Retreat - Part IV

Although this is primarily an art retreat - we do also revel in the food!

Meals are fairly simple, but absolutely scrumptuous!

(for instance, this yummy dinner of enormous tossed green salad,, roasted  beets, fresh herb pasta and wild mushroom sauced spinach-chive pasta..)

Speaking of wild mushrooms - there were mushrooms again this year...

Our local mushroom expert knows many of the yummy edibles, and every year we find new ones to attempt to identify...

Wild mushroom soup - primarily filled with luscious chanterelles...

And then there's always cake! (Happy Birthday Michelle).

Always good eating!

Succulent Saturday - Retreat Part V

One of the things our retreats are always good for is delicious food!

We had a sampling of raw and sprouted uber-healthy things to eat...

(I even brought my juicer and we juiced all kinds of delicious concoctions daily!)

The dinners were amazing! Both tasty -

- and beautifully (can I say, artfully?) arranged and presented.

Topped off with birthday-cake goodness!

Succulently Deee-lic-ious!

Comfort Food -

There is not much that I like better than chocolate chip cookies...

Well, unless it is homemade soup when it is chilly out - like it is in February. I love soup. I try to have some homemade soup on hand throughout the winter.

The content of this week's concoction was decided by me being terribly lazy and scrounging from what was at hand. The first ingredient being dried 'gourmet mushrooms' (they come in large containers from Costco. About a half dozen of 'gourmet' varieties.) Here they are reconstituted, looking yummy and ready to chop.

Sauteed some crushed garlic and a shallot in butter, then added the mushrooms. Thickened with a bit of flour and then added the juice of a lemon.

I had a pot of very savory home-made chicken stock heating up at the same time.

When it was near boiling I added a couple of well-beaten eggs (generally one uses just the yolk, but I have *lots* of eggs. And don't mind the entire egg included if thoroughly beaten.)

Added the mushrooms and spiked with a bit of red pepper and parsley. SO good.

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The only thing that can make this better is to eat with crusty bread (in this case, a Artisan's Rosemary Round. MmmmMmmmm....)

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So many kinds of soups, so few cold, wintry months... Well, maybe I take that back. There are more than enough wintry months, but thank goodness for comfort foods.

POBL Retreat 2007 - Miscellany

The cabin is rustic, charming and homey. Enough amenities to not feel like you are really 'roughing it', but remote enough that there is no contact with the outside world - no phone lines or cellphone coverage. The cabin is powered by the neighboring stream...


There are a few full-time 'residents' who keep an eye on the place during the week.


Here is our retreat mascot - Matisse, the great dane!


Besides the painting, the *eating* is an artform all on its own. Artists can make amazing cooks. The food is half the appeal.


Good food. Good friends. Good times. It really is a magical time and place.