This week, in honour of family day, MND was moved to Tuesday. This also means that we did not have rehearsal immediately afterward, so we moved the venue to Steph’s house, where we can stretch out a bit. This week’s guests were to be Teri and Larry, but alas Lar could not attend, so he sent us special guest Juliet, in his place.
For those not in the know, Teri was Shawn’s voice teacher for years, and he used to read Juliette bedtime stories after his lesson. I did not realize until just a few years ago, that Teri and Steph go much further back.
When our guests arrived, Steph broke out the bubbly, to welcome them properly, and Shawn broke out the blinis.
These were topped with Ontario smoked trout, crème fraiche and dill. This gave us a wonderful time to catch up on our lives, since we saw each other last.
For our first course, we gathered at the table to enjoy ricotta gnocchi with mushroom cream sauce.
This was a new twist on an old favorite, but gnocchi is always a winner with us.
For our main we served Supreme de volaille, Jerusalem artichoke puree, potato pave and parsnip chips.
Chicken supremes are a favorite of ours. You have also seen Jerusalem artichokes on the blog before, but here we have a bit of a new treatment. The potato pave is quite unique. Pave is the word for paving stone and refers to the square shape. It’s kind of like a high-end scalloped potato, with much thinner potatoes. The potatoes are then cut into cubes and sautéed on their sides, to warm and brown them. Parsnip chips are just nice. They add visual interest, crispness and a lovely light flavor.
For dessert, a new twist on the individual molten chocolate cake.
hot fudge molten chocolate cake
The tricky part of the molten cake is to get the perfect doneness. Too little and you have uncooked cake, too much and it’s not molten. The answer in this cake is hot fudge. We made hot fudge (great on ice cream) chill it and form it into balls, which are then frozen. The cake batter is chilled until it thickens slightly, then the hot fudge balls are pressed into the batter. These are then chilled completely and cooked right from the fridge. The result… molten hot fudge inside a chocolate cake. Much more reliable and I think a big improvement. The extra hot fudge is in the fridge, for ice cream.
Once dessert was complete, we predictably gathered around the piano. Steph played and Juliet regaled us with some lovely pieces. We can definitely hear some of her mother’s sound in her voice. I think the moment of the evening for us was a duet with mother and daughter. Hearing Shawn’s voice teacher singing with the little girl who used to interrupt his lessons singing so beautifully together. Quite a treat. One humorous moment was when Teri sang “I know my redeemer liveth” off book, from the couch, with her feet up… you would think it would sound phoned in, but she sang it with all of the ornamentations, it was an interesting juxtaposition.
We do love to have an MND without having to rush off to rehearsal. Such a lovely evening.
What a great evening – glad you all had a chance to catch up. And how fun that Teri and Juliet sang a duet. Always love to read about your menu and see the photos.