Dinner Friends

It was Dinner Friends Wednesday.  We went to a really cool restaurant we've never been to before.  I had Pasta Bolognese.  They had some interesting food combinations but everyone loved what they got.  It was a small, intimate restaurant.  It reminded me of the type of restaurants they would have in New York City (not that I've ever been, ha!  One of the friends has been and she said this was true.)

The owner came out and talked to us and then he made a Margarita Sorbet right in front of us.  It was made in a bowl within a bowl.  He told us the inside bowl was colder than dry ice.  He stirred it and stirred it with a whisk until it was done.  It tasted amazing and like it had just come out of the freezer.

I brought home dessert.  It was a funnel cake stuffed with banana, with chocolate on top and a sauce under it. 

The food was divine.  Yum!!

Home

Thursday morning was an even more gorgeous day than Wednesday.  We ate breakfast on the deck.  Coffee, fresh fruit and muffins.

Then we packed up, straightened up and were on the road by noon.

I dove back with Magellan.  We followed the birthday girl and another friend.  We decided we wanted to stop for lunch before we left Marblehead so we all went to Ritski's.  There was also rooms attached to this place. I got a BLT and a really good potato salad with redskin potatoes.

We sat on the patio again and our view again was amazing.

We stopped at a comfort station in the middle of town in Vermillion, Ohio.  Then we noticed a consignment store and went in there.  Magellan bought a really cute sprakly blue top that was $12.  However, when she paid for it she found out it was marked down 50%, so $6.  Don't you love when that happens.

We got home after 5.  I laid down immediately and slept for 3 hours.  I was exhausted but I had such a great time. 

Fun times

 After we saw the boat, we went for a walk and the woman whose birthday it was, one of her friends she's known for a long time was staying in Marblehead with some of her girlfriends too so we went to see if we could find her.  Turns out she was staying the next street over from us.  It was kind of crazy.  We talked to her for a while.

We went to lunch at a place called Crabby Joes.

 This was our view from where we sat and ate.

Then we went to Ferguson's Gallery https://www.facebook.com/FergusonGallery

In what was a serendipity moment, one of the Dinner friends noticed a piece of woodworking that looked like something her brother makes.  She talked to a person there and sure enough they had purchased it from him and were selling it.  That was pretty neat!

We then looked through some other stores and one of the friends went ahead.  I saw her go in a place and from afar I thought it was another store that was named Like Us.  She then texted us and said she was in a winery.  As we were walking there, the sign on the sidewalk did say like us but had a facebook insignia above the words.  I guess I did notice it but didn't pay attention or put 2 and 2 together.  The winery wanted people to like them on facebook, duh!

Anyhow, it was called Rocky Point Winery, ha.  I guess there is also an inn there as well but I didn't notice it was until I got home and looked at the picture I took.  We sat in the front on the patio.  In the back they also had seating and you could play cornhole.

After that we had to meet Magellan at the double wide because we were going to a winery to eat.  We ordered a taxi and we were supposed to be picked up at 7:00.  We waited and waited, called again and someone was supposed to be coming.  We went outside to wait.  While out there, one of the friends put line dancing music on her phone and the 7 of us were dancing in the street. It was a blast. However, I hope no one was taping us from one of the houses and we end up on youtube somewhere.

At 7:30, we just drove to the winery it was called Mon Ami

https://www.monamiwinery.com/

The food was fabulous.  I got pulled pork sliders and french fries.  The others bought wine for a wine tasting.  I didn't.  I didn't want to get ill since I was feeling better.

We went back and had a birthday cake.

The candles were angled so it said 7 0 but you really can't tell.  We had wine, some had jello shots and we made jokes about the friend turning 70.  It was all in good fun though.

The birthday girl and me and another DF went for a walk after dark and ended up at where her friend was staying.  The woman that owned the place gave us a tour.  Wow, it was beautiful.  When you sat on the front porch when you looked out you were right by where the boats docked.  In her dining room they had a big pool table and a juke box.  Party house!  OMG, the master bath was probably the size of my dining room, just wow! They were drinking and playing cards when we got there and there was probably about 6 or 7 woman staying there too.  We didn't stay for drinks and probably stayed 15 minutes.

