The second installment of my trip pictures, this one focusing on Nashville. Above is a “selfie spot” so designated with a sign in one of the atriums at the Opry Hotel.

A post from Carolyn. Once we landed in Nashville, we took a van to downtown, to a lovely hotel, the Thompson, in The Gulch. The Gulch got its name from its roots as a busy railroad yard dating to before the Civil War, which included a roundhouse (where rail cars were repaired), a coal yard and a paint shop in subsequent years. Nashville (downtown) is a little bit hilly, so it would seem logical it would be a good place for a railroad yard. Now it’s a bustling and thriving part of downtown Nashville, filled with shops, restaurants and hotels.

That’s one of the water features, in the third atrium at the Grande Olde Opry Hotel. 

One of the days there several of us went out to the Grand Olde Opry. It was interesting to hear the history about the Opry. The Opry music venue used to be in the heart of town, then it moved a bit further (a few blocks, really) to an old church. The neighborhood didn’t like the noise, so they moved further away, and now they’re about 15+ miles out of town. where they’ve built a very impressive auditorium and a huge, HUGE hotel. Since I’m not into country music, the others went on a tour of the Opry itself, and Dylan and I walked over to the hotel, about 1/2 mile away on a marked walking path. We took our time meandering through the hotel atriums, pausing here and there to take pictures. There are stores and food in various places in the atriums also.

The hotel, The Gaylord Opryland Hotel has 2888 rooms. Beyond imagination. If you can picture three sort-of elongated ovals, and each oval has a huge fully glassed-in atrium, 4-5 stories high. And of course, room windows face into the atriums. Each atrium was different. The third one, probably the largest, actually has a river flowing around inside it and you can take rides on a boat around the island in the center. Each atrium has wide catwalks so you can see everything from a bird’s eye view. I took dozens and dozens of photos there, but I thought two to show you were sufficient.

Our first night in Nashville all of us gathered for a very special dinner at a steak restaurant just down the street from the hotel, Kayne Prime. We had a delicious dinner there with several bottles of wine enjoyed by all. I had a wagyu filet mignon. Kayne’s is similar to Morton’s, in that you order a cut of meat, and nothing comes with it – you have to order sides. We had several, but the highlight of the meal – to me – were the popovers, which were served piping hot several times over the course of our meal.

Before we sat down, however, we waited in the bar area and I asked the waiter – – so, I’m not really a connoisseur of bourbon, though I like it, so which one should I try? He said, I have just the one. That’s it above right. Served in a highball glass with a very large, clear ice cube in it. Belle Meade. So very smooth and easy to drink. I nursed it all through dinner. I liked it so much I went to Total Wine the other day and bought a bottle of Belle Meade, Reserve. I don’t know if I had the reserve, or the regular, so I splurged and bought reserve. There, on the left are the corks from the bottles of wine we enjoyed. The Illumination Quintessa (a white) was delightful.  So was the Crown  Point (red), and the BV (red), and the last one (also a red) I can’t remember what it was (I’d had enough wine at that point). Julian ordered a cheese platter at the end, and I thoroughly enjoyed a few bites – WITH some torn pieces of popover to go with them. Oh my goodness, was that special. I liked it so much I bought a new popover pan the other day, a nonstick one, so maybe I can make them occasionally. I used to have a popover pan, but it was not a nonstick and I had numerous problems with it over the years so I’d given it away. I read with my new one, not to put it in the dishwasher as it might remove the nonstick surface. Seems illogical, but several amazon customers commented on it.

The other day we were in Nashville I went on a food tour. I’d signed up for it online several weeks before the trip. It was great fun. We met at a central location (I took a Lyft to and from my hotel) and 13 of us piled into a big van and off we went. First we stopped at a place called the donut distillery. Huh, we all said? It’s a thing in Nashville. The distillery and brewery combo serves home made donuts (one of them with a whiskey glaze – see the right hand donut in the photo – my favorite). In the daytime, more mornings, I’d guess, they make donuts. And then as the day moves on, it’s more of a brew pub and bar with food (donuts notwithstanding). Back into the van and we stopped at Christie’s Cookie Co. It’s distinction is that they make the famous cookie given away at Doubletree Hotels. We trooped through the storefront and could choose a cookie. I tried the TCB (triple chocolate blondie).

We passed by the high school where Oprah graduated, stopped at the downtown Farmer’s Market and had some pulled pork on grits. Also stopped at Martin’s BBQ, so they said, it’s the #1 barbecue joint in Nashville. We tried a rib, some brisket with various types of barbecue sauces, and some hush puppies. After this trip, I’ve decided I’m not much of a fan of hush puppies. If any place should make them well, it would be in the south, right? I had them several times, and never really warmed-up to them (too dry).

