Some parties are planned months in advance, with extravagant preparations. Others, like today's Taryn & Bent Fest was a smash hit. It wasn't structured. Taryn said, "let's have a party," and bent said, "how about I bring some of my infamous home brew beer." It all went uphill from there. Several folks present turned out to be excellent BBQ artists.
I brought the potato salad and the banjo. The potato salad worked better than the banjo, since I haven't been playing it much for the last year and to say I was a bit rough was being kind, still, it didn't appear that anyone minded at all. From far and wide, berry pickers converged on the Hecker Ranch in beautiful downtown Spirit Lake.
There was shish-kabob, BBQ pork Ribs, Chateau Brianne steak, (courtesy of Bent)and a plethora of side dishes and stuff. Kerri brought some delectable beer sausages. I'm sure I didn't get that right, but they were small almost baseball shaped sausages that were great.
DFO, who originally said he would drop by for a couple of hours, was still there, holding court with all those folks that support the Huckleberries blog. some with blogs of their own, and some just regular commentators, or as we call them, "Blurkers." Knowing that Bent's home brew might just have an extra kick to it, I weaseled out after about three hours.
I remembered the last time I suggested to Dave that we have a return match at the original home of the Blogfest, the Captain's Wheel. He said, no, I don't think anyone wants to drive that far. Now we know that if offered food and drink, Bloggers will journey far from home.
One thing that I learned was that Bent is not just a beer maker. Supported by his beautiful wife and daughter, he also is an excellent BBQ guy. It appeared that all were having great fun at the bash that wasn't planned.
Above, are some of the pictures I took while lurking in the shadows.
1st photo: Meghann Cuniff studying banjo technique
2nd photo: Bent, Mrs. Bent and of course everyone's darlin', S/R's own Cindy Hval.
3rd photo: Dave Oliveria visiting with Jeanne Spokane.
3 comments:
Thanks for the kind words Herb. I had a blast...
I did too. Thanks for the salad, though I wouldn't give it the World's best title as of yet. Maybe next year. I am just being honest here of course. It was pretty darn good, but you can make it better.
Thank you for your comment, Anonymous. I have to confess that my press agent,(read Taryn)may have oversold my potato salad. There are two principles involved here. The first, an old sales adige,"Sell the sizzle, not the steak" may apply here. The second, is potato salad is perhaps the most contraversial dish ever made, since it can be made so may ways. There has to be hundreds of variables and if they don't match Grandma or Mom's recipe they simply don't measure up.
I developed the final version of my potato salad at the captain's wheel a few years ago. I started with a red potato salad recipe by Jim Campbell, previous owner of the restaurant. I made some changes in the recipe but basically remains his. I did add mustard to balance the mayo,added more eggs, but well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
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