I ended up laying down around 12:30, I think everyone pretty much went to bed after I did. 

The Lake House

So, this past Wednesday the Dinner Friends met up in Marblehead, Ohio for the friend that is turning 70 this month.  One of DF's sons has a double wide there.  Wow, this is the first time I've been in one and it was pretty nice.  It's just like a house.

One of them couldn't come because her daughter-in-law was induced Wednesday morning and didn't have the baby until 8:30 that night.  Magellan was suppose to be off from work but had to go into work unexpectedly but came around 6:00.

I took a few pictures in the house (double wide).

It was able to sleep 8 not counting the couch.  In the room I slept in there were 3 single beds right next to each other, ha.  One room had two single beds.  The third room had a full bed and a single.  There were 2 bathrooms which was nice.  We were lucky the weather after raining during the night was beautiful on Wednesday when we got there.  Not too warm which I naturally loved.  After we unloaded, we went and looked at our friend's boat.  It is 32 foot.

 I was pretty happy she didn't know how to drive it because I get seasick...and considering I got a little car sick going to Marblehead it was good for me. lol..

More later with pictures.

Hibachi Restaurant

Wednesday was Dinner Friends night.  The gal whose birthday it was was turning 60 and she chose a restaurant where we could have dinner cooked on a hibachi in front of us.  Always a fun thing to do.  The food was so delicious.  We first had ginger soup and a small salad.  Then he cooked eggs 

and adds rice to them.  Also, makes fried noodles.  I ordered Filet Mignon and chicken, some ordered shrimp (not shown).  There were also vegetables.

As he was cooking he did the usual trying to get you to catch broccoli in your mouth when he threw it.  I think he wasn't a very good aim because not many were able to catch it, ha!  Also, the saki in the mouth trick (I didn't take any)  but it was still enjoyable.  One thing about eating in these kinds of places there's always a lot to take home.

For our friend whose birthday it was we got her a birthday dessert.  It was really cute.

It was ice cream scoops with this little decoration that was lit and turned.  How clever.

Next year, the last woman in our group will turn 60. (We are getting old/er)

However, the first one in our group will be turning 70 next month.  We are doing something really special for that.  It might even involve a sleep-over if all goes as planned.

Food, food, food

The dinner friends went out on Wednesday and I took some food pictures.  First time we went to this place it was yummyyyy!!!

This was pulled pork on Jalapeno cornbread and fried onions.

This was some kind of taco's but I don't remember what kind lol.  You can also see low in the picture  popcorn someone ordered for the appetizer.  It was duck fat popcorn.  I was the only one that didn't seem to like it.  It seemed too salty tasting for me.

This was pork shank with garlic mashed potatoes.

This is the only picture I took correctly which was what I ordered, ha!  Ribs, french fries and an interesting Cole slaw. 

Remembering

It was one year ago today, our dinner friend left us.  We toasted her last night at our regular scheduled dinner.  We miss you so much.  I often look at the pictures when we spent time at the cabin right before you went to palliative care and then hospice.

It's bittersweet now, friend, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Christmas with Dinner Friends

Christmas was on Wednesday with my Dinner Friends.  Some of us were going to take the rapid downtown but in the end, we took two cars, eight people.  It worked out well.  At least we figured it out the day before unlike sometimes when on the day we are going to dinner a wrench gets thrown in. Since I call myself the secretary of the group. I'm always the one texting people with the wherefores-going crazy trying to figure it out when it gets messed up then I start whining to them afterwards I don't want to be the secretary anymore, but no one listens lol.

When we got to the parking lot as we started walking to the walkway to the casino  lo and behold we see our friends are right ahead of us, ha!  How convenient to arrive at the same time.

Some of  us (me) lost our reward cards so; (I) we had to get new ones, others didn't have any and had to get a first one.

When that was settled we went to Tower City to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I had a really good pulled pork sandwich and a drink, but only one.   Here's a picture of the tree inside Tower City it was very beautiful.

When we were done eating, we decided to look at the windows outside of the casino that were supposed to be decorated.  Years ago, the casino was a Higbee's Department Stores.  At Christmastime the windows were so creative and beautiful with animation and usually themed.  The Casino is trying to bring them back.  Okay!  I was excited, braved the cold to go outside to look and they were blech.  Kinda cheesy I thought.  Although this is, I think, only the second year they've done it.  Hopefully, they will get better at it.

