Dinner At My House

Man, what a great party I had yesterday, an advance celebration of my birthday today - which has been so fantastic. It was me, Scottie, Hilary (my oldest friend, since age 11), Steen, Nicole, Jennifer and Duff.

The weather sucked, but the camaraderie more than made up for it:

Me and Hilly (this pose is a hallmark of our friendship)

My Japanese maple - just cuz.

Don't you love it when your prosecco matches your gerberas??

Steen taking a photo of me, while I took a photo of him.

Y'all know I have worked hard to make my dining room look like a sexy steak house.

At my request, Scott made a very casual meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, tomatoes and feta, green salad with jalapenos and we got some of my fave cupcakes (24 of them for 8 people?!). The flavours ranged from red velvet (a perennial fave) to pistachio and ginger orange. There was even a butter cream peanut butter chocolate.

The wine flowed freely, the conversation was lively and authentic. There's nothing like time spent with old friends. Especially when you're the star of the show :-)

BTW, today I went on the most amazing horticultural tour of back yards in chichi fancy-land. I took tons of photos which I will share in my next post...

And thanks so much to all of my wonderful blog and Twitter friends for well-wishes on my bday. I love to hear from you all!

Mmmm Cake...

I promised to show you lovely, styled photos of last weekend's dessert and then we got all drunk and food-happy and we suctioned it down before I'd even considered snapping some shots.

Fortunately, I did get one of the chocolate bundt cake before the guests arrived:


The recipe (the one that came with my Williams Sonoma portable cake tin) called for a chocolate glaze - which seemed like total overkill. I mean, this thing has a cup of cocoa and a chocolate bar in it!? And a container of sour cream. Perhaps I should save this fact for my next tag but I really don't like sour cream. Note: I do make exceptions in cake. Other note: Don't use low fat sour cream - just don't. What's the freakin' point??

It has a very nice crumb - quite moist - but I find the chocolate a bit overwhelming. Which is where the strawberries and handmade ice cream came in.

Per my last post on the topic, I really do think I've figured out what works best - at least in the home machine. Lots of egg yolk and whole milk. And espresso.

I have to say it was a hit.

Salad Days

A couple of weeks ago, when the weather was still sultry, Steen, Nicole, Scott, M and I had a delicious BBQ. Nic had just got a new camera - an excellent camera - something point-and-shoot Canon (but practically an SLR) and we spent the evening taking photos.

The menu:

Hamburgers (we call them bugglers)
Corn on Cob
Modified Nicoise Salad (made by S&N - the most gorgeous thing!)
Homemade coffee ice cream (Michel Roux recipe)
Homemade sable shortbread (Michel Roux recipe)
Berries
Yummy bottles of wine I can't remember the names of

N shot a great video of me preparing dessert (well - we think it was great but we weren't exactly the best judges of high art at that point). Alas, in our debaucherous state, we managed to delete the video. You'll just have to believe I was like a TV chef.

I'm sure I'm going to look at these again and again come January!

Is it just me, or does my kid look like WendyB here?

I'm telling you, buy Pastry by Michel Roux. Even has ice cream recipe and all the food I've tried so far has been amazingly successful

Can you get over how gorgeous this salad is???

The last shot, while grainy and gratuitous, falls into the "K-Line tries to pretend she's Niotillfem and is living an exciting Scandinavian life where people kiss in dimly-lit rooms" category.

Nicole's Birthday Party

We entertained in the garden for the first time on Saturday. Despite the fact that it's still under construction - and there's no matching furniture - we had a truly excellent time.

You know those bright, early summer afternoons that turn into cool, but languid, evenings? You know beautiful food and good wine and great music (but not outside - I'd never play music in such close proximity to my neighbours! Even if it is the noisy city, I have manners.)...

I'm not the most sit-down and relax kind of person - though I'm working on it. Remember that one of my primary lifestyle goals for the coming decade is spontaneous, relaxed, relaxing, joyful entertaining.

Well, allow me to push the point home with the following 8000 mellow photos of people and a place you don't know! :-) C'mon, it's just like being there...

Getting Ready...

My new salad tongs, some glasses for Prosecco, apples for the crumble

Just out of the oven...

I'm having this love on for irises lately...

Hanging outside (We're calling it the Cottage)

Some of these chives ended up in the tomato salad...

The Vibe:

This shot is so ridiculous but it captures my mood.

We started eating at 7:00! (After afternoon cheesecake and prosecco outside)

The Food:

The combination of the vanilla in the crumble (easy to make)
and the vanilla in the ice cream is spectacular.