Rathskeller Restaurant & Bar: A fabulous find in Southbury, CT

This is a small, but wonderful restaurant in the basement of a beautiful house near Exit 15 of interstate highway 84 in Southbury, VT. The food is incredible. The service was also fabulous possibly because the owner waited on me herself most of the time. Since I was sitting alone, she talked with me quite a bit and both she and her husband were super sweet. I loved the great hat that the owner was wearing with Mayday flowers on it.

The bar put me so much in mind of "Cheers" that I kept waiting for someone to shout, "Norm!" when the various regulars walked in the door to shouts of greeting. It wasn't quite as overly familiar as "Cheers," but the environment was that hometown friendly, but with wonderful food.

I had one of the best appetizers of my life. They call it the Mozzarella Carozza. It is the size of a piece of bread. The menu describes this work of art as sliced mozzarella lightly breaded and fried with house marinara for $6.99. That doesn't begin to describe the wonderful chunky, chewy goodness of this concoction. Wow! That is all I can say.

I also had the Cooper's Chicken Sandwich which was a crisp chicken cutlet, cheddar cheese and bacon with Ranch dressing. This was served with a choice of side and luckily, I chose the homemade potato salad. It was one of the best restaurant potato salads I have had over my lifetime. The sandwich was served cut in half to make it a bit easier to manage. There was also a half a pickle. I so miss New England.

I chose my meal off the sandwich menu which is always available. The dinner menu is adventurous and features things like Pumpkin Ravioli in a white wine cream sauce with crispy sage and Jack Daniels steaks in a peppered cream sauce.

I saw a desert go by which was huge and looked like it would cause a chocolate orgasm. I couldn't finish my meal after the filling appetizer, so I loaded half of everything into my doggie bag and resolved to stop back again on my way back home. I will definitely go back to this little gem.

Nice, but not perfect

Hotel review of:
Crowne Plaza Southbury
1284 Strongtown Road
Southbury, Connecticut
203-598-7600

The outside of the hotel does not look as upscale as you would expect a Crowne Plaza to look. Inside was very nice, but the elevators were hesitant to open their doors when you reached your floor and this made for a few nerve-wracking moments. Nothing was free or discounted and the fact that I was a Priority Club member didn’t seem to register with them even though I gave them my Priority Club card at registration and they took a copy of it. I had made my reservations on Priceline.com for half as much as the going rate at this hotel, but other times I had still been given my Priority Club benefits.

The room was small. The plug in the bathroom sink did not work and so when I tried to wash out some delicate items, I could not. The shower made a horrible shrieking noise and the water as not ever really hot, hot. It was ok for a shower, but not really hot.

Room service was quick. I ordered room service the first two nights but got rather nauseous to my stomach after both meals. I am not sure why. It could just have been me. I did not go out on Thursday as I had planned because I was still not feeling well. The food was very good-expensive as room service always is. ($10 for a burger and fries plus $3 for the room service—$2 for the server and 60 cents tax.) I had a lot of stuff with me since I am working at a festival while I am here. The second young woman who brought my meal on Thursday night stared around her and exclaimed, "You sure have a lot of stuff!" She seemed quite young and naive.

A maintenance man came to fix my telephone which wasn't working and discovered that the plastic thing that plugs into the phone was broken. He was quite nice and quick, very efficient.

I stayed 5 nights while I was working at the festival. For some reason after my first night there, I had to go down to the lobby to get my door entry card re-activated. I was sick on Wednesday night and Thursday and did not leave the room. For some reason, they had checked me out of the room and listed me as a no-show for Thursday. When I went to get my key reactivated, there was a lot of stuff that had to be done and managers to be called to fix the situation. They were nice, but I still don’t understand how they could have not known there was someone still in the room. I had room service and a repairman both on the day they said that I was a no-show. I was already there. Weird. They fixed it and everything was fine. I am waiting to see what happens when I check out on Monday morning.

Sometimes perfect and sometimes, not so good

Hotel review of:
Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center
542 Route 9
Fishkill, New York
845-896-6281

This hotel was a mixed bag of perfect and not so good. The people at the front desk were excellent both at registration and check out. They treated me like a Priority Club member even though my reservation had been made on Priceline.com. I still showed them my Priority Club card when I registered and they treated me like I hadn't paid half as much as everybody else there.

