Weekend Adventure: Temecula

This weekend’s adventure was a day trip out to Temecula. Temecula is an easy drive from almost anywhere in Southern California and once there you’ll be rewarded with a great Old Town district and acres of gorgeous vineyards.


Our first stop was Old Town Temecula. It’s easy to find free parking there and it’s small enough you can easily walk from one end to the other. Our first stop was Old Town Root Beer where they have hundreds of different kinds of soda and not the usual vending machine line up either. I tried one that was a Pumpkin Pie Soda. It tasted just like a fresh made pumpkin pie. Delish and so fun! After that we browsed through a few more great stores including the Temecula Lavender Company, the Temecula Valley Cheese Company (yum, yum), and Old Town Antique Fair. The antique shop was huge and they had so much to look at we could have spent hours there.

Okay, this Halloween sign at the Antique Fair totally cracked me up.

After all that shopping it was time to get something to eat. We settled into a table at the Longshadow Ranch Winery’s tasting room and Cowboy Bistro in Old Town Temecula. The food was delicious. I had a three cheese blend melted on toasted flat bread with a green salad sprinkled with almonds and cranberries and a raspberry vinaigrette. The chardonnay I had with it was a great pairing. My fellow adventurer’s recommend the turkey and roast beef sandwiches too.

Old Town Temecula.

With our bellies full it was time for some serious wine drinking. Temecula has several wineries located just outside of town. Many make award winning wines and are beautiful destinations unto themselves. One of my favorites is Wilson Creek Winery. I love Wilson Creek for the following 5 reasons:

5. They have beautiful grounds where you can sit and enjoy a glass of wine and take in the gorgeous scenery.

4. The Wilson family has a few very friendly Golden Retrievers, all named after wine varietals, who are the friendliest greeters and always happy to be petted.

3. Wilson Creek is where they make the almond champagne.

2. Wilson Creek is where they make the chocolate port.

And the number 1 reason I love Wilson Creek? Wilson Creek is where they make a drink called an “Angel’s Kiss”, half almond champagne, half chocolate port. Lord have mercy it is awesome!

The grounds at Wilson Creek.

So we got kissed by angels at Wilson Creek and then made our way over to South Coast Winery. This is a big winery that also has an excellent resort and spa. They also have an extensive list of wines. The tasting room was packed when we got there so we headed over to the restaurant and bar. A word of advice, if the tasting room is super busy at South Coast then go to the restaurant bar. The bartenders there are just as knowledgeable about the wines and they were fun to chat with. Plus at the bar they serve you these fluffy warm rolls with herbed butter. (Am I saying that right? "Herbed butter"? Anyway, it was butter with herbs in it and it was tasty. I almost ate the whole basket they were that good.)

We decided to end our Temecula adventure with a trip to Pechanga Resort & Casino. I’m not really a gambling girl, but if you like to take your chances with Lady Luck then Pechanga is the place for you. I did try my hand at some penny slots and I won $14! Yes, I know, I’m such a high roller.

A bar at Pechanga Resort & Casino.

I had a super great time in Temecula and I’m sure you will too. Find more info here:

City of Temecula
Temecula Wineries

Another cozy crock-pot soup

Outside the sky is low and gray. The air is chilly. Everywhere it is wet and drippy.



It sounds like I’m describing Seattle not Los Angeles but unfortunately no. Today is a day for furry blankets and soup. Here is another super easy crock-pot soup to make. Let it cook all day while you’re at work and when you walk in the door its coziness will greet you with a hug.

Creamy Corn Chowder


2 cans cream of potato soup

2 cans of cream style corn


Mix both up in the crock-pot and heat on low for at least 6-8 hours. Really that’s it, that’s all you have to do. I can assure you this is not low fat but hey, it’s cold out and you need the extra calories to stay warm right? Right?

What are you doing this weekend?

Well...

This weekend I will be indulging in my love of historical preservation and volunteering at the Pasadena Heritage 19th Annual Craftsman Weekend. If you enjoy the American Arts and Crafts Movement you should check it out. There will be bus and walking tours of many of Pasadena's historical Craftsman homes and all weekend long there will be a Craftsman Exposition going on at the Pasadena Convention Center. There will be over 90 exhibitors there featuring furnishings and decorative arts.

See more information here:

http://www.pasadenaheritage.org/

On Sunday I'll be a hostess at the Hindry House tour. Hope to see you there!

Red Sky at Night

Red sky at night, sailor's delight,
Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.

Or so the old saying goes. As you can see in these pictures we had the red sky at night but the next day it just rained some more. I took these photos last week when we had a few days of thunder storms and rain. As the sun set it pierced through under the cloud cover and gave us a beautiful show. With the palm trees silhouetted against the pink sky like that I just had to snap some photos.

