Pfoderie: January 2012

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

CHANGE OF PACE

                          Last Friday, January 20, was Donna's birthday and traditionally, in our house, it would call for family and friends to get together for a celebration. Donna did not feel good with another bout of ear and sinus infections so we celebrated quietly at home.
                         All this did not prevent me and Donna from having a great birthday weekend together, of course with a little change of pace, good food and a lot of laughter's.
                         Friday night I served Donna surf and turf, a slice of beef fillet Wellington and a 1.2 lb Bahamian Lobster tail.

My little set up before Donna came home from work

Red velvet and Swiss chocolate mousse cake

1.2 lb lobster tail

Some of Donna's favorite dishes

Lobster, fried okra and hush puppies.

Saturday we visited and spent three and half hours at the Mill mall, an occurrence that happens only about twice a year, (I hate shopping) but I had a great time and some exercise, walking all those miles.

Tour guide at the mall

believe it or not: enjoying the Mall scenery.

Scouting out the food court

That evening we dined at Tony's, a restaurant on main street, downtown St Charles.
Fantastic ambiance, great service and awesome food.

Great time!

(our server was Penny from the "Big Bang Theory)

Sunday we just relaxed and enjoyed movies and sport like the Australian open with Federers and Nadal and also the playoffs for the Superball.

Notice on the TV screen, Nadal cruising to the semi final.

Friday, January 13, 2012

FOOTBALL POOL GATHERING

The regular football season is over and I asked Gina and Daniel to put together a short gathering of all the members of the football pool to give out the final awards.

Donna welcomed Sara, Karla, Joe, Eric, Daniel and Gina

We were all ready for a cocktail before the awards presentation except

Sara because she is caring for 2.

I probably should have known better and been better prepared, because that SHORT gathering accelerated to a full blown party. Just the way we like it. Only 6 days after the new year party we are right back at it.

Giving out the awards

Winner and gold medal recipient KARLA and Eric

Second and silver medal : SARA and Joe

Third place and bronze medal : DONNA and Ernie

( No picture available)

(Karla, Sara, and Donna are in caps because they did the winning!! Sorry Gina.)

The proud winner with their spread sheet.

Final results of the 2011 football season

After this, there was no holding back. The party started!

Celebrating the winners

Eric explaining the new rules for next season

Best friends forever

Karla, Daniel, Eric, Gina

Eric started holding up the wall

Joe cut himself shaving (or so he said)

Eric, master of the moonshine

In serious discussion about Tebow

Gina taking a short nap

She decided it's safer on the floor

Still trying to figure out what went wrong with the Rams?

Sara is keeping everybody under control

Why not?

The best picture of the night!

Friday, January 6, 2012

NEW YEARS EVE CULINARY MASTERPIECE

                        We celebrated the end of 2011 with affordable luxury. Friends and family, eight all together inclusive Donna and myself, arrived at 6 o'clock Saturday night with bags full of their favorite beverages, some even with overnight bags. We all enjoyed cocktails and at 7:30 we proceeded to the dining room most with the anticipation to experience and indulge a truly classic Swiss luxury dinner.


                          I wonder if people recognise how much time and effort it needs to pull of a dinner party for 8 like this. After planing the menu, I had to search and go shopping for all the ingredients, and this during the busiest time during the holidays. ( I had to visit 3 different butcher shops before I found the right quality beef tenderloin ) The menu itself took three days to prepare. Donna did a beautiful job on getting the dinning room ready and assisted me with some other things, like making sure that I did not run out of Bacardi and coke. Just Saturday morning it took me close to four hours to stage the canapes for our midnight snack.

                           This is only for people like me who truly enjoy doing this.

Finally this is what we served:

MENU

BALSAMIC, TARRAGON

GLAZED JUMBO SEA SCALLOPS

polenta milanese, fire roasted peppers and spinach

lemon caper cream sauce

MONTRICHER SALAD

butter lettuce, romaine, radishes and plum tomatoes

herb, mustard dressing

ROAST BEEF TENDERLOIN WELLINGTON

foie gras, mushroom and shiitake duxelles wrapped in puff pastry

grilled tomatoes, sauteed baby carrots and asparagus

sauce bourguignonne

SOUFFLE GLACE GRAND MARNIER

frozen mousse of eggs, whipped cream and grand marnier

This was our 5th annual new years eve party here at home, in my opinion it was so far the best dinner by a gigantic margin and will be hard to top.

After dinner we played some games, socialized and enjoyed our favorite beverages. Of course, we could not live with out trying some shots.This time it was Eric's Apple Pie Moonshine that did the damage. Midnight we toasted in the new year with some champagne. After that the party slowed down for some of us, Gina falling asleep on the couch, and Donna & I were the first ones retiring to the bedroom to sleep for a few hours.

It looks like everybody had a great time the whole night as you see in the following pictures.