Once back at our starting point, we were served teeny-tiny little glasses of moonshine and bourbon. The straight moonshine (left) was gosh-awful. I don’t know how anybody could drink that stuff. The next one was a Apple Pie Moonshine. Hey what, you say? Yes, well, it’s moonshine they’ve added some kind of sweetener to and apple pie spices. It was quite nice (I bought a little bottle of it). The next one was a not-very-aged bourbon. Ehh. Then the far right was a specialty liqueur sold at the little distillery where the tour originates – it’s a take on Kahlua, they call it Mo Cocoa Joe. It was nice, but I have Kahlua in my liquor cabinet already.

The drink I liked the best (which they served us after our tasting above), is pictured below right. A drink called a bushwacker. It’s a rum-based drink (so nothing whatsoever to do with bourbon and moonshine distilleries in Tennessee). It’s a frozen blender drink with a bunch of different things in it.

It’s refreshing – I liked it enough that I went onto Google to look for a recipe:

Bushwacker: 2 ounces dark rum, 1 ounce coffee liqueur (such as Kahlúa), 1 ounce dark creme de cacao, 2 ounces whole milk, 1 ounce cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez), garnish: nutmeg, freshly grated.

I have yet to make one since I got home, but there’s one in my future sometime. Definitely a hit on a warm day and it was one that day in Nashville. If any of you have gotten this far in the reading, congratulations! I’ll continue the Nashville saga in another post.

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Probably I’ll break up the photos from this trip into sections as I’m going to post plenty of pictures, and you’ll get bored with them all.

I’m lucky enough to have a distant relative (through my daughter-in-law Karen) who needed to take a business trip. Julian decided to take a private plane and not go commercial, and he invited 5 others of  us to go along to his business destinations. At left, here I was, ready to go when a couple, Patti & Bruce, that I’ve known for some years also, who live near me, and were also invited on the trip. They came by to pick me up as we wended our way north (by car) to Santa Ynez (central coast wine country here in California). We drove there the day before our flight, spent the night with Julian and his family, then we were up early the next morning to catch the first leg, Santa Maria to Denver.

So there’s a story to tell about the glass of wine at left. Julian enjoys good wine. That’s a bit of an understatement, really. He enjoys fine wine. I took two bottles with me from my DH’s cellar, two reds. One got poured down the drain (over the hill, even though it had been a good bottle at one time) and the other one was nice enough, from 2005. When Julian flies, he likes to drink from crystal glasses, so he lugs along a special padded case with his heavy, Irish crystal glasses. That was the view from my seat, with fine red wine as we headed toward Denver. This was by far the best glass of wine we had on the trip, a Stag’s Leap 2017 Fay. Julian shared it with all of us.

As it happens, I have good friends, Sue & Lynn (top right), who live in Denver. There are a number of Sue’s recipes here on my blog, and my DH Dave and I visited them (and I have driven there myself in 2015 a year after Dave passed away) where they live in Morrison, a hilly town about 15 miles SW of Denver. We took off from Santa Maria and flew 2 hours to a regional airport a bit NW of downtown Denver, in Broomfield. Sue and Lynn drove their car out on the tarmac and met us at the plane. As it happened Lynn knew Patti from their business careers. Small world! At right is a picture of Dylan, another one of the guests on the trip, as we were getting ready to board.

They took me back to their home, and I spent 2 days and 2 nights with them. We went out to dinner to a Czech restaurant in Morrison, Cafe Prague. What a great meal we enjoyed there – I’d go back there anytime! Sue and I both had chicken schnitzel. The next day I went to church with them, then we took a lovely drive up into the mountains. Later Sue prepared a fabulous dinner with lemon chicken. I have the recipe and will need to make it and take pictures to post. The next morning we drove up to Boulder, a special trip there, for us to go shopping at Peppercorn, an independent kitchenware store there. If you’re a cook, you have to go there if you’re ever in Boulder. This was my third visit to that store. And yes, I bought something, a gift. I didn’t buy anything for myself. If I’d had more time, there’s no question I would have found some things to buy. We only had 45 minutes and I barely made it around all the aisles in that period of time.

After Boulder, they delivered me back to the airport in Broomfield, to head to Nashville. We enjoyed a beautiful smoked salmon platter, among other things, on the flight. And did I mention wine? Yes, more wine.

This trip was quite a thrill. The flights were so quiet and peaceful, as we flew at 45,000 feet altitude, always. No bumps. The pilots avoided all the weather events going on far below us.

More in a day or two when I’ve downloaded more of the photos.

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On my driving trip to Northern Cal, I stayed just one night in Sonoma. It’s a very cute little town – there’s a photo I found online at sonomavalley.com, of the main square or plaza. My B&B was about a block off to the top right – so easy to walk into town. Sonoma still retains its old world charm and almost frontier character. I wasn’t there for the wine – my darling DH was probably chiding me from heaven to have me stop at this or that winery, but I wasn’t there to do tasting or buying, especially since it was summer (hot) and any wine would have to stay in the car for the next several days (not good). There’s a special table/décor store on the plaza (top at the center) that I wanted to visit, but it was closed by the time I walked there, and I left too early the next morning to do any shopping.

