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!

Oxbow Market and (closed) Copia

So, an excursion to the lovely Oxbow Markets in downtown Napa was really fun - and great inspiration for Christmas presents!
Because I've been a little stomach-flu-y, my husband did all the tasting for us - he got to sample locally-made ice cream in flavors like chocolate-lavender, lemon-passionfruit and banana-caramel cupcakes from Kara's Cupcakes, and blood-orange olive oil while I watched longingly...It is a beautiful set of little shops, restaurants, wine bars that made me think - Oh, I know what I am going to get everyone for Christmas! I mean, here's the gift potential: fiery beer or chardonnet brittles, tiny bottles of dessert liquours made here in town, local olive oils and olive oil lip balms, of course wines, botanical prints, kitchen antiques...consider yourselves warned, friends and family! But the funniest thing is I tried to get on the river walk trail behing the markets on my crutches, even though there was a closed gate and orange cones to keep people out, and I only got a couple of steps before I saw giant handwritten signs that said: "Caution: Bees!"
Restaurants are arranged kind of like an upscale food court: there's a Venezualan restaurant, a branch of the tourist-loved Taylor's Refresher, a wine tasting area, etc. Two things that brought joy to my husband's heart: a real-deal charcuterie and a branch of Model bakery. Just think of the sandwiches!
It's a shame that Copia - a beautiful building that houses - now - an empty restaurant, show-kitchen, classrooms, movie theater, offices and exhibition space - sits empty and closed, because it definitely gives a "ghost-town" feeling to downtown Napa despite new hotels like the Westin going up along the river, and new condos being built. I heard today it is officially up for sale - for 78 million!