We were disappointed as well that Public Square wasn't decorated.  They had the big lighting ceremony by Playhouse Square this year. (When I came home and told hippie, he said because of the construction this year they moved it.)

Then we hit the casino.  I played $20.  I won some but when it was time to leave I was back to my original $20, so I would consider that a win. 

We hugged and wished everyone happy holidays and left.  We did drive around Playhouse Square to see the lights.  They were nice and did get to see the Chandelier lit up in the dark too.  All in all, it was a different kind of Christmas than we usually do but it was fun. 

Browsing and eating

Magellan, me and one of the dinner friends was out and about on Saturday.  We went to visit a friend and then went and and got something to eat (naturally!).  Since it's been so cold, I got a salad and chicken vegetable soup. Yum!

We also went to a store that I had never heard of before but Magellan's eyes lit up when she was telling us about it so we had to stop.  It's a store that sells accessories.  It pretty much was sensory overload for me when we went in.  Everything is separated by colors and the prices were very reasonable. 

I thought when I left home I was going to be gone for a couple of hours.  Turns out it was four.

Weekend Getaway Part 2

The idea to go to the cottage came to us a few months ago.  Then two friends went up to scout out the cottages and put a deposit down.  The date was set.

The day came and we were about an hour and a half from leaving and Magellan called me asking "Did you know we were staying until Sunday?"

"Um, no I didn't."

We had originally talked about staying the weekend but somehow when it got planned through text messages her and I got the impression that it was only from Friday to Saturday.  It did seem quite expensive just for overnight but, what do we know. I had to scramble to pack more things.  Magellan worked and had to go for a blood test and then pack more too.  We took two vehicles and arranged to meet a little later at the designated spot so we could follow the other vehicle.

The weather was great the day we left but Saturday was terrible, wind  and snow.  (It was a good thing we weren't going home, ha!)  We stopped at an Amish Chocolate store along the way and bought a lot of chocolate.  (Well, I bought a lot of chocolate but I shared.)

They had a VCR.  I brought Chicago and You've Got Mail and we watched those.  We played a couple of dice games LRC and another one where you took a dollar bill and had to put the corners down if you lost (I don't remember the name of it.)


We drank Riesling, Mimosa's, and another wine (which was terrible, yucky.)  We had some leftover champagne so we put a little in which made the wine tolerable.  There was also beer and rum but I didn't drink any of that - not my thing.  We had hot chocolate and tons of junk food.  Not much healthy eating went on, I'm afraid to say.

We drove through the park Saturday night.  One of the gals and her husband go camping there, so she showed us where they camp.  It was pretty slippery.  On the lake, we saw a shanty.  We surmised someone was ice fishing.

 We made glo stick necklaces and halo's and danced in the dark to my ipad.  We were like the ya ya sisterhood but not as fancy.   Of course that was after we had the terrible wine with the champagne lol.

Weekend Getaway Part 1

I went with some of my dinner friends to Punderson State Park and we stayed for a weekend in January.
We stayed in a cottage.  You had to walk down steps to get to it.

The cottage is built in the hill.  Here's a side view of the cottage next to us.

There were five of us.  Two bedrooms.  I didn't think to take pictures before we used the beds, ha!  One bedroom had twin beds and one had a double bed.

We had a roll-away bed and we got an aerobed as well.  One gal ended up sleeping on the couch and the aerobed didn't work out, so we put the roll-away in the living room.


It was a small cottage but it was big enough.  The kitchen

Part of the living room.

There was a back screened in porch.  In the summer or fall I bet it's wonderful.  In the winter - not so much.

Dinner friends

We had our Christmas dinner at a French bistro.  The restaurant was charming and the food was magnifique...




I had Filet Mignon roti aux Herbes et nappe de Sauce Moutarde which was Herb  Roasted Filet Mignon (pork) spread lightly with Mustard Sauce

For dessert I had Chocolate Mousse.  (It looks kinda of creepy in the picture, ha.  It looked cuter in person).