Napa Valley.

Ah, wine country.

Relaxing. Beautiful. Fabulous.

We are complete wine novices. We debated answering the "what kind of wine do you guys like?" question with "well, the Charles Shaw blend is our favorite..." (Trader Joe's famous "two-buck chuck" for those unfamiliar) but thought we would at least try to fit in :)

It's no wonder people are so enamored by this place. The wine is wonderful, but it was learning the complexity of the process and hearing the stories of each individual vineyard (especially the smaller ones) that we loved most.

We started at Sterling Vineyards and rode this up to their huge and beautiful winery.

The views from their patio were tough to beat. Napa Valley may not have the majestic-take-your-breath-away effect that some of the other dramatic views on our trip brought, but it was hard to look at all the greenery and rolling hills and not be completely at ease with life.

The nerdy academic side of us loved learning about the process.

Next we rented bikes (yes, bikes - you might recall that our last CA biking experience did not go so smoothly). We are pleased to report that biking in wine country is significantly less stressful and more fun than biking the Golden Gate Bridge. I wish I had a photo of Walker on his bike - the combination of his rolled up jeans, white tennies, helmet, and backpack were a sight I won't soon forget.

Yes, you read that right. The bottle on the left is 27 liters of wine, or approximately 150 glasses. Whoa.

Frog's Leap was our favorite. Off the beaten path. Beautiful tasting room/home. Great wine.

Can you spy Walker in the above photo (he's in the middle)? Hard to beat that experience.

While sparkling wines are not our favorite, the view from Mumm's patio was tough to beat (and sparkling wines photograph so pretty!).

Apparently Walker's learning curve was much greater than mine. After tasting two different Pinot Noir's at Patz & Hall (known for their Pinot), I suddenly heard "well this one certainly has more of a spice and tobacco flavor... [insert fancy sounding description of wine]" effortlessly flow from Walker's mouth. I thought he was trying to make a joke, and was wondering how our server (Mrs. Patz herself) was going to respond, when I heard "Well that is a very accurate description!". Who knew?

We stopped in Sonoma on our way out town, and it is equally as charming.

Per Fran's suggestion (and confirmed by hundreds of Google reviewers), we stopped here for lunch.

If we weren't looking at rolling hills and vineyards as far as the eye could see, we might as well have been back in Alabama.

Meet the Fremont milkshake.

I have no doubt it had 1200+ calories but I just didn't care. SO. GOOD. Worth every calorie. Slurped that glass clean.

As we headed further down the coast we stopped in Muir Woods in an attempt to finally see the trees we were searching for 2 years ago on our fateful bike trip. Turns out, giant Redwoods and giant Sequoias are different trees, and while the Redwoods were enormous and very impressive (tallest trees in the world), the Sequoias (what we were really looking for) are located in Yosemite (conveniently, the last stop on our trip).

Turns out it's hard to capture a tall tree on a camera. We tried all kinds of artsy shots to give you an idea of how tall they were, but they failed miserably, and I'll spare you those takes.

29 photos later, the Fain tour through wine country is complete. Add Napa Valley to the places-100%-worth-returning-to vacation list (it's starting to get long...).

Thanks for hanging in there. Part III to come!

Lake Tahoe.

Last night we returned home from the most epic vacation. Each leg earned its own blog post, mainly because I took about a thousand pictures and even covering just one location will no doubt leave you tired of scrolling down to reach the end :) So here goes...

Part I: Lake Tahoe

It has long been on my bucket-list-of-places-to-see-in-America (multiple bucket lists exist in my life), and WOW. I would say I have never seen a place so beautiful, but the rest of our vacation gave it a run for its money. Regardless, it's at least top 3.

We soaked up the views from various beaches.

Snowmobiled.

 

This is me happy. So very happy. I could have sat up there for hours and not gotten enough of that view. I also love deep snow, especially when I am appropriately dressed for it. How often does an Alabama girl get to wade around in snow like this?

 We drank fancy drinks and enjoyed sunsets on the water.

We explored the city. Ate at local cafes and restaurants. Laughed. Reminded ourselves multiple times a day how fortunate we were to have this time together. Soaked it in. Vowed to come back. Bid the snow farewell. Then prepared for our departure. Can't complain too much about the drive when the route to wine country looked like this...

Farewell Tahoe, you lived up to my every expectation!

Next stop: Napa Valley...

The Big 2-7.

Today marks Walker's 27th year of life. In the spirit of his last in Birmingham for the near future, we attempted to pull off a surprise, and I'm pleased to say it went swimmingly well. My usually astute husband was completely surprised by the group of friends gathered to celebrate - a perfect mix of childhood, Auburn, med school, and E&Y.

 

Brilliant business mind. Freakish athlete. Crazy fun dancer. Fiercely loyal husband, son, brother, uncle, and friend. Born leader. Life of the party. Consistent. The picture of stability and balance. And let's be honest, he's pretty darn easy on the eyes. I could go on. I am of course biased, but I just don't think they make 'em any better.

Happy 27th hubby!

Perfection.

The weather this weekend = perfection. After a week of rain and storms it was nice to see the sun peak out from clouds.

