House Blessing Dinner 2015 {at our dear local friend's home}

A beautifully set table...

First course: a creamy squash soup, 

with butter and cream...

and wonderful bread enjoyed along side...

It was very good...

Beef Bourguignon (Stew) by Ina Garten

and Yukon gold baby potatoes.

I brought dessert.

What I hoped would be a chocolate chiffon pie

and a lemon pie

ended up being instead...

Chocolate Fudge Cake with a Ganache on top, 

with a side of Whipped Cream...

The Ganache I learned a lot from:

1. heat the cream to boiling (the recipe I was using said

till almost boiling)

2. have the chocolate in smaller pieces; much of it was

in shavings but I got tired and then chopped some.

So it did not melt evenly and so the topping was more 'choppy'.

The good news was that the cake itself was quite good.

I will make it again,

remembering to melt the butter and mix it a bit more before baking;

the baked batter in places looked like it has small peices of 

butter that had not melted in.

However, it was a light crumbly chocolate cake that

was really delightful to eat, so the recipe itself will stay

in my roaster, just with some notes...

And a Junior's Cheesecake... you can never go wrong with 

a Junior's Cheesecake... :)

*

It was a lovely time and with a lot of interesting and 

enjoyable conversation... 

One of our friends told our beloved hostess that

dinners at her house are like being in 

an English Country House.

And finally, I was given some words to describe 

a home that I find so lovely and visually pleasing that

I have yet to know how to describe it...

*

It's so wonderful to have one's house blessed.

It feels like everything is perfectly in order and clean 

afterwards...

Mr. Husband and I's joy on coming back home after the

lovely dinner party was palpable and we are so happy

to have a blessed house...

*

It all seems like things that are moving us (quickly!) towards 

Great Lent... It's only two weeks away now... so much

to do to prepare yet but I am so glad in this moment

to just be in our home so newly blessed....