THYME WITH GREAT FRIENDS!

Sam's comments...24 days and counting!

Sorry I have been deliquent in posting to the blog.  We have had a few busy days, and we were out of town.  At noon on Friday we left to visit our friends, Jim and Karen, in Canton, Ohio.  It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive to Canton.  It was a nice day to take a drive.  Too bad all of the fall colors were done. 

When we get together with Jim and Karen, it is a weekend of eating and drinking.  Both couples like to cook and drink wine.  On Friday night, Bob made Champaign Scallops for an appetizer.  They were absolutely delicious.  Jim made an herb infused chicken with a tarregon sauce.  For the sides, I made oven risotto with mushrooms, spinach, and asparagus, and a bibb lettuce salad with pears, candied walnuts, red onion, and blue cheese crumbles with a cranberry orange vinegarette.  Yummy!  Bob said that was the best chicken he has ever tasted.

On Saturday morning, we went to visit their daughter and son-in-law.  They live about 35 minutes away and just recently purchased their first home and celebrated their first wedding anniversary.  So of course we had to go see or tax dollars at work since they qualify for Obama's $8,000 tax credit.  They do have a very lovely home in a nice subdivision.  There are many walking paths around several ponds.  All six of us went for a nice walk.  It was another sunny day.

For Saturday night dinner, we decided to do a grilled stuffed pork loin.  The loin was stuffed with apples, dried cranberries, apple cider, apple vinegar, and miscellaneous spices.  Jim made the loin, and I made two different types of acorn squash.  One was your basic oven roasted squash with butter and brown sugar.  The other I cut into rings (oops..Bob cut the squash for me).  I roasted the rings in the oven and then glazed them with a mixture of honey, ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce.  Karen made a salad.  We also had some corn bread that we purchased at the store.  The meal was wonderful.  I don't think we have ever jointly cooked a meal we didn't enjoy.  For dessert, Karen made some delicious sauteed apples with a sauce and served it over vanilla ice cream.  Jim prepared "warmed frangelico" for both Karen and me.  It was absolutely amazing.  The aroma of the hazel nuts was awesome.  After all of this and a DVD movie,  The Taking of Pelham 123, it was time for the sack.  As you can see, Cody, the family dog, was also relaxing.

Sunday morning once again proved to be a beautiful day.  We enjoyed a cup of coffee on their patio, chatted, had some breakfast, packed our bags, and headed home.  We were on the road by 10:00 a.m.  On our way home, we counted 14 dead deer on the side of the road and one live deer.  As we were merging from one highway to another, we saw that the traffic was slowing.  We were just about three miles from the Michigan border.  There were a couple of sheriff motorcycles, and some regular motorcycles, and more motorcycles, and more motorcycles.  Then a couple more sheriff motorcycles, and more motorcycles.  I counted about 500 motorcycles.  There were every color, make, and model.  The drivers and riders were of all sizes, shapes, males, females, etc.  It was odd because most of them were not wearing helmets.  In the state of Ohio, they are not required by law to wear helmets; however, in Michigan they are required.  The entire "gang" exited just before the Michigan border.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  I didn' have my camera handy, so I wasn't able to get any pictures.

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend with great friends.  We won't be seeing them for at least six months.  This should give all of us plenty of time to come up with some more great recipes.