René of the Day: René of the Day // 8.8.11 // Toodles, Britain!

So our trip to England was rolling towards the end. On the last night, we had dinner at the local pub, The Hartwood, that A&A frequent and brought the whole crew - Ricky, Vicki, Stevie, John & Louise and Pinzi. After dinner we hung out around their kitchen table, drinking and laughing - I wish I could easily pop over to do this with them regularly. I started cooking Cincinnati-style chili before we left for dinner and it just smacked you in the face with delicious wafts when we got home. Our ingredients weren't quite exact to what we would use at home - the cheese was thickly grated white cheddar (but no one can do the amazing finely shredded cheese that Skyline serves), hot dogs came from cans, buns were packaged as "white finger rolls" and Andi insisted that it would be disgusting to use an entire can of tomato puree (paste) and we debated which to use at the store - and it turned out that puree was perfect! We found yellow "American" mustard and chopped a beautiful onion from her garden.

They were all a little miffed by the 3-way chili idea so we passed on that. We were laughing out loud as we explained the coneys, 3-4 & 5-ways and what they included. But they LOVED the coneys! It was so much fun to make them for everyone and see how much they enjoyed it - I left an extra spice packet for them and plan to send more around the holidays so they can have a taste of Cincinnati chili in the cool winter months :) Rick even said, "Why can't you get these all over the world? I'm going to speak to my county about this!" lol Bless his British heart.

It was so fun to have Pinzi stay the night on my last night - I truly appreciate that she & Andi arranged for her to come visit from Scotland while I was there. It reminded me of so many nights in the tens in the woods of Connecticut, catching up and laughing in the dark til we fell asleep. In the morning it was convenient because her flight was around the same time as ours so we hung out in the airport a bit before we separated to go to our respective terminals. The flight home was much more relaxed than the trip there... it went quite fast for a 7 hour jaunt! They fed us lunch, and then pretzels & a drink and then a panini - I was lucky I fit in my jeans when I got home. And our luggage made it just fine :)

These days, we don't cry, Andi, her mum & I. We've grown up and learned that we *will* get to see eachother again and now we can communicate via text, Facebook and more than just the frequent emails we had in the first years of our friendship. It was incredible to finally return, refresh memories and to witness their gorgeous wedding. They're such a wonderful couple and can't wait for Alan to come to Cincinnati. I believe her parents will be staying with mine next summer, around the time of my sister's wedding... And our story continues. Now I must write a letter and send photos to People to People to tell them "our story."