New Bunco Queen Celebrates Caribbean Style

We won’t quibble over which is more important…Bunco or the Super Bowl…Valentine’s Weekend Festivities or the Chinese New Year…it continues to be one adventure after another.  Just read on…

The Queen is Dead…Long Live the Queen

Who needs a Super Bowl when there is Bunco to be played?  The tradition continued in a new venue and many of us were there to witness a passing of the torch.

Bob and Ellie Donahue sponsored the winter event with an outstanding ham dinner supported by other of the Queen’s subjects bringing appetizers or desserts.

Not long after Cheri and I arrived the reigning Queen and his entourage made their entrance.  We quickly noticed that the Queen’s retiring to the Southern Palace following the last Bunco event resulted in a change in the Crown Jewels.  After feasting on Pig and Peat—a metaphor for pork and Scotch for those of you not familiar with Royalty…or Jimmy Buffet lyrics—the assembled masses spread out to four tables over four rooms, and the gaming began.  There were many give and takes with limited shouts of “Bunco” and “The Queen is going down” echoing around the rooms.

The scepter remained unchanged, but the Queen had complained that the earlier crown neither met his styling sense, nor fit the larger level of responsibility—or ego inflated hat size—that results from joining Royalty.  Jack the Queen (sounds like a rock group) had taken the Royal Jewels on a whirlwind tour and then he and his consort, Stephanie, used their own resources to embellish the Signs of State.  The crown will now weigh heavily on the head of anyone given the responsibility of representing our Bunco Kingdom.

We played the traditional two rounds and then the host and I went into Executive Council—private meetings to decide matters of State.  It didn’t take too long before the gathered masses saw white smoke and a hush fell over the crowd in the kitchen awaiting the results of our deliberations.  A roll-off for the most wins had to take place and Jim Nowak narrowly beat out Martha Harrison for the honor.

The Royal Jewels have now moved back to the Quiet Corner of Connecticut.  An early Spring challenge has already been established in an attempt to bring the Crown back to to the Southern Palace.  The Challenge is there, but Queen Cheri is growing comfortable as Royalty.  I’m just saying…

Then we announced the decision regarding the tied number of Bunco’s rolled and the Executive Council’s precedent setting move to then use total wins as a tie-breaker.  Cheri was declared the new Queen with newcomer Deni Vander Voort as a Lady-in-Waiting.

One adventure that will continue.

Calling All Captains


Besides being the weekend leading into the Chinese New Year—the Year of the Lion—the weekend was also significant for recognizing all the Queens in the Morris/Manz/Swenson trio.  With distance this event has evolved into a weekend long get together.

This year we gathered in Standish, Maine beginning Friday evening and the festivities began.  The ladies of our lives thought a gift selection of unique ales would be just the thing to get the men into the mood of preparing the weekend gourmet dinner.  Of course, since it was there…in the house…in front of us, and an opener was so close we decided to experiment with a couple on Friday evening.  We started the cooking as well with some tenderloin steaks that James had rubbed in fine ground coffee, crushed vanilla beans and kosher salt and left to sit overnight. Thomas chipped in with a preparation of brussel-sprouts with bacon and we rounded the meal out with baked potatoes and a little red wine to wash it all down.  Following the meal the lady-folk gathered around the fire place and watched some of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.  The men went downstairs to play some pool…don’t even ask what Dan and Thomas were doing…suffice it to say they are both old enough to be consenting adults.

Not too surprising, it ended up a relatively late evening.  So, we all slept in a bit the next morning, but that didn’t stop our die-hard ladies from heading out for a run…as evidenced by the photo. Dan also got into the action and arrived back from his run about the same time as the Cheri and Liz.

Coffee, breakfast, coffee, showers, more coffee and then it was time for the men and women to go their separate ways.  The ladies off to Portland for some shopping and lunch.  The men needed to run some final errands to pick up flowers, the evening’s entree and lunch as well.

The afternoon seemed to fly by while the men pulled together the final items for dinner and added the decorations to the table.  James took the lead…and performed 98% of the work in getting the ambiance set—Dan’s and my 2% were primarily artistic opinions.  Our theme this year was a Caribbean evening and James had beach sand, figurines and models, and a self designed flower arrangement to set the mood—complete with palm trees, beach umbrellas, a pirate ship and doubloons. 

The ladies came home, visited for a short time and then we all retired to dress for the evening.  At this point the word went out, “Calling All Captains” and we responded appropriately…

The ladies joined us in their tropical attire, and began reviewing the menu, enjoying a selection of cheeses and crackers, and tasting cosmopolitans—Liz’s new favorite drink…at least until the next Lemon-drop martini.

We also took this time to get some couples photos before moving to the dining room.

Then it was on to dinner.  In the Caribbean theme we started with coconut shrimp and a pineapple & mango relish.  As soon as the shrimp was completed Dan prepared a Jamaican Hearts of Palm salad—a recipe he received from one of the Emergency Services technicians who is from Jamaica.  At the same time we prepared the Macadamia Nut crusted scallops to go into the oven.  The meal flowed from one step smoothly into the next. 
As I described to the ladies, the main course was, as expected, all about them.  Each food piece representing a piece of them:

“The scallops are firm, but tender and a little nutty; They rest on coconut risotto which is smooth, creamy and sensual; The mango-plum tomato salsa is exotic and a simple touch; On one side is a red pepper coulis which is savory and comforting; On the other side is a mango coulis which is sweet and spicy; Here’s to our ladies.”

Accompanying the entree, Dan prepared jalapeno corn bread which was drizzled with honey for a sweet, spicy, comforting side piece.  Dan then outdid himself by making key lime pie for dessert, for which he hand-whipped the cream.

We dined for over three-and-a-half hours and then retired back to the fire to close out the evening visiting and simply enjoying time spent well with good friends.

In keeping with not wanting to walk away without being well fed, Sunday morning Stephanie made us all eggs benedict.  James and I went off to sing in the choir at church and when we came back it was time for all of us to pack up and get on the road.

To view most of the pictures from the weekend click (or double-click) on the pirate ship below to be taken to my web-album.  Another great Adventure that will be a continuing story.

Valentines 2010