I have had a wonderful last few weeks - I spent some time in Minnesota attending my niece's wedding and getting to see my other nieces and nephew, their kids and spouses, my brother, my sisters, and other family and friends. The weather cooperated - brilliant blue skies, but definitely autumn in the air. The winds kicked up while we were waiting outside the church for the bride and groom, but overall, it was a beautiful Minnesota fall weekend. Two blogs ago, I described the wedding and the amazing dinner. And then there was the cross-half-the-country train trip from Minneapolis to Seattle. The train was hours late, but my daughter and old friend and I had a sleeping compartment, books to read, and they kept feeding us, so we were happy. This was followed by several days in a gorgeous house on Haro Strait just outside of Sidney, BC. That's at the north end of the Saanich Peninsula, about 18 miles from Victoria. My last blog tells some of our travel story.
I finally got home and was settling in to my life which turns busy in a week or so (see my next blog, which will appear midweek this week, for details). I went to my water volleyball session at the Y, which I had really missed; while in the locker room, I walked SMACK BANG into a heavy wooden bench, which was attached to the wall and had been there forever. I spent most of the rest of the day with the doctor and radiologist, who diagnosed a spiral fracture in my little toe. Ow. I spent the rest of the week trying to stay off of it, wearing an uncomfortable "shoe" - really, it was an inflexible piece of material held on to my foot with light cotton and Velcro. Fashion and comfort all rolled into one!
The good news for the week is that we had a potluck party at our house - I do love potlucks! Once again, the food was delicious and non-repetitious. We had scalloped potatoes with lots of bite sized pieces of pork chop/pork loin - it was so homey and yummy. I kept wanting to make an egg casserole brunch dish, but couldn't get my mind off lasagna (it was chilly and drizzly all week), so I ended up making a lasagna with pasta, marinara meat sauce, ricotta cheese, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and Asiago cheese, and lots of fresh basil. We had roasted garlic cloves, olives, pickles, Italian wine salami, assorted cheeses, crackers, and baguette. We had grapes, mandarin oranges, bananas, and then to complete our meal, several desserts. There was a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, angel food cake with pineapple, white confetti cake with sparkly orange buttercream frosting, chocolate brownies, and dark chocolate truffles. And a can of whipped cream which we used liberally.
There's nothing quite like a potluck party with good friends and yummy food - I can't wait until the next one.
Don't forget to check back later this week for my next blog, detailing holiday gift shows that my sisters and I are vendors at; if you're in the neighborhood, we'd love for you to drop by and see our cookbooks. Be sure to tell us that you read our blog!
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