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I've been preparing to host an "Un-Christmas" lunch since, oh, the beginning of December. I invited my parents and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fearsclave and his wife, Carolyn, and started menu planning three weeks ago and cooking last week. Because I rarely entertain, when I do, I want it to be memorable. I flatter myself that today went really well, overall. My parents get along really well with fearsclave and Carolyn, and the four of them had a great time laughing about living "near the North Pole," etc. Carolyn got to see how well Maggie and Ben were doing (I adopted two of their cats over the past year, when they couldn't keep them anymore).
This morning I got up early in order to finish the last of the preparation: a last-minute vacuum/tidy of the house, then make the mashed potatoes, mulled wine, wild rice, and green beans. I didn't get it all done before the guests arrived, and we ended up eating about half an hour later than planned, but it all pulled together at the last minute.
The meal itself was a great success. I started out with a beet salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts. It's the only dish which I managed to capture in a picture. The rest of the food got eaten too quickly for me to be able to snap a picture, but there were lemon tarragon roasted cornish hens, balsamic glazed green beans with almonds and cranberries, tourtière, mashed sweet potatoes flavoured with maple syrup, and wild rice with raisins and almonds. For the cheese course we had brie with truffles, bleu d'Auvergne, and Oka, and for dessert I made apple pie and rice pudding (for the gluten-free guest). We finished it off with coffee, and I think all of us may die happily of food.
I was too busy running around trying to get everything on the table and everyone fed and taken care of to get many pictures, but I did get a few, and my parents took some as well. Hopefully between the three of us we'll have a nice record of the day.
Carolyn, my mother, and Darroch. I tried to get a picture of my father, but he keeps making faces at the camera.
Ben wanted in on the action, and kept climbing into my chair when I wasn't in it.
So, in short, I declare success. My parents gave me a sewing basket for Christmas (at my request), and it's glorious: huge, and red with white polka dots. I love it, and I want to get started on sewing something ASAP. Maybe I'll mend the dog's newest favourite toy: a no-longer-squeaky stuffed hedgehog, which he eviscerates on a regular basis.
I got my parents a framed set of my favourite pictures of them taken over the past two years, and they loved it. So I now get to pat myself on the back for a well-done Christmas, all around, even if it wasn't on Christmas itself.
I am due to write a year-in-review post, which I used to do regularly and then sort of forgot about. Tonight, however, I have a D&D game to prep, so it will have to wait.
fearsclave and his wife, Carolyn, and started menu planning three weeks ago and cooking last week. Because I rarely entertain, when I do, I want it to be memorable. I flatter myself that today went really well, overall. My parents get along really well with fearsclave and Carolyn, and the four of them had a great time laughing about living "near the North Pole," etc. Carolyn got to see how well Maggie and Ben were doing (I adopted two of their cats over the past year, when they couldn't keep them anymore).This morning I got up early in order to finish the last of the preparation: a last-minute vacuum/tidy of the house, then make the mashed potatoes, mulled wine, wild rice, and green beans. I didn't get it all done before the guests arrived, and we ended up eating about half an hour later than planned, but it all pulled together at the last minute.
The meal itself was a great success. I started out with a beet salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts. It's the only dish which I managed to capture in a picture. The rest of the food got eaten too quickly for me to be able to snap a picture, but there were lemon tarragon roasted cornish hens, balsamic glazed green beans with almonds and cranberries, tourtière, mashed sweet potatoes flavoured with maple syrup, and wild rice with raisins and almonds. For the cheese course we had brie with truffles, bleu d'Auvergne, and Oka, and for dessert I made apple pie and rice pudding (for the gluten-free guest). We finished it off with coffee, and I think all of us may die happily of food.
I was too busy running around trying to get everything on the table and everyone fed and taken care of to get many pictures, but I did get a few, and my parents took some as well. Hopefully between the three of us we'll have a nice record of the day.
Carolyn, my mother, and Darroch. I tried to get a picture of my father, but he keeps making faces at the camera.
Ben wanted in on the action, and kept climbing into my chair when I wasn't in it.
So, in short, I declare success. My parents gave me a sewing basket for Christmas (at my request), and it's glorious: huge, and red with white polka dots. I love it, and I want to get started on sewing something ASAP. Maybe I'll mend the dog's newest favourite toy: a no-longer-squeaky stuffed hedgehog, which he eviscerates on a regular basis.
I got my parents a framed set of my favourite pictures of them taken over the past two years, and they loved it. So I now get to pat myself on the back for a well-done Christmas, all around, even if it wasn't on Christmas itself.
I am due to write a year-in-review post, which I used to do regularly and then sort of forgot about. Tonight, however, I have a D&D game to prep, so it will have to wait.
