kerewin's whine cellar

Zunified

The Hub's parents were in town visiting this weekend and we had a fabulous time. Unlike many people, I completely adore the Inlaws, they are just the nicest people. Of course, 3 years ago I almost completely screwed it up. We had moved into this house recently, and the inlaws decided to come up and hang out with us, but they wanted the visit to have some "direction." So they thought it would be a good opportunity to work on the bathroom. Granted, the sink didn't work at all, (I was brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink) and the paint was hanging off of the ceiling in strips.

The Hub was travelling the entire week before their visit, so it fell on my shoulders to buy paint, take everything down in the bathroom, wash the walls, prep, and then paint. I also had to tear out all the old caulk and recaulk the tub. It took most of the week, I ended up taking time off from work, or working very very very late nights after work. Since at that time, I was still waiting tables in the evenings.

Kevo comes back from whatever fun city he was in, and the I.L.'s blow into town on a Saturday, with the new sink we picked out. We spend the whole day on that gamn sink. Mom inlaw and I visit Home Depot at least 4 times and they still don't get it done. We decide to postpone the final steps until the next morning. Then we all go out for dinner at the restaurant that I should have been working at that night.

Dinner was fabulous, cocktails, wine, oysters, fish, dessert.......you name it. The I.L.s take us home, and everyone is happy. They are staying in a hotel because Mom I.L. wants, "a place with a working bathroom." We get home, and the Hub wants to go to bed. Do I follow his fine, shiny example? Of. Course. Not.

I stay up playing cards online and drinking more wine. I probably crawled to bed around 2 or 3. Of course, the I.L.s are there bright and early, like 7am and I have to drag my sorry headachy ass out of bed to listen to the Hub and his Dad fight about the proper way to finish installing the sink. Then we all go out to breakfast!

Typical of our breakfast experiences, we take them to our fave dive, with the fabulous weekend brunch. Then we get not only the worst service ever, but the food was cold. The Hub and I have discovered that we apparently only get good food at that place when we don't brag about it to our friends, or drag them there. So, I am already grumpy, the Dad I.L., and the Hub are grumpy, and we are trying to pay the check and leave, so we can all kill each other in private. We FINALLY get the bill paid (this is where Kere had to slide some extra cash in for a tip since Dad I.L. was pissed about our experience) and leave.

The sink is in, the weekend is over, we just had our brekkie, they were supposed to drop us off home and hit the road. Hooray! I survived. This is where the plot takes a decidedly uglier turn. The Hub had his car at the shop and it was ready, so he asks the parents to drop him off at the shop. I am already at my wit's bloody end at this point, so I say, "Hey, I really really need to start getting ready for work, maybe you can just drop me at the house?"

No prob, they do, we say our goodbyes then because they were just going to head out after dropping off the Kevster. I go into the house and breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. Looking at the clock, I have lots of time before work, so I start playing around on the computer. Relief is radiating from my body. Thirty or forty minutes later Kevin comes home, walks right to the computer room and says, "Well, well, I see you aren't getting ready for work."

.....dramatic pause......

"Honey, I know. I just needed a break from your parents, they were driving me CRAZY!"

......more dramatic pause......

"Kere, they are HERE, they needed to go to the bathroom."

Oh shit. Shiiiiiiiiiit, shit shit shit shit. They pee, say goodbye, leave......did I escape unscathed? That wouldn't make for a very good story now, would it? The next morning the Hub wakes me up and says I should check my email before leaving for work. The Mom I.L. sent a note saying, "Just wanted to let you know, I heard what you said yesterday, I am sure Dad didn't overhear and I won't tell him. But my feelings are hurt, I guess we won't be helping you with any house projects anymore." Phone calls, apologies, explanations, crying. Mom I.L. tells me I am forgiven, and she won't hold it against me, blah blah blah. Still, they haven't come up to Seattle since.

I have this special gift for saying just the wrong thing at the wrong time, yet, in the 4 years previous to this event, I had a SPOTLESS record with the I.L.s. I didn't screw it up until after we got engaged. Figures. Well in the intervening years since I opened my big mouth, I have done all I can to be as sweet and nice as is genetically possible for me (everyone stop your sniggering). I have to say, that all seems well. In fact, I finally felt totally out of the doghouse when they said they were coming up for a mutual birthday weekend celebration thing. They did choose to stay in a hotel, rather than our spare bed, which is in the unfinished basement, but it isn't horrible. So, I guess my record isn't completely cleared.

That dinner I made the week before? It was a test dinner for the Inlaws. So the second run this last Sunday was an unqualified hit. Especially as I paired up a French White Burgundy with the app and the salad. (Side note: this review is for the '01, and I served the '02 which has gone up significantly in price, this year it retails around $30.) Then I served a great Italian Barolo with the homemade ravioli and the homemade marinara. Then the chocolate pots de creme were..........orgasmic. Waaaaaaaaay better than the first batch. Ad-Dic-Tive. So my cooking kiss-up worked pretty well.

Then, we had them come up the same weekend as the restaurant's latest Cooks and Books dinner. A great idea wherein, a visiting chef, with a new cookbook comes to town, we cook out of their cookbook, pair the food up with a winery, everyone who comes not only gets a book, and a four course, wine-paired dinner, but they meet the author and get their book signed! This time we had Judy Rodgers from the Zuni Café, probably our most famous chef, yet. (If you want to argue with me, which is fine, the list so far has been Marcus Samuelson from Aquavit, Paula Wolfert, and Jacqui Maloof.) Since I used to work for them, I contacted Tom and Anne-Marie Hedges to see if they were interested in participating from the winery side of things.

Since this is our fourth installation of the Cooks and Books, we have honed our skills, and this went off (almost) without a hitch. Everyone had a fabulous time, especially the I.L.s and the food was incredible.

Menu is as follows:

A fabulous time was had by the I.L.s and it seems I am 110 percent back in the good graces of the Hub's family!

Did I mention I scored an entire bottle of port from the Hedges for this dinner?