Tahini? That is the same as Wasabi, right?

As you can tell from the title, I don’t do a lot of international cooking.  It may have been suggested that I don’t do much cooking at all. 

E-hem! 

I’m a pretty good cook, and I haven’t killed anyone….yet! 

But, backing up a little, I strongly believe that we are sent the people we need in our lives, when we need them.  And I have been blessed with a lot of great people.  

My family lives on the opposite coast from me, so I don’t get to see them as much as I would like.  But when I need them, they are there. 

I did have the great pleasure of spending 3 weeks near my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Joe’s.  I also got to hang out with my cousins Linette, Joe and Dayleena and my godmother Mary.  It took me back to happy times of my childhood.

 

And then there is my best chum, Lorraine, who is always willing to follow me around the country for laughs and giggles.

And our favorite place to visit is the White Trash Bed and Breakfast, ran by Ray and Dave, who open their home to me whenever I am in town.

Nearer to home is my camping group, who understand my tolerance of camping and help me to survive the “rough” camping we do in comfort.

 

Then there is my 2 internet groups….

One is my cruising buddies, who I “met” in 2000.  We’ve been on tons of fun cruise and land vacations ever since.

But today’s blog is about my other group.  We were all born the same year.  That is our common link.  The rest of the people involved will give the name of the message board and the year we were born.  I stick with women born in the same year.

We are from all over the country, and chat online on a daily basis.  We help solve problems, groan at our issues, cheer our successes and basically support each other in every way.

I recently had the great pleasure of meeting up with some of these women IRL (in real life) in October in Indianapolis

 

 

 

 

 

and in November in New Jersey.

 

 

 

In New Jersey, we had a lovely selection of snacks, including homemade hummus.

 

 

Oh yum!

So I got the recipe.  Hummus requires chick peas, garlic, olive oil and Tahini.

 

Ta-what?

So I went to three stores.  I looked in the international food section.  I looked in the deli section.  I looked in the baking section…I even asked!  I even thought maybe I could substitute something else, like wasabi.  I mean, a half of a cup of wasabi wouldn’t make it too spicy hot, would it?

 

Finally at the third store they were able to point me to the Peanut Butter aisle.

Really?  What is this stuff?  In case you are curious, it is ground sesame seeds with olive oil.

 

And no, I wasn’t really going to put wasabi in my hummus.  I didn’t want this to be my first culinary homicide! 

How did it turn out?  I’ll tell you as soon as I am home long enough to make it!

 

PS, this was our dessert, made by our very own professional cake baker. 

 

 

And they called him Gator Bob

Way back in the year 2000, I met some nice people on a cruise chat board.  We all hit it off and decided to go on a cruise together.  This was the beginning of some great friendships.

 

Some of our bosomiest buddies from the group are Ron and Lyn, who live in Not Near Anything, Pennsylvania.  And if you know your US geography at all, it is especially not near Near Seattle.  Most years in the last 15, we have gone on a cruise with these folks and have had a hoot.  But 2 years ago, we decided to try something new and go on a Land Vacation together.

 After much research and debate, we found a small resort in Kissimmee, Florida that was easy for both couples to get to.  The running joke was about the small lake on the property and the one small alligator who resided there.

 

As our stay was winding down, with nary an alligator sighting, we were sad to be leaving this paradise.  I hopped in the shower on one of the last mornings and got quite a big surprise!

Now, let me point out, that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed first thing in the morning.  I’d probably be better after a cup of coffee, if only I drank the stuff!

 

But I look down at my feet in the shower and saw something green and scaly and ready to take off one of my limbs!

I quietly exited the shower….HA!  In the Blog Fodders words, “She boiled right out of there!”

 

The B.F. turned off the shower, closed the bathroom door and called the front desk to report a “critter” in our tub.  They figured it was a gecko and I was just being hysterical and sent the maintenance man with a butterfly net to catch it.  A BUTTERFLY NET….to capture a ferocious, woman eating, jaws of death alligator!

 

Suddenly, I had a better understanding of Marlon Perkins sending good ole Jim into deal with the animals!

 

A few seconds later, the maintenance guys comes back out clutching the ferocious beast.  And he said…

 “Um, it’s a toy….”

Yup, a plastic, grown-to-three-times-its-size-in-water, bought-in-the-dollar-store-in-Not-Near-Anything-Pennsylvania toy!

 

I was mostly mad I hadn’t thought of doing this myself!

 But, the last I saw of the deadly alligator was as a trophy on the maintenance guy’s golf cart.

 We did hear stories about it as we traveled around the resort on the last day…”Did you hear about the crazy woman who called in a toy alligator in her tub?”