Here’s a photo of the table in my room at the Cottage Inn and Spa, where I stayed. The B&B is a combination of two old Spanish homes, side by side, with just charmingly decorated rooms. I stayed in the Courtyard Suite, a small but cozy room with a tiny but well outfitted kitchen and a view (if my door was left open) of the courtyard and fountain.

Breakfast was delivered (a pretty covered basket) to a hook outside my door and I made a good pot of coffee to go with it. Very nice.

The little B&B has one distinction – there is only one room with a TV. I read my book and slept like a log.

I asked for a recommendation for dinner and they sent me to the #1 Trip Advisor result, Café La Haye, which is just off the main plaza by about 60 paces. I went early and had a fabulous meal. I put together the photos in a collage – see below.

My dinner comprised two different small dishes – the beet salad on a bed of crème fraiche (I think) and topped with a lovely mound of dressed greens. It was to die for. I sat at a bar (see 2nd picture, small bar at bottom right) that overlooked the kitchen.

My 2nd course was toasted polenta slices (that were very moist) on a bed of something (can’t recall) and topped with shaved fennel and onions and a lovely sauce. I nearly licked the plate clean.

Then I splurged and had their rum raisin gelato/ice cream which was meant to go with a special dessert, but they ran out of the dessert, so I just had the gelato. Oh my, delicious.

When I left, it was still early, so I took a long stroll around all the stores on the perimeter of the plaza. I looked in windows, and browsed inside if the stores were open (some were). The town was busy with visitors and locals.

A charming town. I enjoyed my B&B and my dinner.

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Looking at that you might not know what “heaven in a bun” is contained inside. I mean to tell you, this croissant is something that’s beyond ethereal and as good, if not better, than any croissant I’ve ever eaten. It’s not a regular savory croissant, obviously, but a sweet one, and worth every single calorie!

If you don’t live in Orange County, CA, you might want to pass on by this post. You’re going to miss out – sorry. But if you DO live here, then you must, you simply MUST, go to Rendez Vous, right on PCH, in Corona del Mar. It’s worthy of a side trip. Worthy of an adventure if you live within 50 miles or so.

Learning about the place was easy after I was given a sample of this marvel of pastry. I was having dinner with some of my extended family (they live near this place) and I ate a bite. Then another. And yet another. Then I was sent home with half a one. A few weeks later I was having dinner with them again, and there were more tastes of this for dessert. I determined, right then and there, that I needed to visit the bakery/café all on my own. So I asked my friend Cherrie to meet me – she’s always game for a new adventure. We went in the early morning – about 9:30. I ordered one of the croissants for each of us – intending that I’d eat half and take the other half home. In fact, I recommended to Cherrie that she do the same. Can you guess? We both ate the whole thing. We just couldn’t seem to help ourselves. They do have regular croissants, and I think they have almond croissants too, but this one, the one with chocolate AND almonds (in a kind of almond cream) is the one to order.

Along with it I wanted some coffee. I went up to the counter (picture below) and asked which coffee drink I should order. Without hesitation, the guy said “the almond latte.” Okay, fine with me. Oh my gosh! See the photo at right? It was an almond flavored latte, AND it had that mound of almond-flavored chantilly cream on top. I shudder to think of the calories. I drank it all. It was absolutely divine.

The café (it’s small) has bread (Cherrie and I also bought a baguette they kindly cut in half for us), savory and sweet crepes, sandwiches, and desserts. I haven’t tried any of those yet, but I’ll be going back to try some.

I heard that they make a Buche de Noel log, and my extended family had one from there for Christmas Day dinner (I was in San Diego that day) and they gave it 4 stars. Or 10 stars. A blue ribbon event anyway. I don’t even remember all the other things in their chilled case or on the extensive menu up top, but they have lots of variety, that’s for sure. My only advice – if you want this pastry, go early in the day because whatever they make that day, that’s it. There was only one of those croissants left after my friend Cherrie and I ordered ours.

The café does not have a website. It’s owned by a French couple from Provence. Don’t be confused by a restaurant called Rendezvous in Newport Beach – they’re different. Or with the Le Rendez-Vous in Oceanside. This is the bakery/café across and just down the street (and across PCH) from Five Crowns, and a door or two away from Vin Goat, the sublime cheese shop. Parking can sometimes be a problem – check the back or go onto the nearby side streets. It’s well worth the effort.

Rendez Vous Café & Bakery

3330 East Coast Highway (also known as PCH, Pacific Coast Highway)

Corona Del Mar, CA 92625 (just south of Newport Beach if you don’t know the area)

(949) 791-8730

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Have you ever been to this Smithsonian? The picture shows the atrium of the American Art Museum (also the Portrait Gallery). On the left is a fascinating pool of water, yet you can step right on/in it and you’re just standing on more of the floor. Little tiny jets push water up and over 3 such pools in the atrium. I may have been more intrigued with that than I was with everything in the museum itself.

