Beth and I had the most amazing week end with the Cincinnati Lechlers. We drove down early Saturday morning to Pam's house where we gathered for our first adventure of the day. (She had a lovely breakfast prepared for us. ) We had to take two cars and arrived at Jungle Jim's in good order. Six acres of craziness greeted us. We wanted to go in all directions at once, but caught ourselves in time. International products flooded our sight as we meandered through the store. We spend an hour and a half there, but I am sure one could spend the entire day exploring. We then felt lunch coming on and headed for Over-the-Rhine which is a downtown hot spot. It felt like New York City on a Saturday morning. People were everywhere walking their dogs, chatting on the street, and all of the eating places had a least an hour to wait because the people went up and down the street putting in their names and which ever vibrated first was the one where they ate. Mary and I sat at a bar and she had a glass of wine and I had, of all things, a long island ice tea. (That shocked about everyone including the bartender.) Yes, that early ! Beth joined us and also had a wine. Our buzzer announced lunch and we went to The Eagle where they served the most wonderful bloody Mary with bacon, kale, celery and liquid fire. Loved that too. This place was known for chicken so several people ordered chicken and each ordered a side and we all shared that. I had a shrimp po boy. The gabbing that went on included trip plans for Paris and Rome. Another girls (and I use that loosely) gone wild.
We then drove to Finlay market where there was a display of bacon like I had never seen. The butcher had dipped, soaked, marinated and encrusted bacon in ever ingredient known to man. They had a giant pumpkin carved with cooked bacon hanging out of its mouth. We had lovely gelato and called a halt to the excursion about 5:00.
We got back to Glenda and Joe's with all our booty (which Pam and George kindly iced and packed for the journey home the next day) and settled in for dinner, cards, and the OSU football game. Much later Beth stayed at Pam's and I spent the night at Joe and Glenda's. We both agreed it was special and hoped to do it again soon. (P.S. Andy couldn't go because he had two tests at Ohio State to study for on Tuesday : Physics and World War history. You do know he is 80 years old, right? Keeping fit and smart. That's my man.
We (Beth and I) bought cauliflower the size of a big man's head so I started in on a dish as soon as I made it to my kitchen. We still have kale and tomatoes from the garden so I made kale chips and they were delicious with the roasted cauliflower.
Picture to right: Pam's kitchen on another get together with Mary Susan this time.
