Cooking All Day
I feel like it shouldn’t take all day to make one meal—especially since I made the dessert and the chutney yesterday. But it really felt like an all-day job. I did have a Zoom meeting after my Bible reading this morning, and then Jasper and I went to Walmart so he could return something and I could buy some decaf coffee, because I know Doug and Robin like to have coffee after supper and I had a feeling they’d want decaf.
Saturday is my friend Robin’s birthday, but of course she’ll be celebrating with family then, so I invited her and Doug to come for a birthday dinner today. I felt like the menu was pretty basic, but it still ended up being pretty high effort. I won’t bore you with a step-by-step account of my day’s activities. Instead, I’ll just tell you the menu. The first course was a creamy carrot soup accompanied by mini curry/cilantro/bacon pancakes topped with my homemade mango chutney.
The main course was roast beef (and gravy):
Au gratin potatoes:
Roasted broccoli:
And mini sourdough biscuits:
And in the course of making this dinner, I was able to use rosemary, parsley and thyme from my own garden.
We had a very enjoyable dinner, after which I made decaf coffee in my French press for the first time ever and they drank it and it didn’t kill them.
It’s funny when we get together with Doug and Robin, we rarely have a four-way conversation. Walter and Doug have their conversation, and Robin and I have a separate one.
Eventually I served dessert, which I failed to take a photo of. Robin had requested a chocolate dessert, so I made that chocolate layered dessert that everyone likes so much. I also sent some home with them.
It was a very enjoyable evening.
Joy Spark: Getting to spend the evening with Doug and Robin!
Wednesday Word of the Day
phatic: refers to language used primarily to establish or maintain social relationships, rather than to exchange meaningful information. As an introvert, phatic conversation doesn’t come easily to me and I’ve had to train myself to engage in it.
Parting Shot:
I brought some of the flame lilies inside to brighten up our table tonight.