The bed was very comfy--I could have slept for days... The front entrance was beautiful. The coffee pod things in the rooms, however, were terrible. They only made one cup and then they didn't have enough fixings to put enough sugar or creamer into the awful coffee. The dining room only had 1/2 and 1/2 and I am allergic to milk, so this was not a good thing for me.

The guest soaps are incredible--citrus mint-Yum!!! There was one bulb out in the bathroom. The shower did not adjust in intensity. It turned but then froze in one position which was the needle spray position which made the shower a bit painful. The bathroom sink drain drained very slowly--almost not at all.

Breakfast was free to Priority Club members. All I can say is that you get what you pay for. I ate late at 9:30 AM and breakfast was over at 10 AM. It definitely showed. The scrambled eggs were dry and hard. The bacon was ok and the fried potatoes looked awful, but tasted great. They were lukewarm and had gotten clumps of red in them where the salsa put into them had congealed. They looked really nasty, but they still tasted pretty good. The fruit was hard, unripe pieces of melon and one or two grapes. There were no flavored--or unflavored for that matter--non-dairy creamers for the coffee, only 1/2 and 1/2. I stated earlier that I am allergic to milk, so this was a problem for me. The waitress said that this was all they had.

Dinner the night before had been exactly opposite with great food, good service. The Priority Club membership gives you a free drink-a choice of beer or wine-and 10 % off dinner. This was very, very nice.

If you are a Priority Club member, then show your card. You will get treated like royalty and get all the discounts and things you would normally get paying full price. Also, the points you earn in the restaurant, room service, bar and the rest will be credited to you Priority Club account, just not your room fee if you make the reservation on Priceline.

Sedalia Writers' Conference

The fourth annual Sedalia Writers' Conference will be held April 16-17, featuring novelist Kathy Grissom of Forest and three other presenters on various aspects of the writing life.

Grissom's first book, "The Kitchen House," was published last month by Simon & Schuster, and she will be a participant in the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville.

Lynchburg resident Paula Jean West, a specialist in eco-travel and "spiritual travel" has a worldwide audience for her blogs. She will discuss blogging as a diversion and also as a potential business.

Amy Allen is the owner and director of the Lynchburg-based Ruth Consulting Group. The author of eight books, she was the public relations director for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts before going into business for herself. She will discuss public relations as an occupation.

Darrell Laurant has been a journalist for three decades and a freelance writer for almost that long. The local columnist for The News & Advance in Lynchburg, he has also written more than 200 magazine and Website articles and is the founder and director of The Writers' Bridge (www.thewritersbridge.com), an international freelance writers' organization.

The conference will begin with a reception on Friday, April 16 from 7-9 and continue on Saturday (9-4). Lunch is included in the cost, which is $25 at the door and $20 in advance. For more information, contact Darrell Laurant at writersbridge@hotmaillcom or at 434-525-4811 or 434-385-5544.

MRS. B Has a Great Idea on Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom!

My friend and co-Examiner at Examiner.com has posted a great idea and a really cool contest on her blog site! Take a look at this! Can yo see me "fantasied" as an Autumn Faery??
BB
Paula

Friday, February 19, 2010
Retro Cooking Giveaway #5: Fantasy Me Print!!

While this might not necessarily have a "retro" theme (though it certainly could, lol!), I'm never going to pass by a chance to work with Angelique from Angelique Art (among a multitude of projects that she handles, including the Pagan Writers Community)

Have you ever fantasized about being a fairy, a pirate or a princess? Maybe a fierce warrior with a pet dragon? Now is your chance to put those fantasies into a work of art!

The winner of this contest will get a custom made "Fantasy Me" digital creation!! If you aren't familiar with Angelique's Fantasy Me creations, she works in 3-D digital technology to create a custom made "If I were a fantasy figure or historical figure, what would I look like" picture.

