Memorial Day Weekend Food and Drink

Laura, Suzanne and Emily spent Memorial Day weekend with Mike and myself here at the pond.  Heath was unable to join us as he was working.  Although we actually did more than just eat over this three days, based on the pictures I took you would not know it.

We ate Chicago Style Pizza in Litchfield.

Suzanne made a butternut squash and carrot dish with goat cheese in a poppy seed crust.
It was so delicious I ate it immediately after it came out of the oven
and forgot to take a picture.  Of course, we could not find all
of the ingredients at my local grocery store.  Still it was worth the trip to Litchfield to get what we needed.  

We went wine tasting at the local winery as you can see in the pictures above.  It looks like we were just as happy before the wine tasting as we were afterwards.  

Emily and I drove to Belleville earlier in the week and picked strawberries.  It has become an annual tradition since I moved here.  This year we made a conscious effort not to pick 15 pounds of strawberries.  I regretted it though.  We did not have enough to make 4 batches of strawberry bread (only two) and no smoothies.  We did make Whole Wheat Strawberry Bars and 8 half pint jars of strawberry jam.  With what was leftover, Emily prepared strawberry shortcake for the family on Sunday.  

Suzanne brought along a new recipe to try.  She wanted to make Peach Chiffon Pie pictured on the cover of the latest Martha Stewart Living Magazine.  Once we found out Laura loves peaches even though Emily does not, we decided to give it a try.  Suzanne did not feel it came out up to her standards so she has gone home determined to make it again.  

Of course, it would not be a visit from Laura if she did not
make it into the kitchen to create her specialty, Cowboy Cookies.
These were so popular she had to make two batches.  

Mike and Laura did not want to eat the butter squash dish of Suzanne's so they had to do their own cooking.
Mike decided to make  himself and Laura hot dogs in our new present from Eli.
He had sent us a Pop-Up Hot Dog Toaster as we love chili cheese dogs.  It works really well.

Even better than eating so well this past weekend was the fact that we had leftovers.  I have not had to cook for three days!  Wonder when the girls can come back again?