Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Mount View Hotel & Spa

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Mount View Hotel & Spa

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny
Time to wine down…  Kelly and I checked in at the iconic Mount View Hotel & Spa, which sits centrally on Calistoga’s Lincoln Avenue and has been a beacon for enthusiastic travelers searching out the region’s abundant amenities and mineral-rich waters for over a century.  Designed with relaxation in mind, Mount View Hotel & Spa has been a favorite since 1919.  It’s the detailing that sets this place apart, upon our arrival Matthew, one of the hotel’s managers, gave us a bottle of One Hope Sparkling to celebrate Kelly’s impending nuptials!

At the Mount View Hotel each of the 33 guest rooms, suites and private cottages have been furnished with it's original art deco architect in mind, mixed with contemporary accents to give a relaxed and trendy vibe.  Mount View Hotel & Spa was recognized in 1981 on the National Register of Historic Places, and with due reason.  The Mount View Hotel & Spa has had a handful of colorful proprietors who have left a lasting impact on the grandeur seen and felt today.  While staying there Kelly and I stayed in the “Twin Bedroom” (something right out of a 1940s screwball comedy..), the tub and sink were classic clawfoot (perfect for rogue champagne bottles) something the in-room Illy Coffee counterbalanced the next day! ;-)


Mount View's beautiful backyard includes an outdoor heated pool, natural mineral whirlpool (gotta get your healing waters in...), cabanas, private grounds patio that allows you to relax in comfort and style with a glass of wine. The hotel has dining on the property, with two on-site restaurants: boasting contemporary American eats at Johnny’s Calistoga and French-inspired fare at Veraison, as well as the newly opened Indie Blue Lounge, where guests can enjoy an artisanal coffee experience and wine tasting.

Inspired by One Hope Wines and the first of its kind in Calistoga, the Mount View Hotel has adopted “cause integration” hospitality in the Napa Valley.  Mount View Hotel donates 50 percent of its profits to charity from environmental causes to children’s needs (that’s right you read that correct: 50 percent!!!).  Oh, and the hotel is also a certified Green Hotel.  The Mount View Hotel’s vision is to create exceptional experiences that inspires people to indulge while doing good.  Talk about the perfect reason to take an overnight to Calistoga! ;-)

Winter is Coming, Winter is Here: Hot Beauty Products for the Coldest of Times!

Winter is Coming, Winter is Here: Hot Beauty Products for the Coldest of Times!

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny

Winter is Coming, Winter is Here. (Along with the final season of Game of Thrones in April 2019!)  And with Winter comes pale dry skin, static cling hair, and foundation that is too dark for your vampire colored body! ;-)

Yes Baby it’s cold outside!  We know that you need some Beauty 911 to combat the impending doom of frostbitten lips and dragon like skin. 

So here’s the skinny on all things beauty reviving as the darkest of beauty times is here! ;-)

Better Skin Mirakle Cream - $34

We all need a bit (okay a lot) of reparation in the skin area this time of year, well Better Skin Mirakle Cream is genius in a jar with it’s one-stop, skin-loving, problem-solving, all-purpose cream!  Mirakle Cream’s ingredient rich recipe, imported from the Republic of Uzbekistan, is handcrafted in the USA with love and FAB FAB ingredients such as coconut oil, sea buckthorn, shea butter, cocoa butter, aloe, and soothing algae to help moisturize the skin.  Peptides and hyaluronic acid help skin appear smoother, more youthful and radiant.  It’s the perfect weapon to slay scaly dragon skin!!!
https://thebetterskinco.com

Qyksonic ZOE 3-in-1 Sonic Beauty Device - $199
Cue the song Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (yeah that’s right we’re bringing it back…)  Less than a year ago I had never used a sonic beauty device, and now I absolutely SWEAR by them!!!  Of the multitude of ones I’ve explored, Qyksonic ZOE 3-in-1 Sonic Beauty Device is the only skincare device that cleanses, massages, and applies skincare products (most competitors don’t don’t do the last one).  Bam!  Zoe’s advanced Silicone Brushes work at over 6000 pulsations per minute to gently cleanse and exfoliate the makeup, dirt, and oil that clog your pores and cause acne, while eliminating blemishes and minimizing the signs of aging.   Bam!  Benefits include: provides complete facial and body sonic cleansing, delivers next-level micro-firming circulation massage, minimizes the size of pore and wrinkles, exfoliates without irritating your skin.  Bam Bam Bam!  “Feel those good vibrations.  Come on Come on!”
https://qyksonic.com
   
