Author: David

Lobster Eclairs

Tonight’s dinner is brought to you by the letter L….  L is for lobster.  L is also for lamb, and of course L is for lemon.  Now that I think of it, L is for luscious, and that is what we were going for.  This Monday was a special night, as we have no rehearsal on Easter Monday, plus we have some special guests with us, Susan, Craig and Tina.  Since it’s just a day after Easter, we thought of something Easter inspired.

For our appetizer the newf in me took over. Shawn found Jamie Kennedy’s recipe for lobster eclairs.  We decided to change it up and grilled the lobster instead of the standard boiling. The one issue we had, was that the recipe in the book, was not correct.  I have made Choux pastry many times, and I knew something seemed odd about this recipe, but thought that perhaps it was just a different take on an old favorite….. Nope, it was just wrong. It took a couple attempts to get them just right, since the next batch just wasn’t large enough.  Finally we had the perfect shells. Light pastry filled with Grilled lobster, cider mayonnaise, fennel, fresh herbs and a touch of arugula.  This was a lovely start to the evening, served with Flat Rock Cellars Riddled Sparkling Wine. read more

Gift from St-Ambroise

We had a delightful surprise this week. In January, we blogged about a meal in which we used St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale, for a glazed pork tenderloin. The Regional Sales Manager, for our area, was in the neighbourhood and dropped off a care package of their products for us, including their new Maple Beer, that has not been released yet.  It also included their Scotch ale, an Oak Aged Pale Ale, beer infused cheese and Beer Mustard.  I really want to drink the beer, but I think we may need to plan a meal around it.  We are so grateful, to have someone take the time to thank us personally, for a mention. read more

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Pistachios

I have mentioned before, when a guest is invited to dinner, during the rehearsal season it comes with the warning “Dinner is at 5:30 sharp.” That being said, we are not the MND police. When a truck falls off the ramp for the 404, and lands on the 401 below (for those not from Ontario, this is the busiest highway in Canada) we must make allowances.

Joining our trio this week, we have  Virginia, and Brian. By 5:30 we were enjoying a glass of wine, when we received a text from Brian telling us not to wait….  It seems a transport truck fell onto the highway.  After waiting as long as we dared, we set Brian’s food aside and started in on Monday Night Dining.  Tonight everything is cylindrical.  It wasn’t quite planned that way, but we did notice a trend. read more

Tri-colour Farfalle

Last week we got cyber attacked…  Twice!  I’m pretty sure they were not after our little blog, but it still took a lot of work to put it back together.  We did lose a couple of entries (thank goodness for backups) and possibly a couple of comments, that I could not recover.  I think we are back up and on track again. Things have been warming up here, after a record cold February (we did not go over the freezing mark all month). A few days lately when the sun is shining, it is starting to feel like spring, so maybe we can shift our menu a little in that direction too. This week all we could decide on was the appetizer. While we were at the cottage, we had great fun making some interesting pastas. One that is always a treat to make is Farfalle Tricolore (tricoloured bow tie pasta).  We made carrot pasta, beet pasta, and swiss chard pasta (usually it’s made with spinach, but we had swiss chard in the freezer). These are combined and cranked through the pasta machine, then cut and shaped. read more

Prep

First I need to apologize for the lateness of this post, and that subscribers would have seen the previous post twice. It seems our server had a nasty DDoS attack.  I ended up losing the last 2 posts, when we recovered a backup.  We are now on our own dedicated IP, which should help….  Now  on to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Anyone who has read this blog, the past while, has read about the Pax Christi Gala. I had strict instructions not to give too much of the design for the event away, before the event. Well the event was on Saturday, so now I can retroactively spill the beans. The event was lovely, with everyone all dolled up and looking elegant. The food was impressive, the auction had some amazing items, and the wine was an inspired choice (it’s a good thing we had some in reserve). Highlight’s of the night were our musical guests. Having Catherine Robbin come out of retirement, to regale us with Italian art songs, was a treat. She is so engaging. After dinner Francesco Pellegrino performed traditional Italian songs for us. Even with 120 people there it felt very intimate. read more

Pax Christi Gala

We are now just over a week away from the Pax Christi Chorale Black and White Venetian Gala.  Do you want to know how I know that???  It’s because our apartment is packed with Gala décor.  One end if filled with boxes.  In front of our bookcase is a small forest of topiaries.  The bedroom has more boxes, and we have taken over the cupboard under the stairs, to store the wine and the rest of the décor. If you are near Toronto on March 7th, the Columbus Centre is the place to be. With the place in such disarray, Shawn will only allow certain guests over, in case we give them the wrong impression, but this week our dear friend Brian had a meeting cancelled and was available for dinner. Almost as exciting, he is bringing wine! Tonight’s guests are our trio and Brian (I just have to move some décor, so he can sit….  We started with a lovely Shrimp Bisque.  This is a luxurious dish, with a hint of Cayenne on the finish, but the trick is in sautéing and simmering the shrimp shells, to add depth and flavour to the soup.  This is one to serve, when you want to impress someone special. read more

Pax Christi Chorale Gala

I’m going to get in trouble for this, BUT the picture above is a little teaser for what you can expect at the Pax Christi Chorale – Venetian Black and White Gala. I’m going…  Are you?

So this week, the weather here has turned… well ….  really snowy.  The weekend was cold and windy and Monday, the skies opened up and things are very white.  In these cold snowy times, our thoughts turn to comfort food.  We need Indian food!!!  On Monday Shawn had an appointment and would be passing by Pusateri’s.  So he could get the Chicken Supremes for my Silken Chicken.  I could just taste it….. read more

Pheasant Stuffed with Veal, Chestnuts and Porcini

On a recent trip to Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, we happened upon a Mennonite butcher stall. The selection was impressive and the staff friendly.  We purchased a nice sized pheasant, for an upcoming meal, and ended up taking the bird to the cottage with us, but did not have a plan for it yet. When we got back home, we realized that the poor bird was left behind. Since we would not be back north for a few weeks, we resigned ourselves to having to throw out our purchase.  We finally got back to the cottage this past weekend, but where was the pheasant?     Turns out it was in the freezer all along. So after a review of Jacques Pepin’s video on deboning fowl, Shawn practiced his knife skills and deboned our bird.  We then stuffed it with ground veal, chestnuts, porcini mushrooms and herbs, then formed it back into roughly its original shape. read more

With Christmas preparations

Nativity

New Year’s madness and my birthday!!!

Reine de Saba

Then 2 weeks of recordings… Things have been very busy.  So finally we are back to regular rehearsals and our regular Monday Night Dining schedule.

This Monday marks the start of a VERY special project. CHH Parry wrote a major Oratorio in 1888. This work was quite the success at the time. It enjoyed many performances. Unfortunately this piece has fallen into obscurity. The orchestral score is not available. There is not a single recording of the piece and It has never been performed in North America. This is a major work that might never see the light of day. Pax Christi Chorale, under the guidance and fervor of Stephanie Martin, is going to resurrect this phoenix, from its ashes.  Steph has managed to get a scan of the original, hand written score, in the composer’s hand. Two York master’s students are transposing it into a composing program, to create a full digital score.  Dr. Jeremy Dibble, the worlds foremost Parry scholar will proof the results. This Monday the Pax Christi Chorale chorus begins rehearsals and on May 3rd, we will be in Koerner Hall, with full orchestra and amazing soloists, to bring this work back to life.  We hope to also create the first ever recording of the piece.  Can you tell we are excited? read more