( shhh! everyone's sleeping after a party hearty night...)

I talked to them yesterday, they were finishing off some wine and just getting ready to party hearty.

Ok, ok, here I am! Sherry and Annie on are on the bus home to MI after a wonderful weekend.

Linda, sleep in? The dog got me up at 6:30 for a potty. He goes back to bed and I am up. Sherry soon after but we let Annie sleep a little longer.

I picked the two beautiful ladies up at the airport on Friday afternoon and we decided to have dinner in at my house so we could gab and drink a bit. Remember Annie saying she is not a big drinker? She lies like a rug. By dinner time, around 8 pm, one half bottle of Moscato is gone. But don't ask how much Sherry and I drank, because shortly after nine, Linda (Doucanoe) and her daughter and DD's fiance knock on my door with more wine! We went to bed at 1 am. Enuf said.

Friday night dinner even met the lemon challange. I made a Greek style lemon, oregano, and garlic chicken with saffron rice and asparagus for dinner. We munched on cheeses while I coooked. Dessert was a rice pudding but we never got to that, so we had it for breakfast on Saturday.

Saturday morning we lazed around the house chatting while we anticipated Linda and Erins arrival, then we headed out for some foody shopping. The first stop was the butchers so Sherry could buy some veal shanks for osso bucco, then the Italian meat market/deli for both sweet and hot sausage for Linda. Annie picked up a tube of anchovy paste for Elery too. Next stop was the Asian market, HMart. Oh, boy, was that crowded. They had a food tasting weekend going on, so we were able to sample everything from tofu, kimchee ( I like it!) to sake and curries. Annie found some Pooky sticks, the cookie sticks dipped in choclate and other flavors, Sherry and Annie each grabbed bags of cooked shrimps, and bunches of other thinks too. Our final stop was Trader Joes for all kinds of munchies and much needed items, like wine.

The weather was getting cloudy, cold and the rain was starting so we headed back to my house, where we simply had to test the wine and the limoncello, along with Linda's bag of shrimp, some bread, proscuto and cheese. I with some fantastic help, started on our dinner of organic, grass fed steaks brought by Annie. What a score that was. Four porterhouse and a sirloin steak! I did the sides of oven roasted tri-color fingerling potatoes, Annie did a great job with pan sauteed brussel sprouts and I braved the icy rain to grill the steaks outside. Linda, Erin and Sherry were great helps in keeping us entertained. We opened a bottle of 10 year old Bordeaux to go with it all and finished off the lemon challenge with Sherrys cake. And we toasted those we missed in our lives and all of you too.

Sherry's cake. Ahh...brought here fully assembled in a styro cooler full of dry ice with the steaks too. Perfect yellow cake, a layer of raspberry and the best lemon curd I have ever tasted, frosted with whipped cream and mascapone cheese. Most of it is now gone, but I have the leftovers. I was not letting that go back to Michigan.

We woke up to snow this morning so after a hearty breakfast of the dozen fresh eggs from Annies chickens, fried up leftover potatoes and sausage, my family guests had to leave for home. I miss them all already. We spoiled Sherry and they all spoiled me by just being here.

Now let me tell you about the cooler. It drove my dog insane. Poor beast could smell the steaks, so we put it on the outside porch. He spent Friday night and Saturday morning licking the door, trying to get at it. Once he saw the beef defrosting, he did setlle down but made sure he was at the table for dinner. He was spoiled all weekend with kisses and hugs and treats. He is now sacked out and not moving.

As for pics, you will have to wait for Annie and Linda to get home. Erin has been inducted into the CF and we also approved her fiance for marriage. And Sherry and Annie have me convinced that Michigan has no food, they took home so much.

Thank you ladies for a wonderful weekend. The B&B is always open for you.

Peppi, Thank you for the great recap of the Chicago get together. I am sad that I missed all the camaraderie and cooking.

After lots of laughs, lots of good food and lots of wine, I am finally checking in from home! Even tho the weather was not all that cooperative, it didn't spoil a fun CF get together!

Special thanks to Peppi and her dad for putting up with this crazy bunch! They have a lovely home filled with warmth and laughter, and we all had a fabulous time!

