Eating and Drinking My Way through the Weekend

This was one of those weekends where I could've used another weekend after my weekend.  I spent time with lots of friends and family and ate WAY TOO MUCH.  I drank just the right amount, though.  And unfortunately, I didn't take nearly enough pictures.

Let's rewind back to Thursday.  After a meeting at church, hubs and I treated Bridget's soon-to-be godparents to a wine tasting at Grapes and Tastes in Cedarburg.  We had only been there once before and were on the fence whether we liked it or not.  We tasted three whites from California and Oregon and three reds from France, Spain, and...somewhere in South America.  I meant to save my sheet, but I clearly was not thinking "blog post" at the time.

Both couples bought a bottle of the pinot gris from Willamette Valley, Oregon, but that was really the only one we were a little excited about.  Plus, after hubs broke a glass, I felt like we needed to buy something.  The other three, who are far more knowledgeable about wine than I, concurred that they probably wouldn't return for another wine tasting, but there are some fun events that the store does that could be worth checking out.

Friday was the birthday dinner of a good friend of hubs', and that was held at Sabor in Milwaukee.  Sabor is a Brazilian steakhouse type thing where you pay a set price and servers come around with twelve different skewers of meat.  You have a token on the table and have to flip it over to green when you want some meat and red when you're taking a break.  I had been there once before, and I was more excited for the salad bar and sides, which are included with the meal.  They're amazing.  Seriously.  Especially the fried bananas with cinnamon and the little cheesy rolls.  As for the meat, my favorites were definitely the garlic steak and the bacon wrapped chicken.  Delish.

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Eight of the nine of us there were winos (really 7.5 of the 9 of us--I should probably only count as a half), so we also had three different reds.  One of the guys has excellent taste in red wine, especially Shiraz, from doing many winery tours on his honeymoon in Australia.  Normally, I prefer whites, but two of these reds were delicious and not too dry.  The first was a Shiraz that hubs and I actually found and purchased later at Costco for a fraction of the price.  Score!  The second was a Grenache from Spain, which ended up being most of our favorites.

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The delicious dining did not end there.  Saturday, my grandparents, mom, aunt, and uncle came over and joined the in-laws and us for a meal at The Pasta Shoppe in Port Washington.

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The Pasta Shoppe's menu mostly consists of very accessible Italian dishes like spaghetti, ravioli, and pizza.  My favorite regular menu item of there's is the linguini primavera with alfredo sauce topped with crab stuffed shrimp.  Soooo goood.  But one of the more expensive dishes.  I usually go for one of the specials to mix it up a bit.  The meal I had on Saturday was by far the best one I've ever had there.  It was angelhair pasta (my favorite) with vodka sauce topped with a pine nut crusted chicken breast.

Not really any good wine to speak of there, but what they lack in wine selection, they make up for in fun martini options.  If you ever go, have the Angel Food martini.  It'll change your life.

On Sunday, we hosted a party after Bridget's Baptism and grilled out.  We attempted making this sangria recipe using Cedarburg Spice wine, and that ended up being pretty good.  Different, but pretty good, depending on who you asked.  The dessert selections were fresh strawberry bars, brownies, and baklava.   All of which we continued eating after the guests were gone.  Yum.

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