Personal Elizabethian Notes

.1. Am rather exhausted from this weekend, and so these RPNs will not be the normal humorous ones, more of an explanation of the wonder that this weekend turned out to be.

.2. And so, Elizabeth arrived on Friday evening and we started our weekend by going out for a little pasta and staying up until almost 3 a.m. chatting and learning about one anothers’ lives as they occurred over the last little while, last I saw her in Montreal.

At dinner, recalled that when I was all of 12 years old, I was obsessed with the film Top Gun and convinced I should join the Cadets and make my call-sign Maverick.

I wasn’t very cool as a child and so rather lucky that at different intervals, my mother would commit acts of intervention in order to hold my stupidity at bay.

.3. Saturday can only be described as the evening that will go down in history. On every level and at every turn, the 8 course meal was an absolute success.

As invited, the girls arrived at 5 p.m., each one of whom was indeed wearing sparkly items (clearly stated on the invite). The lights went out and the first course served at precisely 5:30 p.m. Since I refused to turn on any electric lighting, there were no less than 100 candles used to light up all of the beautiful faces around the table. The music was a mix of Norah Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Guy, Enya, & Erikah Badu. For good measure, I played a little Brtiney – and although the girls pretended to hate her, I could sense they were battling their own selves to not slide across my kitchen floor in time with the beats. Since I am not an in the closet Briitney fan, I was sliding across my floor in time to the beats.

Note to self: Am lucky that amidst the candle light, no one could actually make out what I was doing.

Nature decided to complete the ambiance of the night by gracing us with howling winds that followed every movement of our evening, and which T dubbed “….like being in a Scottish castle” except we didn’t have the luxury of being served by men in kilts.

The evening itself lazed around and carried us through its graces over the course of five hours, at different moments standing still to allow us the enjoyment of the following:

a) Fresh baguette with Tzaziki, Hummus and Baba Ghanoush dips
b) Arugula with toasted walnuts and asiago cheese
c) Red bell pepper soup with cream, parmesan and fresh thyme
d) Shrimp with dip
e) Linguine with white sauce, shitake mushrooms and scallions
f) Lemon sorbet
g) Filet mignon stuffed with morel mushrooms, garlic and shallots
h) Vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries and blue berries

Best line of the evening 1: (and I will not name from whose lips this was uttered): As we were leaving my home and preparing to head to another location, one of these brilliant women explained how & due to the amount of food she ate, she hoped that at our destination, she would neither “explode nor crap [her]self”.

Best line of the evening 2: When one of the napkins caught fire and L held it up in awe, only capable of uttering “Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.”

Best moment of the evening: When we all bit into our filet mignons and realized that the meat was in fact melting in our mouths (this is truly no exaggeration).

Note to self: Am a culinary goddess.

.4. Elisabeth left earlier today and I was sad to see her go, because she is one of the sweetest and kindest souls I know. Am looking forward to seeing her soon, most likely by the end of this month. Bye, Zaby!

.5. And good night. I do promise to be slightly more upbeat tomorrow and the Random Personal Notes more humorous and to par.