Here are a few pictures. I didn't take many, I was having too much fun! You can click on them to make them larger, if you wish...

Annie and Sherry
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Peppi and her adorable dad
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L to R Peppi, Sherry, Annie, Me
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Augie and Dilly

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Sherry's luscious Lemon Cake

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"The Group" (Sherry, Peppi, Annei, Me, Erin)

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Linda

Great pics!!
I see Annie got the business end of Dilly.....
Way to go!! LOL!
Linda C

Oh, what fun we all had. But remember, what happens in chicago stays in Chicago!
Sherry

That sounds like a great weekend to me all y'all! It's great to see everyone again and to meet Linda's DD. The food sounds more than good and Sherry that cake looks fantastic. I'm sure Augie had a great time!! LOL about Dilly and the cooler!

Thanks for checking in and sharing your time with us.

David

What beautiful ladies you all are! Such sweet faces. So nice that you had a good time. Snow and all.

And... poor, poor doggy!! lol

You midwestern girls always have the most fun! You all look really wonderful.

T- poor doggy my a**! he had a blast on everyones lap and even in thier beds getting cuddles. He is such a ladies man, he was in heaven. So was Dad.

Cathy, we missed you so much but we have made a new plan, so save your pennies for a flight to O"Hare soon.

Linda, forgive me, I forge to to mention the drop dead pretty plate you made me and the perfect olive oil bottle. I will take photos and post soon. The bottle was hand painted and is perfect. And Annie gave me a jar of her salsa, so now I can taste the master and see if I can even begin to compare with mine.

Now I need a nap!

Oh you all look like you are having so much fun! Great pics and write-up...thanks so much for sharing!

Shelley S.

Love the pic's...good to see you all. Sure wish I could have been there. I don't intend to miss the next party!!!!

Nancy

OK, I'm here. Hey, it's a 3 hour bus ride to South Bend, another hour and a half to Sherry's and a 3 hour drive home for me after that, give me a minute, will ya?

Oh yes, we certain did the lemon challenge, and I'll post some pictures over there too. Peppi had appetizers waiting for us, cheese and crackers and wine:

Peppi made some wonderful chicken with lemons:

Sherry brought the lemon cake, of course. She said the cake recipe was from Joy of Cooking, but the filling was a lemon curd made from a combination of two recipes, a raspberry filling from another source and a mascarpone frosting that was to die for:

Of course I had to participate in the lemon challenge, I bought the limoncello, having been instructed by Cathy to make sure I got Sherry really drunk. Or was that "take really good care of Sherry"? Whichever....

I drank half a bottle of Moscato Friday night, and by 11 pm I had to switch to Diet Coke. (grin) I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of Linda's Lena and Olly jokes and I had to stay sober enough to harrass...um....take care of Sherry!

We got up Saturday morning and had cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast, then Sherry, Peppi, Dilly and I sat and talked, waiting for Linda and Erin to finish the wedding "stuff". No pictures of breakfast but we had rice pudding for lunch, we started drinking and completely forgot that there was dessert Friday night! It was yummy, BTW:

Poor Dilly, he got up a little slowly on Saturday morning, I think he might have been hitting the bottle. So THAT'S what happened to the rest of the wine! It was the dog. Yeah. That's it.

Saturday afternoon we went here so Sherry could get veal shanks for Osso Bucco:

It was a nice little market and had all kinds of stuff besides the veal, like Irish Bacon and sausage and premade dishes like this:

From there we went to Minelli's Deli so Linda could buy some Italian Sausage:

It was busy so Linda, Erin and Peppi waited their turn patiently while I picked up a tube of anchovy paste for Elery:

From there we went to the Asian Market, H Mart. There was some kind of food show and we got lots of samples. Samples of curry and kim chee and miso soup and sake and rice with some kind of fish seasoning and Makayla's favorite, Pocky. I bought Hello Kitty Pocky, she'll be the hit of kindergarten, and some Hello Kitty animal crackers. They had some exotic produce, like this Korean Melon:

Linda found these, says Jessica's persimmons will look like this in just a couple of years. Are you listening, Jessica? (grin)

they had a food court, but I couldn't figure out what most of it was, it was all in Korean!

they had live fish:

Dead fish:

fish that hadn't even hatched yet:

and things that live in the ocean that aren't even fish:

Oh, and they also had computerized, self-contained toilets. Yup, right in the grocery store, LOL:

We made a final stop at Trader Joe's. I bought a nice grainy bread and some Dubliner cheese, as well as some chocolate covered hazel nuts with a dusting of Chipotle for Elery and some veggie and flaxseed chips for me.