I personally have a Fantasy Me done as me as Joan of Arc (one of my ultimate favorite historical figures. Here's what mine looks like:

Is that freaking cool or what?! To see other works by the artist, check out her Deviant Art Gallery, which includes other Fantasy Me works, among other things (Let me strongly recommend her take on Cernunnos on page 4 -- rowwwrrr!).

The winner will receive a high quality digital file of the work that Angelique creates specifically for her/him, suitable for a great print!

Requirements to enter:

Have an blog accessible through your user name or leave an email address with each entry.
Visit Angelique's Deviant Art Gallery and see what kind of work she does. Come back here, and leave a comment about your ideas on what historical or fantasy figure you'd like to see yourself made into.

For extra chances to win (required post must be made for these to count!), you may do any one or more of the following (leave a separate comment for each):

1 entry each (for a total of three possible) - Write about this giveaway on your blog, Myspace or LiveJournal. Leave a separate comment for each and include the URL to the post. (As per the new Facebook TOS, Facebook can NOT be used as an entry for giveaways.)
*1 entry (per day) - Tweet the following message: RT @MrsBsConfession Visit silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com to enter to win a Fantasy Me creation from artist @angelmroczka! (Leave a separate comment for each day's tweet, including the URL to the post.)
1 entry - Be or become a follower on Twitter of @angelmroczka
1 entry - Subscribe to Angelique's personal blog.
All Retro Cooking Month Giveaways will run until the last day of February. All winners will be picked at noon, EST on February 28 via an online, random number generator. Winners will be announced soon after.


***PLEASE NOTE ON THE TWITTER MESSAGE:
When you copy something from this blog, it automatically adds my URL to the message when you paste it again - basically a way to try to keep people from copying my content.

Just erase the part of the message that says:
"Read more: http://silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com/2010/02/retro-cooking-giveaway-4-inside-glass.html#ixzz0fov63F12"



PLEASE NOTE:
If your blogger profile is set to private, I will be unable to find your blog or email via your profile. If you don't leave an email address in your comments, and your profile is private, the entries DO NOT count.
Entries that are not on separate posts will be counted as one entry.
Entries that contain links not related to the giveaway (capital "s", rhymes with "ham") will be deleted, and those entries will not count.
Entries must be in English.


Read more: http://silvermoonwitch.blogspot.com/#ixzz0g0uNY5zI

Many New Projects: Are You Interested In Being A Part Of One of Them?

January is already far, far too busy for me. Winter is supposed to be a time to relax and regroup. I already have ten different irons in various fires and need to either seriously cut back or find an organizational schedule to deal with all these "wonderful opportunities."

I am so overwhelmed on all levels right now. I need to drop a bunch of this stuff and concentrate on the basics like finding my house under the layers of built up clutter from the last four weeks I spent at my Mom's in PA. I am so depressed today!

Here is a list of all the links to my various projects:
1. My blog here, Travels With Branwenn, which is sadly neglected and needs to be updated. I could definitely use a copy editor to go over my blog and tell me what needs to be updated or changed.
2. My Examiner.com column and the series of articles for Imbolc that I have just launched that still has THREE more parts that need to be finished.
3. My newest undertaking, Black Walnut Magazine. Black Walnut Magazine is an online Pagan webzine of which Darci has so trustingly allowed me to become Assistant Editor. I have several articles for the magazine and have recruited a couple more, but I need more great articles about Imbolc! Email me at Branwenn@aol.com if you have any ideas to help me out here!
4. Someone to help me create, clean, and remodel my basement into my new office space and herbcraft space. I need an office assistant that will be able to help me in all aspects of this undertaking including the dreamwork in creating it as magickal space.

Pagan Travel 2010: green travel, eco-travel, sacred sites, Pagan Festivals and much more

Happy New Year! Happy Hogmanay! Welcome to Pagan Travel in 2010! (That's pronounced "twenty-ten" or so I am told by those who are way cooler than I.) Along with giving you the lowdown on all the cool “Pagan Places” you can visit on our waxing, waning, wonderful Mother Earth, I hope to dispel myths and misinformation about Paganism and Wicca along the way. Come along and see the world! Paganism is everywhere.