Pur Cosmetics 4-in-1 Lip Duo Single 4 Tonight - $20.00
The best way to combat Twilight colored skin is with a kickass red lipstick!  (With the AMAZING name of Sing 4 Tonight)   Bright coloring to pop that skin and plus never having to choose between matte and gloss again!  Pur Cosmetics creamy 4-in-1 Lip Duo with a high-impact matte liquid lip stain and nourishing oil treatment.  The highly pigmented lip stain contains creamy shea butter and coconut oil that helps it glide on smoothly for a transfer-resistance finish that lasts all day long without fading.  Plus, the matte lip stain gently plumps lips for a more defined pout and the lip oil is enriched with agave, sunflower, jojoba and cranberry oils to ensure that lips maintain moisture and a high shine.  So don some lipstick and get ready for Team Edward and Team Jacob to fight you off!!!
https://www.purcosmetics.com

Vitals Protein Collagen Cream - $29
Beauty is an inside job.  In winter (really all the seasons) your skin texture depends not only on external treatments, but also on your food intake.  Collagen is the protein that your body relies on to ensure the health and vitality of your skin, hair, tendon, cartilage, bones, and joints; pretty much everything that connects our body, keeping skin tone and joints strong, needs collagen.  But our modern diets lack the collagen that was once abundant in foods effecting our hair, skin and nails, and joints, ligaments and tendons as we age.  Enter Vital Proteins Mocha Collagen Creamer featuring healthy ingredients served alongside 10 grams of collagen peptides sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised bovine.  Rich in healthy fats from organic coconut milk, their Whole30-approved Coconut Creamer is completely free of dairy, soy, carrageenan, gluten, artificial sweeteners, and added sugars.  Virtually flavorless and odorless, mix it into your smoothies, coffee, or other beverage.  Viva the collagen revolution!!!
https://www.vitalproteins.com

Treat Yourself Energizing Sugar Coat - $35
One of the hottest beauty products on the market are hemp based beauty products.  Hemp and cannabis (aka medical marijuana) both derive from the plant species Cannabis sativa.  In case you’re unfamiliar, hemp is a variety of the Cannabis sativa plant that contains less than .3% THC.  The CBD based beauty company Treat Yourself has created a transformative Sugar Coat that sugar-y scrubs with all the benefits of Manuka honey (UMF16+) mask infused with full-spectrum hemp oil and a 5 spice anti-inflammatory blend to provide softer, clearer looking skin.  
https://treatyourselfinc.com

Tailored Union Socks  - $16
You lose most of your body heat through your head and feet so you should tailor the latter in absolute style!!!  Tailored Union is a curated luxe brand focused primarily around exclusive artist based sock collections.  Yes this article of clothing may be covering up your footsies, but they are also a bespoke piece of clothing; the ultimate in refinement.  Along with your classic socks, Tailored Union is making head weaves for their sheer socks with sandals.  Perfect for those chilly SoCal winter nights! ;-)
https://www.tailoredunion.com/

A Girl's Gotta Spa! Energizing Citrus Salt Scrub - $32
Remember those old school cartoons where there was a Saint Bernard with a bottle of medicine running around the arctic?!?  Well that is what A Girl's Gotta Spa! Energizing Citrus Salt Scrub does with the impending doom of alligator skin!  There's a reason this female owned indie beauty brand is always selling out on Amazon!  This scrub does a hat trick by exfoliating with purifying Dead Sea Salt, clarifying with green tea extract, and hydrating with avocado oil.  The Energizing Citrus Salt Scrub is: 100% natural Vegan featuring citrus essential oils of pink grapefruit, orange, lemon and lime.  It’s the ULTIMATE Rescue 911 for your skin!
https://www.agirlsgottaspa.com

So Fresh So Clean Green Tea Wash-Off Mask - $8
So Fresh So Clean Green Tea Wash-Off Mask is like have a super hydrating whipped frosting on your face (in the best way possible!!!)  A mud based mask that releases a warm sensation (‘cause we can all use warm in the wintertime!) that reaches into pores dissolve and dislodge the build-up of impurities.  And then there’s the Aloe Vera and Vitamin E to help moisturize, moisturize, and moisturizer!  So frost your face away as it’s sooooooo fresh and sooooooo clean! ;-)

http://sofreshsoclean.com/
   
Kat Thomas is the Editor in Chief of Edible Skinny, a site dedicated to making your life postcard worthy.  She is also the CEO of the creative media company This Way Adventures.  You can find more about both brands at http://www.thiswayadventures.com

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Calistoga

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Calistoga

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny

After all our imbibing (and there was A LOT of imbibing), Titus of Beau Wine Tours & Limousine Service chauffeured us to Calistoga, depositing us at the Mount View Hotel to start embracing the art of relaxation! 

