Saturday, October 13, 2018

October Getaway...Rick's Cafe Boatyard and Brunch


Slowly recovering from our midweek October Getaway...but oh-so-wonderful!

We stayed nearby...didn't run our Cracker Barrel waitress off this time and even had the forethought to bring cold pizza for that late-night-snack! It was so nice to have some relaxing-just-us time.

Rick's is ageless. Walking through the doors is exactly like the first time I ever did. I used to hike in Eagle Creek...then stop here for Coffee and Creme Brulee out on the back deck overlooking the sailboats & listen to the gulls overhead.

It is the first place I ever tried escargot (...delicious...). Although it is off the menu now you can still get Calamari and crab-stuffed mushrooms to die for...

Eagle Creek has its own gull population that stays all year.



We arrived with time to spare and met the rest of John's Rehab "Out to Lunch Bunch"

15 of us in all! 

 Just an amazing group of warm, wonderful, funny friends! Charlcie (a friend I had met before) requested I wear my

"Go to Hell Hat"

that matched John's.  So I did, of course.

After the herd thinned we stayed around

For coffee and THIS
 (...creme brulee...)



Which is every bit as decadent as it appears. It has prompted me once and for all to pick up that Ramekin-Kitchen Blow-Torch kit so I can fix this, and brown meringues, marshmallow fluff and the like, at home.

Remembering a funny conversation in Brown County with Idgy years ago when I pointed out one of these kits and she said (deadpanned)

"A blow-torch in the kitchen...how could THAT possibly go wrong???"

A beautiful drive through the emerging Fall colors  and a stop by the local orchard.






Where we brought home fresh apples and curd cheese from the Amish.

Now my patio has a fat orange pumpkin, as well!

Sofi has decided that John can join our Pride...at least once in a while...and picked with him all afternoon when we returned.


She and Shelby approve.








Great week! And we are already planning Our November's Adventure!

This week's movie:


 A great role for Hardy...who plays kind of a screw-up (...even though his heart is always in the right place) and the alien parasite Venom...who is apparently a bit of a screw up on his home-planet as well.

Action packed...a little romance...a long chase scene (cars and motorcycles)...great humorous bits.

Love the internal dialog between Hardy and Venom as they struggle to form the perfect symbiosis.

All and all a very enjoyable what-we-have-come-to-expect from a Marvel
film.

Highly recommended!


The Book:

A rekindling of the Foxfire Books from the 1970's.


There were twelve in the original series.

I had all of them.

It was the beginning of the Back to Homesteading Movement and these books which detailed not only Appalachian Mountain life, but also everything from building your own log cabin by hand, planting by the signs and folk remedies- to butchering your own food and putting it up.

When I was in my 20's it seemed ideal.

I learned a lot.

A little cabin without electricity and running water was my dream. Bare board floor that I would cover with hand-tied rugs. Shelves of fruits and vegetables, jams and butters. A cow for milk and cream and butter. Chickens for eggs. A pig that I would feed the scraps to all year then butcher in Fall.

How our goals/dreams change through the decades!

I still put up and grow herbs, jams and such...but most of my produce comes from the grocer, farmer's market, or orchard now.

Pretty sure the apartments aren't going to approve cows, chickens or pigs...

My cabin would definitely have to have hot water...possibly a hot tub...a ramp...accessibility...and absolutely WiFi.

My last large kitchen garden was in 2011.

Back to this new book. These are stories from the children who grew up during the previous Foxfire Books.

Honestly I didn't care much for it...and it made me a bit sad to see how technology has taken over and most of the old skills are gone. Extinct.

Not in the Spirit of the original Foxfire at all.

If you loved the old series...you will be disappointed.

I didn't even finish the book.

I did get apples from our trek to the orchard, though, and am turning some of them into apple butter.

 I learned how to a long time ago in the Original Firefox. 

Looking forward to a Zen Sunday...then plotting and planning next week for Chris' 29th birthday!


 More anon...