The Brucato's Hit the East Coast!: SOOOOOOOOOOOO busy!!

Hello!

Wow, it does feel odd not keeping up with the blog, but we have been so busy that it just hasn’t been possible! So … first, to catch up.

We had a wonderful dinner on Friday night with Linda’s brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Nancy. Truly a lovely evening!

Nancy, Linda and me! Always good to start with Prosecco...

Excellent dinner!

Michael grilled a fabulous marinated pork roast and chops – YUM! And it was served with Linda’s slaw salad and Nancy’s corn casserole – both definitely worth getting the recipes. Carrot cake (R’s favorite!) for dessert. We sat on their back porch, which overlooks their back yard, and talked for hours! (So hoping that no one had to go to work the next day!) Their house is really lovely, and their yard had many trees and plants. I know the city of Boone was just down the hill, but it really didn’t feel that way at all! Brought back memories of my grandparent’s cottage in Fair Haven, MI with huge screened in front porch (not nearly the bugs in Boone, which is definitely a plus!) where we all used to sit every evening. Finally, and reluctantly, we headed back to the hotel, as we wanted to be on our way by 7 am Saturday morning.

Fortunately, no traffic jams the next morning, although it did seem like lots of football fans were everywhere! In fact, as we made our way through NC and then SC, we began to see orange and black “Tiger” tails trailing out behind cars! Also HUGE cat-like prints, all in bright orange.

Beautiful sunrise over the mountains!

More sun!

We eventually figured out that these were Clemson Tiger fans, heading for Clemson, SC for yesterday’s football game. What fun! I had never known that Clemson was in South Carolina, but it definitely was yesterday!

Finally in to GA, and we made it to Chris and Brenda’s about 12:15 pm. SOOOOO good to see them! Brenda had come to the Gem Show in Tucson two years ago, but we hadn’t see Arden (age 7) or Dara (age 4) since Dara was a tiny baby! Can’t believe how big the girls are now! And they are so much fun! They made presents for us – a photo album of the two girls, nicely bound and organized, as well as two bookmarks, that will definitely come in handy. As it was lunchtime, Chris made three wonderful pepperoni pizzas, which we all ate at the dining room table along with Brenda’s yummy salad.

It was so nice to be able to catch up and just chat, which we did, non-stop, until R went upstairs to take a nap, and the rest of us retired to their incredible movie room – real reclining leather chairs with cup holders and everything – to watch “Frozen.”

Catching up in Arden's bedroom!

Beautiful girls with doll house!

Love the hats! Dara and Arden

Dara with an original song!

Which I’d never seen before. (I know … incredible…) Enjoyed it very much, but then it was time to go upstairs to wake Robert up, and change clothes for our amazing dinner adventure.

Brenda with pate dish!

Trout blinis with caviar

We went to Gunshow, which is a restaurant owned and run by Atlanta Iron Chef contestant Kevin Gillespie. When we were last here, we went to his then restaurant, and the food was fabulous. This time, he has an entirely new (to our knowledge!) concept – it’s like Southern tapas! There are two seatings a night – 6 pm and 8 pm.

Chris' marinated octopus...

We were there for the 6 pm, and arrived just a minute or so before they opened their doors. Very large and bare space; high ceilings, rather funky but comfortable décor. Nothing fancy. Tables are all metal and seat 8 people each, but there was plenty of room for different combinations of folks, so we didn’t feel at all intruded upon or by the four people next to us. One menu is provided for each grouping, and that contains the menu for the night. Apparently it changes weekly! What happens is, a waiter comes to your table with one portion of one of the menu items and tells you about it. You then get to say if you want it, want one portion, or two and then you can either all share – or, as in the case of last night’s salmon, R had his portion to himself. Then, the next item appears, and you get to decide again. It was very tapas-like, but the portions were ample, and while there were things that I definitely wasn’t going to eat (quail!!!) other things we shared among the four of us (the crab) or between two or three of us (Brenda and I shared the chicken liver pate; it was amazing!) Figured out quickly that we screwed up on the watermelon and radish salad, as we all sent it away. Things NEVER come back! At any rate, we definitely ate our fill, and R has taken a photo of the menu itself so you can take a look at it. Some very unusual things, but everything beautifully presented and unusual. For instance, I’ve never eaten a honey comb before (although they are everywhere in Turkey!) and it was great! All in all a fabulous experience, and one that we were so happy to have! Back to the house around 8:45 pm.

Butter beans and chanterelle mushroom crostini

Quail on mashed potatoes

Cheese plate with honeycomb

(And let me only say that Brenda did a fantastic job driving us there under very difficult and traffic filled circumstances!)

Brenda and Chris put the girls to bed, and then we went downstairs to the movie room (GREAT place to see movies!) and watched a movie that Brenda and Chris had never seen! (Which is very hard to find, as they have seen SO many movies!) It’s called Bottle Shock and was filmed in France and the Napa Valley. It stars Chris Pine (Captain Kirk) and Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman.