The weekend was Epic

Some memories you just want to savor for a long time, two weekends ago was one of them.   The first guest arrived on Friday afternoon and they didn’t leave until Monday morning.   We started planning this gathering late last summer while visiting friends on Bowen Island in Canada.  In October we sent out a “save the date” and everyone we invited made the arrangements to be here.

The men in the group are all connected and most of the women joined the group through the men.  Bill met Chuck in first grade and the others came along in elementary school, high school and college.  They all love the out of doors and hiking and I think all but Bill has worked for the Forest Service or National Parks on trail crews or tree planting or in Tim’s case, writing wonderful books about the Parks.   Now you see we are talking long term friendships with a great love of each other and nature.   We were reviving a party from thirty and twenty years ago that we all called “The Mid-winter Slide Show”.  Another reason for the timing of this party was so we could all gather one more time at our little house in the forest before our forest is all gone.

Bill and I loved hosting the party this year. All the guests came from significant distances to Redmond and we all had a great time catching up and reminding ourselves how important each one of these people is.  Each family group sent photos ahead of time so that Bill could get them all organized and ready for a slide show.  We saw travels in Italy, and Africa, beautiful hiking trails, mountain lakes and streams, amazing rock formations, sunrises, sunsets and road trips.  We also saw some photos from back in the day and then watched in photos while all the children grew up.

This 24 plus hour party included housing most of the guest at a friend’s house for sleeping.  These friend’s live nearby but are Florida snowbirds in the winter.  Nine of our guest slept there.  The owners had made everything ready ahead of time with notes to the guests, towels and coffee in easy reach and all the beds made and chocolates on each bed.  We have really wonderful friends.  Several of the party guest walked back to our house the next morning and it was a perfectly beautiful day.

 It was Epic and filled with more good memories.

Recipe of the Week:

Sunday morning breakfast was two different breakfast casseroles, a fruit tray, scones and a big pile of crisp bacon.

I knew I could do those breakfast casseroles in the crock-pot and since one of my knick names is the crock-pot queen,  I do own nine of them, I decided I needed to do breakfast in crock-pots.  I went to ‘U-tube university’ to get ideas and then came up with my own recipes.  Remember I was feeding a lot of people, these could easily be cut in half but watch the cooking time so they don’t get overdone.

Cinnamon Egg Casserole (the sweet one)

1 loaf of Cinnamon Chip bread from Great Harvest Bakery (or some delicious cinnamon swirl bread)

18 eggs

1 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons vanilla

1.       Spray the crock-pot with Pam

2.       Cut the bread into 1 inch cubes and put in the crock-pot

3.       Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla and blend well.

4.       Pour over the bread and let it absorb for several hours,  I would push the bread down ever so often a bit like a sponge.

5.       Plug the crock-pot in and turn to low about 5 hours before serving.  (I just did this when I got up once in the night.)

Greek Egg Casserole (the savory one)

 18 eggs

1 cup whole milk

16 oz. fresh spinach, steamed lightly and drained

12 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Salt and pepper grinders

1.       Spray the crock-pot with Pam

2.       Combine the eggs, milk and blend well, add a generous grind of salt and pepper

3.       Pour one third of the egg mixture into the crock-pot and layer with half the spinach and feta

4.       Pour one third of the egg mixture in and add the rest of the spinach and feta cheese

5.       Top off the casserole with the remaining eggs.

6.       Plug the crock-pot in and turn to low about 5 hours before serving.  (I just did this when I got up once in the night.)

Off the Needles:

One of my favorite knitting designers is Susan B Anderson. I have knit several of her cute toys and I listen to her podcast. The day she released this pattern, I had just ripped back for the second time a different shawlette that I had intended to make with this yarn gradient kit. I just decided to change my mind as I loved the pattern, I love the shades of blue and I still have more of this ‘Seahawk speckle’ so I decided to put some of that in. It was an easy traveling knit and I love the finished product. The pattern is called ‘One Love”  and I am calling my finished project ‘Lovin the Blues’. 

Until Next time……. CeLinda K