Sunday, April 13, 2008

Dinner Party - Before


TW Protected
Originally uploaded by praguelondon
Last night we had our first dinner party (not including Christmas dinner) at our new house. It took nine months to organize, it was rescheduled 5 times, but finally we hosted.

J redeemed himself after the disaster with the risotto at our last dinner party (Oct. 30, 2005). I'm happy to say both our Barbeque and J's menu was a success (ed: just read to J and he wanted me to say a smashing success). We had :
  • Starter: rocket (arugula in Canada), pear and goat cheese salad with walnut & orange juice dressing
  • Main: salmon with lime-ginger butter sauce OR
  • Barbequed chicken marinated in sundried tomato and basil marinade on a bed of greens
  • Served with: mango and cilantro salsa
  • Dessert: we cheated. We bought GU desserts (yum yum) plus baclava which E&M brought
BTW. Most people had both chicken and salmon. I think the salmon was the clear winner.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my wits about me at the end of the night to take an "after" shot. That would have told the story better. Suffice it to say we all enjoyed ourselves. It turns out that we didn't really need the "table talk" questions I hid in each person's napkins -- but they did add a good twist in to the conversation.

Here's a few for blog participation:
  1. Do you collect anything? ... of couse I said I used to collect smurfs (here's proof)
  2. What was your childhood ambition? ... of course anyone who knows me knows what that was.
  3. From which famous person would you most like to receive a massage (this one somehow seemed to be the one with most debate --especially between the couples)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am soooooooooooo jealous! I love your beatiful house and the table looks great! I love being waited on and pampered by J (who truly excels as a host). I love your (rare as hen's teeth) dinner parties b/c you are the friends I love best in the world, but also because you two have the knack of making everything seem glamourous.

I am never having a dinner party again: TWO menu options??!!! I can barely pull myself together to manage ONE one-pot wonder!

Unknown said...

Rare as hen's teeth... I love it :)

Well as you are my best friend in the whole world .. you know that the 2 first floors looked good and the top floor was an explosion of clothes, crap that couldn't be hidden on our other floors.

Finally, we had two mains because we were planning for salmon and at last minute found out that martin didn't like salmon... so it worked out for all of us :D

Also, you know you are the hostess with the Mostess -- bar none especially bar Martha.

Anonymous said...

did anyone mention your fuzzy wuzzy under glass and wonder about it?

i think j.should be written up in one of those magazines - maybe rachel ray would like him on her show - love mom

Rodwellian said...

Mom. Yes, of course "fuzzy wuzzy" was a curiousity. I've renamed him TW after Bill his rightful owner. I told everyone about having the world's oldest room-mates - 81 and 92.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the world's oldest roomates used to bake us cookies (and let us eat the dough!) and made me dinner EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!

Re: top floor: You are soooooooo lucky you have a 'loo on the main!