TWO FOR ONE MOVIE TIX ON FANDANGO!

If you go to the movies, even occasionally, you, no doubt, have seen the Fandango ads for ordering your tickets online in advance. The benefit of using Fandango is to assure getting into the screening of your choice and being able to bypass lines at the box office to purchase your tickets...just present your printed voucher and in you go.

Fandango charges $1 per ticket for its service. I've used it from time to time, particularly for very popular movies that I feared might sell out.

Since we go to the movies almost every week, a good portion of our entertainment budget goes to movie tickets. While I consider movies a bargain, even with full price adult tickets in the $10 range, I am always looking to save money.

Yesterday, when we were getting ready to see "Julie & Julia," I checked out the two-for-one ticket offer that Fandango is giving to Visa Signature credit card holders. I went to the special Fandango website link for Visa Signature (fandango.com/visasignature), entered information about my card and the location of the theatre I was going to, and, voila!, I was able to purchase two tickets...my choice of adult, child, or senior...for the price on one, plus just one Fandango service charge! What a deal!

I don't believe that Visa Signature cards are particularly rare since two of the cards that I carry with me all the time are both Visa Signature.

By the way, "Julie & Julia" is WONDERFUL!! I have my "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" out and am pondering the Gateau of Crepes for an up and coming dessert at a special dinner. I promise you will leave this movie ready for a big meal and lots of butter!

Bon Appetit!

NAPA VALLEY 2009...DEPARTURE DAY

We were up early this morning so we could stop at Bouchon Bakery
to buy some breads and pastries to take home and still have time for a few hours at the pool before having to check out of the Vintage Inn.

Bouchon is Chef Thomas Keller's bakery and café. It is equally popular with the towns people and the tourists who flock to Yountville. The bicycle cart in the foreground of this photo is what Bouchon Bakery uses to deliver bread to Kellers restaurants in town: French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc.





We bought an Olive Bread for us and a Walnut Bread for the neighbor who has been watering our plants. I also bought myself a piece of Crumb Coffee Cake; my weakness. It will be my breakfast tomorrow and I will pretend I am still in the Valley.

Our final stop was back in Napa at Angèle for a delightful French lunch.





We, including Louie sat on the outdoor terrace. Louie hoped for his own meal but was only served a big bowl of water.



Jim enjoyed a Salade Nicoise made with tuna poached in olive oil.



My Croque Monsieur was better than any I've ever had in France.



I made a dash into Sweetie Pies Bakery for some Morning Buns to take home, we were on our way back home after a busy and fun week.

NAPA VALLEY 2009...LAST FULL DAY; MUMM & TERRA

Today is our wedding anniversary! While our outings were limited, they were special.

Sandwiched between a visit to Yountville Fitness



and a few afternoon hours at the pool, we spent a bucolic three hours at Mumm Napa Valley.





Mumm is one of my favorite Napa Valley wineries for more reasons than just their excellent sparkling wines. Their tour is one of the best in the Valley and even those who have no clue of hour Champagne is made, come away from the tour with clear understanding of the process.

Also, Mumm has a fine art photography gallery, part of which showcases the private collection of Ansel Adams photography The Private Collection Gallery exhibits Matthew Adams' private collection of his grandfather Ansel Adams’ photographs. Another part of the photography gallery features changing exhibits. The current exhibit of the work of George Rose "Hollywood, Beverly Hills & Other Perversities" Pop Culture of the 1970s and 1980s, presents fascinating photographs of Hollywood celebrities of the 1970s and 1980s. It will be here until August 21, 2009.






There is no charge to visit Mumm's photography galleries. For the first guided tour of the day, at 10 a.m., there is no charge. For the rest of the day's tours, there is a charge of $20 which includes a tasting of three of Mumm's wines on the original tasting terrace.



Three months ago Mumm opened its Oak Terrace, another outdoor tasting area where it offers its higher end "library collection" wines. We opted for the Oak Terrace where we enjoyed flutes of the 2002 DVX Rosé and the 25th Anniversary Brut Reserve. To go with it, we ordered a platter of a selection of cheese, nuts, fruit, and crackers. They served Louie a bowl of water and a very large doggie cookie. Cost for our two glasses of wine was $30; the cheese sampler was $20...very reasonable for this special tasting.







Sitting in comfortable arm chairs, overlooking the Valley, we had no problem passing several hours here enjoying our wine and what turned out to be a light lunch for us.







Our special dinner was in St. Helena at Terra, one of our longtime favorites that we've forgotten about for a few years.



