Clever decorating idea

So festive! And simple! Too bad we don't drink more whites.

May have to break out some champagne. From CherylStyle.com 

A little humor

Sunday Drive

Last weekend, we had one of those gorgeous October weekends. Not just sunny and spectacular, but warm. Really, unseasonably, warm. We decided to take a break from the insanely long list of chores and go for a good old-fashioned Sunday drive.

We headed east through the Columbia River Gorge, stopping for a photo op. Ahh...fresh air. 

Then we took the old highway, which meanders through the forest above the river. Our first destination was Hood River, where we stopped for wine tasting at Naked. Met an awesome couple and stayed longer than planned. Eager to hit the "fruit loop", we departed Hood River and headed to the farms. First stop was the pumpkin patch at Rasmussen. Pretty views, even if the sunflowers were droopy.

This is the perfect pumpkin. Surely this one is The One.

After the pumpkin patch, we also visited Mountain View orchard and stocked up on apples for making apple crisp. (Also got some pears and blueberries). Then we headed round the mountain to visit Timberline.

Mount Hood had so little snow! Crazy dry and warm up there. By now, it was probably 4pm and still 80 degrees up at Timberline. We headed into the lodge and up to the bar to enjoy a cocktail with a view. Hubs had an Old Fashioned: A pre-prohibition cocktail, invented to improve the taste of indifferent whiskey. Pendleton, sugar, lodge made bitters, orange, cherry, served on the rocks with soda. (circa 1806). The wife started with the French 75: Served in a champagne flute: Crater Lake gin, lemon, sugar, champagne with candied lemon. (circa 1915).

We sat in the front window with a fantastic view of Mount Jefferson to the south. Patriotic flag: bonus.

We also ordered their cheese plate. The marionberry pinot noir jam was so good! And all five cheeses were local:
Aged Cheddar-Cada Dia Creamery, Prineville, OR
Glacier Blue-Cascadia Creamery, Trout Lake, WA
Aged Gouda-Willamette Valley Creamery, Salem, OR
Goat Chevre-Briar Rose Creamery, Dundee, OR
Camp Fire (Jack)-Mt Townsend Creamery, Port Townsend, WA
Yum. Notice the alder-smoked hazelnuts?

The wife followed up with the Bee's Knees: The original lemon drop, developed to disguise the flavor of bad gin during prohibition. Crater Lake gin, lemon, honey, sprig of rosemary. (circa 1930). It pays to Not be the designated driver. It doesn't pay when you're too drunkity to notice the hubs is taking boobie pics.

After taking a terrible selfie, a tourist offered to take our photo. Long shadows at the end of the day!

Yet here we are... Wearing shorts...in October...at Mt. Hood. 5,960 feet elevation! No, you don't often get days like this in the Fall! Now, for Current conditions.

Thug Kitchen Cookbook Trailer (explicit) - LOL

Penner Ash Review and Kason Vineyards Quickie

After seeing a photograph of the view from Penner-Ash on the news one evening, we decided to pay them a visit on Saturday. Our first stop, however, was the farmer’s market. We saw some beautiful fall flower arrangements, but we were on a mission: picking up some cheese, meat, and bread for a fall wine tasting outing.

Here’s a brief review of the tasting at Penner-Ash:

 

2013 Oregon Viognier: Wonderful aroma, pale color. White peach, pear, and honeydew melon. Slightly sweet for my taste. At the recommendation of the server, we took our tasting outside and settled into one of their comfy Adirondack chairs. 

 

2013 Oregon Roséo: Pretty pink color, nice aroma. Strawberry, spiced tea, hibiscus, raspberry. Overall very nice and well balanced. On this pour, I got the remainder of the bottle, so a bit extra, and I savored it slowly over the fantastic view.  

2012 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir: Beautiful color and great aroma. Cherry, bramble, green tea, vanilla. Soft palate, excellent balance, gentle sneak attack of dryness after swallowing, very nice complexity. My favorite in the tasting.  

2012 Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir: Nice color; plum, vanilla, blackberry, and rose petal. This pinot is more plummy and slightly sweeter than the Shea. Ever so slight hint of tobacco. Nice complexity.

2012 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: Another one with good color and scent. Oak, dark cherries, Asian spice. Stronger tannins than the other two pinots, tasty, but less well balanced.

Since this visit put us in Yamhill County, we couldn’t go home without popping over to Kason. Steve was working the tractor, having just completed harvesting some chardonnay grapes. 

He had to run them over to Bald Peak, so we gave him a wave, and missed his charm while we sipped on pinot. Look at that winning smile!

We pulled out our Willamette Valley chive and pepper cheese, Olympic Provisions salami, and farmer’s market crusty wheat. Ah, a blissful Saturday indeed.

Vancouver in a Day

When we stayed up in Birch Bay for a week of walking, reading, hot tubbing and relaxing (will have to do a post about that place), we did do two daytrips. One of those was up to Vancouver, British Columbia. We first stopped for dim sum in Richmond.

Kacey enjoyed watching the strange morning aerobics on the TV behind us. Tak Heng was were we ended up and it was full of locals. OMG, so tasty, but we ordered too much food!

After that, we went to the aquarium. So terribly overrun with kids; wished we'd happened upon an "adults only" day. You'd think with kids back in school it wouldn't have been so bad. You'd be wrong.

Between the screaming kids and the small, sad tanks for the marine life, we cannot actually recommend a visit. However, the jellyfish sure were beautiful.

Afterward, we walked the length of the seawall. Yep, the whole thing (and then some).  

 Saw lots of birds and even a playful seal. Beautiful flowers in Stanley Park. All in all, a very nice day.

Whiskey Flowchart

Courtesy of BusinessInsider.com

Woodinville Whiskey

I love a good Rye but Woodinville Whiskey Rye is truly an artisan Rye.  The taste of cinnamon and pepper with notes of vanilla, make this Rye exceptional.  I truly enjoyed my tasting.

The Whiskey is very good a blend of corn, wheat and rye in the mash bill; it adds significant depth to this bourbon, and the Rye has a mash bill of 100% rye. 

Now apparently the Woodinville Whiskey Company has gotten into making Vodka, but I traded my taste of Vodka for an extra helping of Rye.  I am a purist with Vodka, so I passed on tasting it; probably should have tried the vodka. 

For those of you who have a sweet tooth, Woodinville Whiskey has something truly amazing for you: real Maple syrup aged in used whiskeybarrels.  This adds some outstanding flavors to their maple syrup. We have the sweet of maple syrup touched with vanilla, cinnamon, and that smoky taste of a great whiskey.  Goes great over vanilla ice cream!  When you heat this syrup, be prepared to have the flavors of that excellent Woodinville Whiskey added to your breakfast; much more pronounced when heated. They also do barrel aged Honey!

In short, Woodinville Whiskey is a stop well worth making if you are anywhere near Woodinville, Washington. Deciding on the designated driver can be tough. Woodinville also has several award-winning wineries.  

Back yard - part 2

This part we hired out to our neighbor Victor-e since we wanted to be sure it was done right, with drainage and the whole bit. Their crew worked quickly, in spite of puppy paws inspecting each evening. We chose a 2'x2' charcoal paver, which we thought would look good when wet (nine months of the year).


We thought the transition from patio to cobblestones (Victor's recommendation) to pavers worked well, and definitely like that we no longer have to step 'up' into the back yard.

Puppies don't seem to know what to do on the pavers. No more digging in the dirt. Time to invest in chew toys. 

We would like to get some Adirondack or lounge chairs for the new spot, but there doesn't seem to be much sense in buying furniture in September. 

In the meantime, the faded olive green chairs got some turquoise paint, and the vintage metal tables went from white to black. Puppies approve. L-to-R: Sparrow, Adam Levine, and Lulu.