This museum happened to be across the street from the hotel where we stayed on our second part of our D.C. trip. We were there for 3 nights and 2 days. Sabrina had almost back-to-back interviews with people, so I found some things to do that didn’t tax my foot too much. After walking around in this museum from top to bottom (3 floors, I think it was) I just happened to spot the water out in the atrium, through a window and went to investigate. I sat out in this atrium for about an hour reading my Kindle, basking in the cool air and listening to the tiny trickle of water. Children could play in

the water, they could run up and down the pools, shoes on or off. Each pool of water had but about 1/4 inch of water in it. Interesting feat of engineering.

We weren’t able to get into the Willard Hotel on our 2nd trip to D.C. as there was a huge international conference in town, so we stayed a few blocks away at a Kimpton. I was unimpressed. It must have once been an office building (old) as the hallways were about 10-feet wide. And the bathrooms were  kind of add-ins to the rooms.

One of the days Sabrina asked if we could eat at a “Shake Shack.” I’d never heard of them. Although, as we walked by it the first day, there were probably 40 people in line outside the place. Really, I thought? The next day we were having a late lunch and the line was way down to do-able. I ordered a burger with bacon. Sabrina wanted to order a shake, and thought she had, but they gave her chocolate ice cream. She wasn’t about to wait in line again, so we shared that. The burger was good, I must admit. Exceptional? Well, I’m not a connoisseur, so I’m not sure. It was tasty, though.

Our last night we went to a fantastic restaurant – Zaytinya. It’s Greek, Turkish and Lebanese, and they serve everything tapas style. We went with Powell’s best friend Doug (the one who works for the Consumer Electronics Institute), his wife (the one who works for Homeland Security – I made sure to sit next to her so I could ask her lots of questions about her job – most of which she couldn’t answer), and their son. They frequent this restaurant, so we just let her order for all of us. It was amazing food. If I ever go back to D.C. this will be the first stop for dinner. It’s just a block from the museum above, which was across the street from our hotel, so it was really close and easy.

I can’t begin to tell you what we had – the only thing I really remember was a teeny, tiny little lamb-filled pasta – each little orb was about the size of a pencil eraser. Tender? Oh my yes. Full of flavor too. It’s not on the menu, but regulars know to ask. Everything we ate was terrific.

The next morning was our journey home: we got up at 4:15 am in order to leave the hotel at 4:45 to get to the Baltimore Airport in time for a 6:45 takeoff. We flew to San Francisco (remember, Powell upgraded all of us to first class, yippee!), then to Orange County. Arrived about 1pm west coast time. That evening we all went out to dinner with the extended family (Sabrina’s mom drove up to pick her up) and we talked and talked about the trip. It was great. All of it. Thanks to Powell who arranged it all. I was so glad to be home. My own bed felt wonderful. A few days after we got home I saw a podiatrist who gave me a shot of cortisone in my heel. It’s better. Not exactly fine – far from it – but at least I can go grocery shopping or take some similar kinds of walks each day and not end up in pain by afternoon. I’m taking Aleve every day and that helps too. My physical therapist tells me it could be as long as 10 months for it to heal. The dr. took x-rays and said it’s likely a torn plantar fascia or a very badly stretched one. No broken bones. I didn’t think so.

And since I haven’t talked about my grief process lately, I’ll just add that since I came home from this last trip, I’ve felt better. I’m more comfortable in my single-self. In my empty bed. In my quiet house. I don’t have to have music or the TV on anymore to feel okay. I’m still very, VERY busy, which is a good thing. The 5-month anniversary of Dave’s death was last week, and I just kept busy that day and tried not to think about it. I did talk to Dave’s ashes, in the box in the bedroom – I held the box and shed a few tears, but afterwards I was okay. I’m finally getting a better handle on all the records the attorney needs and am able to get them done (monthly) without too much difficulty now. Now that Quicken and I have come to an understanding.

My outdoor kitchen is still waiting for a couple of things to get finished, but it’s been too darned hot to entertain out there anyway. I am going to have a small get-together with a group of my girlfriends – most of them know one another. That’s in a couple of weeks. I’m going to make things that are already on my blog, but I’ll tell you about it when it happens. My sweet friend Nina, who has done my pedicures for years, is going to come and help me. She likes to cook and offered to come. That way I won’t over-tax my foot and she’ll do some serving and clean-up for me. I’ve never had anyone do that except at a couple of really important events years and years ago. Without Dave to help me do some of the set-up and dishes, cleaning the patio, setting tables, etc., entertaining a big group is overwhelming to me right now. So I’ll see how this works out!