Calistoga is located on the north end of Napa Valley (75 miles north of San Francisco).  This small town is famous for its hot springs, hotel and spas, world-class restaurants, and whimsical wineries, including Castello di Amorosa, a 13th century Tuscan castle.  Earlier this year, Amy Poehler shot a portion of her new Netflix film comedy, Wine Country, in this picture perfect hamlet.

Calistoga has a population of just 5,330 people while maintaining 46 lodging properties, 23 restaurants/cafés/bars, and 18 spas.  The latter’s most famous is Indian Springs. which dates back to 1860 when California’s first millionaire Sam Brannon envisioned a world-class resort based on the area’s steamy mineral waters.  3 million years ago a volcano erupted and created a petrified forest and these watery healing grounds used by the Wappo Indians from the 1700s on. 

Brannon coined the name “Calistoga,” a combination of California and Saratoga, a resort in Upstate New York he admired.  From then on Calistoga becomes noted for its natural mineral water and elegant hot springs resort.  Two ingredients that make Calistoga’s spas so unique are the volcanic ash and the geothermal mineral water.  And the results are more than popular as more than half of the spas in Calistoga offer hot springs or mineral pools.  Another famous natural landmark of the town is Old Faithful Geyser of California, a small geyser set against the backdrop of palm trees and mountains that historically erupts every 45 minutes. 

Calistoga is designated as its own distinct AVA with an area of seven square miles and over 60 different wineries.  Other than the Madrigal Family Winery, landmark wineries in the area include include Frank Family Winery (the third oldest winery in Napa Valley), Twomey, Sterling Vineyards, Dutch Henry Winery and Chateau Montelena Winery, which is housed in a jaw-dropping, ivy-covered castle with landscaped gardens.  In 2019, Napa Valley’s first Four Seasons will open in Calistoga with 85 guest rooms, 20 villas, and its own vineyard and winery. 

 

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Madrigal Family Winery

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Madrigal Family Wine

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny

Our last planned sipping experience of the day (there was still more to come courtesy of JACK Winery) was the third generation run Madrigal Family Winery.  Located on Highway 29, between Calistoga and St. Helena, this winery is situated on 40 acres of estate vineyards, from the highway to the treeline.  Madrigal Family Winery is boutique, producing about 6,000 cases of wine a year.  Cabernet Sauvignon is the primary varietal you'll find at the winery, but Madrigal also ventures out into Tempranillo, Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc, focusing on small lots of a single vineyard.

The Madrigals first started farming some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyards in the 1930's.  The family left Mexico in the late 1930's and arrived in the Napa Valley where they began farming apples, pears, walnuts and grapes.  They were one of the first, if not the first, Mexican family in upper Napa Valley.   Early on Jess, who fathered 12 children, chose to focus on wine agriculture and started the family's vineyard management business.  After working for Napa icons like Duckhorn, in the 1990's they decided to get in on the fun of making wine.  In 1995, Madrigal Family Winery produced its first vintage of 500 cases of Petite Sirah.  Today, that company manages over 800 acres.  Looks like grape juice suits them! ;-)

The Madrigal family history is a constant source of inspiration, and guides them in their winemaking now. They value the long relationship they've had with the land and the people of the upper Valley, believing that the combined wisdom of the folks who’ve been here for generations and a deep appreciation of these vineyards can be tasted in their wine.  Today, the company is run by Chris Madrigal, the founder's grandson, and vintner of Madrigal Family Winery. 

Chris, who has 3 kids of his own, ultimately attributes the family’s success to a strong work ethic and luck.  “I always say sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.  I like being good and a lot of the things that have happened in our life has been a result of working hard, but if there wasn't luck involved with it, or if we weren't at the right place at the right time, our story could be drastically different.  Be it luck or hard work, the Madrigal dream is alive and well.” 

Not that it makes it easy.  “There is not a lot of family vineyards left in Napa Valley, but this is our life.”  Madrigal Family Winery is a portfolio company of Bacchus Capital Management, an investment firm providing strategic capital and making equity investments in United States family owned wineries and wine businesses.  And Chris is not afraid to talk numbers with the guests.  He explained the cost per acre to create a wine is $44,000.  Any wine selling for under $30 in Napa is not making any money for the winery.  So Madrigal Family Winery combats the daunting numbers with a constant dedication to their supporters.   “We do 6 parties a year for our wine club, most wineries do one or two.  We do a crab boil with no utensils, everything you eat is with your hands.  And the results are astounding: the average retention rate of a wine club is 18 months.  Madrigal’s is 6 years!”