Like everyone else, Pagans make New Year's resolutions and sometimes don't keep them. This is not mysterious or arcane. Dedication, determination, hard work, concentration and follow-through are the characteristics that will help you succeed in the new decade. Sometimes these characteristics are harder to muster than we originally thought.


These are the same principles--dedication, determination, hard work, concentration and follow through -- that many witches, Wiccans, and some Pagans apply to any magickal work they attempt. It might be called magick, but it still takes hard work. Misunderstandings abound, as they do about much of what is labeled (rightly or wrongly) as Pagan or Wiccan. It probably will surprise many of you that some Pagans don't do magick. A larger number of Wiccans do, but not all. For those who are totally confused by the different sects of Paganism, the rule of thumb is, "All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan." It's close to the idea that all Southern Baptists are Christian, but not all Christians are Southern Baptists.


Every Pagan path (Pagan being the general umbrella term for a great number of sometimes not completely compatible "nature religions.") is different. Wiccans, witches, Heathens, Druids, and countless more spiritual paths embrace characteristics of Paganism. The joke is that if you gather six Pagans in a room, you will get six definitions of Paganism. The primary characteristic seems to be a strong sense of individuality.


Many Pagans follow what they call an “Earth-centered” spirituality. Some Pagans follow the law, "Harm none.” Wiccans have a version of this law that states in archaic English, “An that it harm none, do what thou wilt.” This is called the Wiccan Rede and can be very loosely compared to the Christian Golden Rule. Some Wiccans also believe what they call the “Rule of Three” which states that for every action or energy, positive or negative, that you send out into the Universe, this action or energy, positive or negative, will come back to you three-fold. Think “karma” or in secular terms “what goes around, comes around.” In scientific terms, think about the First Law of Thermodynamics: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The THREE-fold idea seems to come from the magick of the number THREE in some Wiccan tradition’s ideology, i.e. the idea of a Triple Goddess.


Some Pagans and many ceremonial magicians see "magick" as defined by Aleister Crowley as: "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magickal weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magickal language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this [article] is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will." (From Wikipedia’s page about Crowley)


Many Wiccans see "magick" as a more psychological transformation, a type of positive affirmation with the added sacred dimension of making these affirmations before your personal Gods and Goddesses inside a "magick circle." The writings of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell are good refernce materials for this type of psychology as it relates to Pagan thought. Another view of magic can be seen in a book written by the popular psychologiist and motivational speaker, Dr. Wayne Dyer. Dyer entitled his book, Real Magic. It is a great read with yet another view of magic and although it contains many ideas that embrace the Pagan paradigm of values, Dyer is not known to be Pagan. Neither are Jung or Campbell, but their ideas are well-known and loved in some Pagan circles.


I digress too long on my second favorite subject which is debunking misinformation assigned to Paganism. This is my secondary goal in these columns. My primary goal is telling the world about all the “Pagan Places” that are just waiting to be explored in this world. In 2010, I hope to approach this wide-flung subject matter in a more organized fashion starting with an outline of all the “sacred places” in the various regions of the USA and then moving over to Ireland, the UK, France and on across a large portion of the world.


Pagan Travel Examiner will continue to feature the Pagan festival calendars, the Renaissance Faire calendars and interviews and reports about people and places Pagan-related all across this world. As always, I encourage you to subscribe to my columns, comment at the bottom of each of the articles and write to me at Branwenn@aol.com with any additional ideas or suggestions you may have for these pages. I want to hear from you!
**********************
This article kicked off the year 2010 on my Examiner.com column Pagan Travel Examiner

Samhain at the Beach

Nothing ever turns out the way I expect it to be these days. October 31, 2009 at Myrtle Beach dawned bright and beautiful. A special gift, Rhiannon and Epona graced me with their presences. I was sitting on the balcony drinking my cofee, when suddenly about 20 horses(and riders, too, but who counts them :0 ) are marching in ones, twos and threes, past my hotel and all along the beach. They prance up the beach and back for about three hours. First marching, in the surf and along the edges of the water, then trotting, and then a few of them in an all out gallup in the surf pounding up and down the beach. Amazing! What a gift! Thank you Godesses!

I have many more tales of my travels--pun intended--and pictures too. I will be posting all week.

Leaving the South?

I have been out on the road since October 14. It is a mixture of pain and joy for me. Being on the road always brings out such mixed feelings and emotions for me. I would love to be able to travel WITH my wonderful husband Jamey ALL the time, but he has a 9-5 (good) job as an engineer back home in Lynchburg, VA. I am indulging in some tearful homesickness for my honey this trip, and for my house and home.

I miss my big, old, rambling, sometimes falling down, sometimes charming home on the corner back in the 'burg. I definitely do not miss the 'burg. It seems more like the center of radical right evil than ever these days as the cancer of Falwell-ism metastasizes out to infect the entire city. It has always been bad, but it's gettin' worse.

I miss my dog and cat, especially the dog. Now that my Rosie-kitty is in the Summerland and I have adopted the new little brat cat, Bijoux, Keri has become my angel. Keri-dog, my mostly black, Labra-beagle, is always there beside me at home. Sitting at the computer, all I have to do is drop my hand down to pat her head or scratch her tummy when she rolls over. I don't remember ever loving a dog so completely, even my Judy-dog, the gorgeous golden cocker spaniel with the cataracts to whom I was the seeing eye person.

Judy was a very special and wonderful doggie, but Keri is something more. I may have found another familiar. I am still not quite sure. I do know that I miss Keri terribly on this trip. It is creeping up on the anniversary of my Rosie's passing. Rosie left me on Thanksgiving night last year. Thanksgiving 2009 will definitely be a mixture of pain of missing Rosie and happiness of being with my Mom and my whole family. Mom is 80 now so every day is precious. She and my nephew by a previous marriage, Steven, and his family, are my only real family. Being an only and adopted child can be a lonely experience.

Here in Hilton Head today it is grey and overcast, melancholy, like my mood. It is only 66 outside and supposed to be in the low 70s. The next two days it is going to rain. DEPRESSION ALERT!

Mean while, I need to decide whether it is time to get back home or whether to soldier on and complete the articles I have not finished with yet. I have taken this trip and I feel I haven't gotten enough out of it yet. I wonder if any of you have ever felt that way?

The sweet potato harvest from Lynchburg and Brugh na Bhride--the name for our house and home--exceeded all expectations. There will be yummy sweet potato pie this year! I have herbs to finish gathering and pies to bake, wreaths of rosemary and lavender to make and brooms to create.

Jamey and Greg, my youngest son, 19, saw a big woolly caterpillar yesterday in the back yard. It was huge and totally black with a really thick coat and hardly any brown showing through. Look out! We are in for a real winter this year!

Well, I am all packed up now and have decided to spend another 3 days up in Myrtle Beach until it stops raining. The room is an efficiency oceanfront at the Ocean Park Resort. How awful can it be to sit on the balcony-or just inside the balcony if it is really pouring-and watch the rain on the ocean? The room is only $33 a night and it is a three star "resort." They are supposed to have real Wi-Fi and I can write while I am there.

The $33 a night at a resort is what you too can find if you look, by the way. I've got a lot of hotel and restaurant reviews to write and a few more Examiner articles before I can come in from the road. I am still stuck on the idea of celebrating Samhain on the ocean with a circle in the sand. We shall see.

I'm off to the shower now,so I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Sandy Fall Blessings!
Paula

My Examiner.com column

Brightest Blessings everyone on this crisp and beautiful Fall day. I am sure that a lot of you know by now that I am the Pagan Travel Examiner on Examiner.com. I take great pride in my Examiner.com column and I am trying to help the greater Pagan, Wiccan, New Age, Earth-centered spirituality communities by providing this overview of all things related to Paganism to do in this wide, wonderful world. The scope of the subject is pretty limitless. My articles on Examiner are supposed to be news stories and in the third person, so this blog is where the real me will be hanging out for all the world to see. I hope you will subscribe to both columns and read them regularly. I am hoping to provide a constant stream of interesting and educational as well as funny stories and articles about cool Pagan places to visit in this world. Go to both pages and subscribe and come along with me as we travel the world together! Pagan Travel Examiner and Travels With Branwenn