A Crabby Kind of Birthday

 Song - Red, Red Wine by UB40

 

 

On February 14th - Valentine's Day - it was Mr. B's birthday!

And he decided he wanted a meal that my mom used to cook for him....

Spaghetti and Crab!

The table was set and the tools were ready for some fast crab work.

I made the spaghetti sauce the day before and all of the additions for the crab & salad like

hard boiled eggs & asparagus, etc.

Andy made a delicious berry cobbler for dessert.

Unfortunately no one took a photo of the spread. 

But trust me it was delicious.

 

Two days later Mr. B and I headed to Calistoga for a little R & R. Our first stop was R & D Kitchen in Yountville for their spectacular Ding's Chicken sandwich. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside and enjoyed our wine and fries while waiting for our yummy lunch.

 

 

 Heading north from Yountville our next stop was in the town of St. Helena for a little shopping.

Can you believe these are all silk flowers?

 

Onto Calistoga and check into our room at the Bergson Hotel.
 We had a nice room on the ground floor which was perfect as I'm still not walking up stairs too well!

Dinner on Monday night was at Sam's Social Club which is affiliated with 

Indian Springs.  It was a delicious meal and it was packed so we dined at the bar.

 

 

We both had an order of the caviar as it was only $225 per person!!! NOT!

 

We shared the Autumn Salad and Mr. B had the Lamb Shank on risotto 

with an arugula side salad while I had the Pork Chop on polenta with broccoli.

They were both a home run!

 

 Sweet dreams at the Bergson.

 

 

After breakfast in the Bergson social room we headed into town which is just around the corner from our hotel. We walked around shopping but we really enjoyed our time in the book store! The funniest thing of all was while we were just finishing up our lunch I spotted two friends - Jill and her husband John - walking up the street.  What a surprise! They had come up to celebrate Valentines Day.

We also drove back down to Saint Helena's to go to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum that neither of us realized was even in this area until Mr. B happened upon the information. It was a fun, informative place were they displayed his furniture, silver, paintings, photos, and some of his writing. The woman working there was very knowledgeable about his life. (Don't worry Mr. B kindly tested her knowledge!)

Dinner on Mr. B's official birthday was spent at the Calistoga Inn Restaurant.  Our friends happened to have reservations there as well an were sitting just a couple of tables away from us.

Mr. B had the paella which he raved about while I enjoyed delicious beef short ribs.

 

The following morning we had a delicious breakfast at Cafe Sarafornia 

sitting outside in the warm sunshine.

 

Time to head home.  Driving along the Silverado Trail we enjoyed viewing the bright yellow mustard blooming in the vineyards and the workers carefully pruning the vines.

We will be back....

The breakfast restaurants name is derived from this quote:

 

 The town's name comes from 

Brannan's tipsy malapropism 

that he would make this the 

Saratoga of California, 

which came out as the “Calistoga of Sarafornia.”

Yellow

Song - Yellow by Coldplay

Bright yellow mustard flowers blooming near Dijon, France

Photo taken from the TGV train which can travel 

up to 186 mph in commercial service 

and 320 mph under special test conditions.  

I so wish we had fast, clean, efficient trains like that in America!

Viva le Moutarde de Dijon

"Almost anything is edible 

with a dab of French mustard on it."

--Nigel Slater

Returning to France Day 11

Song - No Particular Place To Go by Chuck Berry

We picked up our Renault "Captur" car on the outskirts of Paris but it took us some time to actually get out of the city.

As Mr. B and I were heading to Chinon in the Loire Valley we drove past fields and fields of yellow mustard that went as far as the eye can see.

The town lies along the river Vienne with an impressive castle on top of the plateau. The castle was built in the 12th century on top of an earlier Gallo-roman fort. It was an important site for many reasons but my favorite was that Joan of Arc had a meeting with Charles VII in 1429 and it is considered the turning point in the fortunes of France and subsequent removal of the English from France. She was 17 years old.

We checked into our hotel in the late afternoon.  Mr. B took a rest in our room while I went downstairs to take some photos of the flowers in the courtyard.

 After a long spell of rain, the hotel had just put out their umbrellas and since it was such a beautiful afternoon I decided to sit outside, sip a glass of wine & sketch.

 Hotel Diderot has a small gravel courtyard where you may park your car.  Surrounding it is an old stone wall and a small, sweet, well tended garden.

There are large iron gates that are closed at night, not for safety reasons but to keep the courtyard quiet for their guests.

There is a small lane behind the hotel (Rue Diderot) where you can stroll into town passing by various houses, churches and shopfronts.

Mr. B and I headed down Rue Diderot to explore and find a place for dinner.

Some of the buildings looked like they had been added onto during different centuries.

 There are wine caves built into ancient Troglodyte dwellings up on the tufa plateau.

 It was fun to wonder what happened to the people who lived in these structures. Did the family that owned the house above not agree on the same architect?  Or did half of the house get demolished?

 Or did half of it just slowly fall over like this building has been doing for many years?

There is lot's of interesting things to see from a much earlier time.

And on the way home from dinner we walked along our lane wearing rose colored glasses. (wink)

"If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war 

before her eighteenth birthday, you can get out of bed."  

-- E. Jean Carroll

Fields of Gold

Song - Heart of Gold by Neil Young

Monday I took a leisurely drive up to Napa Valley to see the mustard in the vineyard and to walk with a dear friend.  I passed some Belted Galloway cows or better known as Oreo Cows!!!

Since I was early in meeting my friend, I decided to head on up to Yountville as a "Krwa-son" had my name on it!

While I was at Bouchon, I decided to get a couple of croissants to share with family and friends.  After thoroughly enjoying the buttery, moist, light, flakey roll, I placed the bag with the remainder of them in the far back of the car so I wouldn't be tempted to nibble as I drove.

My friend, Helen told me that the mustard had just opened up last week and it is beautiful. Actually it was a lovely warm winter's day. We had a delicious lunch and then walked around downtown Napa and past the Victorian homes called painted ladies and through the park.

We stopped by the Gallery where Helen shows her jewelry and hand dyed silk scarfs.  She is incredibly talented, brilliant, creative and has a heart of gold...... 

This morning, I woke up early and ran into the kitchen and grabbed a perfect croissant and ran back to have breakfast in bed while Mika gave me the stank-eye. 

Two lovely days after a tough month! Thank you Helen...... 

Scratch & sniff HERE........(jk)

"It's your road, and yours alone.  

Others may walk it with you, 

but no one can walk it for you."

 --Rumi