This is pretty much the technique that I was going to suggest, except I actually cook the chiles dry and toss them with a little oil and a lot of salt once they're softened.

Actually, I do think that Ubuntu is having an off day/season/something. I'm one that was reluctant to talk about how much I loved Ubuntu because I sounded like a raving fangirl - I couldn't control the excessive adjectives. And, frankly, I found the food to be so amazing that I was more than willing to overlook the spotty service and pacing. But my last visit was not everything that I wanted it to be. it might be that I had too high of expectations for summer produce, but my August visit was disappointing, even compared to a visit a month earlier. Not sure if it's higher traffic during the tourist season, or fatigue in the kitchen, or just that Jeremy is stronger with the heavier ingredients of winter, but it wasn't what it was. (and the chickpea fritters are nowhere near as good as the old fries).

Fremont Diner is a lovely addition, despite their hours. And I'm one that still loves Ad Hoc, but I can understand the varying responses to it.

I should probably actually try La Salette sometime - it's just never made it to the top of my list of places to visit.

I still maintain that smoked duck breast is the best bacon I ever had. Now that I think about it, I bet it would make an amazing BLT.

I love Humble Pie, but they aren't particularly quick, in my experience. For pre-theater, quick tends to be a priority.

A few notes:

- I'd swap Redd to a lunch and Ubuntu to a dinner. I think these 2 restaurants are better at these mealtimes.
- If you're staying in Napa, then the drive to Sonoma is quite easy for dinner - we do the reverse all the time. There is some construction on 121, but it's nothing that you need to avoid - at the worst, it'll cause a 10 minute delay. Girl and the Fig is nice, but it's pretty definitely French - ask to sit on the patio if you go. Cafe La Haye has a new chef and I haven't heard much since the change.
- Cyrus is a long haul from anywhere in Napa County.
- Personally, I really like Ad Hoc, but I haven't been for brunch.
- I also like Bouchon - part of it is certainly the "cult of Keller" factor, but I eat a lot of baked goods and some of their stuff is fantastic.

You'll have a great trip - enjoy the planning and the visit.

I'd add a caveat that during harvest & crush, the actual winemakers are incredibly busy. It's exciting to see the process, but you may not get the same hands-on attention that you could at a quieter time of year.

Just want to manage your expectations - a great winery is a great winery, but the interaction will be different at different times of the year.

The chef/cook distinction doesn't necessarily work. There's a smallish chain of family-owned Italian restaurants in Northern California that definitely employs "Cooks", but all of the sauces, soups, salad dressings, etc are made from scratch, as well as meatballs, lasagna... The list goes on and on. The pasta isn't house made, but fresh spaghetti isn't really what you want under your meatballs anyway.

What does come on a truck? Chicken strips for the kids, chicken wings, calamari is frozen, but gets it's crispy crust in house. The non-fat salad dressing isn't homemade. The ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi are made my a San Francisco pasta company to their recipe. Desserts (always be suspicious of a frozen dessert - hardly anyone makes their own ice cream - even a fancy restaurant might buy their gelato).

I guess my point is that a "Cook" can follow a recipe just fine - they don't need to microwave the soup from the commissary.

Fig Cafe is one of our (local) standbys. It's nice to have a place that doesn't need reservations at the height of tourist season, and it's just enough off the beaten path that you can usually get a table. Dinner is usually good, brunch is great. It doesn't get recommended much, just because it is outside of the usual tourist areas, and I don't tend to think of it as a "destination" restaurant, it's a neighborhood place.

I'm not 100% certain, but I suspect that both Girl and the Fig and the El Dorado Kitchen will be open, since they're located in hotels, and either should do a nice dinner and would be walking distance to your hotel. EDK could be nice, because they have a large group table that would work for you.

There's also a restaurant at the Lodge of Sonoma, Carneros Bistro, that receives good reviews, and again will probably be open for the holiday, and certainly something at the Fairmont. If their more casual restaurant is serving, it should fit within your price range.

Some of the smaller, independent restaurants might be open, but hotel restaurants tend to be the best bet for holidays. Your biggest issue might be finding something in your price range.

Good luck!

One other thing to be aware of as you're packing snacks is that int'l carry on restrictions can be quite different than domestic. My experience is that carry ons are highly restricted - I think Virgin Atlantic limits you to something like 10kg, which is easy to exceed with books, much less snacks. It's not like flying domestic, where everyone has a roller bag packed to the gills.

My other experience is that on the one flight where we did bring a lot of snacks because BA was having a catering strike, we didn't end up eating them. Granted, they weren't particularly great snacks, just whatever we could put together at the airport, but we hardly touched them.

On my next flight, I'm considering fasting - there's a new study that fasting until breakfast on your first day will alleviate jetlag.

It's a really nice idea, though.

I have a similar one, and I like it much better than the freezer canister version we have. You get all the benefits of the ice & salt (much colder = better textured ice cream, and you don't have to have room in the freezer for the canister), without the sore arms from the churning. It has an electric motor that rotates the dasher.

it is a little messy, but it's well worth it.

For Ad Hoc, one thing to keep in mind is that they will offer an alternate entree, so if the sides sound good but you just don't want the hunk of steak, they can substitute something (i've usually seen a seafood). The last time I was there, the entree was pork chops, and couple next to us commented (after their meal) that they weren't big pork eaters and the server said that they would have been happy to substitute, so that's something to consider. If you and your guest get different items, I've seen them bring out the main course plated rather than family style, so that's something to be aware of.

In terms of alternates, there aren't a huge number of options in Yountville. Upvalley, I really liked JoLe, but it is pretty far up. You could swap in a picnic lunch on Thursday and then go to Cindy's or Go Fish for dinner. There are lots of options for getting picnic supplies.

