Weeble Wobble

I need help.

My mother-in-law (the cook - she refuses to call herself a chef) has been here for almost two weeks and my house is full of food that I cannot possibly ever finish eating. And believe me, we've been trying.

We have had her:

Chicken Cacciatore
Another chicken dish on stuffing with succotash and some funky kind of potato (boiled then browned in peanut oil)
Homemade Mac n Cheese
Something called Cheesy Carrots ended up on our plate at one point too.
Banana Cream Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie

Not to mention:

Round Table Pizza
Kirin Chinese food (to die for - TWICE)
Easter dinner at a friends house (see lovely table setting?)

She taught me how to make Crepes. She brought two smoked hams and 20 pounds of smoked bacon - all of which she smoked herself.

She also tried to burn the house down, but we won't discuss that. Nothing actually burned, she just filled the house with the smoke of carbonized candied lemon peels and I'm still getting the smell out of my craft room (yes that means my yarn and quilting fabric - sigh)

We've been inviting people over for dinner left and right and filling them to the gills.

We hit the farmer's market this past Saturday and we've seen 'Horton Hears a Who' (way good - go see it).

But last night was pretty cool.

We've known about MIL's visit for a while and I know one person that has a restaurant in the area and I was bound and determined to take her there.

So the weekend hubby went and got his mom I went to knit group and asked Susan about her hubby's restaurant:

Where is it?
What's the dress code?
When will he be there?

Healdsburg
Don't worry about it.
Tuesday through Saturday

Since MIL was going to be in Windsor yesterday for an eye appointment with Dr. Bob, I figured she'd be close enough to Healdsburg to be willing to go (she really doesn't like to leave the house), so 5 of us drove up to Zin last night completely unannounced.

I forgot to ask Susan about reservations. D'oh!

However they were able to accommodate us very promptly and we don't think we caused too much of a back up.

The food was absolutely delicious. I had the pork chop with applesauce and cornbread stuffing. Hubby and MIL had the lamb. Shane had the Herd Roasted Chicken and Dr Bob had the pasta dish. Starters were Artichokes and a Bacon wrapped Date with Almond dish.

During dinner I tried to 'Kinear' Farmer Jeff

Then came dessert:

Me: Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Tart (yummy yummy yummy yummy)
Ken: Ice cream sundae
MIL: Banana bread and ice cream
Shane: Cafe au Lait Creme Brulee
Dr Bob: Zinfandel Grape Jelly doughnuts

Well during dessert, I finally broke down and asked our waitress if we could say hello to Farmer Jeff (okay I said 'Mr. Mall') and he came by.

I explained that I know Susan from Knit Group and that my MIL is a cook that owns her own restaurant and her visit was as good a reason as any to finally try the restaurant.

Then I asked if I could take their picture (I don't Kinear very well) and he said yes.

So hubby said "You're going to make the blog!"

Farmer Jeff asked which blog. I said that I was actually linked from Susan's and he asked which one. So I said "Tiny Tyrant".

Yelp! He reads it (and loves the doggies - but then who doesn't?).

So a good time was had by all.

If you decide to try Zin, be a better person than I and call and get reservations so the pretty little hostess doesn't pass out when you walk in with 5 people.

PS If you ever need an incentive to join a gym , have your cook MIL come for a visit and never stop feeding you. Guess what I did Sunday?