The party has begun :)

I have been anticipating this weekend for awhile now, and so far, it's a blast! Brad, you are a wonderful host, a great cook, and a friend.

 

Thank you both for sharing. It's almost as good as being there. My best to the whole gang tomorrow, and have lots and lots of fun!!

A.

 

Iam just so jealous.. you people are my favorites on this board..
Yes Iam whining soon school is over and I wil have a life again..
Hav fun and hopefully I'll be able to join you all soon.
Danielle

 

Just how much champagne did you sip CC?

I look forward to meeting everyone tonight. Today Mezzaluna, Momoreg, Nicko, myself and a cast of Significant Others are going to do Manhattan; from Chinatown to Zabar's!

 

LAst loaf is in the oven as I type!

 

The bread was fantastic, just as I imagined it would be! It's hard to say which was better this weekend--the food or the company! What a wonderful couple of days.

Yesterday, Nicko, Colleen, Mezzaluna and I took the train into the city, to meet Kyle, and take a quick food tour of the city. Well, we never did meet up with him in the city...something went wrong in the planning process, and we were waiting in different parts of Grand Central Station. Disappointed that we couldn't locate him, we began our day on a subway down to Chinatown. We walked around, and also passed nearby the horrible site of the disaster.:cry:

From there, we decided to continue our tour, and took a cab to Yonah Shimmel's Knishes, which has been around since 1910, and they make the best knishes on earth! On a full stomach, we then wandered into Katz's Deli, another Jewish eating institution in NYC, where we enjoyed pastrami sandwiches, salami sandwiches, matzoh ball soup, and a vanilla egg cream.:lips:

We hopped another taxi uptown, to Zabar's, an old market full of New York 'chutzpah' (lots of character), and shopped in there for a good hour. I think that was the high point of the day! Since we were in the area, we also wandered around Citarella, which is a more upscale gourmet shop.

Following all that fun, we walked off the day by meandering down the heart of Manhattan on Broadway, back towards Grand Central. :bounce:

The day wasn't finished: We still had to get home and prepare for our big dinner at Beacon. Our table was situated right in front of the open kitchen, and we all stood around and chatted for quite awhile before sitting down to eat. The meal began with 2 unexpected platters of raw and cooked seafood, plus french fries for Jim's kids (who are absolutely adorable!).

Everybody seemed to enjoy the meal very much, and we finished with a surprise birthday cake for Nicko and Colleen (which Colleen had requested for Nicko). I had discovered that her birthday just passed as well, so they were BOTH surprised. I made a hazelnut apricot cake. Mbrown also provided some delicious, and beautifully packaged biscotti, to round out the meal. We also got a special gift from Nicko!!!

Dinner was wonderful, but no, it wasn't over...

Today was the picnic, located on a huge apple and pumpkin farm. There were about 15 or 20 of us there, and we had ideal weather. A perfect New England autumn day! Capechef had put together some gorgeous platters of food, which included dry aged sirloin, and blue cheese, olives, tomatoes, and onions (I'll let him describe it, but everyone really loved it), Kyle made 4 different kinds of bread- all of them sensational. Mezzaluna, my husband, and I prepared a butternut squash soup with parsnip and fennel seed, plus some grilled veg and chicken. Mbrown couldn't make it to the picnic, but she did give us a wonderful banana dessert to bring along, which the crowd really loved.

Then Mezz., Jordan and I had to go... off to the airport to drop Mezz. off.

What a wonderful time we had. And Mezz. was a great houseguest.

There aren't many people like these in the world. I enjoyed every second.

 

Next one: Toronto or Montreal!

 

It all sounds so lovely. So glad everyone enjoyed themselves. I'm salivating just reading about the food.



Montreal, Annexe, so everyone can have the "French experience".

 

Well, it's just jasmine tea, but here's a toast anyway..
To Nicko, and you and to the entire ChefTalk community: health, happiness, peace and friendship always! (hmm... sounds like a Christmas greeting, doesn't it?)
:beer: :beer:

 

Here here!

Such a nice toast for a glass of water.

 

It was so great meeting all of you and seeing momoreg again! :smiles:

Thank you Capechef and Momoreg and Nicko for putting this all together!:beer:


The world is shrinking by the second, as it turns out we all have more than cheftalk in common, just get one of us talking and we share an experiance, location or intrest. Surprising and reassuring.


I look forward to seeing you all again and again and again. AND meeting everyone else all over the world! We have a movement here.........
:chef:


PS. Mezzaluna, I have been here since '99. Imagine if cheftalk had been here since '92, what was I thinking??

 

I am very glad that you had great time!
I didn't have any doubts that the food would be great!

I think that it would be fair for our friends that they post all these interesting messages- that the next meeting should be in Montreal!!

I wouldn't even dare to suggest another meeting in divine Santorini... I could accomodate everyone to a small house we owe there and overlooks the volcano. As a Greek old proverb says "There is always room for good people"
Just a thought!

Waiting for the photos!

 

Whata Hoot! This weekend was awesome. It was so nice to put faces and people together with the the words I read here. Dinner Saturday was delicious and the atmosphere was warm and relaxed. Very little apprehension about meeting relative strangers. I don't know why it would have been a suprise that the sense of community was the same in 3D as it is here on the board. CapeChef and Momoreg, you get the prize for planning a truly memorable weekend. I'm not sure we could have asked for more yesterday. The weather was ideal, the spread was unparalleled and the company was top shelf! How great is it that veritable strangers can not only agree to meet but put on a feast in the process! m brown's dessert, cape chef's beef, momoreg's veggies & chicken, mezzaluna's pastries (airlifted from Wisconsin!)
capped off (in the car on the way home ) by momoreg's individual goodie boxes filled with just a few more calories! We ate no dinner last night. I have not forgotten that our fearless leader and, and his fearless leader, was with us as well. Nicko and Collen, you should take no small amount of pride in having created a community that is as warm and hospitable as ChefTalk. If you had not, I probably would have had pizza for lunch yesterday I'm am very glad to have met all of you and I know I speak for Linda too

 

...But my thoughts were with you. I kind of knew your weekend would be a success and I'm glad the weather helped a little bit!

Awaiting photos, please tell us more!

 

How about sharing a few of those wonderful recipes everyone mentionned... :lips: