Williamsburg Winery

We went to a Reserve Wine Tasting today that was delicious.  First a tour of the facilities and then a sampling of nine different wines with cheese, crackers and fruit.

 Historical wine bottles

 Oak barrels from France, USA, and some other countries

 Good cheeses along with bread and crackers

 After the tasting and some wine purchases

we went for lunch at the restaurant at the winery and

 had some tuna wraps.

 Pictures of some grape vines taken on the way out when it wasn't pouring any more.

Williamsburg - Day 2

It started to rain before we even got out of bed this morning.

We had lunch at Duce's Deli. That was our first reward for previewing a unit here, but this was "not" a timeshare sell attempt. The lunch choices would not have been Weight Watcher smart choices.

After that we spent a couple of hours listening to the "not a sales pitch" sales pitch. We DID NOT buy but got our reward of a gift card.

Then we took the Nature walk here on the property. The sun actually came out and we had a few hours of nice weather.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Williamsburg - Day 1

It's rainy today but we took a bus tour to Jamestown, Colonial Wiliamsburg and Yorktown. Good day to be on a bus.
We had lunch at Pierce's PITT Bar-B-Cue.

Did some grocery shopping at Martin's when we got back and at night we went to a wine tasting at the resort.

On the Road Again

We left over an hour later than we planned but 7 AM was probably a little unreasonable but at least it got us up and moving.

More books

The blurb beta testing for Bookify is over tomorrow and just in the nick of time I was able to get all my books ordered.
These are the two others that I did.
I can't wait to see how this one comes out since it has my favorite subjects.

Bugs, Birds, Beasts and Beauty by Barbara Boudens | Make Your Own Book

This one is similar to the one I ordered from Shutterfly as far as most of the pictures, but the layouts are different.

Tucker Visits Grandma & Larry by Barbara Boudens | Make Your Own Book

More Meatballs

OK - I think Wegmans entered my brain and took my meatball recipe - sort of.

In the Fall 2010 Menu magazine there's a meatball recipe that is just like the one I make.
It's so strange that the last time I made meatballs I used panko bread crumbs instead of Italian bread crumbs and that's what they have in their recipe too.  And I always put grated cheese in too, have for decades.  So here's a combined recipe of the best of both recipes that I used today, so if I'm not home and want to make them, I can just look here.

 Meatballs
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup grated Italian Cheese (parmesan, romano or both - whatever you have)
2 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley or 2 tsp dried
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 # 90% Ground Beef

Mix all ingredients together and then with hands mix in beef just until combined
(overmixing will toughen meatballs - per Wegmans) - great - I always loved using my hands - they probably got that from me too!

Shape into meatballs. I like to add directly to sauce, on low, until cooked.
Wegmans baked them in the oven at 450 for 15-17 min. but I don't like flat bottom meatballs.  

I added them to Ragu Chunky Spaghetti Sauce and also made sausage that went into the sauce.  And this was our dinner - after spending over an hour putting together all the speaker wires for the zillionth time over the last few months.  Thank goodness this time everything works with the new receiver.  I hope to never have to deal with it again.

Letters from My Father

It's taken me 9 months to create this book, from looking at the letters, scanning them in and formatting all 365 pages but here it is.  Just need to order it.

Letters from My Father by Barbara Boudens | Make Your Own Book

Rain Rain and More Rain

After having coffee with Mary,  just around the corner were 5 turkeys fattening up for Thanksgiving on someone's front lawn.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Hewitt St,Rochester,United States

Hurd Orchards

We went to Hurd Orchards today for the Autumn Renaissance lunch and lecture.
The lunch was wonderful as usual as was the company.

Loved the centerpiece with the eggplants

Plums with goat cheese, lemon zest,

thyme walnut dressing, drizzled with honey

Salad - YUMMY - dressing had sour cream,
buttermilk and lemon zest among other stuff

Apple cider (frozen from last year) with some Perrier

Oatmeal honey bread and Apple muffins

Beef stew, green beans with mozzarrella an
plum applesauce.  In the stew were Wealthy
apples as well as a variety of other tart apples,
garlic, leeks, raisins, cider, vinegar.  Flour
and sear meat.  Cook in 350 degree oven.

Apple Berry pie

Did you notice the cobweb glistening in the sunlight?  

At least this is in a barn not the living room.

Hail Hail and Thunder too

It was a strange weather day!  Golf was cancelled because it was pouring in the morning.  Then the sun came out.  Then it rained again.  On and on like that all day.  On my way over to Wegmans it started to pour.  I almost turned around and came back home but figured I could just wait it out in the parking lot.

Then as I was sitting there and playing with my phone, I thought the rain got awfully noisy.  I looked up and it was hailing.  OK phone - let's video.

-- Posted from my iPhone

My Birthday

Had a great day.  Two great cards from Larry started the day.  Went to lunch at Aladdins with Barb Stoner.  Since it was such a beautiful day we sat outside and had a great 2 hour visit.  Then a tear jerker card from Laura once I was home.
Next it was off for 9 holes with Larry followed by Margaritas on the deck and a yummy dinner.

Then my birthday Skype with the Spiess family.