Mother's Day Continued....

Saturday morning Katie C. with the assistance of Sean, prepared a sumptuous quiche and side green salad dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. The original plan was for Sean to help Katie prepare a dinner for us Saturday night, but those plans fell through when Sean's employer negated the requested night off due to the expected large crowd at the restaurant. It was graduation weekend for numerous area colleges and universities as well as Mother's Day. We were confident in Katie's culinary skills. The gimpy knee is what concerned us, but she assured us that it wouldn't be a problem. Notice to the left one of the two purple flowered trees that bracketed the back patio steps. Every time I was out there I was captivated by their brilliance; all the more so because I'm colorblind.

At Katie's suggestion we decided to spend the day in Skaneateles, window shopping and enjoying a sunny day on its namesake finger lake. Michelle and Josh planned to do a visit to an antique shoppe and would return to the inn to pick-up D. at 1300. They would meet Kristi, Jacob, and me, who had gone on ahead to Skaneateles, at the Kabuki sushi restaurant, where Sean works, for lunch.

Our waitress to the left. Sean is behind the bar rolling sushi.

Kristi and Jay, who were the most familiar with sushi dining, coached the rest of us in picking items from the menu. Myself, I'm quite proficient in the use of chop sticks, having spent a number of years in the orient. All worked out remarkably well, and everyone was satisfied with their meal.

It must be noted here that Josh is a plain ol' meat and potato eater, and must be commended for his forays into what to him were major culinary experiments. Kudos Josh!!! I hope you had a cheese-burger when you got to Owego.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent walking the quaint streets and waterfront, while browsing antique emporiums and sundry shoppes and confectionery establishments.

I found the antiques, for the most part, very overpriced. Having an overage of things in our home, it was easy enough to pass by even those items that caught our eye. D. almost capitulated for a $12.00 clear glass syrup pitcher, but in the end, put it gently back in it's place.



Interesting to note; the day was sunny but cool, in the low 60's F.. Strolling the sunny side of the street (reminded of a song here) was comfortable, but the shady side was uncomfortably cool, and breezy. Mind you, I was dressed appropriately in jeans and hooded sweatshirt. Some folks were dressed for summer, in shorts and sleeveless tops which caused them to move along briskly.

After a final coffee and pastry stop, we rode the 7 mile return trip to the inn, where some of us, well, yours truly at least, took a nap for an hour before getting ready for dinner.

This was Katie's first large dinner party by herself. It was a successful practice for the much larger engagement coming up in a few weeks.

She did a splendid job with the entire presentation from the fig and goat cheese enhanced green salad, through grilled salmon fillets over sauted fresh spinach with pine nuts and roasted fingerling potatoes.


After our satisfying and delicious repast, we retired to the library for coffee and to watch the
hockey game. In the mean time Katie prepared decadent individual chocolate soufflé's with a succulent chocolate-orange sauce and sided by an orange slice. The piece-de-resistance for a marvelous dinner.

Michelle, Jacob, Kristi, and Josh

The game was a knuckle whitener which went to double overtime. Much to J. and K's, chagrin, Buffalo lost. D. and I retired to the boudoir after the first overtime. We got the score at breakfast the next morning.

Tomorrow; Mother's Day breakfast and goodbyes..........................................