Betty’s Tree Party
Last weekend we headed back to Betty’s…AKA The Shire. Her house sits in the middle of her own private forest and next to her sixty acre vineyard and her nearly two acre private garden. I don’t like to call it a garden. It’s more like a living museum. Or appropriately….The Shire. To do a pictorial of all the art in The Shire would take a lot of pages. You could fill an entire magazine just with the garden art. I’ll do my best to get what I can crammed in here, probably in a separate post.
Betty used to have a St.Patrick’s Day party every year, but after her husband Dick passed we switched to the Christmas Tree decorating party instead. Mary and her husband Chris bring in the tree, Betty grabs some special wines out of the cellar, and I make a plate of nibbles. Except this year, I made dinner. Because dinner is good. Then we all sip, nibble, and decorate the tree. This year, I even brought our friends, Elizabeth and her husband, Brian, with us. It was their first adult weekend together without the kids in twenty six years! Whaaat?! Their kids were so happy they threw a party of their own!
What was for dinner? I think the Christmas Tree dinner should be a little shi shi and a little down home. So we had lobster tails and shrimp, but no silverware or plates. I’m made a feast low country boil style with no boiling. At all. Because that’s how I roll. And no corn. Because I’m over corn. I couldn’t ditch the potatoes because Betty’s favorite thing is potatoes, but I roasted them instead. Because duck fat and truffle oil and potatoes are the magical trinity. Instead of corn, I roasted some artichoke bottoms, because they’re perfect for dipping in all the clarified garlic butter and garlic leek cream sauce that Hubs keeps requesting. We finished dinner with a fantastic Japanese cheesecake that Elizabeth made after all my raving about the one Jennifer made.
After sleeping in on Sunday, Elizabeth and I hit Blue Raeven Farms market stand for some pastries and eggnog. Of course I got pies to bring home! Duh. Then it was off to The Shire for the grand tour and a look at some interesting pruning methods in the vineyard. Of course I took pictures! Silly. No first time adult weekend would be complete without doing just a little wine tasting, so we hit two wineries in my favorite AVA, the Eola~Amity Hills, that are in Betty’s neighborhood of stellar Pinot Noir~ville.
By the time we left the second winery, it was close to dinner time and we had a two hour drive in front of us. We all went to dinner and I think we were all reluctant to leave for the night. But the burgers, pastas, and seafood snacks did us in. I kept thinking about how pretty the tree turned out and how in love I am with my life right now. I really lucked out with Hubs.
Oh! I saw a giant porcupine at Betty’s! It was enormous! I tried to take a pic but it lifted it’s booty at me (or maybe I imagined that part) and Hubs made me close the car door. Nothing would ruin a picture perfect weekend like a face full of porcupine quills, so I listened to him. But WOW it was cool. I consulted The Googles later only to find out that they don’t actually shoot quills from their bodies. Good to know!