You'll see some birds flying around in these shots. Those are our neighborhood parrot flock. The descendants of someone's pet, they roost every night in the palm trees along our street. They are LOUD! I joke that in the evening they make so much noise because they are busy telling each other all about their day before they go to sleep.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Weekend Adventure: Santa Paula

This weekend’s adventure was to Santa Paula. Situated on Hwy 126 between Santa Clarita and Ventura it’s not hard to find. The drive is a scenic cruise in the country side with farms and produce stands along the way.


The Airport and Museum alone are worth the drive. Make sure you go on the first Sunday of the month because that’s the only day they’re open. Confused about where the museum is? Well, the museum IS the airport. On that first Sunday of the month the whole place is opened up and the public can walk from hangar to hangar. Not all the hangars are open but the ones that are are full of treasure and some of them are done up nice enough you could live in them! You’ll find new planes, old planes, stunt planes, exotic planes, and some helicopters. You won’t just see planes either as many of the hangar owners store antique cars and other collectibles there. One of our favorites was the Donalson Hangar where Mr. Donalson has a Radio Museum. Traipse past the 1948 DeSoto convertible to where Donalson has radios of all kinds dating back to 1922. Some he’s restored himself and he’s a wealth of knowledge about everything from radios to stunt flying to dog agility training. Hang out for a bit and his adorable yellow Labrador Retriever Nugget will show you some of her tricks.

Model A's at the Airport Museum.



Donalson's '48 DeSoto.

While touring the hangars don’t forget to stop by the main museum hangar. Here the staff will playfully narrate for you a video of the airport’s opening day festivities in 1930. There are exhibits and pictures of the exciting and sometimes amusing history of flight. My favorite was a photo of Pancho Barnes and her Chihuahua who had his very own very small parachute.

Stop for lunch at the airport’s restaurant Logsdon’s. It’s your average diner but I will recommend the tuna salad sandwich which comes on a toasted croissant. Bonus: you can watch planes take off and land while you eat.

The Clocktower in downtown Santa Paula.

Downtown Santa Paula is cute, but I hate to say it could use a little influx of hip. The architecture is great though if you’re like me and you love old buildings. Downtown is where the Oil Museum is. There they have a full scale replica of an old oil drilling rig. It’s actually really neat because the building it’s in has motion sensors and as soon as you walk in the rig starts creaking and grinding to life. A life size dummy named “Derrick” (haha, oil drilling humor) narrates the exhibit.

On the way back to Santa Clarita stop by the Rancho Camulos Museum on the site of an old ranch dating from the mid-1800’s. A beautiful adobe house from the 1920’s will soon be restored as the museum’s Visitor’s Center. There is also a produce stand here where you can pick up some local oranges for the drive home.

This adobe built in the 1920's will soon be the museum's Visitor's Center.

I loved this courtyard.

For more information follow the links below:

Santa Paula Airport

http://www.amszp.org/



Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup with Cornbread Muffins

It’s been about 100 degrees here in Los Angeles over the past week. Hardly fall-like weather. Nevertheless it’s fall somewhere in the world I’m sure, and what’s more cozy on a crisp autumn evening than a nice big bowl of soup? Just to pretend that it was fall for a day I made this delicious soup in my crock pot. The nice thing about making it in my crock pot was that it didn’t heat up my kitchen too much. Lord knows it was hot enough. You will love this soup. My fiancé gave it a two thumbs up and an enthusiastic YUM!

Soup Ingredients:

1 cup of celery chopped

1 small yellow onion or half of one sweet onion chopped

2 – 6.5 oz. cans of mushrooms drained

1 cup prepared instant wild rice (I used Rice-a-Roni’s original recipe instant wild rice, seasoning and all)

2 10-3/4 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup

EITHER 2 10-3/4 oz. cans cream of chicken soup OR if you want it to be totally vegetarian try cream of potato or cream of celery or one of each. You can easily mix it up.

2 cups water

2 cups milk

Combine all the ingredients in your crock pot except for the milk. Heat on a low setting for 8 to 10 hours or on a high setting for 4 to 6 hours. About 30 minutes before it’s done stir in the milk. It should serve about 8.

Cornbread muffin ingredients:

I’m not even going to list the ingredients because this is how easy these little babies are to make. This is what you do: take yourself down to the grocery store to buy the ingredients you need for the soup. Go to the baking aisle and get yourself a box of Jiffy Cornbread mix. They’re like $0.69 a box. Heck get three, cause you’re going to love the cornbread and you will want more. Simply follow the directions on the back of the box and ta-da! You’ll have some nummy muffins to go with your soup. The end.