What a great weekend!

I needed a break from school - seems I have been studying non-stop for weeks now! Luckily Damon and Shelly were getting a break from Nolan on Friday night. So, Gona and Baca watched Mac and we went with Damon and Shelly to the Latin King. It is an italian restaurant in Des Moines. The wait was over an hour, but it was kind of nice just to talk. We had a yummy dinner and came home and went to bed....not really exciting, but was nice to just sleep!

Saturday morning we had a meeting at 6am. We had to go through our practice dry run for the day after thanksgiving sale. It is quite the orchestration, with where to stage product and how to set up the lines. We do about 8 saturday's worth of business in one day....a january week's worth of business in one day...so it needs some planning.

That night we drove to Newton with Gona and Baca and went to a lavish wine dinner. Auntie Em and Kade came over to watch Mac. The winery is run by a nice couple, he is a doctor, and she runs the events. They have weddings, dinners, private events, etc. She is a gourmet cook and made everything that we ate that night (all of which was fabulous!) They served a different wine with each course, and I was surprised at how good some of the Iowa wine was!

Here is the menu:

Asparagus with Smoked Salmon
&
Baked Brie with Jazzy Cranberry Chutney
paired with The Grate White, off-dry white wine
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Heartland Harvest Chowder with Corn, Peppers, Cilantro and Carrots
paired with Vesper White, semi-sweet wine
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Mixed Greens with Fresh Pears, Apricots, Toasted Almonds, Honey-Apricot Vesper White Dressing and Maytag Blue Cheese Crumbles
paired with Harvest Home White, sweet wine
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Pork Tenderloin Roulade with Caramelized Onions & Rolling Hills Wild Mushroom Sauce accompanied by Wild Rice Pilaf in an Acorn Squash Ring
paired with Rolling Hills Red, off-dry wine
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Decadent Dark Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries served in edible chocolate dish
paired with No. 2044 Red, dry wine
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Jubilee Blush Granite (pronounced Gran-yay)
paired with Jubilee Blush, sweet wine

It was amazing, especially the mousse....yum! Thanks Gona and Baca for quite the treat!!! The atmosphere and the aucustic folk guitarist was awesome! You can check out Sugar Grove Vinyards next time you are in Iowa! It is where Emily and Aaron are getting married this summer! McKenna is their flower girl, and we can hardly wait!