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The view from our 30th floor room and aerie at the Intercontinental near Times Square. To have this clear view, this clear shot, all the way to the Hudson, well, wow is all I can say. One evening while Powell & Sabrina went out walking,  I turned off all the lights in the room and just sat and watched the activity. Couldn’t hear any of the street noise as the windows didn’t open, but I enjoyed just looking at that vista. (And I must admit that I shed a tear that my darling DH wasn’t there beside me.) Powell upgraded the room for us, which was very nice of him to do! I paid for Sabrina’s and my trip, food, hotels, etc., and her mom and dad chipped in some money as well.

Before I do anything else, I need to explain why we took this trip. It wasn’t just a tourist thing with my granddaughter. Powell, my son, Sabrina’s uncle, works in finance, mostly with bonds and audits, and he travels to NYC and DC for a week of meetings every couple of weeks. One family get-together a few months ago, Sabrina asked him “so, uncle, what IS it you do on these trips?” He explained in some detail and then said “want to go with me sometime?” She said YES and I piped up with “I’ll go along as chaperone.” A trip was born.

At first Powell thought he’d just have Sabrina shadow him as he did his work, where he went, sitting in on meetings here and there, but I think he realized that wasn’t going to work. She’d be bored to tears part of the time, and for many of his meetings it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to be there. So, Powell decided to set up short meetings with people he knows in all walks of business. The purpose was twofold: (1) just the process of an “interview” or a “meeting” would be good experience for Sabrina; and (2) she would be exposed to a lot of different professions out there in the big world of business. She says she wants to be a large animal veterinarian, but I think Powell hoped he’d sway her to consider some other professions. She met with two people who work in Powell’s office in New York, one a young woman doing an internship, I think. The other a counterpart of Powell’s. She met with one of Powell’s customers, a woman attorney who has a 12-year old daughter and was just tickled pink to spend half an hour with Powell’s niece, talking careers. One other person is a DC lobbyist (in the water conservation area), one works for a senator, another is a higher-up with the Consumer Electronics Institute; his wife works for Homeland Security (I wished I could have been a little gnat sitting on Sabrina’s shoulder when she had that short tour and meeting).

At each and every interview (Sabrina did 8 altogether) she had to do a little presentation. The homework, most of which she did at home before the trip, was to research each person, find out where they grew up, where they went to school, what their degree(s) were in, what kind of jobs they’ve held, then she had to come up with 3 questions (unique to all 8 people) about them. So, for instance (and I’m totally making up this one), she would ask “so you did your undergrad at Columbia and got a degree in Math, but then you did your MBA at Yale in Economics. How or why did you transition into politics after you graduated?” She impressed all of them with what she’d done (almost all the background info was online – I think Facebook had a major presence in her homework – but the questions were really interesting) and all of the people were happy to talk about themselves and their career paths. She had to wear appropriate business clothes, which was a challenge. She didn’t have a suit, but did wear a black blazer over her very cute business-like knit dresses she and her mom picked out.

So, on her 2nd day of interviews she met a woman at Dean & DeLuca, the food store and restaurant (bakery?) near Times Square. Her uncle gave her instructions – after your meeting with this person, order two of these doughnuts and take them back to the hotel and give one to Grandma. She did exactly that. The photo at left shows two of them stuck together. You might not think these are anything special. You’d be dead wrong. Below you can see the munched-on version: coconut cream filled double glazed raised doughnut. OMGosh. If you are ever in NYC and want a decadent treat, have one of these. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Now, I do like raised doughnuts over cake type, and I didn’t know that I liked coconut cream so much, but I DO! Whether these are available at all of their stores, I don’t know. This thing was incredible.

Sabrina had several things she really, really really wanted to do in NYC. First on the list was a stop at Tiffany’s. She’s not a jewelry person particularly, but she wanted to get something that said she’d “been there,” so on our last afternoon we took the subway (middle of the day, so she was willing to go!) and walked a few blocks of 5th Avenue. She bought a lovely necklace and ring by Paloma Picasso. She got advanced birthday and Christmas money gifts from several family members so she could do that, and Grandma chipped in just a little bit extra. And she wanted her picture taken in front of Tiffany’s. Ticked that one off the list. She also wanted to see Times Square at night (Powell ticked that one) and to walk in Central Park. Well, we had a difficult time with that one, although she and I walked on the outside of the park for a few blocks going to Tiffany’s. I told her she could go walk a bit in the park and I’d park myself on a bench, but she didn’t want to go alone, I guess, and my foot was giving me lots of difficulty that day. But her uncle did walk her a bit into the park one evening, as I mentioned, but only about 100 feet. She wanted some New York pizza, so on one of the days we stopped into a proto-typical NY pizzeria – you wound through a line to get to the 4-5 pizzas they had on offer and you ordered one or two slices. They had a few other Italian specialties (spaghetti and meatballs) but we just got pizza and a soft drink. It wasn’t spectacular, but at least she had some there and could tick that one off her list too. We ticked them all, thank goodness.

