Now gather round my friends and I will regale you with the tale of the mysterious chicken-dog… One spring evening, while sitting in Steph’s back yard, I heard a sound…. Part bark and part crow. When I asked what it was, I was regaled with tale of the infamous chicken-dog. Half dog, half chicken. This creature is known to haunt the streets of North York. Many tell the tale, but to this day no one has managed to get solid evidence to prove its existence. We have found a mock-up of what he may look like, from an eyewitness.
This creature is now quite famous and has his own geocache (if you don’t know what this is, go find it). This mystery has been alive for many years. Now the last few weeks the Monday Night Dining Busters have been hard at work to uncover the truth behind the myth. 2 palpable sitings have been made, that may blow this legend wide open…. But just as we were about to downgrade this legend to the mundane, yet unusual, we heard another sound, from another direction…. It seems that there may be more than one creature in this neighbourhood, the mundane and the mystical. I am not ready to give up my search for the truth, or the next best thing….. a good story.
This week, Shawn and I had a disagreement on the menu. We like to change things up, but one of our summer themes is always, use what we grow. We have served Mexican recently, but with the tomatillos, fresh from the garden, we needed to feature them, in some way. So Mexican it is. Along with our trio this week are our friends Joel, Virginia and Curtis.
To welcome our guests, and put them in the right mood for the evening, we welcomed them with Brie and candied pecan quesadillas and a roasted tomatillo guacamole. I hate to admit, but we love these quesadillas so much, we may have snuck one before the guests arrived.
It’s so nice to hang out with friends on the deck, and catch up on our summers. Next we moved down to the yard for Crepas de Camaron Con Salsa de Chile Pasilla. The homemade crepes, with shrimp and the silky sauce has made this s favorite of ours.
For our main we served barbecued pork tenderloin with orange chipotle sauce, Mexican white rice and Rojas de chile poblano, which is a combination of poblanos and our peppers, simmered with white wine, cream and beef stock, until it takes on a silky texture. Combined with a little zing from the chipotles, makes for a nice combination. We served a Lighthall Pinot Noir, from Prince Edward County, which stood up very well with the spices.
As dusk was settling, we finished our meal with Mexican brownies, with ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. The brownies use and unsweetened chocolate for the base, the chunks of coarsely chopped Mexican chocolate mixed through. Mexican chocolate is a hard slightly grainy chocolate with a bit of spice to it, and adds a bit of a cinnamon fragrance to the brownie.
As darkness settled and the mosquitoes took wing, we moved inside to sing through some excerpts from Elijah, some Lieder and English part songs. It had both moments of beauty and moments of… let’s just say less than greatness, then again that is half the fun of friends gathering round the piano. Summer may be winding up, and rehearsal season on the horizon, but there was warmth in that living room, and not just because it was hot.
I want to believe in the chicken dog!