Saturday, October 30, 2010

Surprise Date Night

I'm sure I speak for all women (mothers, wives, girlfriends etc...) when I say that we all love a little quality private time with our significant others....not that private....I'm talking about Date Nights!! Last night my wonderful husband surprised me with a very special date night. He took me to Chandler's Restaurant in S. Deerfield, MA.


Of course, you can't just go to Chandler's Restaurant when Yankee Candle is sitting right next door, all lonesome, wanting you to go inside and look around...So that's exactly what we did!! I love love LOVE browsing around Yankee Candle, I mean seriously, who doesn't?? There's so many different rooms to explore, it takes at least a couple hours to walk through. When you walk in the doors, someone is there to give you a map for the building!! Lets see...When you first enter there is the area with a bunch of treats such as baking mixes, dinner mixes, festive plates/mugs/accessories, snacks, candles (duh!), candie, etc....the list really goes on and on.


There are a couple rooms that are full from floor to ceiling with candles. That's the point of going right?! My husband and I have aquired quite the collection ourselves...perhaps too many? Nahh!! They also have a "Home" room, Santa's Workshop for the children, a room with a waterfall, German room, and even a Cafe full of treats that Mrs. Claus baked herself!! My husband and I bought ourselves a giant bearclaw for our dessert, covered in chocolate and white chocolate with mini chocolate chips. Absolutely sinful!! :)

Simply talking about Yankee Candle doesn't do it any justice, you really just need to take a day and make a trip of it with the family or even friends. Now lets get to the real date huh??

It is highly recommended that you make reservations at Chandler's Restaurant. Our reservations were for 7:30 however, we arrived about an hour early and the staff were more than friendly about it and welcoming. Now, I'm sure the food is always excellent whether lunch or dinner. If you want the real "wow" factor though, I advise going for dinner. The atmosphere is completely different. The restaurant is very dimly lit and you actually have a candlelit dinner with a real candle burning on the table. The candlelight is the only light you really have. I found it to be very romantic and cozy especially on a cold fall evening!


They have many wines and cocktails to choose from to start you off. Then theres several small plates and sides...My husband and I ordered the Local Artisan Cheese Plate. You are served a plate with 3 cheeses : Blue Cheese, Mountain Goat Cheese, and one other cheese I can't remember what it was. Along with the cheese you are served : Pear slices, Grapes, Fig, some kind of nutty spread, and very crispy bread, almost like a cracker. I enjoyed all 3 cheeses, the goat cheese was very rich but very nice and the one I couldn't remember had the mildest taste of the 3, my husband and I both enjoyed that one. I believe my husbands favorite was the blue cheese. I enjoyed all of the cheeses along with the grapes and the spread was very nice too.  Very scrumptious, decadent appetizer!! Absolutely loved it!!

For our main course, My husband and myself each ordered the same meal - Beef Tenderloin with roasted onions, blue cheese, mashed potatoes and veal demi-glace. This was hands down, no lie, for real....the BEST dinner I have ever had in my life!! Our meat was cooked medium rare and I swear when I first cut into the meat, it fell right apart. Like butter...it was amazing!! The blue cheese was ontop of the beef and it sort of became a little melty and combining that with the beef was *drooling* sooo rich and delicious!! The potatoes and vegetables were fantastic and the sauce all the food was sitting ontop of, was simply devine!! Words cannot describe it. I ate my dinner as slowly as possible to make it last as long as possible. I think I nearly drove my husband crazy because I talked about how amazing dinner was like half the way home...maybe more....I could talk about it for the next week. The candlelight, the fantastic food, being there for our first real intimate dinner with my husband. A really great experience that I want to repeat like every night! : ) Just kidding.....sort of....

Chandler's Restaurant has been the best date with anyone let alone my husband. I highly suggest it to other couples or families (they have a kids menu too!) wanting to do something different or looking for a place for a special occasion. The prices are a little pricey as any fine dining restaurant would be so be warned. Attire should be somewhat dressy, not quite formal, but definitly not casual. I wore nice heels, dark jeans and a nice sweater.

On a last note, They seem to have events here and there too, you can check the website for a list of upcoming events and occasions. Iron Chef Michael Symon will be visiting the restaurant on Novemer 5th from 2-330pm for a book signing!! How exciting is that?? I thought that was awesome!!

*Sigh* The next day and I think I'm still on, what I like to call, a "Date Night High"!!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Haight-Brown Vineyard

How many of you love wine? How about a nice relaxing night, romantic dinner with a glass of your favorite wine? Or curling up on the sofa with a glass of wine and a nice book to read??


Well, I love it too. My husband and I have experimented a bit with wines and found a couple we liked, but I've always wanted to do a tasting. Curious, I looked on the internet to find some wineries/vineyards in our area and found Haight-Brown Vineyard. First opened in 1973, it is the first established winery. How awesome is that? I thought it sounded perfect for our first tasting!

