Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Well first thing is first. I want to tell you all about the most exquisite dinner I've had in a long time. On Sunday evening we went to the Napa Rose to participate in one of the Disney's California Adventure Food and Wine Festival special events. We attended the Guy Fieri celebrity chef dinner. It was a five (well actually 6) course wine paired dinner. Now before I get into the individual courses let me tell you that Michael Jordan (not the basketball player) is the Master Sommelier of the Napa Rose and he is awesome. I am a big fan of him and his wine pairings couldn't have been more perfect. Ok so here's how the night went down.
We arrived and sat in the lounge and we were served the Lasorda Pinot Grigio with 3 appetizers.

One was a lettuce wrap (well more like a lettuce cup) with delicious chicken filling. There was a piece of salmon that had been cooked on a cedar plank with a cracker. Now I don't usually like salmon, but man this changed my mind. The infused cedar flavor in the salmon was unbelievable. The third appetizer was a tapioca rice paper roll with sushi rice, avocado, BBQ pork, & a garlic chili mayo sauce. It is called the Jackass Roll and it is served at his restaurant Texwasabi's. This place is definitely on my list of places to visit... and soon!
Ok so then we go into the dining room and we have a great table close to the center of the room and close to the kitchen so we could see everything that was going on!

First course:
Bacon wrapped shrimp with a chipotle BBQ sauce.
I think that speaks for itself. You will see that I took pictures of the rest of the dishes, but well this looked too delicious and I ate it up before I could take a picture, so you will just have to imagine. The wine that it was paired with could not have been better, it was Riesling from Germany. The smoky-spiciness of the BBQ sauce and the sweetness of the wine--BEAUTIFUL!!! Like I said, I ate it up!

Second Course:
Lemon Grass Chicken with Green Papaya Salad

This was great, and while it was my least favorite course that's just because the others were FANTASTIC and this was just REALLY REALLY GOOD. It had a lot of flavor and half way through I forgot that I was eating papaya, so that was cool. Guy said that he got this idea from going to a chinese restaurant and ordered a green papaya salad and was pleasantly surprised by it so he used the idea and added the chicken. Well done, Guy! Very good. It was paired with a Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma Valley, very good as well.

Third Course:
Crispy Fried Red Fish with Mojo Sauce and Sofrito Potatoes.
Ok so this first picture is of the fish itself:

Here is how it was served to us:

Now this fish was UNBELIEVABLE. The pairing with the Albarino (a white wine) was so great. I couldn't get enough of both. Now I haven't told you this yet, but well... let's just say we were sitting at a VIP table so they gave us, in addition to the plate above, an actual whole fish to eat as well, and a refill of this wine. As you can see below, we ate that UP! SO SO SO SO GOOD! I want some right now! The fish was great and crispy on the outside and flakey and juicy on the inside. The flavor was fantastic.


Fourth Course:
"Gaucho" Steak wiht a 4 Herb Chimichurri and Green Beans

I don't think that I've had a more delicious steak EVER! I know that sounds exaggerated but the 4 herb chimichurri was so delectable and just added so much flavor and layers to the steak that... well... I just can't describe it. This course was paired with a Negroamro red wine, which had some chocolate undertones... I know that sounds weird but it really complimented this dish. Of course let's not move on before saying how much I love green beans and clearly Guy wanted to impress me and let's just say that it worked :) I like beans.

Fifth Course:
Guido's Flaming Banana's with Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and White Chocolate & Pecan Cookies

I love banana's foster and so this was so good. The Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Riesling Eiswein from Colombia Valley really went well with this dessert. It brought out the carmel flavors in the bananas and complimented the ice cream too.

Well I could go on and on about the night, about how he got people to sing and act silly the whole night; how MJ got the room chanting "Napa" "Rose"; how Guy got 5 people cooking in the kitchen with him; and how Gwen patted Guy on the butt when we left, but well.. I won't. I will tell you that Guy is just like he is on TV and is a real and very personable. He definitely loves what he does. This was a fantastic evening and the food was so money! Thank you, Guy, for a wonderful meal! I can't wait till next year! I will leave you with this picture:
Me, Guy and the fish (Michael Jordan is holding it up in the background :)

Quick Update

So I got my grad check back already.. I'm going to see if I can graduate by August.. yea!!! That would be better than January :) I can't believe how fast that went. Someone likes me :) and I think it's Tuffy :)

Also I had an amazing dinner on Sunday and I will post all that information probably tomorrow. Also a post dedicated to my maternal grandmother soon... long story, stay tuned. Well that's my quick update. I'm so glad the grad check went through quickly :) I will sleep better tonight!

Have a good night and love to you all!

Stupid piece of paper

So lots of papers and reading to do this week. Did some research yesterday and I also filed my grad check. Now I would've sworn that I had turned it in before, but I guess I didn't. Ok so you have to fill out this form of how your name is spelled and your major and what-not. Anyway you have to pay a fee with the form. Ya, you read that right, you have to pay to graduate. Shouldn't that be included in your tuition?!?!?!?! A diploma fee?!?!? I have to pay for the piece of paper!

Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid!

BTW--the date on my diploma will be January of '09! Cool... it takes 9 months to print a piece of paper.

I love state schools........ well at least not right now.

Lock and Loaded

Still not sleeping. But at work. With Shotgun Sam. Sam makes everything better.
"Don't make me angry. When I'm angry I'm not nice. [BANG]"

Update

I'm doing better.. still sad and still kinda hurt. I'm not mad anymore, so that's good. I think I will feel the sting from this for awhile.

Here's what I don't understand... why can't we act like adults? Why don't people talk civilized to each other? Give each other the benefit of the doubt. Let the person react to what you have to say instead of "knowing how they'd act." You're not going to know until you say it and they experience it. And--how do you know what you have to say is relevant or not? I think that if it's in-between you should ask the person, you shouldn't make that call.

I think it's a lot like how Christianity should work. So often people make judgement of what they "know is right or wrong." How? How do they KNOW?!?!? Isn't that God's judgement? Who am I to say? Isn't it better if we're all truthful from the start and then we let God or the other person react instead of making the call yourself?

Ok well those are my thoughts today.

I bought myself flowers so that I would cheer up a bit. I hope I can sleep tonight.

Good News. Bad, Bad News.

Sometimes I think I know what's going on. I think I know my life and where it's headed, and then... I hear something or experience something I never saw coming, and I think, why didn't I think or expect that!?!?!?

Tonight was one of those nights. I learned something that I did not see coming. What I learned initially felt good and made me glad that I was where I was, but then, I slowly learned and realized it wasn't so good. I was happy and then hurt. I was glad and then felt guilty. What I initially felt good about I now regret and feel bad. I shouldn't have felt that way. I should have felt sympathy... and then I got hit--or at least it feels like I got hit.

First of all, why do other's actions hurt so bad? Why can't I be confident that the best intentions were meant? Nope. That's not what I can focus on. And that hurts too. I need to let things go, and breathe. I guess I just want to know why I feel so hurt, why I just want to cry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry the initial news made me happy. I'm sorry I let the other news hurt me and I'm sorry I can't see the situation for the intentions meant. I wish I could and I know in time I will.

I think I just need to sleep on it.