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Sunday, June 5, 2022

Dock Opening 2022

While we managed to get in a closing party in Oct 2021, I can’t recall when we last had an opening party – I went back thru 2016 and found no blog posts.  We would normally have it earlier in the year, but I needed to do hip replacement recovery until later so we opted for May 29 so as not to interfere with others Memorial Day plans – remember, we’re retired and every day can be a holiday and pets are always welcome.

So, we got the dock all cleaned, turned on the water, sent out invites, and planned the menu.  As it turned out, I had a bag of 10 brats from the Wurst Kitchen in the freezer that were all frozen together and needed a big occasion to use them so brats became the main event.  This came just in time as Wende was in the Chicago area and brought us a new delivery from Wurst Kitchen.

The Menu:

Brats with homemade kraut, peppers & onions, and good mustard

Hot dogs with chile, mustard, and onion.

Potato salad, baked beans, and cole slaw, all bought by the guests

Strawberry pie, cake, and berry buckle, also brought by the guests

For the brats, I cooked them Wisconsin style as follows:

4 lbs. brats

1 large onion

8 cans Yuengling beer

Add the sliced onion and beer to a large pot and bring to a boil.

Add the brats to the pot, lower heat to a simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Grill over med-high heat, turning often to get a nice brown color and serve with kraut, fried peppers and onions, and onions from the beer.

We had 14 guests and everyone seemed to have a good time catching up with one another,

enjoying Eliza who loves the big water, 


and heading for the food.


The Verdict:

As expected, the brats turned out very well and all of the sides and desserts were delicious.  Our 70+ year old neighbor confessed that this was her first ever brat (can’t even imagine) and she said it was just okay – not her kind of grub. 

It seemed that a good time was had by all but everyone left before dark which is when it's getting very nice at the dock.  Twenty years ago we would have stayed until well after dark but we seventy somethings have to turn in early you know.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

05/29/22 event date

6 comments:

  1. Brats just the way we like them and the menu was fantastic!

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  2. Hi Larry, Love a great brat! While you were enjoying brats, we were pigging out with Laurie's family in St. Louis. You do have the best party dock around. I have to talk myself into getting up 'early' some morning and coming over to fish in your private little cove. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  3. Well I think that was a fantastic opening party. I would opt for the hot dog rather than the brat. Amazing how late 7 pm seems to be anymore.

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  4. First brat at 70? Crazy. Looks like a fun & tasty day. Eliza seems to be loving the grub too!

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  5. Sounds like a tasty way to open your dock and start celebrating summer. Karen (Back Road Journal)

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  6. The preschooler doesn't do too well late into the night either. By default, the parents of the preschooler, who are getting old in their own right, needed to call it an early night. But it was not her first brat. At age 4, she's been exposed to a fair variety of foods already, including all the good stuff at Grandpop and Meme's. Thanks for a lovely time!

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