Dinner at our house with Janice and Gord!

Janice and Gord came over for dinner last night.. Janice brought a bottle of Banrock bubbly... It was very tasty...not too sweet,not too dry and was a good start to the night!


Emil getting ready to carve the ham...unfortunately, the ham photo didn't turn out, but I decorated it with fresh pineapple and whole cloves that Deb brought me back from Grenada...Yum!...oh yes, I glazed it with a honey glaze...the honey that Sonia brought me back from St. Lucia!




Just before dinner...we had a group hug... Harrop Therapy! ...just joking!

Here is Janice and Gord. We played a mean card game of Golf... and Gord and I won...mainly because we started off with a pat hand. We advanced to Euchre once no-one could memorize their two face down cards! And Happy to say, Gord and I won again... I still have some learning to do in the Euchre department, but it is a heck of a good game to play!

Janice brought a wonderful organic Waldorf salad ...very fresh walnuts, celery, many varities of apple and currents and here is the best part...it had shaved ginger in it for a tangy flavour.

And here is a primer on doing a Pineapple tree... Note that some improvements can be made during the initial cutting of it, in order to even out the spaces.... I didn't want to use a felt pen marker, but in the end, although the cuts looked good from the bottom, I needed a few more "panels" once I got going on it. Oh well, it is a first for me. The one I saw was used to skewer in fresh prawns and a fresh chunk of pineapple on each skewer...to be served at a party. I think the prawns had been coated in Coconut and deep fried first... all very decadent. Here, I have used Strawberries and pineapple chunks on those coloured toothpicks.

Plenty of pineapple pieces. I had enough to do the top of the ham, then fill in the gaps on the pineapple.

I just started adding the skewers randomly and filled in the holes as best as I could,as the toothpicks were about a half inch short.

And here is my finished masterpiece centrepiece.

I served it surrounded by ham slices, scalloped potatoes and aspargus and baby snap peas, and squash which I seasoned with sauteed onion, garlic, and Pataks medium curry..with a dollop of sour cream to blend it all together. It was delicious. Janice brought the yummy Waldorf salad and topped the meal off with Pecan pie.

So all in all , it was a fun night.

Today we picked up Anne and Dick, who have returned from their big winter journey south to Santa Carlos in Mexico, and met with Gisele and Mike , our new neighbours in Lynn and Ricks former house. We had Sunday brunch/lunch at the Dock and Duck in their newly renovated restaurant at the ferry landing. It was good, but not impressive. We'll stick to the BBI in the future! In any case, we had a lot of laughs and that was the best part...just getting together with friends. Unfortunately, just as we are getting to know Gisele and Mike, we will have to say good bye, as they return to Lethbridge to get things in order so that they can move back out to BC permanently maybe next year. Apparently, the home is already rented for April 1st, so we'll now have to get to know the new neighbours all over again!
Our power went out, just when I deemed I was hungry. I ate cold ham on cold toast and now, I am thinking hot food...some of that left over squash! Then I am thinking about making muffins. Chris and Carolyne should be back from their trip when I go to work tomorrow, so Chris will be looking for some baking I am thinking!

"The Creator"