to the great white north!

Yesterday we returned from a great trip up to the Cartier cabin near Longville, MN on Maple Lake. It was a good crew with us, Bruce (M's dad) and Theresa (step mom) of course plus Nicole (half sis) was home from England and Jackie (half sis) suprised her by flying in from DC. Saturday we arrived around noon and made ourselves right at home by swimming in the lake (cold!), canoeing around, and generally relaxing. Soon, though, preparations began for a party to break in the new and lovely patio that was freshly poured.

My contribution was a pleasure to make as it involved the most glorious of mushrooms, the morel! They are becoming somewhat of a theme for we are following the spring and that is their time. What happened is that a big wind storm knocked down a tree behind Bruce and Theresa's, landing on a fence. Upon inspecting the damage Matt looked down and the floor was covered in morels! They were several days old but amazingly they were beautifully dried right on the ground, with minimal insect damage. They smelled great. We collected up the best ones, a dozen or more, and packed them up to the cabin. I made a morel cream sauce over pasta, very well recieved!

Matt and I stayed up at the lake for a few days after the others returned on Sunday, filling our time with canoe rides, fishing, and croquet. Amazingly the weather hold all the days we were there and it started raining as we left. A great time!