Wine and Cheese Show at Madison, WI

Missy and I attended a wine and cheese show in Madison, Wisconsin, last Sunday.

At the entrance, you are given a wine glass, a cloth shopping bag, and a wine list of vendors that you can check off when you find a wine you like. At each booth, you are given a sample of wine or cheese to try. The wine vendors were being very generous with their samples. Because I was driving home, I had to tell each vendor to give me just a small amount.

The fun part of this is trying different wines. At the end of the show, I bought two bottles of Late Harvest Riesling from the Washington Hills winery. Wendy and I like sweet wines. I would have bought some Sweet Mead from the White Winter Winery but they weren't for sale at the show. But I was told that this mead is available in the Madison area.

In addition, I bought some Bee Barf honey (they have to come up with a better name), a bottle of MFP Barbeque Sauce, and a bottle of Di Salvo's Italian barbecue sauce. Unfortunately, I left the bottle of Di Salvo's BBQ sauce low enough for our dog, Jessie, to get into. I never thought Jessie would be able to get a hard plastic cap off of a glass bottle, but she did it. So, Jessie ate my bottle of Italian barbecue sauce (with no obvious ill effects). (I'm sure after she got it open, Oscar helped her eat it.) The Di Salvo's barbecue sauce I tried at the show was an excellent mix of pasta sauce with a slight barbecue flavor. Di Salvo's has a place in Stoughton, just south of Madison, where I can go and buy more sauce.

Admission to this type of wine show is not cheap: $35 per person. But it's better to go to a show like this and buy and discover wine you like than buying 20 bottles of wine to try and then throwing some of them out. Most of the wines offered at this show averaged $8 to $10 per bottle.

This was a fun activity for a Sunday afternoon.

Wine and cheese show in Madison, WI. 

I had some excellent sweet Mead at this White Winter Winery booth. Most people haven't tried mead but if it's done right, it can be very tasty.  

Cousin Carol Rae Stone's Obituary

A funeral service will be held Saturday, Oct. 28, for Carol Rae Stone, who lived at the Maple Crest Apartments in Port Washington and previously lived on North Franklin Street.

Ms. Stone died of cancer Tuesday, Oct. 24, at Heritage Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Port Washington, where she had lived for the past month. She was 63.

The funeral for Ms. Stone will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Poole Funeral Home in Port Washington. Father Pat Wendt of St. Peter of Alcantara Catholic Church in Port Washington will officiate.Visitation will be at the funeral home from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday.

The above obituary is posted by Ozaukee Keep Press at their site:
http://ozaukeepress.com/notices.html

Wendy, Bernice, Lisa, and Sue will be attending.

If any family member has a photo of Carol, I will gladly post it here on my blog. You can either e-mail the photo to me or mail it to me.

Texas Roadhouse in Wisconsin

A new Texas Roadhouse steakhouse opened in Madison, Wisconsin, last week. Wendy and I ate there last Monday. Overall, it was very good.

It was crowded on Monday but we were ushered to a table right away. A bucket of peanuts, still in their shells, was waiting for us at our table. Removing peanuts from their shells and eating them is an enjoyable way to pass the time while waiting for our food. A basket of bread was also delivered in a timely fashion.

The waiters and waitresses also did a line dance for the diners' entertainment. It was entertaining because the inexperienced staff made a few mistakes, which made it more fun.

Wendy ordered the fried catfish ($8.99) and I ordered the prime rib ($12.99). Wendy thought the fried catfish was good and I thought my prime rib was good to excellent. I ordered my steak medium well which was cooked correctly. A lot of times when I order medium well, the steak is either under done or over done.

Portions were large enough to take half the meals home. Service was excellent. The prices were not out of line. We plan on eating at Texas Roadhouse again sometime in the near future.

Texas Roadhouse is located just East of East Town Mall on East Washington/Hwy 151 on the south side of the street. FYI: They don't open until 4:00pm.

Why there are no "Wisconsin" roadhouses is beyond me.

This is just one example of a house damaged by hurricane Katrina 

Photos of Hurricane Damage

Wendy and I were recently in New Biloxi and Gulfport, MS, and New Orleans, LA. While we were down there we took some photos of the hurricane damage. The damage is unbelievable and goes on for mile after mile.

To see the photos, click on this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jack390/