A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Eureka Springs with Cindy--The Attractions Part 1

Poor Cindy.  I have this rule, you see. And this is when I ask anyone from visitors to my husband (just ask Gene) what they want to do, what they want to eat, or when they're hungry, if they say "I don't care" or "Whatever" they get to do or eat whatever I want.  Because hey, I asked.

So when Cindy said "I don't care" to the question of "What do you want to do?" she got to go to all the attractions around Eureka that I haven't been to in years but wanted to check up on (and I even managed to throw a foodie event in on her).

Quigley's Castle--

Not a castle in the huge rampart tradition but more in the vein of "my home is my castle", this is one of the coolest houses I've ever seen. Owned by the creator's granddaughter, Mrs. Quigley decided to build her own house during the depression and since she loved rocks and all things natural, she designed and built, with the help of her husband, this unique house with it's full glass panels and walls removed about 3 feet from the edges of the flooring to allow herself room to build a natural arboretum inside her own walls.  Then she ventured outside to surround the outside of the house building a koi pond, flower stands, bird baths, and "trees" of colored glass, some of which looked to be depression glass that's probably worth a little money.

I love both the beauty of the simple house and the idea behind it, that she saw it in her head as non-mainstream as it was, and created her dream.

 

Eureka Springs with Cindy--The Food

I've been gone all week on a mini-get away with my friend Cindy from Rhode Island.  She came here to work but one day of her assignment got cancelled so we grabbed the time to head down to one of my favorite Ozarks' towns, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  I've blogged about Eureka Springs before but it's been a couple of years since Gene and I last visited and almost 15 years since we lived there. This is one of my favorite pics from the Balcony Restaurant of the Basin Park Hotel because it's not all glam.  It's a simple shot of one of the town's streets right before the sun set, after the shops had closed for the day, and the fog was rolling in off the hills.  It's the Eureka in October I remember from living there.

Part of me took Cindy there for the entertainment value. I wanted to see the look on Gene's "favorite Yankee's" face (Rhode Ilsander) when she was plunked down in the middle of Eureka.  Not that that's an insult to either one.  Anyone who's been to Eureka knows that the very best wonderful thing about the town is that everyone is welcome and everyone (within reason) gets along. The town is famous for being the transplanted home town for artisans of all kinds and there is more talent and more brains in those hills than anywhere else in the world (allow me the hyberbole--I'd move back in a second if we could). When Gene and I lived there we knew a banquet planner from Vegas who got tired of the city lights, several writers of all genres, an electrical engineer who got off the corporate ladder, a nuclear physicist who owns a Bed & Breakfast but travels all over the world for "think tanks" and some of the most artistically gifted people I've ever been in awe of anywhere.

Today I'll talk about the food. Tomorrow and over the weekend, I'll talk about the attractions and the Ghost Tour (awesome!) and how a ghost must have followed us back to our own historic hotel.

Forget Flowers! You need a Carousel Cake!

Year's ago, a dear friend of mine lost her husband to a heart attack just a week before one their children's wedding. It was the most horribly heart-wrenching thing I've ever watched one of my friends go through.  The wedding did go on and Carol rose to the occasion, setting her grief aside to be strong for her family, walking her daughter down the aisle in her husband's place, and even dancing the daddy/daughter dance with her daughter, holding a photo of Paul.