A Wilder "DuMondezvous"

Back at the beginning of October, a unique and special event took place in western Idaho, near the town of Wilder. The home of Connie and John Bucy hosted a cool family reunion of sorts. Connie is Sallie DuMond's sister, and she and John have lived there for many years and raised three sons, one of whom, Jake, was present for the reunion.

First of all, the house and property are something to behold. Situated on a knoll overlooking the surrounding countryside, their acreage has a gigantic grass yard, beautiful grounds and burgeoning vegetable gardens. The house had room for everybody with room to spare. Thank you, John and Connie, for hosting our get-together on short notice!

This was dubbed a "DuMondezvous" (we think it was John who came up with that one). Ace, Sallie and Keaton DuMond traveled over from Jackson, Wyoming. Mark and Sheri' DuMond flew in to Boise from Seattle. Connie and Sallie's sister Tina was also there (along with a friend, Jake). It should also be noted here that folks in that part of Idaho seem to be big fans of the Boise State football team, which is ranked in the top 15 in the country. Go Broncos!

Anyway, after picking fresh produce from the backyard garden, the kitchen went into full swing and a feast was prepared. Much wonderful food was consumed, and plenty of fine wine was sipped. The following morning the group, give or take a member or two, had a breakfast together. It was during the breakfast that Tina produced an email that had been sent by her daughter, Saleen. We read the email at breakfast that morning. Saleen came up with this idea that since both Ace and Mark, the DuMond twin brothers, like to cook, and Mark likes to write, why not create some sort of cookbook? Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea.

And that's the moment when this site was born. We got the blog up and runnning within 48 hours, and recipes started coming in from friends and family within days after that. As of this writing, it's still October, and we're more than twenty posts and a whole bunch of recipes into this peculiar creation.


And here's the thing: We're just getting started! We've had contact and recipes from folks we haven't seen in many years, and from people eight time zones away. It's only going to get bigger and better as time goes on. We've got a good thing going here, and it never would've happened if we hadn't had our brief "DuMondezvous" in Idaho, nor would it have been conceived had Saleen not sparked the idea.

So jump in, folks. Send your recipes, stories, ruminations and ideas to Mark at cafedumond@comcast.net. Thanks and love to you all.

Pictured above at the "DuMondezvous" are, from left, Ace DuMond, Sheri' DuMond, Sallie DuMond, John Bucy and Mark DuMond. The reason Connie Bucy is missing from the photo is she was the one taking the picture!