Thursday, February 21, 2019

Last night was fabulous. Contrary to what we thought was going to happen there were fourteen of us in the restaurant, all as guests of the chef. No one except the chef did any cooking and what an amazing meal we had. He did all the cooking on a two burner cooking plate in the sitting area of the restaurant. He had a GoPro camera set up so we could see a close-up of the pans as they were cooking on the stove but for the most part I only watched him in action.

We started out with some prawns, fresh off the boat. Although they weren’t shelled (which we prefer) we dug in with our fingers and the four of us at our end of the table finished off a bowl of them. They weren’t included in what he planned to make – just something to get us started in case the last two people showed up.

The appetizer course was a roasted radish salad – none of us had ever heard of roasting radishes. They were roasted in oil, salt and pepper and the process took all the heat out of them; Pat thought they tasted a bit like brussels sprouts. The dressing on the salad was made of a couple of types of mustard and sour cream and a bit of this and that spicing.

Next up was a mushroom tart made with about five different kinds of mushroom cooked with a generous quantity of white wine and served on puff pasty with asparagus stems.

For the “main” course we had duck. Duck is the last thing I would ever order in a restaurant and I have to say I wasn’t looking forward to it. He told us how he prepares the duck – they sit in a dry salt brine for three days before being rinsed, dried and stored in their own fat; apparently they can be stored this way for up to six months because the meat at this point is cured. The roasted duck was served with bok choy and the sauce on the plate was made from a bottle of red wine, reduced down, with cranberries and blueberries added at the end. The results were amazing – not only amazing for duck but it is one of the best meat dishes I’ve ever had.

For dessert we had ice cream and blueberry sauce for dessert – this sauce was basically made with butter, blueberries and wine.

We’ll definitely be back for more! And the bonus is that the restaurant is just at the bottom of our hill.

I was off to stitching today. There is still a lot of snow around Gail’s place and I parked half on the road and half in her driveway just to be sure I could get out again. I was stitching the binding on my Farmer’s Wife quilt – more than half-way around now.

Tonight I’m off to my 100+ Women Who Care meeting. More snow predicted for tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

When we went out to our Valentine’s dinner it was to a new restaurant – well not exactly new but an old restaurant run by a new chef. We saw online that he was offering cooking classes on a night when the restaurant was closed to the public.

My dinner on Valentines included a beet salad, lobster bisque, short ribs, dessert and a cheese plate. All very tasty. Pat ordered a similar meal but he picked a lamb shank. When the chef came to the table and asked how our meal was Pat’s comment was that the lamb was “flat”.

By the time we got home the chef had invited him to be a Facebook friend and they exchanged a few comments back and forth. It was all very friendly and the chef said he appreciated the feedback.

Then earlier this week Pat had another message from the chef asking him to come to his cooking class tonight and he could bring a guest. There was also mention that the bar would be open. So tonight is the night. We have no idea what to expect, but I’m thinking Pat will be cooking and I’ll be drinking!

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

I was quilting this morning and the thought was going through my head that my method is a little like hiking a new trail. I need to mark my quilting lines but didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing it so I’m using short lines (almost a dash) along the line where I need to stitch. When I sew, I line up my needle with the marked dash and follow it to the next one and so on. When I hike a new trail I’m always looking ahead to make sure I can see the next marker from the marker I’m currently at so I won’t get lost. It has worked so far for hiking – we’ll see how it works on the quilt.

And speaking of hiking, just when I thought it was safe for Moreen and I to start walking in the woods again we’ve got more snow. It varies between snow and rain and it isn’t sticking on our street yet but that may change as the temperature drops overnight. I managed to get out this afternoon to do some errands and had no issues with the roads.

After getting stuck in the parking lot at the quilting class on Saturday I decided not to even risk going to the bee today. I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to get done, although my bee list is quite extensive at the moment – cards, Guild blocks, Challenge bag, and more.

I stopped at Canadian Tire today and picked up ten shoe boxes. I really need to do some tidying up in my sewing room and a lot of projects that are in plastic bags will fit nicely in the bins and they will stack better. I’m a long way from being ready to do any of that tidying but the bins were on sale for less than $2 each so I stocked up.

My prize for the January UFO came in the mail today. The blog writer included an extra pattern that looks very nice. I will make the bag that was my prize; no matter how many times I say “No more bags” they seem to keep popping up.

Monday, February 18, 2019

Our last house concert performer was from PEI and she lives about five minutes from one of the Bed and Breakfast’s we stayed at (the one in the lighthouse). She is also a quilter and her aunt owns a shop. After dinner one night while she was here I dug out my journal of our trip to PEI and we did indeed stop at her aunt’s shop in O’Leary (pronounced O’Larry). I wasn’t “into” quilting then but it didn’t stop me from purchasing three cross stitch kits (none of which are done) – Peggy’s Cove, Three Churches of Mahone Bay and Lupins (the unofficial flower of PEI).

I enjoyed reading through all of that particular journal; I don’t have to even look hard and I can see four others. I’ve always intended to do “something” with them so, while it was handy, I started transcribing my ramblings. This journal pre-dates my online journal but I can see my writing change after only a couple of months.

What are the highlights of the first couple of months of 2007? I noted that I was working on a shawl for Kathryn (I expect it was eventually Alex’s baby blanket), a Cinderella cross stitch for Madison, a Winnie the Pooh magnet for Emma, and with only two months of the journal transcribed I’ve already fixed Dylan’s blankie twice! We watched lots of hockey and were involved in a couple of movie-screening groups.

Today, besides the transcribing, I’ve paid some bills and done some Cranberry Hall work. I headed out to Canadian Tire to purchase some bins they have on sale but they were closed. I knew it was Family Day but I really didn’t expect everything to be shut down. With what is left of the afternoon I’ll clean and oil my sewing machine and maybe get a couple of lines of quilting done.