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Welcome to the Cooking with C.C. Blog. I will be discussing all things food and travel related. Be sure to join me for information from recipes, cookbooks, restaurants and places to visit. I look forward to hearing from you!

2017 Huntsville Restaurant Week

I know, I know, it's been way too long since I've posted a blog entry. No excuses, it just hasn't been at the top of the priority list. But, Restaurant Week is always at the top of my priority list and this is the week. With everything going on last week, I confused myself on exactly the dates that restaurant week runs, but it is August 11-20 with some other special events as well. So last Tuesday, I headed out for my first HRW lunch. I have a limited amount of money to spend going out for lunch and I set my limit at only those restaurants with a $10 lunch offer. I'll help you out, this year there are 20 of them. Some are too far from the office, so that limits the field. I had not been to the Botanical Garden since they had redone the entry building and the cafe, so I decided to head there for lunch. When I tried to order the restaurant week special, that was when I was told that it doesn't actually start until Friday. So, I ordered the meatloaf plate anyway. On Friday, I had a luncheon to attend so I…

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Rocket City Tavern

Back in the fall, I won a drawing for a $100 gift card for dinner for 2 at Rocket City Tavern. At that time, the restaurant had not yet opened. We wanted to wait until they had been open a while. A couple of Friday's ago, we decided to go there for dinner and use the gift card. Rocket City Tavern is just outside of Gate 9 on Research Park Boulevard. You have to go south on Research Park Blvd over I565 and the restaurant is in a plaza on the right side of the road. You don't have to have gate access to get to the restaurant. Rocket City Tavern is part of the restaurant group that includes Fiero Grill and Dipwich in the same building. Rocket City Tavern is the only one of the three open for dinner. The other two are open for lunch only. Hours are only Monday through Friday. We arrived around 5:30 and there were a number of other people in the restaurant, but it was not crowded. We were seated in a booth and started to review the menu. The menu is not overly large, but with plenty of options. I had trouble…

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Champagne

2016 Champagne Tasting

One of my favorite wine tastings of the year is the annual Champagne Tasting at the Wine Cellar. The tasting was last Thursday night and what a way to get December started! They had a total of 12 wines for tasting - 7 champagne and 5 from other locations, including two from France. (As most of you know, to legally call a sparking wine "Champagne," it must be grown and produced in the Champagne region of France. (For last years report - check here.) The champagnes that we tasted were "Grower Champagne." What this means is that the wine is produced by the same estate that grew the grapes. Most of the mass market champagne is made by large champagne "houses" like Veuve Clicquot, Mumm, Piper-Heidsiek and Moet & Chandon. The large houses source their grapes from throughout the Champagne region to make the volume of wine that they produce. The Grower Champagne is considered more "artisanal" and represent the "terroir" throughout the area. Here is the list of grower champagne that we tasted (followed by the retail price): Jean Milan Blanc de Blancs - $43.99 Pascal Doquet Grand Cru Brut - $62.99 A. Margaine Cuvee le Brut - $40.99…

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Chick-FIl-A Test Menu

A few weeks back, some friends of mine outside of Huntsville saw an article in Business Insider about new menu items being tested by Chick-Fil-A. Huntsville was identified as one of the test markets for the new Harvest Kale & Grain Bowl and the Egg White Grill Grain Bowl. It was suggested that I needed to go check out these new items and report back. The first Chick-Fil-A opened in 1967 in the Atlanta area. Over the almost 50 years it has been in business, it has become a standard bearer in the fast food industry. They have focused on values, training and of course the food. Chick-Fil-A has been the first job for many a teen across the south. Chick-Fil-A and the Cathy family are respected for the way they run the business and their local community support by their owner/operators. So, I called the restaurant near my house and scheduled an appointment to meet with the Owner/Operator to get more information about the new products. We had a great conversation about the new menu items and much more. First I asked about the test menu items and how the process works. The corporate test kitchen develops and tests recipes…

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