In Santa Rosa, my top pick would be Zazu. it's a bit of a drive into the country, but it's a good stop. Casual setting, nice food. The servers are really friendly, but service can be a little slow.

I haven't been, but the other place on my list to try in Santa Rosa is Bistro 29. It's a block off of the square, and has gotten some good press & reviews.

From a seafood-hater that has eaten an inordinate amount of the stuff in the name of professionalism, the best that I've had was really fresh halibut cooked in an awful lot of butter. Fish & chips is another good suggestion.

I'd stay away from anything that smells fishy, at all, and my experiences with shellfish have not been positive - the combination of the texture and the taste is pretty much the epitome of everything I don't like about seafood.

And keep in mind that it's close to impossible to change a non-seafood eater. If given a choice, I don't eat anything that lives in water (well, except duck and caviar, but the ducks really live on land, and the caviar never really lived in the water). I know some people will disagree, but I don't feel like it has a huge impact on my "chowhound"ness. I've had amazing fried chicken at the fish & chips dives in London, and amazing tasting menus at 4-star restaurants, and the seafood thing isn't really an impediment.

Wow, they're totally different and pretty far apart. How have you narrowed your choices to these two? I happen to love both, but they're really different.

If you aren't experienced at caramelizing sugar, the corn syrup will give you some insurance against crystallization. That's the real benefit, and I'd recommend using a recipe that includes it, unless you're comfortable with making caramel.

I think that it also adds some weight or "chewiness" to the sauce - at least that's what it does in a fudge sauce.

You could do meatloaf in a more squared shape so it's reminiscent of a giant candy bar. I wonder if you could do some kind of a meatloaf/cottage pie hybrid, so that there would be a layer of mashed potato in your meatloaf?

Carrot coins, like Necco wafers

Some kind of potato gratin, also sliced into bar shapes, maybe topped with mushrooms or a mushroom gravy (a la chocolate coating).

I was going to suggest the Bale Grist Mill, as well. It's a state park, and should be fun for the family.

Figs wrapped in prosciutto, with a little cheese in there. I like to throw them on the grill to warm up, but they're tasty at room temp.

Similarly, asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto.

Estate or Harvest Moon Cafe would be my recommendations. Estate has a nice, elegant feel that should be nice for your mom and isn't too expensive (if you can exercise some restraint with the antipasto). I'd recommend it over Girl & the Fig, which has good food, but always feels very crowded and loud - the tables are really tight, both inside and on the patio.

Harvest Moon is probably my favorite of the restaurants in Sonoma. The setting is a little less refined than most of the others, but it's a small, independent restaurant and the food has been really good when I've been there.

The other option is Cafe La Haye, which is really tiny, but there haven't been any real reports since they got their new chef.

I'll concede the peanuts vs. peanut butter, but I'd much rather have baking soda for cookies & cake and buy my bread (at least in the summer - it's too hot to bake bread in my house in the summer). And yes, if I have to count salt, then I'd give up the prepared pasta (but I do generally prefer dried pasta than fresh, personally).

The trend that I saw when I worked in LA was for executive chefs to take Sunday & Monday off. Never Thursday - it's a busy night.

I'm not counting salt & pepper. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
1 - eggs
2 - goat cheese
3 - cornmeal
4 - bread
5 - tomatoes
6 - butter
7 - spinach (figuring it works as salad or a veggie)
8 - I'm tempted to cheat and say aliums, but I think I'll go with shallots.
9 - chicken
10 - pasta (not sure what shape, though)
11 - flour
12 - sugar
13 - peanut butter
14 - apples
15 - baking soda (because then you can have cookies)

I can see some nice potential in this list - from souffles to chicken noodle soup.

I picked some up from Oak Hill Farm at the Sonoma Farmers Market, and they didn't have the magic of the ones that I had recently at a event - they were about twice the size and much hotter. I like to grill padrons quickly and then eat them as finger food, and the Oak Hill ones didn't work well for that.

Well, Ubuntu definitely meets your "California" criteria, and the individual plates aren't particularly expensive, so I'd think you could get away with it, but I know that it's not always fun to be ordering cautiously.

I wouldn't recommend BarbersQ for a non-meat-eater, it just wouldn't be fair/fun.

You might want to look at JoLe in Calistoga. It's also smaller plates, good for sharing, but if you order reasonably, you should be ok price-wise. We ordered really meat-heavy when I was there last, but they also have an ample seafood selection.

The "season" is somewhat dependent on the weather. A lot of people like to come up for the harvest and crush, which are usually late September/early October, but will vary based on the weather.

Mid-late October is probably your best bet - the weather is usually still nice, and the rates should be lower.

My stick blender has the mini-prep attachment, and I've been really happy with it for the small tasks that I've used it for - mostly small pastry jobs or chopping nuts. I don't use it a lot, but it's easier than the small insert in my full-size food processor, and most of the pieces drop right into the dishwasher, which is a huge advantage! Might be worth checking out.

It is a fantastic recipe. We've been adding a vanilla bean to the orange version for a dreamsicle variation. I keep meaning to add some mint and rum to the lime to see if we can get a mojito flavor, but haven't tried it yet.

I would think that you'd have better luck with something that didn't use ice cubes - I'm not sure how you'd get good shaved ice from irregular cubes.

I got this one http://hawaiianshavedice.com/elshicem... for a friend, and it comes with molds that you have to freeze the ice in - good sized cylinders, maybe 4 inches in diameter. The blade would then rotate around that disk of ice. I was pretty happy with the shaved ice from it - nice and fluffy, not lumpy like a snow cone.

If you're really jonesing for a fix, it might be worth a try.

I haven't tried it, but Torani and Da Vinci make a roasted marshmallow syrup (like you would use in an Italian soda). My first thought when I saw it was that it must be the secret to the ice cream.