Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Food and more

We've had a couple of days of fun so far. We've been through a small part of Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. We've run wild in our own sculpture park in Loveland. There have probably never been more irreverently posed photos taken with some of those statues — and we're not even going to discuss the sheep sculpture. Jeremy is irrepressible and delightful. 

Last night's menu planning session turned into a major grocery trip for Jeremy and me. He was very impressed with our grocery story, the variety and quality of produce, meats and sea foods available. We're spoiled. I'll admit it. It's amazing that the cost of living is so low when the pampering factor is so high. We ended the trip by picking up a ready to bake pizza from Papa Murphy's, and put it in the oven at home while we started the prep work for tomorrow's dinner party. We'll have to run back into town tomorrow to pick up the lobster, but everything else is on track. 

He's teaching me some new techniques and recipes for special meals. We'll be making lobster bisque, beef wellington, eclairs, and some other things like beignets and crab cakes over the next couple of days. I'll be adding a fruits of the forest pie (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb, apples, all baked in a double crust... ) and of course Jeremy's birthday is on Thursday, so there's going to be a Bacardi Cake to celebrate that, and maybe either cottage pie or pork pie (both meat pies). 

The whole day wasn't dedicated to food, although it seemed like it. Jeremy and I played cribbage, and then we went out to the fire pit and lit some sparklers, laughed and talked around the fire while we made our s'mores. Oh, yeah, I guess that's food, too. Jeremy grilled himself a banana to add to his. I wouldn't have thought of that, but we all tasted it and declared it really a great idea. Then after some more sparklers the four of us trooped back inside to play "Smarter than a 5th Grader" (none of us are). 

After everyone trooped off to bed I called Sherrie and she walked me through the mending of my link in the last blog, so if you haven't seen the outhouse tour, it's now fixed - thank you, thank you, thank you, Sherrie. Now I understand how it's done, and will be able to do it again. I think. One thing that would make tomorrow night's dinner even better would be your smiling face at the table with us, my friend. Good night. Sweet dreams, and wake up happy.

2 comments:

sherrie said...

I'm coming, I'm coming -- don't start without me!!! Oh yeah, it might take me a while to get there, so maybe you'd better go ahead. Shoot!

Kathleen said...

We'll start this one without you, but the great part about cooking with a chef is the learning experience. We'll have a reprise when you do arrive, since I'll know how to do all this again for your visit. Even better, I can show you, and you can then do it for your friends!