Friday, March 12th, 2010
A big day with lots of activities kept me moving. I am so exhausted. Despite the rain, the weather is breaking, which is helping us with being upbeat. Share our day with us.
Fritz and I drove through downtown Millville to check out the sights this morning. We love this old Ivory Soap sign.
We were blessed with two boxes of wonderfully rich books to add to our classroom library. I have been busy adding the titles to our online card catalog.
Lunch at Michael’s Pizza was a bit disappointing today. The new guy wasn’t there; his pizza is good. The normal guy cooked this . . . it was spotty, but still better than Joe’s. No meat today . . .
Today the students made Irish Potatoes. They will teach a class of kindergarten students next week how to make these. This went extremely well. The students did a great job!
Michael Dooling presented to the students today. He is a children’s book author and illustrator. He put on a fabulous assembly. The students were amazed at his craft . . . as was I. He painted a boy with the help of a couple students. That is Dooling’s wife with him.
Dooling posed for a photograph after I snapped the shots with the students.
Beetle danced this evening. The studio has closed-circuit television so we can watch her lesson. My tiny dancer did a great job with tap and ballet tonight.
Beetle and I attended the Fairy Tale Ball tonight. Beetle was all about drawing early on. She is so talented. Her first drawing was an abstract, as she explained to me.
Beetle playing Skittles. I helped out with the Skittles game . . . it was the precursor to bowling. Beetle enjoyed playing, as did every other child. It’s tough setting pins by hand on one’s knees.
Beetle made a fairy princess hat and then modeled it. She had so much fun this evening. From the moment she woke up, Beetle expressed eagerness to return to the Fairy Tale Ball. I am happy that all lived up to her expectations.
Finally, on the way home, we stopped by McDonald’s for a Shamrock Shake. Such a glorious evening should be punctuated with a treat. And there’s nothing like a Shamrock Shake.
Posted in Education, Family, Miscellaneous, New Jersey | 3 Comments »
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
It appears Gypsy Smokehouse is out of business. I am not surprised, but it is sad. Their Southern Pride smoker is for sale . . . Michelle Malkin advertises an open thread, yet registration to her site has been closed for years . . . Racial discrimination in pricing of Barbies or inventory control? . . . Excellent videos on how to break down a chuck roll . . . How did my watch become three days out of date? . . . Driving through Buena the other day I saw a few children playing on the front lawn of a house. Three of them were kicking a ball while a fourth was taking a leak by the tree . . . Gert has the pet frog in the classroom, yet I am the one who buys the crickets each week . . . There is something about March. The weather is breaking and two days until the clocks change. This is when I used to see lots of Grateful Dead shows . . . According to YouTube, because I watched JB’s Smoked Chicken and Ribs video, it has recommended I watch Tiger Woods’ presser. What is the connection? . . . RIP Merlin Olsen . . . I watched my first baseball game earlier this week. Bring on the regular season . . . hankering for paella . . . big day tomorrow and I am wondering how I am going to procure food, not only when, but what since it will be a meatless Friday . . . Facebook is where different groups of friends should never meet . . . Hey, any locals want to get together for a friendly BBQ cookoff sometime? It would be a fun excuse for a party . . .
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Friday, February 19th, 2010
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Sunday, February 14th, 2010
Tonight for Valentine’s Day Gert and I had dinner at Andrea Trattoria Italiana (Andrea’s). We have heard excellent things about this restaurant in Newfield. For Christmas a friend of mine gave me a gift certificate to here. We finally made the reservations.
After dropping the children off with their grandparents, we headed over. The parking was cramped; the snow piles didn’t help. Fortunately, someone pulled out just as we arrived. I decided to back in. That was an excellent choice for afterward, there were two vehicles parked illegally in front of me. I would have never been able to back out without clipping them.
We checked in and had to wait a couple minutes before we were seated. Andrea’s is small. They about 20 tables. We were seated at the smallest deuce in the place. Grrrr . . .
Andrea’s is a BYOB, which is fine by me. I grew up in Cape May, which is riddled with BYOB establishments. I had picked up a Cab, then thought we may not eat beef given it’s an Italian joint, so picked up a Bellview red table wine. Bellview is the closest winery to us. The bottle states:
Light, smooth and easy drinking, this chianti-style table wine is perfect with pizza and pasta. Angelo’s was named after the winemaker’s great-grandfather Angelo Quarella, who founded Bellview Farms in 1914.
It seemed a suitable wine for the occasion.
The nose on the wine is not terribly distinct. It was leathery with a hint of berries at the end. The taste was a heavy cranberry taste. I note that Bellview makes a cranberry wine, but I passed on it. The wine did have that chianti feel to it.
We listened to an extensive list of menu additions. The menu itself has plenty to choose from as it is. We selected a marinated portabello on a bed of spinach and topped with Asiago cheese as an appetizer. It was a fine app, although not a blow one out of his seat dish. The cheese was a wonderful complement to the mushroom. The fungus alone was lacking much flavor. The wine did not seem to go particularly well with the appetizer.
