Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A Feast Fit For a King!


On Thursday we had the first big gathering at our humble abode: an early Christmas dinner! Isn't that a glorious spread? We provided the turkey (my husband would like me to draw attention to his expert carving job), gravy, stuffing, and the famous Ross family ginger yams, and our guests came through with the rest! It was truly a magnificent feast, and the very first time we have ever cooked a turkey.


Here's the beast beforehand...

...and here's the beautiful bird after!!! I have to say, I think we did a dang good job, even if we both burned ourselves in the process. It was worth it. 



Unfortunately I didn't really take pictures of anything other than food, but let me just say that it was a wonderful evening, and I'm so glad everyone was able to come! We had a blast. 


As evidenced here. 

We had this dinner for a few reasons. One is that we simply enjoy good food and good friends and love to take every opportunity to combine them. Another is that the majority of our friends here are students and out-of-towners and we wanted everyone together for one last shebang before we all fly off to the four corners of the earth. And, as many of you know, Shaun and I will be doing our own adventuring this year...we'll be spending Christmas in Africa. 

We'll be gone for a few weeks, and as such, for the past few days I've been trying frantically to use up all of the food in our house. Last night I made a fantastic dessert that I've been wanting to try for awhile, which also allowed me to use up some very, very mushy persimmons that had been sitting in my refrigerator for over a week. Win win!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Home Sweet Home!


Alright, so I know I've now been living in Montreal for about three and a half months and still have not shown anyone any pictures of our new abode. This is mostly due to the fact that I wanted each room to look complete before showing it to the world, and most of our finishing touches (ie: pictures and various knick knacks) have been forlornly sitting on our dining room table waiting for a home. As we haven't had all that many guests over for dinner (not having any dining room chairs), it seemed like a perfectly sensible spot to leave them. However, we have recently received a dinner guest and hosted an early Christmas party, and I thought it might be a good idea to make the house look a little more presentable.

So! Being the very handy woman that I am, I hung our pictures crookedly and then asked my husband to finish the job (don't judge me) and otherwise tied up all the loose household ends, finally bringing our home into a state fit to be seen by outsiders.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Stock Up!



It's raining buckets right now, and I feel oddly at home. The rainy weather is comfortably familiar...even though I had to walk home with a heavy bag of groceries and no umbrella in it. (Who knew there were so many puddles down memory lane?)

The weather here generally tends to be more drastic than I'm used to. We've had a few wind storms that nearly blew the house down. 


 Exibit A: a garbage bin in the metro station on a windy day. Perfectly coiffed hairstyles beware.

So far I'm a fan of the drastic weather situation, though I do feel badly for the squirrels. They sit shivering on branches outside my kitchen window, imploring me with their beady little eyes to leave large bowls of pumpkin seeds out on the deck. I feel my resolve weakening every day.

The squirrel population around here has reached epic proportions. I generally pass about fifteen squirrels on my way to the bus stop. I once saw a squirrel fall out of a tree and land on top of a truck driving down the road.

It's a hard life for a squirrel these days.

It's things like this that make me glad to have a cozy yellow kitchen to sit in and a nice cup of tea in hand. It's also things like this that remind me of the importance of stocking up on provisions for the winter. Naturally, that means making stock!!