We went to Peppi's house, where Linda thawed a couple of pounds of shrimp, I cut up the bread and dubliner cheese and Peppi opened more wine and put out some yummy proscuitto to go with the bread and cheese

Peppi got the steaks ready for the grill and poor Dilly was nearly starving by that time:

He had to wait, though, while we opened gifts. Linda brought everyone hand painted olive oil bottles, painted by a friend of hers. Here's mine:

She also gave me bunny and carrot cookie cutters and Easter stencils, so I can make cookies and cake with the Monkey Princess and Bruvver. They're gonna love these:

She got Sherry and Peppi bottles too, and some of those great square plates she makes. I got two as a gift when Linda came to Michigan before, so you've seen those. Here is Sherry's, aren't the colors great?

Peppi gave us all quarts of her home canned red cabbage and I brought salsa for everyone.

It was time for dinner and Peppi set a beautiful table.

She opened this nicely aged Bordeaux to go with the steak:

Dinner was delicious, the wine was good, but the company was absolutely stellar. Dilly helped us clean up the dishes:

I had that half bottle of Moscato left from the night before, so I drank that. I tried a glass of Limoncello but I'm not tough enough to drink it straight, LOL. I tried some with Squirt and it wasn't bad, but I'd already had that half bottle of wine and my stomach made sure that I knew I'd better quit and be sorry, so I switched to Diet Coke. Funny, none of us drank as much on Saturday night, we must be getting soft!

Sunday morning I slept in until 7:20, Sherry and Peppi were already up and the coffee was made. There was about an inch of snow on the ground. We had breakfast and I was sad to say goodbye to Peppi and her Dad:

When I hugged her Dad and told him "thank you" for letting us stay and driving us around, he just smiled and said "don't thank me, just come back". Oh yeah, you know we will.

Annie

Oh, and I forgot, Peppi also sent home some pine nuts for me to try. I've never had them, I never think of buying them when I go to Grand Rapids and you know there aren't any in White Cloud, LOL.

By the time we packed up all our "goodies", Peppi had to lend Sherry a big suitcase to put the extra stuff in and Peppi asked if we didn't have any food in Michigan. (grin)

I bought this stuff at the Super H Mart and Trader Joe's

Let's see, there were Meyer lemons and Pocky, some green chili simmering sauce and Wasabi and Anchovy paste and hazelnut liquor and Peppi also sent home a jar of white asparagus for me to try and some dark rye bread. don't forget the chocolate and Peppi's homemade sweet and sour red cabbage there. Yum.

And isn't that a cute little whisk for salad dressing? That's from Peppi too!

Annie

LOL....I totally forgot about the dried persimmons! (Sea Squirt....SNORT! I missed that display!)

I must be getting senile. I totally meant to thank Annie for the jar of salsa, and also to thank Peppi for the jar of red cabbage and the cute little whisk! She tucked the whisks into our napkin rings at dinner! Such a cute idea!

Linda

What a blast you gals (and Augie & Dilly) had! I know first hand what a wonderful, fun hostess Peppi is and I also know that Sherry and Annie are great fun too! I imagine Linda and Erin fit right in and it was a foodie's delight weekend!
I can't stop laughing about the toilets in the market but you forgot to point out that they come with certain extras like personal washers and blow driers (snort)!
All I can say is I wish I was there or certainly a fly on the wall to dish with you all!

What a great pictorial!!!! Thanks for your work in letting the rest of us feel virtually a part of the party.

Two things that jumped out at me 1) There is a gadget (white with two working ends) that I don't recognize, looks like it may be a wine opener. 2) The asparagus aren't peeled. LOL

Annie, thanks for posting all those pics. I never knew you even took them all. Save the one iwth Dilly and the wine bottles. I may have to frame that one.

