Friday had us out to dinner at Respect with my parents which was lovely. Our dinner was far too salty but the homemade tiramisu more than made up for it. A night with my folks is always appreciated and much fun was had. Post dinner we headed for the Townehouse for a wee fundraiser for some friends of ours. The Townehouse has a team in the annual Exclaim! Hockey Summit of the Arts Tournament again and since a pile of our friends are playing on it this year we opted to make a quick appearance to pad their bank account. If you've never been I highly recommend it. I'm not a hockey fan in the slightest but we went one year to see our friend Alun play and it was tons of fun. Hockey all day with teams made up of Canadian musicians complete with live rink rock (basically a live version of the 30 second music clips you hear at hockey games) then music all night with everyone jamming together in silly made-up bands -- tons of fun.
Saturday we got a lovely invite for afternoon visiting from our friends Mike and Tara and their wee baby Charlie. Espresso, lemon crepes and a cute baby make for a great way to spend an afternoon.
Onwards to Saturday night and the dinner party to end all dinner parties. Holy. Crap. Friends Chris and Linda have claimed the title of Commanders of the Dinner Party with their crazy gatecrasher approach to dinner partying. Thursday we got not only the e-invite to come but included in the email was the theme, a full menu, recipes in PDF attached,recommended wines and a spreadsheet of who was in charge of making what including what supplies were needed. Kaili, you would have been so proud. As Marc said, it removed 2 weeks of back and forth emailing trying to pick a date that worked with everyone, suggesting recipes etc. For those foodies out there who might be interested, the menu was taken from Gourmet magazine and had a complete French theme and should be duplicated by all of you so I'm linking recipes. It was spectacular. It included:
- gourmet cheese plate: Note: always invite the owner of your local Fromagerie to your dinner party. It makes for cheese plates the likes of which you've never seen;
- Classic Escargots a la Bourguignonne
- Salade Tiede aux Oeufs en Meurette (Warm Frisée-Lardon Salad With Poached Eggs in Red-Wine Sauce) - the best salad I've probably ever had
- Provençal Fish Soup -- our contribution
- Chicken in Riesling - coq au vin made with white wine, we think we like it better
- Grand Marnier Crepe Cake -- a million layers of dessert perfection
Add to this bottles of Pernod, champagne, an out of this world Alsatian Riesling, more white, some red, about 2 bottles of ice wine and an ice wine/brandy combo and your head just might explode. Buckets of thanks to Chris and Linda and their kamikaze style of dinner party. I'm a fan.
Needless to say, Sunday was spent recovering from a too much food hangover. My overly sensitive tummy was in distress and made it known. But it was worth it. Other than reading and laundry, we didn't do too much else. My shoulder is acting up again, making me feel old and creaky. Watched some more episodes of Carnivale and Big Love and prepped for the week. We had some freezing rain overnight and on my way to work this morning my feet got filmed for the news. I guess it was the unique "shuffling on the ledge of a building/trying not to poop my pants" style of my walk that caught their attention. Why does walking on ice do that to our bodies????
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