Our last night in NYC we went out to dinner. Powell had asked me many months ago if there was any special place I’ve really wanted to go. Immediately, I said Gramercy Tavern. The picture at left is the little foyer area. In years past I’d tried to make reservations there, to no avail. They’re always booked. The travel agency Powell uses was finally able to get us a table, and yes, it was a very special dinner. They only do prix fixe meals, ranging from the vegetarian options at $70+ pp to $109 for the full enchilada. We did the full enchilada. It was glorious. We had several different kinds of meat and lots of vegetables, sides, an amuse bouche as well, a palate cleanser, and then a table laden with desserts, most of which we couldn’t finish so took them back to the hotel. Sabrina and I munched on those for some of the next day. The dinner was Powell’s treat to us/me. Thank you, Powell!

There we are at the table. I think this was before we’d really hardly started eating dinner – we were about to dig into the amuse bouche, I believe. I lost track of all the courses we ate. I know we had lobster and duck as separate items. All of it was outstanding. Did I tell you that we had a celebrity sighting while we were there? My son recognized Tory Burch. I know her lines of clothing, handbags, etc. but I’d not have known her face at all. I never did ask Powell how he knew what she looked like. She was seated at a table about 10-12 feet away with a group of very well-dressed women. That was kind of fun!

This cute little thing was sitting on the podium at the front of the restaurant. It’s a little 6-pot “thing” that would hold little flowers in clay pots. In this case there were little glasses in each slot and they were filled with herbs and flowers. It was just so cute and fragrant!

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This is the front of the Red Rooster in Harlem. When we had dinner there, it was nearly dark. I didn’t even think of trying to take a photo, but it looked just like the above photo which comes from Marcus Samuelsson’s website.

My granddaughter is 16. Very poised. Athletic. Pretty. Thoughtful. A terrific student. A good conversationalist. An ideal roommate in my book! We had so much fun on this trip. After spending 3 nights in D.C. we took the train up to New York City. We checked into our hotel (more on that in my next post) in the Theater District. Sabrina could hardly wait to get out on the streets. She wanted to actually see Times Square. It was just a few blocks away. She might have been a teeny bit disappointed in it by daylight. The crowds were horrendous everywhere. The next evening Powell took her on about a 5-mile walk and she got to see just a tiny bit of Central Park (Powell would only walk about 100 feet into a well-lit area), blocks and blocks of the shops on 5th Avenue, and then ended up in Times Square. At that point I think she felt she’d “been to NYC.”

Anyway, we did some window shopping our first afternoon, then returned to the hotel to change clothes and off we went to dinner. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you may remember awhile back I did a review of Marcus Samuelsson’s book Yes, Chef: A Memoir. If you’re at all interested in reading more about it, go to my blog post I wrote in 2012.

Chef Marcus Samuelsson has made a huge name for himself. Born in Ethiopia, he was orphaned at a young age and adopted by a Swedish family, so really, his first language is Swedish. He went to culinary school in Europe, did his stages a couple of places, then aimed for New York. He worked for some years at Aquavit, the very highly acclaimed Swedish restaurant in NYC. I think he produced a cookbook for them as well. Then he began to be noticed, and somehow got himself onto the Food Network and the rest is history, as the saying goes. He’s written 3-4 cookbooks in the last few years (obviously he has help with that) and opened several restaurants around the U.S.  The Red Rooster was first. And what order the rest of them came, I don’t know, but he has one at Lincoln Center in NYC, another at JFK airport, 3 restaurants in Sweden, AND I was blown away – how did this happen – he’s opened a restaurant here in my neck of the woods in California – a place called Marc Burger (both here in Costa Mesa, CA and Chicago). If you want to take a look at all of his restaurants, there’s a list and links on his website. This local one is located inside the Home Store at Macy’s Department Store. Who knew? I sure didn’t. I’m going to have to check it out really soon! Obviously they only serve burgers.

So, a couple of weeks before the trip I went online and made a reservation for the Red Rooster. Since it’s located in Harlem, I decided we should go early, so I had no difficulty booking a table at 5:30. Sabrina and I took the subway – her first adventure on the underground transportation system. Let me just say for the record – she didn’t like it. Not any of it. On one of our subway trips we had to change to another line at Union Station, so we actually exited out of the subway (meaning we had to pay again to go back to the subways) just so she could see the big, monstrous main hall at Union Station. She thought that was ever so cool.

Anyway, we navigated ourselves north to Harlem. Once we exited at our stop, and emerged into the streets, there was the Red Rooster about 100 feet away. So very easy. During dinner Sabrina said, “uhm, Grandma, could we, pretty please, take a taxi back to the hotel after dinner?” I said sure – $50 later. But oh well, if it made her happy! It did.

Now, down to dinner. Red Rooster has an all-Southern (American) menu, and Sabrina and I had such fun choosing. We both had a drink – mine with alcohol (that I didn’t like – it had some kind of bitters in it and it was very bitter, too bitter) but Sabrina had some kind of fancy non-alcoholic one they concocted for her. She loved hers. Here are the photos from our evening at Red Rooster. Sabrina ordered mac ‘n cheese with bacon and greens (absolutely fabulous – I had 2 bites – rich, but smooth and a great combo of cheeses). I ordered shrimp and grits, one of my favorites and this one was every bit as good as my own recipe, which you can read here on my blog.