 So, fast forward to Labor Day weekend, 2015.  We decided to go to the same resort, with the same friends.  We did have an alligator moratorium that no one listened too.   But we got curious about that toy gator and what ever happened to him.

The B.F. corned one of the maintenance guys and asked.

 As it turns out, one of the ladies who works at the resort thought that was the funniest story ever.  She asked the maintenance guy, who then went by the name Gator Bob, if she could borrow the alligator toy.  She then hid it in her friends shower.

The friend thought it was so funny, she asked to keep the alligator toy and took him to her yacht outside of Tampa, where he sailed the Gulf of Mexico for a year.

 Then, tragically, Gator Bob, the maintenance guy died in a motorcycle accident.  He was well liked and is missed by staff and guests alike at this resort.

The alligator toy, now named Gator Bob, came back home to the resort and was joined by his friend, Sting Ray.  They both have a wonderful life at the resort, traveling around in style on a golf cart.

 

Which goes to show, it takes so little in life to give many people joy!

And, after another week at that resort, we still haven’t seen a real, live alligator.  There were blow up alligators, and alligator socks, and alligator key chains, but not a single, bite-off-your-leg critter!

 

 

Swine and Wine!

Pork and Cork, Pig and Swig, Boar and Pour, Hoof and Quaff.…..

 

Here is a picture of the Guest of Honor

Last year, we happened to be in Salem Oregon.  So on the way home, we stopped at a couple of wineries in the Willamette Valley.  They do Pinot Noir wine there…Red wine, that in France is called Burgundy. 

From Total Wine:

 

Wines made with Pinot Noir are known for their elegance and refinement. They often possess an exotic bouquet along with a velvety, mouth-filling texture. Pinot Noir exhibits flavors of ripe red fruit, cherry, chocolate, toast and spices. Most famous in Burgundy, where it is the only grape permitted in producing the famous red wines of the Côte d’Or, Pinot Noir thrives in cooler climates. Other fine, well-structured examples of Pinot Noir can be found in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and California’s Carneros and Russian River Valley.

 

Translation: YUMMY!

One of our stops was at Archery Summit.  They do a really good job, and we really enjoyed their wines.

 

Wine Cave at Archery Summit

 

As a side note:  Denise should not be allowed access to credit cards, order forms, pens or decision making while drinking wine!

Bottom line, we joined their wine club.

We got invited to their spectacular sounding Valentine’s Day dinner, but it was very limited, and we were number one zillion and one zillion and one on their waiting list.

Sigh!

So we jumped at the chance to go to their summer BBQ, Swine and Wine.  I mean, good wine and a sense of humor.  That is right up our alley.  We will ignore for the moment that I don’t eat pork.  Good thing I drink wine!

We were instructed to park at the winery, and they would shuttle us to the vineyard.  We had some lovely Pinot Noir Rosé wine and snacks while we waited for the transportation to arrive. 

 

Here is a picture of the inside of the vehicle.  You can see how we had to suffer for our wine!

We were met at the vineyard with more Rosé and more snacks.  They had awnings set up for the dining area.  It was right in the middle of the vineyard.

 

 

Look at all those glasses!

 

Waiters circulated with little shot glasses of Chilled Corn and Coconut soup…I passed on that, The Blog Fodder said it was pretty good.

We then wandered to our table and introduced ourselves to the others.  We had the pleasure of dining with Eric from the Production Staff of the winery, and his girlfriend Erin.  They were a very interesting couple who have lived around the world working in the wine industry.  The recently “came home” to Oregon, and appreciate it even more for having lived elsewhere.

 

Our first course was a beautiful salad made with arugula, watermelon, goat cheese, and pistachios.  They paired it with a lovely 2013 Archer’s Edge Estate Pinot Noir.

 

We then had the main course served family style. They had roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary, summer squash with a Pinot Noir Vinaigrette, corn with chanterelles, and plenty of roasted pork.  They had infused the little piggy with rosé wine, and it was moist looking. 

All right, I tried a little…it was tasty, but I still don’t like pork!

They had 3 wines from the vineyard we were sitting in to go with this feast.  All Pinot Noirs…one from 2000, one from 2003 and one from 2009.  They were all wonderful and unique, but I liked the 2003 the best.

If you are counting, that is 5 different wines, and as much as you’d like!

 For dessert we had sweetened Greek yogurt with fresh berries and shortbread cookies.

 They then rolled us back down the hill to the winery, where we could (Surprise, Surprise) order some of the wonderful wines we enjoyed.

 I managed to keep it to 6 bottles.

I am really looking forward to their Crab Feast in January!

In Milan, They Thought We Were Crazy!

Rick Steves says that the further South in Italy you go, the more intense it gets.

