cookiesinheaven

Winemakers Frank Ostini and Gray Hartley of Hitching Post Wines are creating 25 cases of a commemorative cuvee of Santa Barbara Pinot Noir for auction at the Vintners’ Express: The American Riviera Wine Auction fundraiser.

For the first time, the event will benefit Direct Relief International’s programs supporting community clinics in Santa Barbara and across the United States.

Sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Foundation, the dinner and auction will be held Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Direct Relief warehouse, 27 S. La Patera Lane, Santa Barbara.In collaboration with the winner of the designated auction lot, Hitching Post Wines will create a commemorative cuvee of 25 cases, including a label branded by Hartley Ostini and Direct Relief USA.

Ten cases will be awarded to the winner, with remaining wine to be sold at the Hitching Post II Restaurant in Buellton and Terravant Winery’s Avant Tapas and Wine.

The winner can name the cuvee and will join Hartley and Ostini for lunch at Avant during the 2010 harvest, followed by a tasting of new wines. - Santa Maria Times

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was paid $12.1 million in 2009, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year, according to a securities filing this morning. - Seattle Times

Lovers looking for an unforgettable way to pop the question can rely on experts in the field of romance: California bed and breakfast innkeepers. For years, innkeepers throughout the state have been helping couples dream up unique ways to get engaged.

...Three years ago, innkeeper Paul Bullock of The Eagle Inn in Santa Barbara emerged from the ocean at sunset in full scuba gear — like a creature from the deep — and shuffled along the sand to an incredulous couple standing on the beach. He handed them a large sea shell. “I told them I’d found this unusual shell and that they should have it as a souvenir,” said Bullock. “The man made a big deal of it, shook it, passed it to his girlfriend, and said, ‘there’s something inside.’ The girlfriend opened the shell and found her engagement ring.” - BusinessWire via Earthtimes

Known as much for its wild game dishes such as rabbit, wild boar and venison as for its history, Cold Spring Tavern, with its wood-paneled dining room, stone hearth fireplaces and mounted animal heads on its walls, was rustic before the term was coined. The 3,000-square-foot main restaurant and bar — there’s also separate bar area next to the restaurant’s sloping dirt parking lot — seats about 70 people and regularly serves about 110 lunches and 120 dinners a day, according to John Locke, the restaurant’s general manager for a decade. Cold Spring Tavern — not “Springs,” as it’s often called — which also has live music four nights a week, provides a snapshot of California history for customers ranging from longtime locals to out-of-state tourists to the aforementioned bikers.

“It’s the same,” said Stuart Churchill, who met his wife Joanne at the Tavern 28 years ago and in late December made a trip back there with her for the first time since they moved to Steamboat Springs, Colo., from Santa Barbara about 15 years ago. “The moss on the roof is a little thicker, but that’s about it.”

Cold Spring Tavern’s aversion to change — three of its 25 employees have worked there for more than 20 years — appears to have served the restaurant well. With many restaurants’ 2009 sales down between 10 percent and 20 percent, last year’s sales at Cold Spring Tavern, whose check average is about $15 for lunch and $30 for dinner, were about $1.7 million, or about 7 percent less than its 2008 revenue.

Along with Brothers’ Restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern in nearby Los Olivos and the Sycamore Inn in Rancho Cucamonga, Cold Spring Tavern, is one of a handful of California restaurants still in operation that started their lives as stagecoach stops. - Restaurant News

During a follow-up review of the company's records, government inspectors determined additional products produced and shipped in 2008 to be of concern because they may have been contaminated with E.coli, the service said in a notice on its web site.

This batch was produced from Feb. 19, 2008, to May 15, 2008. It also had been shipped to distribution centers, restaurants and hotels within California, the notice said. - Reuters

Direct Relief International is responding to a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that struck Haiti today. The earthquake, centered off Port-au-Prince, destroyed a hospital in Petionville and damaged other buildings; the number of injured is expected to be high. Emergency aid is being offered to all our partners in Haiti to support their response to the quake. Two shipping containers, a 40-foot and a 20-foot container of ongoing medical material aid, arrived in Port-au-Prince today destined for St. Damien Children's Hospital; it includes emergency aid as well.

....Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a Santa Barbara, California-based nonprofit organization focused on improving quality of life by bringing critically needed medicines and supplies to local healthcare providers worldwide. Direct Relief has provided more than $1 billion in privately funded humanitarian aid since 2000, including more than $150 million in assistance in the United States. It is one of two charities ranked by Forbes that received a perfect fundraising efficiency score for seven consecutive years and is ranked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as California's largest international nonprofit organization based on private support. - Reuters

"Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS...," wrote Dr. Louise Ivers from Port-au-Prince, in an e-mail to the group's offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The clinical director of Partners In Health, which operates nine hospitals and health centers for poor people in Haiti, added: "Temporary field hospital ... needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us." - CNN

Wineries are notorious for using large amounts of water, with estimates ranging up to 20 gallons of water needed to produce a singe gallon of wine. Jackson Family Wines is one wine maker that has found a high tech way to put a billion-gallon dent in its own annual water consumption, and the implications could be enormous for wine rich, water poor states like California.

Jackson Family’s new water recycling system has just completed a “proof of concept” pilot run certified by the University of California at Davis. Once in full swing, the system will involve about 70% of the winery’s water use, which primarily goes to rinsing barrels and tanks. The new system will recycle 90% of that water for up to ten rinses but wait, there’s more: the recycled water also keeps 75% of its heat, which will save a significant amount of energy that would otherwise be needed to warm up cold water. - CleanTechnica

Ojai Valley Inn & Spa is bringing the hit movie Julie & Julia to real life as author Julie Powell and the Inn's Executive Chef Jamie West team up for a unique cooking weekend January 23-24, 2010.

The special weekend includes author Julie Powell and Chef West in an interactive cooking demonstration highlighting some of Julia Child's recipes, similar to those portrayed in the Hollywood film Julie & Julia from Sony Pictures. This will be followed by a sumptuous dinner dedicated to Julia Child's recipes.

Chef West is well prepared for this authentic weekend. Julia Child frequently dined in Chef West's previous restaurants. She was a guest on Chef West's weekly cooking show on ABC-TV in Santa Barbara. Chef West often ate lunch at her apartment that, as expected, even had her famous shadow board for utensils on the wall.

As Chef West remarked, "A few years before her death, I drove her to a Masters of Food and Wine Event in Carmel. She talked and I did all the work! On the way to Carmel, we stopped and ate at the In-N-Out Burger in Santa Maria. A young woman at the counter quietly inquired if this really was Julia Child. It was great to see how people of all ages knew and respected her."

In addition to the cooking demonstration and dinner, guests will have an opportunity to talk at length with Julie Powell and Chef West. They will also receive a personalized copy of the book Julie & Julia. - Ojai Valley Inn & Spa

She was home watching a marathon on "House Hunters" on New Year's Eve when HGTV and the Food Network were suddenly taken away from her and roughly 3 million other subscribers in the region.

Since then, the two companies - Cablevision and HGTV/Food Network owner Scripps Networks - have been carrying on a campaign of finger-pointing advertisements and corporate statements blaming the other for the loss.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/05/2010-01-05_cable_fans_channeling_their_anger.html#ixzz0blBRLDKn

The very popular "Food Network" has been yanked from Cablevision systems in a dispute over money. Food Network routinely searches for "diners, drive-ins and dives," but many Cablevision subscribers have been left searching for the channel itself, reports CBS station WCBS-TV.

"I'm kind of upset that they snatched it out like that without warning anybody," Cablevision subscriber Diana Rogers said. - philly57

Police in San Luis Obispo County are hoping the public can help them identify those responsible for shooting two Arabian horses at the Varian Arabians horse ranch in Arroyo Grande, Calif., last Wednesday night.

Ranch staff discovered the two wounded mares in their pasture early Thursday. Both animals sustained gunshot wounds, said San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department Spokesman Rob Bryn. One mare was euthanized at the scene. The other is undergoing treatment at a nearby equine medical center.

The shootings appear to be deliberate, Bryn said. He declined to disclose further details.If caught, those responsible could face felony animal cruelty charges and penalties including significant jail time.

Anyone with information about the incident should visit the San Luis Obispo County CrimeStoppers Web site or call CrimeStopers at 805/549-STOP (7867). All tips are confidential.- TheHorse.com