Vino Villa-Greenwood, IN

The hubs and I recently treated ourselves over the weekend to a date night, not something we get to enjoy very often but when we do we are always clueless as to what to do or where to go! As broke as we've been lately I was looking for ideas on the cheap but I still came up with nil! I looked for days and when Saturday rolled around I still didn't have a clue where we were going to go or what we were going to do.

Around 6 or so my mom showed up to watch the baby and off we were, destination unknown! We ended up in Greenwood initially thinking of sushi but decided that we were going to try something new.  Thai food.  So we stopped at Thai Spice.  We were hoping to have our heads blown off by spicy cuisine. We ordered our appetizer of Sun Dried Beef.  It was quite yummy.  We ordered our entree and decided to split it between us.  We ordered Nur Padd Namanhoy and asked for it Thai Spicy, the hottest that you could order it.  Our waitress called us brave.  We received our entree pretty quickly and it looked very yummy! It tasted just as good but was not as spicy as we expected or as some of our friends who enjoy Thai have led us to believe.  (After some Facebook discussion apparently we tried the wrong Thai food. We will have to try again somewhere else!) Overall it was extremely tasty! We enjoyed our dinner and then decided to head over to the mall. 

We visited Le Gourmet Chef, one of my favorite stores in hopes of finding something I've been in search of for a few weeks but didn't find what I was looking for.  Instead I found many other things that I promptly added to my wishlist.  A wishlist that is growing by the minute much to my husband's dismay!  Next we decided to hit up Teavana, seriously if you haven't visited this place you, my friend, are missing out! Much unknown to the guests that frequent there, you can order a cup of your favorite tea.  I seriously love this place!!!

After we got done with the mall it was still only 8:45pm!!! So I suggested the wine bar/shop/restaurant that we've been to once before, Vino Villa. We've only been there once, because like I said we don't get out very often, but it is one of our favorite places!  Downstairs on the main level there is a wine shop, with lots of wine and fine cheeses, on the second floor there are a few rooms all with a different decor and comfy chairs, on the third floor there is a wine bar and right now during the summer they have a few tables on the patio.  We've only visited the first and second floors and we've now eaten in two different rooms.  The atmosphere in this place is awesome, I can't describe it any other way, I just love it there.  The waitresses are very friendly and extremely knowledgeable.  My husband already knew what wine he wanted to drink but I had no idea until I flipped the menu over and discovered that they had two sangria's for the summer.  I'm a sucker for a good sangria!!!

I opted for the Raspberry/Peach White Sangria and it was ahhhh-mazing!!! The waitress told us that the peach juice they made the sangria with was from the peach tree out front. The sangria was complete with raspberries and blueberries and peaches. My husband ordered the Cameron Hughes Pinot Noir.  

Raspberry/peach white sangria.

Cameron Hughes Pinot Noir.

Since it had been a couple of hours since dinner we decided to order something to eat.  On our previous trip we had eaten the antipasti platter and enjoyed it thoroughly so we decided to give that another go.  As we were waiting on our waitress to make it back around to us we noticed a small list on a wine bottle silhouette of different meats.  

We read, and re-read that list trying to decided if we wanted to add on of those meats to our platter.  It wasn't until our waitress returned to the table and suggested a few that we made a decision.  I wanted to try the "Stagberry" and my husband wanted to try the "Gin and Juice." Odd names for salame but we were intrigued by the descriptions for them.  The Stagberry is described as, "finely ground elk studded with organic wild blueberries soaked in Indiana honey wine."  The Gin and Juice is described as, "lamb salame spiked with juniper and orange zest."  We also inquired with our waitress about the types of cheeses on our antipasti platter, on our previous trip we enjoyed two of the cheeses but one was Swiss and neither one of us are fond of Swiss.  Boy am I glad we asked because our waitress told us we could tell her the types of cheeses we prefer and they would base what they put on our plate per our preferences.  A few short minutes later she brought us our platter and a loaf of bread.  Our platter included goat cheese, Gouda, and brie (our 3 favorite cheeses!), capicola, salami, and bresaola (different Italian meats), a wonderful medley of mixed olives, and Giardineria (a spicy vegetable mix). Plus our additional meat choices!

