Grand Tasting at the Food and Wine Festival

First there was the celebrity chefs.  This year's Food and Wine Festival in NYC had a new kind of Grand Tasting.  In the past, Saturday and Sunday each had two time slots to attend.  Also scattered around NYC were various cooking demonstrations.   This year the changed things up with a crazy 5 hour Grand Tasting event with cooking demonstrations scattered throughout each day.  Now each event last year had a certain price associated with it.  This year your ticket included everything.  However, everything came with a much bigger price tag.

I loved watching the different demonstrations though.  Alton spoke about wine.  He used a power drill to uncork the bottle.  Giada allowed audience members to do the cooking for her while she answered questions.  The demonstrations allowed for some much needed snacking breaks throughout the day.  Giving yourself 45 minutes to digest a bit makes all of the difference at a tasting event.

Lamb ribs with cilantro lime glaze was Mr. J's favorite.  They were very good and the best part was the little wet clothes to wipe down your fingers.

There was also scrambled eggs with lobster, creme fraiche and trout roe. My favorite I neglected to take a picture of...probably because I was too busy eating...was cheesy polenta with a quail egg.  I don't know how some people can make polenta so tasty.  I love it in restaurants but the few times I have tried it at home have been big FAILS.

Obviously a big highlight for me was the desserts.  Baked by Melissa had mini cupcakes.

There was a handful of chocolate tables and I kept going back for more and more.  I still wasn't able to taste all of the varieties.

My best find was a new bakery that literally opened up about two weeks ago: Salt of the Earth.  These cookies were the best thing ever. I am currently on a mission to get these babies selling up in Connecticut.  Then the mission will be to try and replicate.  They were beyond delicious!   

Of course the swag bag bounty is always a treasure chest. I kind of think that each year we participate the bag is a little less full but maybe it is just me.  We go lots of olive oil, spices, granola bars and Biscoff cookies.  And check out the cute little Nutella and Biscoff spread To-Go containers.  You have to love those.

The weather put a bit of a damper on the day but overall we had a great time.  I remember the first year we went Mr. J took a bit of convincing to go.  Now he is the one to suggest the event each year.  I think we are somewhat experts now.  We managed to leave with full bellies, not too much alcohol and were able to walk back to the metro stop without any pain.

Shoreline Wine Festival

This weekend we were able to go to the Shoreline Wine Festival at Bishop's Orchard.  Lucky for us Bishop's is only about 1 mile down the road.  Saturaday ended up being the most perfect weather day and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.

The Shoreline Wine Festival was a celebration of Connecticut Vineyards.  There are over sixteen vineyards across Connecticut and seven ended up at the festival to share their top wines with us.

One of my favorite parts was the wine labels.  There were some very unique and beautiful labels.  I know that the label has little to do with the taste of the wine but I still judge a bottle by the label.

Chamard Vineyards is located in Clinton, CT, very close to where we live.  We already made plans to visit again. 

The tickets read, "Good Wine, Good Food, and Good Music." The wine was good.  I am glad we went early in the day before the crowds, but the festival really lacked the food aspect, much to Mr. J's disappointment.

Two of the vineyards don't even use grape for their wine, they are purely fruit based.  A favorite was the hard cider from Bishop's.

Jone's Winery had a Strawberry champagne that was so good.  I am not normally a fan of sweet, fruity wines but this one was delicious.  Great summer treat!

Although this was no Napa Valley wine tasting, we had a great time.  For a few hours it felt like we were on a mini vacation far away from all of the "must dos." of life.

Oysters anyone?

Saturday we had bunches of errands to run in Milford, CT. I had heard that this past weekend was the oyster festival on the Milford green. Jordan likes oysters so I thought this might be a fun distraction for a bit amidst the packing and wedding preparations.

We took a 10 minute shuttle on a school bus from the mall to the green. Boy school buses are tiny once you grow up. We arrived to find lots and lots of craft tables and non-profit organizations set up. We walked and walked and started to wonder if we were ever going to see any oysters.

After a quick stop at the information booth we found this tent.

Oyster FAIL!

However there were two lines to get into the tent to order both about 50 people deep. After waiting about 5 minutes and not moving a inch we decided we had had enough. No oysters for us.

The most exciting part of the whole experience was the bus ride. And the view of seeing a boy roll a blunt in the car next to us at a red light. In more so was the 50 year old business man calling it a "Fatty".