Madrigal Family Winery also has a tasting room in Sausalito, but the best way to experience their wines is by visiting where their roots lie in Napa surrounded by the grapes. 

Some wine favorites from our time at Madrigal Family Wine include:     

• Gewurztraminer Mendocino (2016) - Storytelling white wine!!!  Pales straw in color with peach and rose petal aromas.  The stone fruit flavorings and crisp finish allow for even the tallest of tales to have a great ending!

• Petite Sirah Estate (2014) - This sophisticated wine is also the biggest varietal made in Calistoga.  With notes of vanilla, blue fruits, and plums, this would be perfectly paired with a really nice BLT on sourdough with thick sliced bacon.  It screams: JUICY.

• Las Vinas del Senor Cabernet Sauvignon (2014) - This wine was first crafted when Dad Jess turned 80.  It’s a showstopper with elegance, sophistication, and a velvet finish to celebrate a nuanced lifetime!  Vanilla, cherry, and cedar showcase the richness of the wine, and eighty years of experience!

Victorian Christmas Time in Cape May, NJ

Edible Skinny was lucky enough to check out Cape May, NJ during the Holiday Season! It did not disappoint as it was a whole lot of a magical Victorian Christmas time!

Possessing one of the country's largest collections of 19th century framed buildings, Cape May is New Jersey's jewel in the crown. Unlike other Jersey shore towns, Cape May City still looks like small-town America, complete with tree-canopied streets, right out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

In 1976, the Cape May Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Which means it's the perfect place for that Charles Dicksen Christimas!

This town's Congress Hall was decorated Winter Wonderland style with decorations throughout the month of December, along with a Carousel and their Holiday Shopping Village including Gingerbread Decorating and Story Time with Mrs. Claus!

Happy Holidays from Edible Skinny!

​

 

 

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley with Silver Trident Winery

Life is Sweet in Napa Valley - Intimate Micro-Experiences in the World of Wine, Food, and the Art of Relaxation (PART TWO)

By Kat Thomas, Edible Skinny

Yesterday I wanted wine.
Today I’m drinking wine.
Follow your dreams…
And drink up bitches!!!

Sip sip hooray!!!  Part Two of our FAB trip through Napa Valley (and a big shout out to Beau Wine Tours for helping plan out all these AMAZING winery adventures!!!)

So here’s to life being delicious, all your moments being postcard worthy, and Cabernet all day, everyday in Napa Valley!!!

SILVER TRIDENT WINERY

Returning to the hustle and bustle of Yountville (or what Napa Valley calls hustle and bustle...), we were greeted at Silver Trident Winery by the glowing Mallory.  Intimate and inviting, Silver Trident Winery has appointment only wine tastings in their beautifully warm Tuscan-style stone building.  Their “Tasting Home” consists of a living room, dining room and library, all furnished with Ralph Lauren Home.  There’s no tasting bar, no standing on your feet, no rush, at all.  Crafting small production wines (2-3k cases per year) created in the heart of the Napa Valley, Silver Trident Winery has the catchphrase of: “Big Personality, Small Production.  Endless Passion.”


Along with working at Silver Trident Winery, Mallory runs Vine Living blog, so she give us the skinny on it all!  She explained to Kelly and I that Silver Trident Winery is the passion project of Bob Binder, cofounder of Oceania Cruises.  Binder helped make this luxury cruise line’s food and beverage program one of the finest at sea, collaborating along the way with such food luminaries as Jacques Pépin, Bon Appétit, and Wine Spectator.  Binder resides in Napa with his partner Walter Jost.  Mallory gushed, “they are the nicest sweetest men.”  In 2009 Binder and Jost decided to made 100 cases Cabernet.  The next year they added 100 cases of Pinot Noir.

They opened their “Tasting Home” in 2012, with a whole new approach to wine pairing: great wines with the world-class home decor of Ralph Lauren.  In the past, the iconic fashion company had crafted Ralph Lauren Home-furnished suites on two of Oceanic largest ships.  These 2,500-square-foot suites, with their ebony baby grand pianos and mahogany and quartzite bars, were specifically decorated to “capture the feeling of Ralph Lauren’s passions for sailing, adventure, and travel."  While working with Ralph Lauren Home, Binder learned the company was looking for an opportunity to open a northern California showroom. That got him to thinking about the possibility of offering wine tasting in a home setting.

