Food, Wine and Pie - 4th of July at Hayden Lake

 So proud to be an American!

Hayden Lake is basically the most awesome place EVER.  If you've never been, you are missing out.  This year there was a great mix of people - John, Kathleen, Will, Gen, Bob, Lynn, Jill, Robby, Cathy, Jim and Jake.  The recurring theme was clearly evident about 2 hours into the weekend.  FOOD - WINE - PIE.   Eat, drink, eat, repeat.

Thank goodness for the Pie Bible, seriously, this is a real book that Kathleen is familiar with.  I need to put it on my "must buy" list.  Bet amazon has it, they have EVERYTHING.  Anyway, her pie was awesome.  She starts out by making an incredible pie crust and uses 2 knives to cut the shortening into the flour.  Modern conveniences such as a pastry blender are non-existent so the old fashioned method prevails.  Then it was on to cutting apples.  Apple Pie = 4th of July, well, that and baseball.  Americana at it's finest.  She added some fresh cherries and craisins to the apple pie.  Oh my, it was divine.  In this photo she and John and are having a good laugh because they added a bit of special Hayden whiskey to the apple mixture. 

While Kathleen was making the pie, I was taking pictures and documenting the step by step process of crust making.  Which I think I was a good student - I made a peach/raspberry pie 2 days later and it was quite good.  That pie will be a future blog.

John and Kathleen had recently taken a trip to Napa and brought back 18 bottles of wine.  Quite the haul from the fun wine regions of California.  And guess what? They brought some to share, how cool is that?  We started off with a Schug Chardonnay.  It was freezing cold out and we were baking an apple pie, but we were at the lake and trying to do what folks who are in warm weather do while at the lake...drink white wine.  Hot cocoa might have been the better choice for the weather but this delicious chardonnay was perfect.  With 11 folks, a bottle of wine doesn't last long.  So, we opened another.  And another.  We played cards, prepped dinner, drooled over the apple pie smell from the oven and visited.  We caught up on life, work, travels, etc.  Being with family is so much fun.  :)  I am definitely blessed to be part of such an amazing family.

This was dinner.  And boy was it good.  John cooked a pork loin roast on the grill.  I made cole slaw, Kathleen made a great red potato salad, and then we had steamed green beans.  And more red wine.  It was so good and so comforting, despite the ridiculously cold temperatures.  The day had topped out at 63.  Which is very cold for this time of year.  Jake had checked the water temp, and it was a whopping 64 degrees.  WTH?  That is frigid.  The cold weather didn't deter us at all.  We have a big TV, but guess what, IT WAS NEVER ON.  We talked, played games and talked some more.  Who needs a TV when you have food, wine, pie and family?  And dogs.  John brought his dog, Jerry, and Bob and Lynn brought their dogs Tyler and Max.  Though they are nice dogs...I am so happy to be PET FREE.  When everyone was cooking and eating, the dogs were front and center - apparently their noses work well!  :)  Otherwise they were doing their normal dog things - butt sniffing and declaring dominance.

After a good nights sleep everyone was relaxed and ready to go for day 2.  The weather had not improved but that didn't deter Jill.  She is training for a marathon.  Yes, a marathon...26 miles, crazy huh?  She has a training regimen and she was to run for 90 minutes.  So, she gets on her running gear, eats a banana and heads out the door.  That's some serious discipline!  She comes back, hot and sweaty, not surprising if you've run 9 miles.  So, she decides to jump in the lake.  She may be very hot, but the lake is only 64 degrees.  And the air about 60.  She jumps in and swims frantically to the shore.  Apparently the water was quite cold.   Poor Jill.  But thankfully I was there to get a really cute photo of her wrapped in a towel when she was out of the water. ;)

With the swimming nonsense out of the way, we decided to play cards.  We started with go fish and then progressed to crazy 8's.  Oh my, the game took over an hour.  I think it was the longest game EVER.  We finally declared 2 pm as the stopping time.  Then we moved on to bridge.  Jim, Gen, Jill and myself.  Jake sat with Jill and  he attempted to learn.  He was confused though.  Gen and I were on a roll, had great cards every hand.   I really like playing cards with them, because there is table talk allowed (otherwise how do you learn?) and it's very relaxed and low key.  Nothing ruins the spirit of the game more than someone lecturing you on what you should have done/could have done etc.  You learn by playing, mistakes and all, not by being lectured at.  So, it was a great 2 hours of bridge.   So, by this time it's getting to be late afternoon and Lynn had been busy making 2 more pies.  Because you just can't have enough pies.  She made 2 rhubarb pies.  The entire cabin smelled divine.  She had also made a wonderful marinade for the numerous fillets of salmon she brought. It was clear we were going to have a feast.  By this time we had noshed on lots of cheese, crackers, sampled wonderful wines and simply relaxed and enjoyed each others company.  A great day.  Until...the croquet game makes it's appearance.  The front yard of the cabin slopes and the course was quite haphazard, but we took on the challenge anyway.  I think if there is ever a professional croquet circuit, we should sign up.  We rocked.  With wine glasses in hand, we could still rule the course! 

Here we all are at dinner.  Looking good, huh?

Not long after it was time for a bonfire on the beach AND fireworks.  

Not long after it was time for a bonfire on the beach AND fireworks.  

Our 4th of July was awesome.  Hope yours was too.  Wonderful to celebrate living in a country where we have so many freedoms.  We are truly blessed.  And I give my thanks everyday, do you?  Of course, there were lots of family members missing and we talked about them and wished them well and missed them.  Kathryn will be back in the US soon, she's been gone a long time in Japan teaching English.  She's making a beeline right to the lake and her family when she returns, and boy does she have her priorities right! :)  Nancy's family had work and other obligations, but we'll see them, hopefully in August.  Kristin is in Rome on a study abroad having so much fun (and working hard) that she doesn't even have time to communicate with us.  Sarah was working and hanging out with her Pullman friends.  Joe is traveling through Paris and Spain with his girlfriend and Liz is working back east.  It would have been great to have EVERYONE together.  But that's not feasible, and most likely never will be in the future...8 cousins are 18 or older and they have their own lives with work/school etc.  For those of us that were at Hayden over the 4th...I enjoyed it immensely.  I look forward to more gatherings with whomever is available to come.
Since we never know what tomorrow will bring...we need to live each day to the fullest.  Embrace it, love it, own it.  You'll never get it back again.  (That was my touchy feeling plug for the day.)   Oh and get yourself a Pie Bible because everything tastes better with pie. :) :) :)