Cathy, that is the Boomerang wine opener that I bought at the Biltmore Estate wine shop. Linda intorduced me to it and I love it. The asparagus was way too thin to peel, I was hoping for some nice fat ones to show Annie how to do it and the flavor differance.

Hey, in Michigan the asparagus is just too nice and tender, it doesn't NEED peeling like that inferior stuff that comes from other places. LOLOLOLOL

Yeah, that's it. It's not that I'm just too darned impatient to peel asparagus!

Poor Dilly, he's a party animal but I think we completely wore him out. I'll send you that picture, Peppi.

LindaC, the poor creature was nearly tortured, we kept hugging him and kissing him and feeding him and petting him. Heck, I'm lucky he sat on my lap at all, with all the attention he got.

Oh yes, we had a good time! And extra thanks, Peppi, for the tour. I could skip every tourist attraction and t-shirt shop on the face of the earth but I just love to hit the gourmet food markets and kitchen stores.

Ellen, I'm still chuckling at the toilets. (snicker)

And on Monday we diet. (sigh) Yup, that's now......

Annie

What lovely pics!!! Sounds like you all had a great time. Always nice to put faces with names....
Love the doggie too!

Linda

Fun fun fun! I just love these seeing these pictures and hearing about your visit. Thanks for posting.

Tracey

P.S. Annie-let me know if you are going to be in Cinci this summer. We could meet up at Jungle Jim's!

Oh what a wonderful foodie weekend. I love the photo of you all sitting on the sofa together.

Ann

Tracey, we'll be in Ohio sometime this summer, I'll be sure to let you know in advance. I think we may take the Monkey Princess and Bruvver to Toledo to the zoo this weekend, but that's still up in the air....

Annie

Glad to hear veryone had a wonderful time and made it home safely. Thnakas for sharing the photos and fun times!

Alexa

Looks like a fun time! The picture of Dilly and the steaks is a classic.

Great pics Annie! Glad you have your camera back or a new one. I had totally forgot about Squirt..lol! Sherry, your cake looks amazing, I'm sure it tasted the same. Linda, I'm LOLOLOL at EJ's dried up....well you know..LOL! Again, it looks like y'all had a great weekend!

David

I neglected to mention that I was drooling over Sherry's prize winning cake. I'm sure it tasted as good as it looks.

Also, it appears that you all did a great job taking care of Sherry. I know her spirits were lifted.

I am just checking in now! Our exchange student has left for home and DS #2 and I are recovering with sore throats, coughing, and general malaise. Eh, life happens.

Peppi kudos to you for hosting. Your dad is so sweet!

WONDERFUL time y'all had! Gina and I have a couple of Korean market near us exactly like that. Next time anyone is in town, I or Gina can take you to some Korean restaurants to sample some of the items you saw at the food court. I couldn't read the food items but I recognized most of them. Linda thanks for continuing the persimmon photo op tradition, LOL! The toilet...whatever you do, don't rent the movie 'Jackass'...that's all I can say.

Linda what beautiful gifts you brought. I'm a sucker for glass myself. Sherry, that cake. Thud. DH LOVES Joy of cooking. Our tome is disintegrating from 'love', alas.

Nice Trader Joes haul. Annie, I want to hear that you make pesto this summer with the pine nuts. If they last that long. Keep 'em in the fridge/freezer, they go rancid fast. Somehow I think they will be consumed quickly!

Mustangs, a wine opener with two working ends? Gotta go back and find that one!

Welcome Erin to the CF!

Oh what a wonderful time you have been having! I'm sure Peppi's father was happy to have so many lovely ladies in his house.

And you sure did some great shopping!

Thanks for taking and posting all those pics.

Sharoncb

How much fun!!!! That's all I can say. Looks like you had a blast!

Thanks for sharing

Thanks, jessica, I just went and put the pine nuts in the freezer, I didn't realize they'd go bad any more quickly than any other nut.

They might last long enough to make pesto, I do have basil about half an inch tall that I started in a pot in my kitchen, we'll see if they last long enough for the basil to grow!

Annie