Chef owners Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani continue to work their magic in their eclectic menu that has an Asian emphasis.





We shared the Fried Rock Shrimp as an appetizer. The Chive sauce was so delicious that we sopped up every drop with our warm bread and the salad greens.



Jim's main course was the fish of the day, a whole Petrale Sole, cooked in "magic broth." They boned his fish for him and it was garnished with Broccolini, olives, zucchini, and roasted tomatoes.



My choice was Halibut on a bed of white bean purée and haricots verts.



Everything was perfection.

We share sorbet with a coconut tuile for dessert. The sorbet flavors were strawberry and cantelope. And they wrote "Happy Anniversary" in chocolate on our plate.



Happy Anniversary, Jim!

NAPA VALLEY 2009...THIRD FULL DAY; SLOWING THE PACE A BIT

Today was a more leisurely day for us.

We hung out by the pool until close to noon. Then we headed toward St. Helena, making our first stop at the Louis Martini Winery.

When we came to California in the 1970s, there were just a handful of wineries in the Napa Valley. Louis Martini, dating back to 1933, was one of them. As the number of Napa Valley wineries started to multiply rapidly, we tended to visit the new ones and to forget about the old standbys.

It's been years since we have stopped at Martini and now, we were happy to discover that, under the auspices of the third generation of the family, it is still thriving and a lot more upscale than it used to be.

For the first time ever in the Napa Valley, we were told that Louie could not be in the tasting room. But we were offered what turned out to be a very nice alternative; to do our tasting in their outdoor picnic area.



We tasted three red wines and relaxed for about an hour.





What we especially liked was that we had three different glasses for the wines which enabled us to taste comparatively, rather than tasting from one glass sequentially.



When I complimented the tasting room staff on the multiple glasses, he told me that this is how they do their tastings during the week but on weekends, when it is much busier in the Napa Valley, they have to go back to the one-glass sequential tastings.

By now, it was time for lunch. After all the eating and drinking this week, a shared sandwich from the Safeway in St. Helena was just what we wanted. We took it to a park for our picnic lunch.



We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in St. Helena.



I got a new skirt at Daisy, Louie got cookies at Fideaux, and we got some tabletop items at Vanderbilt. Our last stop was at Napa Valley Olive Oil for their olive oil, some Molinari salami, and a few other Italian specialty food items.

Dinner tonight was at the new Bardessono. We walked through this new Yountville hotel and spa when we were in the Valley this Spring and were curious about it and its restaurant. Yesterday at the Yountville Tasting Station we got to talking with the staff about dining in Yountville and the owner of Cornerstone Vineyards highly recommended Bardessono. So we reserved for dinner tonight.





The dining room is large and elegant in a simple Zen sort of way. There is also outdoor seating but we thought it was too hot to dine out tonight.



As we experienced last night at Bottega, we were offered complimentary water, still or sparkling. I like this current trend away from bottled water and respect all restaurants who realize that we have very good water in most of Northern California, right out of the tap. Restaurants who give up the profits from selling imported bottled water, in the name of ecology, are worth patronizing.

While Bardessono's menu is pretty high end, with main course prices between $25 and $35, the dining room does offer a three-course fixed price ($29) menu which is a something of a bargain. Tonight's fixed price menu consisted of a green salad, Chicken coq au vin style, and an ice cream sundae.

We ordered à la carte, starting (both of us) with the Onsen Tamago, a gazpacho with a soft poached egg. It was garnished with fresh tomatoes, cucumber, olives, and edible flowers...beautiful and delicious.



Once we had ordered, we were treated to an amuse bûche of Eggplant Soup. I am inspired to try making this from the eggplants in my garden; it was wonderful!



Jim's main course was the Day Boat Alaskan Halibut.



I chose the Hook & Line Atlantic Cod.



Four of the eight Main Courses were fresh fish. I like menus like this!

Our soup was tasty and creative. We both enjoyed our fish choices but I found that the butter sauce on my cod was too rich for my taste and could not finish it. The breads accompanying our meal are all baked in house and are outstanding.

In the spirit of slowing down a bit today, we ate less and did not order dessert.

After dinner we discovered that Wednesday nights at Bardessono, from 6 to 9 p.m. is Dive Bar night at the pool. The rooftop pool is usually open only to hotel guests but on Wednesday nights, it is open to the public. For Dive Bar, the pool bar serves special cocktails and a special sandwich is sold for $5. We walked up to the pool just to see it and there sure was a party going on here, in and out of the pool.