Wine tasting in the town of Yountville is a unique experience because the Yountville Town Council requires wine tasting rooms in town to use at least 25% of their floor space for retail sales of items other than wine.  You will find wine tasting rooms in town that also include wine accessories, artwork, antiques, and even cookware (shoutout to our friends at Hestan!).  So when it came to the decorating of Silver Trident’s “Tasting Home,” Binder and Jost decided to utilize the luxury home master once again! ;-)

To continue the concept of the “Tasting Home,” Silver Trident collaborated with chef Sarah Scott to create food pairings for each of their five wines (since homes traditionally serve food…). Sarah has been cooking in the Napa Valley since the early 1980s and has developed a talent for food and wine pairings.  She is the co-author of a cookbook with Connie Green titled The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food.  Noshes we sampled at Silver Trident include: Herbed Labneh and Goat Cheese, Mushroom Duxelle, and Piquillo Pimento Cheese Spread.  Yummm (with 3Ms!!!)!

Some wine favorites from our time at Silver Trident Winery include:                  

• Apollo's Folly Rosé (2017) Complex, yet ready to play!  Ripe red raspberry and watermelon make this “Paris, in the 1920s, in a glass.”  Sipping this Rosé was the perfect compliment to the black and white photography of Tunbridge Gallery throughout the Silver Trident’s “Tasting Home.”  Classically clean, it knows what it wants.
• Benevolent Dictator Pinot Noir (2015) Classic Russian River Pinot Noir with flavorings of cherry, cola, and pomegranate.  All aged in French Oak, 40% of it new.  A great fireside wine with a calico cat in your lap!
• Playing With Fire (2015)  A red that changes every year… because Silver Trident is a small winery they consider this their take some chances, break some rules, and play with fire.  Remember how your parents always told you never to play with fire?  And remember how that just made it a little bit more exciting?  Silver Trident chooses a variety of berries, a variety of barrel toasts, and experiments with fermentation temperatures.  Playing with fire can spark some deliciously thrilling results (and create my favorite wine at their “Tasting Home.)”

Turkey Ho! Giving Thanks for the Sandbox Cafe in Surf City, NJ

Turkey Ho!

Edible Skinny was LUCKY enough to attend an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner this year at the Sandbox Cafe in Surf City, NJ!!!

There we were treated to a FREE, and YES you read that right FREE Thanksgiving dinner! The Sandbox Cafe for the last three years has opened up their doors to anyone who wants a FREE dinner!

It all started in 2016 with a simple post: “Think you have no place to go for Thanksgiving dinner?  Well, you're wrong.  Head over to the Sandbox Cafe in Surf City and have a free Thanksgiving dinner from the owners and staff of the restaurant at the 14th Street and beach.”  That first year they had 40 guest attend. 

Well in the last three years their numbers have escalated!  In 2017, the second year, their number more than quadrupled to 170 guests.  In 2018 the Sandbox Cafe served 250 FREE Thanksgiving dinners!

From those who might not have family in town to those who is bank accounts might not have been large enough to make a proper Thanksgiving dinner the Sandbox Cafe welcomed their arms to all.

Our hodgepodge group of four ended up at their doors because my Mom, Letty Thomas, will be moving across country in a few weeks to California; all of the kitchen supplies had already been packed leading to a non-existent turkey dinner...

And so we were greeted by a sign on Thanksgiving Day that brought a cheerful moment of thanks:

    Everyone at the Sandbox Cafe is Our Family….
    ...A Heart Felt Welcome to Our Thanksgiving Feast
    ... As a Community and Family Relax and Enjoy!

And then we feasted, feasted, and more feasted…  Our meal consisted of a soup or salad course, a dinner full plate of turkey meat, stuffing, green beans, glaze carrots, roasted sweet potatoes, followed by an array of different dessert choices (we made the most intelligent decision and decided on one of each).

The Sandbox Cafe has evolved to be a true community adventure with each portion of the meal donated by another local restaurant and/or business.  Other local establishments that got in on the action included: Shore Fire Grill (Cornbread Stuffing), Herb, Cheryl, Armstrong and Ocean Spray (Home Cranberry Sauce), ScoJo’s (Butternut Squash), Country Kettle Fudge (Oyster Crackers), Wallys (Potatoes), Greenhouse Cafe (Vegetable Medley), Kaiser-Din Foundation (Apple and Pumpkin Pies), Wod Hod (Ice Cream), along with Lee Farms, Silveri & Sons, and Tom LoBianco of U.S. Foods.  

AND along with the serving the meal completely for FREE, the Sandbox Cafe had a donation box to help the hungry through Saint Francis Community Center’s Food Pantry.  Talk about celebrating the community in all forms!

So let’s give thanks to the Sandbox Cafe and all the great work they’ve done for the community! ;-)