A Long Awaited Dinner Party

I have a long term blog friend, S., who lives

in Australia;

she and I have been emailing since about 2009, she's been

reading my blog I think since about 2008,

so a long time (she does not blog herself but emails

lovely encouraging emails and I treasure our correspondence!)

I sent her our Christmas card and letter this past year

and by January she was emailing me

to say that she and her sister R. were coming my way in May.

I was so excited!!!

So I said of course we must do a dinner party

and began planning...

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Appetizers before the meal

were pink-salted cashews and chocolate covered cherries

paired with yogurt cover cherries... 

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Here's the menu we had:

First course ~ mushroom soup:

See here for the recipe!

Second Course:

Roast Chicken, Potato, Onion & Goat Cheese Casserole

Roasted Beets, Salad, Fresh Cut Vegetables.

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In the far corner, you can see bright orange cut carrots

and a deep maroon , which are raw cut beets.

Mr. Husband loves his vegetables raw....

I roasted a chicken, 

having prepared it the day before,

and trussed it before roasting.
It's a wonderful dinner hosting secret to prepare
the chicken the day before, add more butter if needed
right before roasting and then enjoying the wonderful
scents of herb roasting chicken while
doing the rest of the dinner baking... 

Recipe here.

The lovely bottle of red wine was a gift 

from S and R who came to dinner!

The dishes used were my 

four white China plates, Johnson Brothers from England

with gold rims that I call my Theophany dishes.

Also used were the gold rimmed bowls I got during that time

and the two pretty bowls that Mr. Husband had found

some years before I knew him.

They set such a pretty table...

I roasted beets the way I have for years,

and I had found a clear balsamic vinegar to use again for them,

like years ago ~ see here for the recipe. 

It made such a pretty table!

Of course I used the silver plated cutlery 

Mr. Husband and I had found at the rummage sale

when we were first married.... 

A salad with shaved carrots and red peppers...

The thick pillar candle I got in Ottawa for

Mr. Husband's birthday party...

I wanted everything to be beautiful for it and I thank God

we were able to have it!

The Potato, Onion & Cheese casserole,

it's so creamy and warm and with the

fried onions with thyme,

a real winner!

Recipe here. 

It was a very satisfying meal.

And even better was all the wonderful dinner conversation...

We talked about so much,

the changes in churches and culture,
concerns about some of these changes,... 

...we talked of how many of these changes lead both my friend

Mr. Husband and myself to Orthodoxy, 

which is a Church Home that continues to feed us... 

We talked about books, Persian culture, traveling to see

culture and cultures, Elizabeth Goudge, Lewis and Tolkien,

Dickens, to mystery novelists including PD James,

the Brother Cadfael books, Amanda Cross and the riots of 1968,

of beauty, solitude, of history...

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It was most delightful;

what I would call a real meeting of the minds

and of ones that find themselves more closely aligned on so many levels

that had never even been touched on before...

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And for me I felt at home in a different way form them as well,

as they are from a Commonwealth Country like I lived in before

moving here, for me Canada, for them Australia...

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Before we had dessert, as in the third course of the evening,

we broke for a tour of our condo that I still think of 

in part more as an apartment, like apartments should be...

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We had a great time looking at icons first and last

enjoying our library and discussing various books there in...

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And then we went on to dessert...

I made the strawberry lemon cake

for the second time!

It turned out well, recipe here.

It was really fun to decorate! 

We also had our choice of gelatos....

and lastly, 

 the leftover strawberries with cream,

to top off the end to a lovely evening and 

dinner party.

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It was a dinner party and visit that I would of loved to have

again and again!

First Book Club (and the meal was wonderful!)

I spent the day preparing the house for our guests.
Above is Mr. Husband's old copy of
GK Chesteron's Orthodoxy
from which he studied for a book club he was in
years before. 

It worked well:
the chicken being buttered, filled with onion and thyme
the night before.
Lots of chopped up garlic inside the skin,
a bit of dried summer savory sprinkled
with salt and pepper outside,
after the butter was put inside and outside the chicken's skin.
As I worked with gloves on,
with these small chickens
(we got two of them so we would have enough
plus leftovers) I had a feeling
not of sentimentality but more of a sense of gratefulness
that the chickens were,
from all I could ensure by the purchase,
organically raised without harm and now
providing such good food for us to share.

Cheesy Micro-fries is the above recipe.
From a cookbook from my school girl days.
My Mom had told it to me over the phone
and while Mr. Husband was helping gallently prepare the meal
I realized I did not know where I had put the paper with that recipe.
Luckly, with my third call home,
my Mom was there to answer it and quickly gave me the recipe.

