Saturday, July 24, 2010

Chicago Botanical Garden Wine Festival

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This past June I went to the  Chicago Botanical Garden Wine Festival.  I bought a groupon coupon for buy one get one free.  I invited my friend Jodi because she enjoys wine and as a landscape designer I thought she would enjoy the botanical garden.  She loves plants and flowers.  She likes to play identify the flower/plant/tree.  LOL! 

P1010130 We first got there took the shuttle to the area where the festival was to take place.  It was nice.  We received our tickets for 10 wine tastings, a wine glass for the tastings and a beer coupon.  Neither one of us like beer so those weren’t used of course.

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We started out with a muscato because both of us enjoy sweet wines.  The first was Mionetto il moscato.  This was our favorite.  Very good wine and the price per bottle was reasonable.  We tried several muscatos and liked the first best then a Barefoot winery muscato second.  I liked the bubbly one and Jodi preferred the regular one.

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I also had a blackberry wine. It was just OK.  Kind of sweet and it had a heavy flavor.  Just OK.

We also had an opportunity to try some different restaurants which had booths at the festival.  Here’s some of the offerings.

These shrimp were delicious with very little seasoning.  I ate slowly to savor every bite.  There were from Morton’s Bar 12-21.  Divine!

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This was fillet mignon sliders.  The meat was so tender and delicious.  We each had one!

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Another sampling was a jambalaya.  It was delicious too!

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This was a bruchetta with salmon.  It was good too!

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These were lemon shortbread cookies.  Jodi purchased these for $4!  I couldn’t believe it!  They were like around the size of oreos.  Those suckers were so expensive!  But they were very tasty!  Very soft and flavorful.

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This was a barbecue chicken pizza from California Kitchen.  Another tasty treat.

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We also tried some Kerry gold cheese.  Boy this stuff was really good.  There was a Dubliner that was my favorite.  It was a cheddar with a beer flavor in my opinion.  Personally beer isn’t for me but the cheese was marvelous!   They also had recipe booklets for free.  You know I can’t resist a free recipe! LOL!  Great offerings.  I’ll definitely try some of them.  The cheese can be found at Costco but they only sold it in bricks for $10.  I didn’t need that much so I’ll go back later. When I need that much!  

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There was also some vendors for the vendors.  One was there to sell those slushy machines you see when you go to places which serve frozen margaritas and daiquiris.  Well they offered a free slushy so I got one.  It was so hot and it was needed! LOL!

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The restaurants which was there also had cooking demonstrations too.  Pretty cool.  I didn’t get to see any but next time ( there will be a next time) I’ll definitely watch one.

Unfortunately while we were there it started to rain.  I asked Jodi before we left the car if she was bringing her umbrella.  She didn’t think she needed it.  Well guess what?  LOL!  I had an umbrella and Jodi decided to use one of the tablecloths to cover herself! LOL!

 

P1010140 She just couldn’t put down the wine! LOL!  Unfortunately it started to rain very hard and thunder and lightning followed.  We were forced to retreat to the shuttle and leave.  But we had a wonderful time nonetheless.

Before we left the botanical garden we walked around a bit before leaving.  Not too far because of the potential for more rain.  We found this statue and of course I couldn’t resist a naughty photo.  LOL!  There were these older French speaking people there too and they were being very naughty too.  They actually walked away and brought more friends and continued to be naughty with them too.  It was pretty funny.

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If you’ve never heard of groupon go check it out.  They offer really nice discounts of usually 50% off or more for restaurants and activities around a lot of cities. I’ve purchased groupons for things like this festival, kayaking, restaurants, tours, cruises, mystery dinners, jet ski rentals and a segway tour.  Over the summer my credit card has been a humming! LOL!  Now I’m trying to do as many of them as possible.  Please read the information on the website before you go.  Sometimes there are some stipulations.  But if you read you’ll get the details.  Please use the links provided here.  You can also check other cities too.  Check it out!

 

Smooches!

7 comments:

  1. The food you trod looks really good. Love your hair!

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  2. Looks like you had fun! Groupon has been my favorite thing since I found out about it!

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  3. After reading that post, I'm STARVING!!! :) BTW - Groupon is awesome. Check out Living Social as well. Take care...

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  4. this looks great! You make me miss Chicagoland!

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  5. What a great looking event.

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  6. Cas.....Scott and I have started trying different wines as well. Scott doesn't like Moscato because he says it's too sweet, but I like it. I think my fave is Stella Rosa and Pinot Grigio by Middle Sister.

    All the food looks good too. Wish I had some now....LOL

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  7. You had too much fun and definitely need to try muscato, which my sister keeps talking about too. The food looks so delicious. Love the hairdo and you look great... glad you had a great time.

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