Mendel, a friend of ours and I went out to a restaurant for the Saturday evening chef's tasting and wine pairing. It's pretty neat. They serve itty bitty portions of food that wouldn't fill up a 3 year old and pair them with the best 1 ounce of wine for that food. Overall, it is really cool. The first time I went I thought I was going to starve, but I learned to fill up on the teeny slices of bread they give you to clear your palette.

Last night we started with Sweet Cream Corn Valencia in a shot glass. It's a soup. It tasted just like liquid sweet cream corn. Amazing. And we thought the name was just a title.

Next we had seared ahi tuna; which is basically raw fish that landed on a peppered grill for 5 seconds before hitting the plate. It was delicious. And I thought I hated raw fish. The taste was overwhelming though! It took over my senses. The wine... Uhm, it was good. I can't remember what it was. It was white, liquidy and tasted suspiciously like raw peppery fish.

Next was a summer squash stuffed with succotash and cream froth. I had to get over the word succotash because that is one of the dishes mom loved to serve ALL THE TIME! But this succotash wasn't really stuffed inside the squash so much as it was dumped on top of it. But okay, we'll be fancy and say "stuffed" since "slopped on top of it" isn't as romantic or high class sounding. It was good though and lacked the lima beans mom adored. WAY better than what mom served. I forget what wine they served. It burned all the way down. I do remember that. It definitely wiped away the pepper taste from the fish while stunning my taste buds for a couple minutes. I think my sinus infection is cured also.

Next was pulled pork and potato balls... I'm sorry, I mean delectable shoulder roast with gnocchi. It was pretty good but tasted better with pepper. We had red wine with it. It was better once we watered it down a little... at least I assume it was because by then Sara was tipsy and poured my glass into her water and drank it, said something about devine and hiccuped.

Next was the Ribeye steak with tomato fondue served on a bed of spinach. They did the same thing to the steak as they did to the ahi so it ws bleeding on the plate. If the world as we know it ended tomorrow, I would be a vegetarian. I managed to taste two bites before I felt a wave of nausea hit me. The wine was a reserve or something. It had a flavors of coffee, oak, cherries and bovine blood. I drank Sara's wine to help get the taste out of my mouth. It finally subsided after half a basket of teeny tiny bread wedges and a shot of espresso.

Next was the desert. It was a cherry tart with ice cream and a sweet white wine that smelled rustic. The cherry tart didn't smell like cherry. It had a different smell that I couldn't identify but it wasn't cherry. The ice cream was good but wasn't what I remembered from Tennessee. It wasn't bad though. Once I got through sniffing the cherry tart repeatedly and pondering the smell, I took a bite. It was a moment I can't explain. It tasted like Montana. Not that I eat Montana on a regular basis or anything. It just reminded me of huckleberries and snow and that cool brisk refreshing air.

My husband interrupted my moment of fascination to tell me that the wine and the cherry tart mixed had a delectable texture and the taste was scrumptious and added to the ambiance of the dish. So I shoved another bite of cherry tart into my mouth and slowly rubbed it around my palette with my tongue enjoying the memory of a place I only remember visiting once but that was filling my mind with each salivating moment. I thought of Dad's house, the back yard, the hill we sled down while inebriated, the hill the boys sled down with Sky, Burger, Hwy 2, the gas station, the streets, the ice, the lights, everything. It was overwhleming and magical. I have never felt like this before.

With cherries that tasted of huckleberry still in my mouth I took a sip of rustic smelling wine and I think I had an out of body experience. I got teary eyed and for a moment, I was driving through the mountain to Libby through a forest in a blizzard with snow all around. I could see the trees and the shape of trees and see vehicles passing by and feel the chill seeping through my van doors. I could smell it and feel it and taste it and hear it and see it clearly and for that moment I was really there on Yaak mountain. I remembered it so vividly and I could feel you hugging me and I felt homesick for the first time in my life.

I have always missed places for one thing or another. Texas because of the Dr Pepper Factory, visiting Kurt and Carol, seeing my brothers. But I don't miss the land. I miss Tennessee because of the land that is ours. The house, the animals, the solitude. I don't miss the people though. I like San Diego because I can go outside during the day during summertime and because it's home right now. But Libby... I have family there and I love the land and I miss the place and the atmosphere.

I have never really felt homesick before and I didn't expect that feeling to overwhelm me while eating a cherry tart and drinking white wine in an uppity restaurant in downtown San Diego. But it did and Now I am homesick like never before.