Mr. Husband got the salad and small tomatoes at
the local farmer's market
and they added edible nasturtiums
to the salad
which Mr. Husband made beautiful.

The potato recipe:
Cut up potatoes, in wedges, leaving the skin on.
Add garlic powder, salt, a smidgen of onion salt,
paprika and then Parmesan cheese.
Microwave until tender or almost tender.
12 or more minutes.
{I did it in two batches, the first being bigger and thus
needing more time}.

Mr. Husband had obtained local beer
which some had, another a wine, some only water.
GK Chesterton had loved beer and things bought locally...

I kept the potatoes warm with a big
metal lid from a large pot and a dish towel.

 

Mr. Husband got the flowers at the farmer's market
very inexpensively.
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And so everyone came,
saying it was so wonderful to be in a home
and all the lampadas were lit
and we talked over dinner,
the chicken fell off the bone and was proclaimed to be perfect
and then we talked about chapters 1 and 2 and a
little of 3.
It was wonderful, refreshing.
I told Mr. Husband I could not wait to do the next
which was decided earlier that evening to be in about a month's time.
*
And now I know that I can prepare chicken a day before
and let it roast in the oven.
I roasted it at I believe 400 degrees for 1 hour
 and then turned the oven off
and let it stay warm.
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It was a lovely evening
of which we are all thankful for!

And towards a good weekend, God-willing...

I do have a beautiful other Pascha egg
from my sister in Romania.
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I am still hoping to fix the other one.
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Did some small things today ~
finally ordered a long sleeved white cardigan
for the summer.
I ordered some dresses earlier and am
hoping to get these soon.
I've a wedding and other things to go to this summer
and so am waiting for these clothes...
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Took a needed nap.
And the best of all is that a chicken
is in the oven roasting.
Whew.
It will be a later dinner,
but I am glad to just have this done.
Am dreaming of mashed potatoes to go with it! Yum!
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As always I really appreciate the support
I get via the Internets.
Thank you.

Prayer and Sugar Cookies

I finally was able to get
this sun catcher
put on my kitchen window.
It had not come with a suction cup
so I had to wait and
finally I have one!

Been lighting candles for various people in
need who are on my heart...

Yesterday I finally was able to make
sugar cookies!
I had promised them to a friend
about 1.5-2 months ago
but kept getting sick
with colds.
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I am not fully better yet
but was strong enough yesterday to make
the cookies.

Such a simple recipe!
I did this variation:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup flour

I got the above cookbook
at the Mother of All Garage Sales
as Mr. Husband calls them
back in October.
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When I saw the name
F.M. Farmer
I realized that this was most possibly
an older edition of the
Fannie Farmer Cookbook
and I was right!
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It was published in 1945
and was my most expensive purchase
at the Garage Sale
at 18.00 for the book.
Which Mr. Husband later noted
is about the going rate for this 
vintage book.
(The garage sale we went to is also a charity
so we did not feel a loss of a good deal
because of this, for those of
thrift-garage sale minds! :))
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I like many others
love the older cookbooks
for their more durable recipes
the simplicity
and practicality.

It was so nice to use my baking
tools again.

When I saw that this recipe says it makes
50-60 cookies
I was surprised
but realized that this meant very little cookie
dough was used per cookie.
So I carefully spooned out the dough
and it did make about that much!

The cookies are small and light.

The last batch baked quicker
due to the oven being on for a while
so I will have to remember to watch that
cooking time of 8 minutes
and perhaps do 7 minutes for the last
batch. 

Mr. Husband and I have been enjoying these
cookies during our Christmas Feast week!

And I finally have them to give to
our friend!
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Now I am hoping to bake
the lemon yogurt cake that
Anna blogged about
a while back...
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Meanwhile,
I am late for making what I thought would be for
lunch today
as Mr. Husband is working from home
today
(these are some of my happiest days when
he is here for breakfast
and we can visit before he retreats to the office
for work)...
I was going to make a roast chicken last night
like I made for our first
Canadian Thanksgiving as a married couple
but I realized I did not have the herbs to do so.
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Thankfully when I went to the store last night
it was not as busy as sometimes
(about 5 pm at the store can be a mad-house,
with long lines and crowded aisles)
and I also got the needed
ingredients for the cake...
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I am still recovering from the cold
but am hopeful that by next week
it will be much better/gone.
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God willing I will be in Ottawa
by this time next week.
Without Mr. Husband who sadly
can't come because of his work.
I will miss him.
But it will be good to see everyone that I spent 7
years of my life with
and a city that I love so much.
*
Meanwhile,
I best get going on that chicken...