The Trail's Our Thing

It is after midnight, but I'm determined to post before I go to bed. I don't want to get behind on my February blogging commitment.

Today was Sophie's last day with us in Knoxville. Tomorrow we are driving to Nashville and staying overnight there. We have tickets to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night. We'll have most of Sunday to explore Nashville, and we'll drop Sophie at the Nashville airport on our way back to Knoxville Sunday evening.

Tonight we had a dinner party in Sophie's honor. I invited four couples from Knoxville who have been on our trips the last couple of years and stayed at Le Clos du Buis, the B&B where Sophie works. Two of the couples had been together the same week on our trip, though they didn't know each other before the trip. The other two couples were with us at different times. Sophie has met so many guests at the B&B, she wasn't totally sure if she remembered any of the people. But of course to them she was a big part of their vacation memories.

Despite the fact that most of the people didn't know each other, the group was amazingly compatible! I think that people who enjoy travel end up having a lot of other similar interests. Everyone arrived at 6:30 pm, and left about 11:15 pm. I don't think anyone realized that it was that late! Perhaps they wouldn't have left even then, but Kelly was at a friends house and called to check on when we could pick her up. All of a sudden everyone realized how late it was and took about ten minutes to say final goodbyes.

Here was my menu:

Appetizers: Smoked salmon with crackers, capers, onions, eggs, mustard, dill spread. Alouette cheese spread. Little cheese crackers from France. Marsha brought crabmeat appetizers.

Salad: Dorothy brought a really good spinach salad with mandarin oranges.

Main course: Beef burgundy with mushrooms and carrots. Wild rice. French bread.

Dessert: Chocolate mousse cheesecake garnished with strawberries. Coffee.

The beef burgundy cooked in the oven at a very low temperature for over four hours. The recipe that our family loves is a bit of a "semi-home-made" dish, as is the chocolate mousse cheesecake. I do love to cook, but I also believe in shortcuts.

Several people brought wine, and Charley said we drank six bottles of wine. Sophie doesn't drink wine (!!), and I didn't drink much tonight.

I started cooking at 2:00 pm. (We went to downtown Knoxville to look around, do a little shopping, and have lunch.) Sophie helped me set the table. I used my Provencal dishes, and it really looked nice. I forgot to take photos of my beef burgundy or my dessert, the beautiful table, or the whole group. I don't usually take photos at home like I do when we're traveling, and I was just too busy with the meals and visiting with our friends. (I did take a couple pictures of the group after dinner, but I just looked at them and they aren't good enough to post.)

Two couples brought photo albums of their trips to France. It was fun to see how people photographed the week differently. Everyone really seems to have such positive memories of their trips, and that's a very rewarding feeling for me.

Sophie helped with the some of the clean-up and Charley has the dishwasher going. With eleven people and several courses, we used a LOT of dishes, glasses, and silverware. I normally handle the cooking and he takes care of clean-up-- I'm relieved not to have to do much with the clean-up this time. Charley said he'll finish cleaning up tomorrow morning. We plan to leave for Nashville at 10:30 am.