Joan on the Road

Today was a day to enjoy the lovely weather, each other and celebrate life! We headed down to the Temecula Wine Country for lunch at Carol's at Bailey's Winery. Closed!!! But the wine host suggested the cafe at Ponte Winery...Smokehouse Grill or something like that.

Here's a collage of our day...

The setting was soooo relaxing. Our "lunch" lasted 2 hours and cost @#$ bucks but what the hey...life is short and we're going to enjoy it! We started with a light foccacia bread dipped in a garlic aoli sauce accompanied by a bottle of Ponte Dry Reisling.. The appetizer was called a Nosh...marinated olives, garlic hummus, and crostini bread. (I'm not a gourmet cook so if I've spelled anything wrong...please ignore).

We both had fish entrees that were delicious and unique. Mine was halibut with an Anahiem chili "sop"...meaning it was brushed over the fish. Yummy garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans finished it off. We cleaned our plates like good children...because it was really delicious. I didn't think I could eat more but the Chocolate cheesecake with raspberry cream sounded too good to pass up. Topped off with espresso, it was a wonderful experience.

The grounds at Ponte are lovely...maybe Bryan and Dani should look at a Winery wedding setting ? :) We wandered around, snapped a few pictures and worked off the bottle of wine. Just down the road is Maurice Car'rie so we stopped there as we enjoy their Muscat Canneli, a lightly sweeet wine. We thought they might have a good price....but they didn't even have it in the shop.

We used to do the wine tasting thing when it was free or maybe even a couple of bucks each. Now the wineries want $10 each. Of course you get to keep your glasses.....whoopee. So we passed on the wine tasting and slowly wended our way home, totally relaxed and ready for whatever comes next.