I had the house salad, which was a mix of greens with an Italian dressing. It was most excellent. The dressing was perfectly balanced and highlighted the fresh greens. The wine complemented the salad. Gert opted for the crab-asparagus chowder. It was loaded with crabmeat. The spoonful I had was tasty. Gert raved about it, and polished off the bowl.
Gert selected lobster ravioli for her entree. This was another special and it sounded to me more an appetizer than a main dish. The ravioli, colored black with squid ink, sat of a lemon cream sauce. Gert was not impressed. We swapped plates for a bit. The ravioli were fine; the sauce did not go well at all. It was far too acid for this. Yuck!
I, on the other hand, loved my entree. I opted for the bronzini. I had never heard of this fish before. It was described to me as a Mediterranean white flaky fish. The fish was poached and served whole. Then it was filleted tableside. Nice! Topped with a tomato-caper sauce this was heavenly. It is nice to add a new fish to one’s palate. The wine worked okay with the entree. It did not enhance it, but neither did it take anything from it. I have never seen bronzini on a menu before, but if I do, I will absolutely order it. It was so tender. Yum!
The restaurant was jamming now. Lots of good conversation and familiar faces. folks were definitely enjoying themselves on this happy holiday. I am not a big dessert eater, but I had been hearing about the banana Napoleon all evening, so I ordered it. It was tasty, although a bit more sloppy than it should ahve been. It was drizzled with some liqueur. Tasty, not wow. Gert had her usual tiramisu. She reported it was good, but she was not awed by it. It looked pretty to me.
I enjoyed my dinner and would return (and given I have enough Coke bottle tops to net us a $50 gift certificate to this very restaurant, I suspect we will return) in a heartbeat. Gert is a little more cautious, although she knows it was one dish that just didn’t sit with her. I think she’ll be up for returning.
As for Anfelo’s, it is okay. It is not a top of the line wine. It, however, is fine as a drinking bottle. I think an Italian dinner with red gravy would match well with this wine and would be happy to give that a whirl again.
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Saturday, November 28th, 2009
Gert and I headed out to the Renault Winery last evening for date night. We dine here at least once annually. Autumn is the time we usually visit, but we have dined at other times of the year. Dinner is always good. Tonight was no exception.
The winery serves a six-course dinner. One selects his main course, the restaurant provides everything else. Tonight we began with a savory baklava. It was extremely tasty. Phyllo dough was filled with shitake mushrooms, pistachios, pecans, and walnuts. A balsamic vinaigrette accompanied the baklava. We were both extremely impressed with this appetizer. The wine pairing with this was the Renault’s burgundy. It’s a lighter burgundy, but quite flavorful. It went well with the baklava.
Next up was a harvest chowder. This was flavorful. A base corn chowder with root vegetables added made for a delicious soup. Not a drop was squandered as we enjoyed this course.
The third course was a butternut squash ravioli with a smoked tomato puree. It was topped with chopped bacon and Pecorino Romano. I did not have high hopes for this course, but it was right up there with the baklava. This was very creamy. Two decent size ravioli made a great mop to help clean up the puree. Excellent! The wine paired with this was the Fresello. Despite being described as a semi-dry white, I found it to be sweet. I was not a fan. This was the weak link in the entire meal.
The intermezzo was a wild berry sorbet served in white wine. The sorbet was excellent; the wine could have easily been left out. It added nothing and was consumed after the sorbet.
Next was our main courses. Gert opted for the Australian Rack of Lamb with a shallot glaze. It was served with a chestnut polenta and a marscapone honey. The lamb was excellent! Gert frequently orders lamb here and has never been disappointed. Neither of us were huge fans of the polenta, but it was all right.
I opted for the Grilled Veal Rib Chop. This was served with a roasted pumpkin risotto, Maitake mushroom, and fois gras sabayon. This was the highlight of the evening. The veal melted in my mouth. The mushrooms and the sabayon were excellent. I enjoyed the risotto, as I am a big fan, although the pumpkin could have been a bit more pronounced. There was nothing left on my plate with this course either.
The Renault serves dinner European style, so the salad course was next. Both Gert and I were taken aback by the sparse plate we were presented of romaine hearts. Frankly, it was the correct amount after our meal, but it looked odd. The dressing, which is escaping me right now was very tasty. It was topped with Asiago cheese. One of my grape tomatoes was not up to snuff.
For dessert, Gert and I opted for a slice of turnip and cranberry cake. This was a play off of carrot cake. We devoured it before I realized I had forgotten to take a photograph. Sigh . . . Obviously, we enjoyed it.
This meal was delicious. The baklava and the ravioli were wonderful. Our entrees topped the starters. Dessert was a pleasant ending. We also picked up a couple bottles of wine to bring home. Gert is a big fan of the blueberry champagne and I have always enjoyed the Royal Rouge. I figure the latter will go well with the Christmas Eve standing rib roast.
This year’s visit to the Renault was as pleasant as ever. I commented on the drive home that I would gladly repeat this meal again tomorrow evening.
More photographs
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