A platter fit for a king. And his queen!

Our warm loaf of bread.

We barely had enough room to finish all of our food and our wine but it was so good! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I would venture to guess that Vino Villa will be our go to place for future date nights! So if you're in the Greenwood area and you're looking for a good wine for dinner/gift/whatever or if you're looking for somewhere to enjoy some fine meats, cheeses and wine, or somewhere to take your date then Vino Villa is the place to go! The staff there is very helpful and will answer all of your wine questions, even if you have a lot and the atmosphere can't be beat. 

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable soup makes me think of fall but I found myself making it in the dead of summer. Why? You ask. Because it sounded yummy and can feed us for many meals! There isn't a whole lot to write about this meal, all you need are the following items, a 6 qt crock pot, and some time.

Here's what you need:

1 qt can of tomato juice

2 14.5 oz cans of petite diced tomatoes

1 14 oz can of chicken broth

3 medium sized potatoes, diced

1 12oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables

1 12oz bag of frozen corn

1 12oz bag of carrots

1 12oz bag of green beans

When it comes to the vegetables add a much or as little as you like of each veggie.  Personally, carrots, corn, and green beans are my favorite so that's why I add more of those.  Or you could always just use 4 bags of mixed vegetables if you don't want more of one than the other.  Or you could always add beans or beef to your soup, however you like it. I have heard of people using Bloody Mary mix instead of the tomato juice to give it a little kick! I haven't tried that because of the little ones but if you do let me know how it turns out!

Seasonings to Taste

Paprika

Rosemary

Sea Salt

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Thyme

Basil

Ground Red Pepper (Cayenne)

Garlic Powder

Hot Sauce
1-2 Bay Leaves (Don't forget to take them out!)

Place all of this in the crock pot, stir, cover with the lid, turn the heat to low for 8 hours or high for 6, and walk away.  It's as simple as that! In the time it takes you to go to work you can come home to a lovely meal. Serve hot with a grilled cheese is my favorite way to enjoy vegetable soup!

Western Taco Salad

This is probably the cheapest, easiest, and yummiest thing I make! Every time I make this I get nostalgic, dreaming of summers living in a crappy trailer with no air conditioning and the only relief you felt was going outside.  On some of the hottest days when there was no way in hell my mom was turning on the oven, she would cook this up and top it with tomatoes fresh out of our garden. No matter how many times I make it, it never quite tastes like it did when my mom made it. You may wonder why anyone would get nostalgic for that but those summers are some of my fondest memories. Sorry for the stroll down memory lane, now back to the taco salad.


This is probably one of the simplest things that I make, here's what you need:
Taco Meat
2 lbs of ground beef, ground turkey, ground chicken, whatever you like!

approximately 1/2 cup shredded frozen onion (remember my ***Chunky Girl Tip***? That's ok if you don't here it is)

1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbls homemade taco seasoning (recipe to follow) or package seasoning of your choice
2/3 cup of water

Taco Salad Fixins
Lettuce
Tomato
Western Dressing (just trust me on this!)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Nacho Cheese Doritos

Place your thawed hamburger and your shredded onion in a large skillet.  Sprinkle your pepper, salt, cumin and garlic powder over top and brown your beef.

While your meat is cooking I take this time to cut up tomatoes and tear up lettuce.  After the meat is finished I drain the grease very well in a colander and add the 2/3 cup of water to the pan.  After my meat is thoroughly drained I sprinkle the taco seasoning on top of the meat and stir well and then allow to come to a simmer.  It's really as simple as that.  Top your lettuce with the taco meat, as much Western dressing as you like, cheese, tomatoes, and mix to coat with the dressing.  Top with Doritos and you're ready to eat!!! Personally, I like to crumble my Doritos over the top and my husband likes to scoop. Eat up! Dinner's done!!!

Taco Seasoning
I make this in a big batch but I've reduced it for only one serving (one store bought size pouch)
1 tbls chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (if you don't like spicy food, you could leave this out or sub 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper)
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper


Mix in bowl and sprinkle over beef.