some treasures can only be found in ohio…

so the true reason i came back to this ‘culinary-treasure-filled’ town was to celebrate the opening of the brand-spankin-new ohio union (’cause in a past life i worked at the old ohio union…one must see the circle-completed when the newest-and-bestest is constructed!!)

needless to say, the new ohio union is a ginormous masterpiece – thousands and thousands of square feet of the newest-shiniest-sparkliest concrete and tarazzo and polished chrome buckeye-filled fixtures and furniture and fabulous finds! hidden spaces. rooms named after people we love. bronze brutus statues. cheap beer. it really is a gem in the midst of this way-special college campus – i sure am jealous. (and you KNOW i ADORE special spaces – so this has been a weekend of exploration and extravaganza in this new special-est-of-spaces!)

so some highlights of said ‘opening-gala’ include:

1) seeing TONS of old friends – LOTS of hugs! lots of laughs and stories-sharing and catching-up-convos. lots of ohio-union-red-sweaters (if you had only known me when i worked there and LOVED LOVED LOVED wearing ohio-union-gear. jealousy ensued.)

2) way fun food concepts (some slightly yummier than others, but AMAZING presentation and so so fun ideas….)

do you see what that is??? rolls served in a tin old-school lunch pail.... FREAKING LOVE IT... i REALLY wanted to try to tuck one of these away for keeps, too... but alas -

3) old-friends-new-babies (tis the season of my life, i guess…) – but i cannot TELL YOU how many ADORABLE babies were at this event… and i cannot TELL YOU how hard it was not to try to sneakily tuck those little nuggets-of-love into my tote bag and abscond with them for the week. it took all my self control, obviously.

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so yeah – it really was a night of grand fun — good food, good friends, good festivities, and some late-night-adult-beverages to cap the night off. i’m home in columbus.

( and you know what i’ve realized?? its kinda nice to have lots of ‘homes’ – those way special places in the world where people know all about you and love even the tricky parts of you and its way fun and way complicated at the same time, and yet where you just feel comfortable and at ease with life. yeah. i really like those places. and i like that i get to find them tucked all over this ginormous country. its like a super cool blessing… i’m happy about that.)

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BUT – what i have also come to realize is that there are some WAY SPECIAL treats found in the midwest that i dont see a lot of back home on the east coast. here are two ‘exotic’ treasures we found at the local grocery that i just really wanted to share:

cheesy-fried-corn-chips + the luxurious-taste-of-cheeseburgers = culinar-ily-delightful

one cannot even IMAGINE what this might be used for...

am i right, or am i RIGHT? the midwest is simply OVERFLOWING with treats.

tomorrow i’m going to do a ‘highlights’ tour of the town – so so so excited to share some of my fave haunts with ya

hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!!! HUGS!