A surprise guest…

When planning a dinner, it is important to know the number of guests, and their allergies and dislikes….  But this week we had a possible last minute special guest. This was very unusual and exciting.  The rest of the guest list including our trio, Jennifer, Terry, and Greg. The question remains…..  will we have a special guest. 

As it happens the stars aligned and we do have our 7th guest….  Am I the only one that remembers that video game?  It was great, and hopefully our dinner will be as well.  So I did a little research on Liz ,and discovered her Irish heritage, which decided the direction of our menu.

We gathered at Steph’s and although it was chilly (freezing for our tropical friends), we got the BBQ going and the deck heater and plunged in.  I did not realized that Liz would show up with a driver/security, or I would have snuck a few delicacies out to her. Once introductions were made and we shared a little bubbly, we gathered at table and started our meal with a winter squash soup, with sautéed mushrooms and croutons, served in roasted pepper squash bowls.

I do like whimsical presentations, plus in this case the bowl was edible. It was a lovely silky soup, with a little crunch from the croutons.  A nice start to the meal.

A while back, we found some really nice Irish salmon, at our fish monger, so what better time to go back and get more. We BBQed it on planks , with Shawn’s famous planking spice, served over a bed of lemon risotto. This was paired with individual vegetable tian..

Somehow having anything barbequed in the winter seems an extra treat. With a bit of smokiness, from the salmon, a nice lemony tang and the savory vegetables, I think the dish had a nice balance. While the dessert was warming we had some interesting conversation about around music, history and the taboo topic of politics. When the suggestion was made to open yet another bottle of Cave Springs La penna, that may have been the only disagreement of the night. But Shawn acquiesced and put the bottle back.

Since we were still officially in the fall, but heading to the holidays, we thought why not have a dessert that is from both seasons, a gingerbread steamed pudding, with hard sauce.

Normally I would make a Newfie style hard sauce, but decided instead to make a more traditional Irish one, with a nice 15 year old Irish Whiskey. The pudding had some lovely “pumpkin spice” notes, that remind me of fall, but gingerbread and flaming pudding seems very Christmassy.  The hard sauce had a nice bite to it, but melted down the hot pudding, to give that nice sweet buttery flavour.

Now with a glass in hand (at least some of us), we moved back to the living room and gathered around the piano, so sing through some hymns and carols, to help us get in the mood, for the season to come.

So glad to gather with friends old and new, and especially our special guest Liz…..  For those of you expecting me to reveal who our guest was, I could tell you…. but then I’d have to feed you.