Everyone’s gone.  The house is eerily quiet after three days of non-stop eating, drinking, laughter, and fun.  Did I mention eating, drinking, laughter, and fun?

It was a late Friday arrival from San Francisco (thank you, Delta and the baggage crew at PHL…) but as the arrivee’s were on Pacific time, we ended up staying up until three ayem eating, drinking, laughing, and having fun.  We were up ridiculously early Saturday and started off eating right away…  Bagels and cream cheese and stuff like that, and then a light lunch of sandwiches and chips and stuff because we were saving ourselves for a bit of a BBQ with Victor’s family.  (Thin-sliced real German Bologna from the Farmer’s Market on kaiser rolls… YUM!)

I figured an absolute  maximum of 20 people, so I cooked for about 40.  I kid you not.  I cooked for three or four armies.  Victor’s brother walked in, looked at the table, rolled his eyes a bit and said “I see you’ve done it, again.”  We have a bit of a reputation when it comes to having people over and quantities of food being served.  And we definitely didn’t let anyone down.  We had food.

Wednesday I had picked up 2 chickens at the Farmer’s Market, cut them each into 10 pieces, and soaked them for 2 days in buttermilk, garlic, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and probably a few other spices from the cabinet.  On Friday afternoon, I mixed pretty much the same spices with flour and a bit of cornmeal.  I dredged the chicken in the flour mixture and set on racks to dry a bit.  Then I deep-fried it in peanut oil… Cooled, and then refrigerated.

I made my mom’s potato salad – potatoes, green onions, pickles, hard cooked eggs, celery, mayo, catsup, mustard, a splash of worcestershire, garlic, S&P… And a pasta salad – tortellini, onions, sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers, diced celery, carrots, currants, and a dressing of olive oil and raspberry balsamic vinegar.

I grilled a ton of homemade chipotle chicken sausages I had made a couple of weeks ago and then mixed them with Italian peppers and onions…

Plus a couple of London broils I marinated in the now-infamous Pumpkin Butter and Organic Steak Sauce.  And Phoebe’s Chipotle Baked Beans.  Plus salami and cheese and crackers and chips and dips and guacamole and breads and rolls and… and…

Oh.  And four (yes, four...) Pineapple Cream Pies.  I can’t imagine why Steve rolled his eyes…..

We proceeded to eat all day, all night, and into the wee hours of the morning.

Bright and early Sunday morning was just your typical light breakfast…  Sausage, bacon, fried potatoes, eggs, and more toasted bagels.  One of the great Mysteries of Life is the amount of pots and pans one can dirty making breakfast, and I did my best to uphold the mystery.

We did a quick trip into the city to show Eileen the Liberty bell, took a stroll down South Street, and grabbed a Philly Cheesesteak.  (Eileen had never had one IN Philly!)  then back home to the Italian Sunday Dinner Victor was preparing…

He made a great sauce (Italians call it ‘gravy’) with homemade Italian sausages, homemade meatballs and hunks of pork, and served it on a couple of pounds of spaghetti.  Plus garlic bread and a great savory bread ring that Marie picked up in Manayunk….  And more pie.

All I know is there’s no way I could cntinue eating like this!  I am soooooo out of practice!

But what a great time it was!  And Eileen reminded me that when we hit San Francisco in February for my father’s birthday that it will be the begining of Dungeness Crab season…

If I start dieting now, I may be ready for it.