Tag Archives: Memorial Day Table

Three Cheers for the Red White and Blue!

It’s the last Wednesday in May and time for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for the questions and being the hostess with the mostess.

1. It’s National Wine Day (May 25)…do you like wine? Red or white? Dry or sweet? Do you have a favorite?

Yes, mostly red and mostly dry. We aren’t regular drinkers of wine but when we had it more often we enjoyed merlot from Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Washington State. We moved to red blends more recently.

Have you ever been to California wine country? Or any other wine region?

We’ve been to California wine country North of Napa/Sonoma, Central Coast California and in the Santa Ynez area northwest of Santa Barbara. We also used to live close to Woodinville where Ste Michelle and other wineries are located. Chateau Ste Michelle was one of the favorite places to take our out of town visitors. The grounds are gorgeous and the free tours are fun.

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Our niece and her hubby in 2016 at Chateau Ste Michelle.

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What’s a dish you make that calls for wine? 

Sangria. LOL Seriously though a yummy mushroom sauce that calls for white wine and cream. Oh and this memory popped up when I searched sauces on my blog.

Sat. July 5-Chipping Campden 016This was my proper pie with all the trimmings.  The description from the menu: Chicken, Ham and asparagus short-crust pastry pie (with top and bottom), white wine sauce, new potatoes and peas. It was delicious. We had a fun conversation with our waitress on “proper pie”. She was appalled when she ordered pie at another establishment and it came to her with no upper or lower crust but just a round piece of pastry propped up along one side of the filling. It was cute when she exclaimed “how can they call that pie?!”

This was in Chipping Campden (Cotswolds, England) at the Eight Bells.

2. What’s something you’ve whined about lately? 

Oh boy. I’m trying to eliminate whining in my life. I’ll go with our internet connection and connectivity. It’s a Country hazard!

3. Last time you were ‘wined and dined’? Tell us about it. 

I’ll go with Mother’s day when we were visiting our kids on the West side of the mountains.

4. Three cheers for_____________________.

…the Red, White and Blue!

5. This will be the last Hodgepodge in the month of May. Somehow next Wednesday the calendar rolls into June. Before we go though, sum up your May in twelve words or less. 

A little bit of travel, sunshine, good eats, rain, and loved ones.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Hope you all have a good Memorial Day Weekend and that you can pause and remember those who died for our freedom and protection.

Remembering…

We are taking time to remember the fallen and to also remember our Veterans and those serving our country right now. This is a photo of Dear’s father who served during WWII. This is Rex and Verna’s wedding photo. Dear’s father passed away in 1985. Dear’s mother passed away in 1997. Verna’s father and brothers served in WWII also.

I’m going to start with today and then backtrack to yesterday to share our weekend events so far. Today after church we had a couple over who have a son serving in Afghanistan right now in the Army. We talked about his service now in Afghanistan and his past service in Iraq.

We had this dish I used to make years ago and was happy to revive. I’ll be posting it on MGCC in the near future.

Our lives with this couple have intersected in different ways over the years. The wife we knew first years ago. Her new husband we just met a few months ago. He and his first wife were our daughter’s camp leaders for a special training of young leaders in the late 90’s. His wife died and over the course of time our friend from years ago ended up marrying this man. Are you tracking here? Anyway it has been nice to catch up with them as a new couple and enjoy talking about the intersection of our lives.

Both of our “boys” have been in Afghanistan and we pray for the safety of the one there now and for our son in laws future deployment.

Too bad I didn’t have an army flag to add to our centerpiece.

On Saturday we got lots done around this old house. We cleared out and organized in our basement which included shredding a lot of old papers we do not need to save anymore. Dear cleaned out and rearranged a few vehicles in his shop and he’s happy with the results so far. We planted 3 large bushes. There were a few neighborhood garage sales going on so we took advantage of the constant traffic by putting out some items we wanted to get rid of with a FREE sign on them. Boy did that stuff disappear fast! We barbecued hamburgers and corn on the cob for a late afternoon meal with Josh and Laura. We also had barbecued beans and watermelon. A nice time of catching up.

The weather on Saturday was nice enough for us to be able to eat outside so this table setting was put on hold for our Sunday company.

I had to share this photo that I blatantly nabbed off my niece from facebook. This is my dad and oldest sister Kathy. They are celebrating their May birthdays today together at a family favorite restaurant in Montebello called Golden Skewers. Yum! My dad’s birthday was the 25th and my sister’s birthday was the 23rd. Wish I could have been there with them but I’m happy to have this photo I could steal to see their celebration! They both look fabulous for their perspective ages! My dad is now officially 90!

What a nice feeling to know we still have one full day left with nothing on the schedule. Wonder what projects we’ll come up with for the observed Memorial Day on Monday the 27th? What have you been up to?