Wordless Wednesday

 

Last Week At The Finnish Bistro

Tips to be donated to the Salvation Army or ICA food shelf

Love the Finnish Bistro!

Leroy on his harmonica

Sounding good...

Singing with emotion 😂

Bruce and Leroy had a show at the Finnish Bistro in Saint Paul last week. It's a small, cozy place and there were a decent amount of people that showed up to watch. Bruce has been scheduling less shows for now, though, as our new grand-baby will be arriving soon and we're on call for watching little boy when things start to happen ... 💕 Of course, updates to follow!

Little Boy And The Hibachi Table

Years ago in the 1980's, there was a restaurant in Saint Louis Park called the Samurai Japanese Steak House, and it was the place to go to when you went on a date. The local newspapers usually had a buy-one-get-one free coupon, which made it that much more appealing. It was Teppanyaki style cooking done right in front of you, and if by chance you didn't finish your dinner, which was rare, they would wrap it up in a foil swan for you to take home. After dinner was done, they would bring out a pot of tea that they would set on the hot grill table, and then you could choose either ice cream (green tea flavor) or sherbet for dessert. They even had fancy drinks that were served in pottery glasses that were yours to take home.  I loved going to the Samurai.

The restaurant eventually became Benihanas, which was okay, but not really the same. And they stopped serving hot tea and free ice cream or sherbet for dessert. No more foil swans or cool pottery glassware for you to take home, either. Sigh. 

Anyway, Nick has started suggesting more family get togethers, and last weekend he said we should all get together and eat at a Japanese Steak House. We decided that Kobe would be a good place, and so after quite a few texts back and forth, it was arranged. Avi couldn't attend because he was out of town, but there were still 8 of us, including little boy, which was just the right number of people for our own hibachi table.

We wondered how little boy would do with all the noise. Or, the fire associated with the cooking show. As it turned out, he decided to hold his hands over his ears for most of the show. But he did watch the chef closely, and even forgot once in awhile to keep his ears covered. 😂 He did really well. 

And then of course, we all upgraded to the fried rice with yum yum sauce ... 

Winter Weekend Up North

The tree with the sparkling gold leaves.

We had some heavy winter weather last week. A lot of snow, but maybe not as much of a storm as was predicted by the weather anchors. Avi had to travel, and so Katie and Little Boy hunkered down with us for most of the week. It was comforting to have them here, all safe and sound.  

And even after last week's snow, we were still able to have our weekend up at the cabin with friends, Pa and Frenchy. The roads were manageable, and the sun was out, so up north we went.

Of course there was a bunch of snow to be dealt with once we arrived, but that wasn't really a hard thing to do since we do have a snowblower up there. We discovered that our garage door opener was broken and will need to be replaced, though. I guess things eventually break down after some 25 plus years!

I brought up an extra down comforter to try out on our bed upstairs. I love the way a down comforter feels, and how it doesn't weigh you down. It could possibly have been a little larger, but I think it was more comfortable than the bedspread we already had on the bed. 

I made some homemade bread and lentil soup before we went up north, so all I really had to do once we got there, was to put my egg dish together for Sunday Brunch and into the fridge. Bruce made a fire in the fireplace, and then Pa and Frenchy arrived. 

We were prepared and brought up some games to play, but we never got around to playing them. We spent most of our time talking. We then decided to try out our snow shoes. Pa showed us the HotSnapZ reusable hand warmers that she'd received at Christmas, and they were pretty cool. My mitts were warmer than what I wore the last time we went snowshoeing, but those reusable hand warmers looked interesting. 

Pa made Beef Bourguignon with spatzle (is that spelled correctly?) which we had with the bread and green salad.  Pa also made ginger cookies, and I brought up the decadent flourless chocolate cake that Katie had gifted us for our Valentine's Anniversary. We stayed up until midnight talking, then off to bed.

Pa's Beef Bourguignon

Decadent Chocolate Cake from Katie

Pa's Ginger Cookies

After brunch the next morning, we headed out for a walk, and ended up by where Mom and Dad's old cabin had been. I'm glad that I have memories of that cute little red cabin, because what the new people have built in its place is kind of gaudy and ugly! Pa also remembers some of the times we spent up there together. The two of us would walk for miles it seemed. Our walk on Sunday ended up being a total of 4 miles, which is good for a winter walk, I think. 

On the way there, we passed by a newer building that looked like a storage garage with tall doors. The talk turned to speculation as to what might be stored in there. (Someone thought a sailboat, someone suggested a plane. I decided that people were living in the back because of the deck.) Then as we walked back to our place, a truck drove by us and Frenchy stopped them to ask about the garage with tall doors, and did they know what was in there? Turns out they were the owners, and invited us all in to see! I'm still a little surprised that we did go into see. They were nice enough people, though, and we ended up staying awhile and sampling the tequila that they have made in Mexico and bring to the US to sell. I said, if someone had told me that I'd be drinking tequila on a Sunday afternoon with strangers, I couldn't have called that! 😂 It was tasty tequila, too, with hints of vanilla.

Mom and Dad's cute little red cabin.

Yummy tequila with hints of vanilla

We had a bowl of lentil soup with bread before packing up and heading home. What an interesting weekend!

Lentil Soup. Not very pretty but tastes good.