Mom and dad drove up for the day on Saturday, and we started the day with a delicious lunch at Saw's in Homewood.

Isn't Matt's girlfriend Anne the cutest? They compliment each other perfectly, and we love her. Well done, little brother.

Throw in a Saturday night at Sol Azteca with friends and we were happy kids.

Sunday morning started with a too-long-in-waiting Skype date with the Beasley's. We miss these two dearly, and are so proud of what they are doing over in Hong Kong!

Well our vacation is now on the horizon, and we couldn't be more excited. We have never taken an 11-day trip before, and packing for both snow in Lake Tahoe and 75-degree weather on the California coast has presented a bit of a challenge. To help meet this challenge, meet Big Boy.

One would think from the tire marks that Big Boy has been all over the world, but alas, the only flying he has done was on our honeymoon. I could have sworn that there was a great story behind the name, but unfortunately neither Walker or I could come up with its origin. Regardless, he will be much needed on our Tour de California.

In anticipation of our trip and for graduation, Walker gave me a new wide angle camera lens, which I am sort of obsessed with. It's hard to beat the close ups that the 50mm fixed lens provides, but it is wonderful to have the capability to zoom out. On that note, we had to upgrade our camera bag to hold our new gear, therefore I am looking to unload the old one. I LOVE Crumpler products. This bag is the "2 Million Dollar Home" (Walker thinks it sounds super pretentious), which perfectly holds a basic SLR camera with attached lens.

We loved our original bag so much that we just upgraded in size and now are proud owners of the "4 Million Dollar Home". That's right. Moving up in the photography world. Our original is black with a gray/blue interior, and is in excellent condition.

E-mail me at emilytfain@gmail.com if you are interested.

Don't worry, I don't let poor food photography deter me from aiming for improvement. On tap for tonight's menu? Ranch chicken, roasted baby red potatoes, and mixed greens with feta and strawberries.

You might be wondering if there is any salad under all that feta, but be rest assured, there is. We Fain's love our feta.

Ranch Chicken:
-Mix pack of dry Ranch dressing and panko breadcrumbs. Pepper chicken breasts. Dredge in egg, then coat in Ranch/breadcrumb mixture. Cook at 350 for 30-35 minutes.
Roasted Red Potatoes:
-Quarter baby red potatoes. Toss in olive oil and pack of dry French onion soup. Cook in casserole dish at 450 for 40 minutes.
Salad:
-To make the dressing, mix balsamic vinaigrette, honey, soy, olive oil, onion power, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes (don't use precise measurements, just go with flavor). Don't be scared of the salty + sweet combo. Toast chopped walnuts in dry mustard powder and sea salt. Toss mixed greens, cut strawberries, and dressing. Serve. Top with feta and toasted walnuts.

So easy, so few ingredients, and so yum. Walker is getting spoiled with all my free time lately...

Hope your weekend was as restful and fulfilling as ours!

Returning to the kitchen.

The next few glorious weeks/months of my life will provide me with more free time than I have had since the summers of my youth. I have several broad categories of goals to accomplish, and one of them is to soak up time in the kitchen trying out new recipes. There are few things that make me happier than whipping up a meal from scratch (preferably with the aid of a leisurely glass of wine, Pioneer Woman style).

I love reading blogs that have recipes, especially if they contain beautiful photography of the whole cooking/baking process that makes me want to immediately hop in my kitchen and try to reproduce said recipe.

Some people are so good at photographing food. I am not. I have tried, but the lighting is always off, or, as I learned whilst attempting my delicious creation on Monday evening, my hands are covered in flour, raw meat juice (sick), egg, etc. that prohibits me from wanting to touch my camera.

On the menu Monday night was sauteed tilapia with a lemon butter sauce, Fran's mom's candy salad, and parmesan couscous. It all started off sort of promising...

And... fail.

Above mentioned roadblocks meant no more photos, but let me tell you, it was delicious. Walker and I struggle with cooking fish at home that has enough flavor, but this passed even his high-standard taste test. Basically, salt and pepper two tilapia filets. Dredge in flour and shake excess. Place in heated pan of 1 tsp butter and 2 tbsp canola oil. Cook 3 minutes on each side. Remove filets. Add 3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons). Bring to boil, then reduce to thicken. Pour over filets. YUM. And healthy. Add Fran's mom's candy salad and we were happy kids.

This weather has been such a downer lately. I love a good rainy day, but this is getting to be a bit much. Poor Bella feels so trapped indoors, so this afternoon I braved the mist and took her on a walk to let her romp through the endless pools of rainwater outside. This dog LOVES rain, puddles, or anything that involves being dirty and wet (with the notable exception of her weekly bath). She loves it so much I usually let her indulge even if it adds extra work to get her cleaned up again. Isn't she just the cutest?

Tonight I tried again with food photography. The meal was too dirty-hand-intensive for me to even attempt in-progress photos, but maybe the final product captures a glimpse at how delicious this was? I actually copied the meal exactly from this recipe, and it was fantastic. Maybe if medicine fails me I can find work in a kitchen somewhere...

(The food photography leaves something to be desired, but my stomach is quite satisfied.)

Happy hump day folks!