Driving through the hillside roads of Paso Robles
the serenity and peaceful setting has the feel of the Italian countryside.
Everywhere you pass, lovely, vast stretches of farmland and vineyards.
Friday night potluck features the "lasagna smack-down" competition...here are some of the entries.
Yummy...so different from one another and each one a winner!
Here Pete is explaining his mushroom bechamel lasagna.
Pete making his own pasta for the lasagna...
MMmmmm let's eat!
Barb with Palma, cook extraordinaire!
Palma's spicy teralli's. Bet you can't eat just one.
Alessia is our resident native Italian slowtraveller. She hails from northern Italy. Besides speaking perfect english imagine my surprise when I found out she lived in Denmark and speaks Danish! When I heard that I greeted her with, "Hvordan har du det?" (How are you?) She had the most surprised look on her face. We had so much fun conversing in her very good Danish and my "not so much" version.
We celebrated David's birthday with a big, wonderful chocolate cake.
Loved seeing Roz from Boston and Sharon from the Bay area.
Laughter and smiles from every room abound.
Now it's time to eat. Who's your vote for Marcia?
Here' Pete and his wife Marcy. After Pete received his doctorate from Berkeley they lived in Sienna ,Italy for several years where he continued his research in Microbiology. Both speak italian and their son Nico was born in Italy.
This is Shannon, our slowbowl "Skipper". We owe all the planning and choreography of this cool event to her. She coordinated all the weekend winery tours, meals and fun activities.. Here she is announcing the winner of the lasagna smack-down. And the winner is:
" PETE" !
Shannon is busy prepping the aeration wine test....same bottle of wine decanted in different ways.
Paul taking the "aeration" test
After you taste each one you must order your favorites from 1 to 4.
Fun and games throughout the night
Everywhere you pass, lovely, vast stretches of farmland and vineyards.
Friday night potluck features the "lasagna smack-down" competition...here are some of the entries.
Yummy...so different from one another and each one a winner!
Here Pete is explaining his mushroom bechamel lasagna.
Pete making his own pasta for the lasagna...
MMmmmm let's eat!
Barb with Palma, cook extraordinaire! Palma's spicy teralli's. Bet you can't eat just one.
Alessia is our resident native Italian slowtraveller. She hails from northern Italy. Besides speaking perfect english imagine my surprise when I found out she lived in Denmark and speaks Danish! When I heard that I greeted her with, "Hvordan har du det?" (How are you?) She had the most surprised look on her face. We had so much fun conversing in her very good Danish and my "not so much" version.
We celebrated David's birthday with a big, wonderful chocolate cake.
Loved seeing Roz from Boston and Sharon from the Bay area.
Laughter and smiles from every room abound.
Now it's time to eat. Who's your vote for Marcia?
Here' Pete and his wife Marcy. After Pete received his doctorate from Berkeley they lived in Sienna ,Italy for several years where he continued his research in Microbiology. Both speak italian and their son Nico was born in Italy.
This is Shannon, our slowbowl "Skipper". We owe all the planning and choreography of this cool event to her. She coordinated all the weekend winery tours, meals and fun activities.. Here she is announcing the winner of the lasagna smack-down. And the winner is:
" PETE" !
Shannon is busy prepping the aeration wine test....same bottle of wine decanted in different ways.
Paul taking the "aeration" test
After you taste each one you must order your favorites from 1 to 4.
Fun and games throughout the night
The third annual "SlowBowl" Paso Robles was held last weekend. This gathering is always held on SuperBowl weekend but has little to do with football and everything to do with slowtraveller friends (new and old from all parts of the country) coming together for food, fun and comradery. Now that a week has passed I have had time to reflect on what a perfect weekend it was: Simply divine in all respects. This was the first year that Mike and I had attended. It was nothing short of "wonderful" -completely easy, comfortable, hilarious, invigorating, and joyfully fulfilling. The setting, the company, the food and wine beyond compare.
*Please note that most all photos on this post were taken by slowtravellers, Wendy, Palma, CathyT, Marcy and others. Thank you for sharing your great photos with all of us.
12 comments:
Hi Barb, I enjoyed reading about and looking through the photos you posted. It sounds and looks like everyone had a really great time up in Paso and it's so nice to see all the Slow Travelers. And the food looks very delicious. Glad that you all had a wonderful time!
Thanks for sharing and have a nice weekend!
Trekcapri, I enjoy knowing you through your blog. Someday I hope we will meet in person at a GTG.
This really looks like such a blast! And it makes me hungry to see all that lasagna. :)
This looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing, Barb.
I know it has been said before but boy it sounded like a fun time!! It seems like everyone is just so comfortable in each other's company at these things. And yes, I want to try that lasagna!!
Pete made his own lasagna noodles!!!! Thanks for the recap.
I enjoyed reading about your fun at the Slowbowl in Paso. I would love to be at one of these fun events. Too bad my school schedule does not agree with the dates. Great photo collection.
girasoli and chiocciola among so many other well known and loved ST'ers, someday, some way we've all got to meet at one of these GTG's...maybe Hawaii? Would love that.
Great post, Barb! Thanks all the photos to refresh my memory of all the fun we had. I am so happy to have finally met you in person after reading all of your ST posts. You're a DOLL!
Lasagna smackdown - lol! My mouth is watering just looking at those gorgeous creations! The bechamel is the one that really caught my eye though...mmmmm! Speaking of Shannon, my husband belongs to a group called British Blades (collectors and creators of handmade hunting and other knives) and this evening one of the members was telling of their trip to Venice and said his wife had bought this wonderful book called "Chow Venice!" which they found invaluable and really enjoyed all the recommended places they tried. Small world. I told Dave to write back that we have our own personalized, autographed copy! :)
Deborah I feel the same about meeting you. So great to meet both you and Dan. Mike just got back from St. Louis tonight. It's pouring here and he said it was 15 when he arrived and today it was up to 55 so maybe by the time you get home things will be warmer. Hope so.
Anne, two things. First I think my husband would love to talk to yours about knives. While a graduate student he took on the task of making his own knife (as sort of a way to get his mind off writing his dissertation). It's a beautiful knife tempered steel with a handle made of a very hard lignavita wood. Second, love the story about the "Chow Venice" connection. I am posting Sunday about my connection with this book.
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