For dessert we ordered a cobbler – I think it was peaches, served with vanilla ice cream, a side of whipped cream and a berry coulis to pour over the top. Oh my goodness, was that ever delicious. We ate every bite, I think, with me scraping the side of the gratin dish.

In doing the research for this post, I went to amazon and discovered that Marcus is just about to publish his latest cookbook, Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home. It’s out in October. I ordered 2 – one for me and one for Sabrina. She likes to cook, so maybe it’ll be her first cookbook that’s truly her own. Marcus has written several cookbooks – just search his name on amazon and you’ll find them all. Now, my next thing is to go to the MarcBurger that’s right here in my area. I can’t quite visualize a restaurant in the middle of a department store kitchenware area. I’ll let you know . . .

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When we flew to Denver recently, we visited and stayed with our friends, Sue and Lynn (left) who live in Morrison, a foothills suburb of Denver. They’ve been friends for years, having moved last fall from where we live in California, to Denver, to be closer to their daughter Megan (who reads my blog – hi, Megan), their grandchildren, Lynn’s parents and sister and family.

We stayed in Sue and Lynn’s lovely new home, enjoyed many a delicious meal (and some of Sue’s recipes will be posted in coming days), sat many hours out on their superb deck, watching for deer and fawn, sipping on Colorado wine and Bombay Sapphire Gin and Tonics. It was warm while we were there, but it’s so dry – we didn’t notice the high temperatures so much.

For two of the days the four of us drove up into the Rockies. That’s when we saw this:

I think it looks like a postcard. So beautiful. It was really pleasant temperature-wise, and the snow was melting away (very late this year, they said). We spent the night in Leadville – an old mining town that’s still a lot like it must have looked like more than 100+ years ago.

We spent the night at a cute Victorian bed and breakfast in Leadville: The McGinnis Cottage. Rooms are very small (and I mean really small), and the bed was just so-so. The house is cute, though, with lots of interesting history. The owner is charming and helpful. We had dinner in town at a really good Italian restaurant, Zichittella’s. I don’t remember what other people ordered, but I got a crusted chicken dish, kind of like chicken Parmesan, and it was delicious. It was good enough that if we went back to Leadville ever, I’d go there again. It’s a good family friendly restaurant.

One of the days we visited, we went into downtown Denver to a spectacular restaurant:

Rioja

1431 Larimer St. (Larimer Square)

Denver, CO 80202

303 820-2282

We took Sue and Lynn there for lunch and enjoyed sandwiches, salads and I ordered a kind of charcuterie plate. My DH ordered a lamburger.  The food was outstanding. The service was excellent. I’d recommend it to anyone – anytime. It’s not inexpensive, but we thought it worth the cost, no question!

Our second day out on our road trip with Sue and Lynn, we stopped in Vail for lunch. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant, but it was open (not all Vail restaurants are open during the summer – the off season). We sat outside on their patio and enjoyed a very lovely meal.

This was the picture from our table. It’s located in one of the Vail hotels, on a side street.

More stories to come.

A year ago: Chicken Breasts with Apricot Onion Pan Sauce

Three years ago: Onion Pepper Marmalade

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When I began planning the trip to Britain, I spent countless hours researching online – not just places to stay, sites to see, but also restaurants. Some locations didn’t have much. More and more I seem to rely on Trip Advisor. That compendium of updated information provided only by users. About places ‘round the world. Its amazing, really, when you think about it, that one can do so much travel planning online now.

Many hotels we visited had Trip Advisor decals in their windows (a good sign). Or they had photocopied write-ups from Trip Advisor. And many of the hotel sites I visited had a mention of Trip Advisor within. I must go online and submit new additions to the sites where we really enjoyed our stay. There was only one hotel (in the Lake District) that I probably won’t write up somehow. And there was really nothing wrong with it – the owners were nice. But our room was damp. Towels didn’t dry overnight, and the little bit of hand washing I did took 2 full days to dry. Not problems the owners can do much about, I don’t suppose. So, it’s better to just not mention that one.

Anyway, back to restaurants . . . I did make dinner reservations in several places we visited. The tourist season was busy, and I thought it might be difficult to get reservations, particularly if we selected a popular place. Such was the case with our last night in Britain. We turned in our rental car at Heathrow, got checked into our Marriott hotel there, and then we took the tube into London. We’ve sight-seen in London countless times and had decided not to stay there on this trip.

