Shopping Local

So, we had a lovely quiet Thanksgiving, with a duck breast and a bit of confit from The Fatted Calf, a delicata squash stuffed with cranberries, cornbread stuffing, grilled endive. We baked a pumpkin pie and husband G made ginger-flavored whipped cream for it.
We've decided to shop local for our midwestern families this Christmas, so we ventured out on Saturday after a bit of a small windstorm, only to discover that half the town - including the Oxbow market, half the shops downtown, the large Walmart, and most of the grocery stores were out of power. Crazy! I felt bad for the retailers, because you know how many lost sales that amounted to - and they were apparently out of power from 10 in the morning til 4 in the afternoon. Not since I'd lived on Bainbridge Island near Seattle had I seen so much power outage from such little wind!
So we tried again on Sunday, and this time were more successful. We got olive-oil lip balms made in Napa from California olives for the girls in the family, and olive tapenade (same.) We got merlot-flavored chocolates, merlot and port chocolate sauce and beer-flavored brittles for the guys from Annie's. We could ship wine but Ohio's wine laws for shipping are quite complicated and do not make it easy to ship wine there. What else is Napa famous for? We'll have to think up some more things to put in that basket.

Also, I did find a little park with a paved little walkway for our daily walks, called The Oxbow Preserve. They are still in the process of making it a park, but it has potential - river views, a little sign, a stroll through some large oak trees. It's no Central Park, but it's better than the other meagre offerings that Napa has to offer park-wise.

We have yet to stroll through the downtown lights, but Napa's little Christmas tree with its grape ornametns is up, I hear construction on Yountville's little library is finally finished, so hopefully we'll go out and up our Christmas spirits with a little Christmas-light viewing this week.

Happy Holidays!

November in Napa and Zuzu review

Finally got to visit another restaurant in Napa, this time the little tapas restaurant in downtown called Zuzu. We tried to call for reservations on a Thursday, but nobody answered the phone. So we arrived and waited around for twenty minutes in the very crowded and loud room before we finally got a table.
My dinner-friends had some kind of fried cheese with a spicy pequillo pepper sauce, and I had a spanish tortilla (very tasty) and some spaghetti squash with apple cider reduction, which I enjoyed as well. I heard the sangria was good if a bit watered down. The waitress we had was nice, although our experience was a bit marred by the drunk frat-boy types on one side and a very loud man at the bar with an obnoxious horsey laugh on the other. A good place to come with friends, but maybe try it when it's a bit less crowded?

I continue to be disgruntled with Napa's lack of walkable, attractive parks. Had to take my out of town guest out to Yountville and Sonoma to stroll around any parks to observe the beautiful color of the trees turning. Sonoma's main square has a beautiful park with amazing giant eucaplyptus trees and tiny baby ducklings.

What does Napa have? Bupkiss! This may cause me to look elsewhere when we rent next year. Also, what do you do when people come in from out of town but don't want to go to any wineries? How do you entertain them? Ideas welcome!