this past weekend made in happy in CLE

this past weekend two of my favorite people from UD came to cleveland to visit from st louis...

THE NATIONS!

this past weekend my one and only poo poo also came to cleveland to visit, but she came in from chicago.

it was like a midwest meet up.

to celebrate the nations arrival in CLE i decided to throw a little party friday night at the plum palace.

the menu:
- meat and cheese plate
- pork tenderloin sliders with spicy dijon mustard and mayo
- the pioneer woman's perfect potatoes au gratin
- curry chicken lettuce wraps with a chutney cream sauce and toasted coconut
- mandarin orange, red onion, sugared almonds, champagne vinaigrette and red lettuce salad

i just had to show a pic of the curry chicken lettuce wraps i made because they are so darn cute with the chive tie holding them together!

we couldn't have had a better group - me, CK, muffin, MOB, beaver, the nations, holler, doyle, l and mverdova, bo, babs, seanksi, and nugget.

we ate, we drank and we may or may not have turned my bonus room into the smoking room for the evening..... it's ok though, i have house beer.

mistiburr (aka one 1/2 of the nations) and holler being awesome

dave, the other 1/2 of the nations, bo and mverdova also being awesome

MOB, seanski and beaver throwing up some kind of weird gang sign perhaps?

what's wrong with this picture? nothing! muffin just likes to drink wine, that's all.

a little before 1am we decided that more beer was necessary, so seanski and i made a run to the deli on franklin blvd where upon seeing this bottle of boones farm i needed to purchase this $2.99 delicacy immediately - lverdova should probs be a boones farm model.

saturday morning brought brunch with essentially the same group at lucky's cafe. shockingly, this was my first visit to the famous tremont establishment.

i was curious to see if the food was going to live up to the hype and it sure did. i had the bruleed steel cut oatmeal with winter fruit compote and eggs en croute - WOW. the real winner was the pecan crusted bacon though - holy shit, it was like a mouth orgasm. i'm actually going to try to see if i can recreate the tasty treat when i host my family for brunch in a few weeks, wish me luck.

the tour of delicious cleveland restaurants wasn't over by a long shot because saturday night it was time to celebrate poo poo's birthday with dinner at the greenhouse tavern with yet another fun cast of characters - me, poo poo, the nations, beaver, patti-o, anthony, holler, doyle, jilly, and rory.

we mauled the famous wings and gravy frites, as well as devils on horseback (omg the chocolate addition was sick good), and pork chop saltimbocca just to name a few. one thing did disappoint us though - the size of the savory mushroom bear claw - we were lead to believe it was a heartier appetizer and we actually laughed out loud when we saw the presentation and it was literally one-bite sized. i'm told it was delicious though, ha.

after our wonderful meal at the greenhouse tavern we made our way to battery park wine bar for moscow mules and to help celebrate allison's birthday! i loved getting to visit with allison and her wonderful BF, tim, but i wish i took a picture to document, boo.

i did get one of the other ladies though - holler, beaver, patti-o, poo poo and mistiburr at BPWB

after BPWB we tried to go to parkview nite club to celebrate yet another birthday in muffin's BF jesse, but it was so packed one literally couldn't move so we headed to ABC the tavern where the designer beards and tshirts were rockin' - i.e. we stayed in a back table having fun with ourselves.

the group got together one final time before the nations headed back to STL and poo poo to chicago for sunday brunch at sweet melissa's in rocky river. i ate the total opposite of brunch in fried green tomatoes and blackened grouper tacos but i was so satisfied, everything was gloriously delicious - i need to remember to go there more often.

one would think i would have been exhausted by then but my weekend wasn't over yet.

sunday afternoon CK and i went watch shopping at beachwood place (for him not me) and dined at luchita's for mexican food sunday.

did i need to eat enchiladas? NO.

but were they delicious? YES.

can you guys figure out now why it took me till tuesday afternoon to get this recap posted now?

i love being happy in CLE.