So when researching what we’d do our last night, I went online (of course) and checked-out London restaurants. We’ve been to many of the better restaurants (although not the River Cafe) in London. We didn’t take dressy clothes on this trip. Dave absolutely refused to take a sport coat, so I didn’t want to embarrass us or others by going to a fine dining establishment in inappropriate clothes. I read about Fifteen London, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in downtown London. Where he (and the professionals on staff) train (for free but paid for by Oliver’s foundation set up for this purpose) about 20 underprivileged young people (adults, though) how to be chefs. Not just cooks, but real chefs. They train for 11 months, when they graduate and go on to get their own jobs, hopefully. They’d just graduated the class of 2010 a few weeks ago – August is the only month of the year when the meals are created and cooked by the pros/teachers.

Whether I didn’t notice, or I made the decision to go there anyway, I don’t know, but I didn’t remember how expensive it would be. Fifteen has two restaurants – a more casual trattoria and a downstairs dining room. The latter, a set menu for 60 pounds per person is where I’d made the reservation. The kind of meal you should remember for a lifetime. I hope I do! I took photos with my small point and shoot camera, so I apologize for them not being as clear or precise (or focused) as usual.

We arrived a bit early. Too early to eat, yet not enough time to go do something else. We didn’t know how long it would take to get ourselves into London from the airport, so we allowed ample time.

So, once we got there we sat in the small bar area where people kept streaming in – some in quite dressy clothes – others in very casual clothes. We sat watching the chefs (the professionals were wearing little tight bandana head coverings (black); other kitchen staff were sans head coverings. Multiple languages were punctuating the air. Sous chefs kept going out the door (behind the glasses in photo) and disappearing down below somewhere (the dungeons) to retrieve big huge deep trays of food things (we spotted olives for sure). The walk-in storage refrigerator must be somewhere in the basement.

My drink was a cocktail type – with prosecco, Aperol, soda and an orange slice. Altogether perfect for relaxing on a warm afternoon. Dave had a glass of red wine.

This course may not have been my favorite of the night, but it was certainly right “up there.” Some delicious house made salami with to-die-for focaccia bread with red onion. The bread was just filled with the onion – it was warm, tender, and SO flavorful. The olives were home cured, we’re sure. I didn’t have any of them, but Dave said the large green ones were the best. We also had a small bowl of Spanish olive oil to dip the bread into.

Then they brought us a little amuse-bouche of fresh scallop with pomegranate (and juice) with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and the juice of Japanese limes (top photo left). All in a small Chinese ceramic soup spoon. Altogether amazing flavors.

I didn’t take notes about the wines we had – all unusual and chosen by the wine steward to go with each course. He and Dave had an animated conversation about each and every wine and why the wine was particularly appropriate for the different foods.

Next, I had burratta (second photo down). With a little bit of dark greens, a delish sauce too. You can barely see the cheese on the bottom of the plate. It was, by far, the best burratta I’ve ever had. It had great flavor and oozed just like it’s supposed to. I think they drizzled some balsamic on the plate too, or maybe it was a basil swath – I can’t remember. The greens were dressed and they also perfectly matched to go with the cheese.

Then I ordered a risotto course (third photo down). This was a tasting menu, so portions were small. Otherwise we’ve have never been able to waddle up the steps and out of there.

The risotto was full of red cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil. It was absolutely to die for. Best risotto of that type I’ve ever had. I may try to re-create it here at home. It was that good. And risotto is not hard to make, but I’m not sure exactly what made this one taste so significantly better than others. Probably just the ripest of tomatoes (sweet, ripe) and whole milk mozzie. Anyway, it was superb.

Trying not to make a spectacle of myself taking photos, I didn’t use flash, so I apologize if you have a hard time seeing them. I tried to lighten them up as best I could. This last is the duck breast I ordered. It was served on a bed of very soft polenta, then drizzled with some kind of fig jam or sauce, and buried underneath the duck was a fresh fig. This dish was so good, I couldn’t believe it. And yet, nothing about it was that unusual – the duck was rare, tasty and tender, the fig sauce light and sweet, and the fresh fig was just ripe perfection.

Then they brought dessert. I took a photo of it, but am not including it because I was very disappointed in it. I ordered baked Alaska. They used a small cake round on the bottom, a nice (small) knob of vanilla ice cream, then covered it with sweet meringue. Then they’d browned it with a hand torch, I think. But the meringue was still sticky and overly sweet. After two bites I scraped off the meringue and just ate the ice cream and cake. It was okay. Nothing to remark about, really. But to have had all the other courses (5 if you include the amuse-bouche) be off the charts, I’m fine if the dessert was a “miss.”

Would I go again? Yes I would. To the dining room? Probably not – I’d try the trattoria part just because I’d like to.

Fifteen London

15 Westland Place (about 4 blocks walk from Old Street tube station on the Northern Line)
London N1 7LP, United Kingdom
0871 330 1515 (reservations available online)

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It’s amazing what photo software can do to a picture taken in almost complete darkness! I couldn’t even see the biscuits in my viewfinder, hardly. And yet, even though the photo was taken without flash, hand-held for at least 2 seconds, it came out! So I brightened it up, decreased the yellow saturation, and voila!

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