Our feeling is that in Rome and Naples, the locals are laughing with us. 

 

In Florence, the locals were laughing at us. 

 

And in Milan, they thought we were absolutely insane.

 

We are really fairly reasonable people and don’t make a lot of demands, but quite often got looks of complete puzzlement in Milan.

 

Nowhere was this more true than at the Villa Malpensa Hotel.

 

We stayed here on our last night when we went to Europe in 2012.  The airport is 30 miles outside of the city of Milan.  There is a good train that goes to the airport, but with the cost of hotels in Milan and the early time of our flight, staying near the airport made sense.

The Villa was built by an early aviation pioneer in Italy, and is a beautiful building.  They are very close to the airport and have a free shuttle service.

In 2012, we were in Europe for almost a month.  We were absolutely drained by the last day.  So we headed to the hotel fairly quickly and planned to spend the day just relaxing.

When we checked in, we met this guy….

 

Well, this is not an actual picture of him, but he did look a lot like this.  Interesting man, and he really blew hot and cold our whole stay.  We were never quite sure if we were going to be chastised or greeted warmly.

As we walked around the grounds, looking for the advertised pool, the garden staff gave us really puzzled looks.  It turned out that the pool was closed for repairs.

As we sat in the outdoor gazebo area, the other staff gave us puzzled looks.  One lady came out to set up tables for a gathering, and decided not to leave the table clothes.  Who knows what those crazy Americans would do to them!

 

We had lunch in a little sitting room, as they were working on their snack bar.  I was thoroughly tired of ham and cheese, even if it was Italian, by this point and ordered a Tuna Sandwich on White Bread.  The waiter started to argue with me, but then concluded I was just a crazy American, why bother.

 

So, when it was time to plan our last night in Italy, we decided to come back.  We had to return our car to the airport.

 

Helpful Hint…follow the signs that say “Car Hire,” there are none for Car Rental Returns.

We went outside and called the hotel for the shuttle to come get us. 

“Where are you?”

“Exit number 10”

Click!  I told the B.F. that the guy hung up on me!  But a few minutes later, there was the van.

When we got to the hotel, we realized we had left our hats sitting on a post at the airport.

Ooooooops!

Okay, okay….truth be told….I left the hats behind.  The B.F. was in charge of all of our ever-increasing luggage and I was in charge of the hats.

Oooooooops!

So we unloaded the bags from the van, I was put in charge of checking in, and the B.F. explained to the van driver that he needed to go back to the airport.

At the desk, I saw that our same friend was in charge.

 

When the van driver explained he had to take the crazy American back to the airport, the desk clerk was in great disbelief!  Who but a crazy American would make such a request!?!?!  (honestly, the airport was really only a couple of miles from the hotel)

 

 

As I was checking in, the clerk asked if I had 2 rooms.

Um, no, just one.

Apparently, I had somehow indicated there was only one of us checking in.  It was okay, he could add another, but it was going to cost more!  Note:  Later I saw another woman check in, and had the same issue, so I’m thinking it is a flaw in the website!

He then DEMANDED we make dinner reservations!  We could see why this was important, as we were one of three parties in the whole, huge restaurant!

 

By then, Dennis was back with the hats, and we were escorted to our room by the van driver –slash- bell boy.

Heavens, what do you tip a bell boy in Italy?  We gave him a five, since he was so nice about going back to the airport.

We got our luggage organized for the next day’s trek to the airport and went to the EMPTY dining room.  The waiter was just able to squeeze us in.  We ordered glasses of wine and a simple dinner.  The food was okay, the wine was okay.  The waiter did drop off the rest of the bottle of wine at no charge, so that was nice.  It wound up being one of our most expensive, less impressive dinners, but it also took little effort on our part.

 

We did go to dinner at the unfashionably early time of 7:30 and were surprised when they sat another table.  It was two Italian gentlemen.  We had a theory they were Mafia and were there to make a hit…but have no evidence to support our idea.

 

They did have one of my favorite desserts of the trip…vanilla ice cream with a balsamic vinegar reduction.  Sounds weird, I know, but yummy…The B.F. passed on that dessert, not being a vinegar fan.

 

We then got a good night’s sleep, had a fairly decent breakfast at the restaurant and took the shuttle back to the airport.  We had to do some searching for the Customs office to turn in some VAT paperwork, and then through security and the long walk to the gate.

While standing around waiting to be let on the plane, a tall gentleman made a point of forcing his way through the crowds and standing RIGHT IN FRONT of me.  But it worked to my advantage, I drafted off him to get onto the plane quicker…let him do all the shoving, I just walked in his wake.

 

And then, just 20 short hours later, we where home….

 

 

….and this is all I have to say about that!