Appetizers:

• Rosemary/Lemon White Bean Dip
• Crostini
• Bias Cut Carrot Slices
• Maple Spiced Nuts  (I added a bit of cayenne as well.)

Dinner:

Beef Tenderloin with Roquefort Sauce.   From 150 Best American Recipes and oh so good.  We forgot to add the creme fraiche to the sauce but it was so good I’m not sure it’s worth it to add the creme fraiche.  I was nervous about cooking my first tenderloin and it turned out fabulous.  Jim did most of the actual cooking on this one – so I can say that without blushing.

Wild Rice Pilaf (Gourmet Cookbook – a fine basic pilaf.  Recipe said it served 8 and it would have served 12 easily)

Sauteed Red Kale with Pancetta (Adapated from Gourmet Cookbook Kale with Bacon)

For dessert we had Cranberry Poached Pears.  I took the advice of one of the reviewers and added a bare touch of ground cloves.  This was a nice, refreshing dessert after the rich tenderloin.  We garnished with a dollop of creme fraiche and chopped toasted filberts.  A sprig of mint would have have been nice.

Beth brought a great Casa la Postole Cabernet and I opened an ’05 Caymus Cab.  The Caymus needed decanting and breathing and turned out fine after a few hours.   I preferred the la Postole but they were both great with the beef.

The local Ferrari dealer invited us to a cocktail party that involved food, a Red Bull F1 car and Red Bull.  Are the grooming me for a future purchase?  I hope so.

For some reason Nadya liked the uniforms.

Of what? Of the fabulous dinner party my friends threw for me last night to celebrate my birthday. 10 of us along with two magnums of wine, and several standard bottles, descended on The Melting Pot, which just opened downtown. We had a fabulous time with the four fondue pots on our table – wandering back and forth to sample different treats, chair hopping and just enjoying each others company. I think we were there for four hours. The staff was great, even breaking out the “good” wine glasses and carafes for us. And the food was yummy. Some of my favorites were the Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue, cooking my own lobster and shrimp, and the Cookies and Cream Marshmallow Dream, which had a lot more dark chocolate than the name suggests.

At the end of the night everyone signed one of the magnums as a keepsake for me. We’re thinking about making this the group’s new birthday tradition. (It’s fun to have friends who work at wineries!)

A big warm and fuzzy I feel special thank you to all of you!

We ended up at the Olympic Hotel and Club, a McMenamins hotel. Just funky enough with a great history. The club was a logger hangout, card room, barber shop and speakeasy during the depression. No women were allowed in, they were in the hotel next door. Yup, we stayed at a former speakeasy and bordello. Baths are down the hall and the train runs right behind the hotel. If you are planning a stay, make reservations early and ask for a room on the front. If you’re a train nut like Nadya who would be happier where you can run to the window to see the choo choos, ask for the back, after all it’s very frustrating to just hear them! Don’t be too worried about the noise because the hotel provides earplugs in the loudest rooms.

When McMenamins bought the property on 1996, amongst other relics in the basement was a motorcycle and side card like the entrallia police used. No one knows why it was there but I think it had to do with a card game. The information at the hotel doesn’t explain what happened to the bike.

During the afternoon we went antiquing along the main street. It seems like there are a dozen or more shops within a couple of blocks. Nothing spectacular but we did start a salt cellar collection. Nadya scored some cool old cooking pamphlets including Recipes and Party Ideas Starring Potato Chips. The prices were more reasonable than she usually sees these days.

The pub was a great place to hangout, have a few pints and a bite to eat. The vacation cribbage tournament stands at Jim 2 and Nadya 2. Jim did skunk Nadya once.

Our room includes admission to the movie theater, but we weren’t inspired by features so we turned in early. Special to Rava: the windows opens.

So why are we going to Canada? This weekend is my mom’s 65th birthday and retirement party in Victoria.

A few people refreshed their memory on the rules, a few people played a serious game, a few people just tried to get the pegs in the holes straight. A good time was had by all, as far as we could tell.

We combined the cribbage with a potluck salad bar, which was yummy and popular. Since we had salad for dinner, we had room left over for cookies.

Question of the day – if Friday night finds you sitting around playing cards and drinking coffee, are you old, or just carelessly hip? Careful how you answer!

One of the cool things about this walk is that we’re walking through active pastures. Some of the roman sites still have sheep grazing there as well. I’ve snagged a bit of roving from a couple sites as a wooly souvenir. Walking by one stretch of Hadrian’s wall today we were just a few feet from cows. I guess the conservators feel that after 1800 years a few more sheep aren’t going to hurt anything.

It’s also very cool that not only can you still see the wall, but in many places you can still see the fighting ditch or the vallum. Basically ditches dug 1800 years ago . . . A walking tour of Britain also seems to fit the SCALE of the country – everything is, for the most part, smaller than we’d see in the U.S. And walking from village to village somehow seems to reinforce how this is the right size for Britian – the villages are in walking distance.

David and I hung out at Housesteads (mind the UP hill walk from the car park if you go by bus or car) and admired the latrines and gates. One of the nearby gates in the wall, the Knag Burn gate, is still the site of a working gate. We used our binoculars to watch for the rest of the party and spotted them coming over the Sewingshields crag – very dramatic. About a half hour later they were at the fort and willing to give it a by so we could hit the road for the B&B. I was very glad we did that part of the walk since the first part of the walk we actually walked ON the wall. We were quite high up a cliff and looking down to the field below we saw three hares – that’s how big they are that you can see them clearly from the top of a cliff! Rabbits of Unusual Size indeed.

Also saw the spectacular Crag Lough (the way Loch is spelled around here). We were on a tear though so don’t know if Jim took a picture.