When the day came for us to venture off to our first wine tasting, it was a very rainy, cold, dreary day. Still determined to go out there and do something out of the ordinary for us, we went out on our merry way to Haight-Brown Vineyard in Litchfield, CT!! I was soooo excited when we arrived, the first thing I saw out my window was the vineyard itself, with rows and rows of grapes! Then we pulled into the parking lot and I layed eyes on the largest wine barrel I have ever seen in my life!! Seriously, HUGE! As we entered the winery, I was so anxious to explore.  We went up the stairs to the little gift shop and looked around. The inside of the winery is absolutely gorgeous with the wood bar and floors and the fireplace, along with wine barrel tables and chairs. They have all kinds of goodies like chutney, spreads, wine glass/bottle accessories, cute knick knacks and even doggie squeak toys that look like wine bottles! (I thought those were adorable)

Now comes the best part. The reason that brought us there. The wine tasting!! Imagine sitting inside a historic, cozy winery with the rain pouring outside, you're inside all warm sipping on some wine. Perfect right? Romantic? I sure thought so!! My husband and I decided to do a full tasting and that included tasting 12 wines, with a cheese plate and chocolate plate for $15. Not bad. The girl who was conducting the tasting was very friendly and nice and she let us share. The cheeses were a goat cheese, montery jack, and a peppercorn cheese. It didn't matter what cheese we had with what wine. The chocolate plate (cup) had 3 different chocolates that specifically went with 3 of their wines. Knowing it was our first tasting, she taught us the standard procedure - Smell the wine. Swirl the wine. Smell the wine again. When you swirl the wine, you are letting the air get at it and swirl into it, then smelling it afterwards, it should be more fragrant than the first time smelling it. You also have taste buds all around your mouth so it's good to swish it around in there a bit. The chocolates, she had us take a small bite, let it melt a bit in our mouths and then take a sip of wine while there was still chocolate in our mouths. The wines really brought out the flavor in the chocolate, and vice versa. Simply decadent.

Discovering that I enjoyed the goat cheese, I was curious about what other cheeses they had so she took us over to their "Cheese Nook" where they have a variety of cheeses you can buy. I tried some chocolate goat cheese and that was yummy too believe it or not. We ended up buying a very creamy spreadable cranberry cheese that almost resembled a cream cheese..and we also bought a smoked gouda cheese. We also ended up buying our favorite of their wines that we tasted - Strawberry Bliss. She also gave us 2 of their wine glasses for free!! What a great deal!

We are learning what wines we enjoy more than others, we seem to favor white wines and fruit wines over red wines. A few other favorites from HB include - Covertside White, Picnic Red, and Pink Cadillac. Their Merlot was also very nice, it wasn't a favorite but you could so tell it was aged in an oak barrel, it really had an "oaky" taste to it. A cozy holiday wine perhaps??

After our fantastic tasting, we walked in the rain (with umbrellas) around the vineyard and we were even allowed to taste the grapes right off the vine! Overall, a fantastic experience and I'm very glad we had our first tasting at their winery!!






**All of these pictures were taken by my husband and myself, they did not come off the website**





Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Mommy and Me (In the Kitchen!)

The other day was a rainy, cold, dreary day (along with each day that followed!!). So what did I do on that damp day?? Went to my Mom's House to bake Pumpkin Cupcakes of course!


Remember the Martha Stewart recipe I posted awhile back for Pumpkin Cupcakes? That's what we made! It was quality "Mommy and Me" time at its best. Like those days when my older brother and I were small children that would help our mother bake and always argue over who got to lick the spoons and bowls! Honestly, I think we would still fight for that privilege!! Just one of those things that will never change I'm sure.

First we had to run to the store to get a few things, then we returned to my mothers house to get ready, set, bake!! While I was busy preparing and mixing our dry ingredients in a bowl, she worked on mixing our wet ingredients...Forgetting she'd been baking for years, I kept checking that she was following the recipe. haha. Then we combined our ingredients and used the electric mixer to mix and blend and stir em all together. Spooned them into our halloween themed cupcake liners and baked em all up! They only took around 25 minutes to bake and let me tell you, the kitchen was smelling amazing!! They came out of the oven looking cute and perfect and we let them cool...then came the most fun part. I got to frost them all by myself, with my mother there to mock me of course as I know I used a few "techniques" she hadn't seen before!! I'm sure it was a funny site to see. After they were frosted we stuck in little halloween themed toothpicks to make them even more adorable.


Now, I am not a huge "pumpkin" fan...I was worried I might not like these...however, these cupcakes were absolutely delicious in my opinion!! Some of the reviews on the recipe said that it lacked the pumpkin flavor but in my own experience, they were perfectly pumpkin!! Overall, it was a fantastic day spent with my Mommy, Just like the old times...Only instead of begging to crack the eggs, or being told not to make a mess, or fighting with my older brother...we talked about what was new in our lives and with our husbands and had good ole girl talk!! Thanks for a great day Mom! I love you!!