Dinner with Jean and Roy

[DFen911]

Well what a great, great evening!! Jean and Roy arrive around 1:45 this afternoon. They came in and got settled and we the most important thing...got the wine opened!

Next were the appys. I did two, a cucumber with a cream cheese, crab and green onions.



We also had a sausage appy -



After that was sitting around laughing and sharing stories. It was so delightful. At one point I was thinking "You know when they come down next month..." Never even occuring to my brain waves that they live so far away. Even though we saw them back in September it was like just a couple of weeks.

Jean just couldn't resist getting hands on Isn't it cute how her blouse looks like a chef's coat?





Time for dinner - Boeuf Bourguignon with buttered egg noodles and grilled apsaragus.



Jean now has a picture of me taking a picture of her. But I got mine up first...neener neener.





Dessert was a sorbet. A vendor of mine brought me a bag of blood oranges. So blood orange sorbet with fresh rasberries and mint



I also took the skins from the oranges and candied them.



The conversations ran the gambit. We talking farms, produce, trailers, motorcyles, grapes, wine, kids, school, books, tv shows. Yes folks you heard it here first...Jean is a Reality Show Junkie!!

Now we need to get our carcass back up her way and steal some of their grape vines

Truly these 2 are the most gracious, easy going and entertaining couple I have ever had the pleasure of meeting!

[labradors]

Cool! Great photos, too!

[HomeCulinarian]

Thanx for posting the photos and recap. Good times!

[cjs]

Wow, what a sweetie you are, Denise!! Gotta say, we just had a ball with Denise & Derek - a mutual admiration society goin' on here. AND, as wonderful as the food was, and you can tell from the pictures, it was almost secondary to us just being with them.

Let me tell you, she has a great kitchen that anyone would kill to cook in!


We did take pictures of each other taking pictures....


...and the candied citrus (blood orange peel) was delicious and so good witht the sorbet.


What a great time we had and thank you both for such a wonderful visit!

P.S. AND she did all this with a really bad toothache! Good luck today!

Also, we need recipes!!

[Guest]

Oh, it looks like you all had a wonderful time and the food is so beautiful!! The orange peel looks like a winner - I would love to know how to make that.

[DFen911]

Oh the peels are so easy and very tasty. I don't think I'd use the peel of a navel orange as they are so thick.

But, I took my veggie peeler and peeled the orange skin away from the pith in long strips. I then cut them into 1" long by about 1/4 of an inch wide. They were then boiled in water for about 15-20 to minutes. I then hand another heavy sauce pan in which has 1/2 C water and 3/4 C sugar and simmer till the sugar is dissolved. Add the orange peels and cook another 10-15 minutes. I then picked them out (they'll want to clump) and seperated and dumped them while still warm into a pie tin with sugar. Coat generously and transfer to parchment paper. Let them sit out overnight. Then you can put them into a plastic bag (I didn't have a paper one) and shake off excess sugar.

I'm going to do this with limes this weekend and use for a key lime dish (no not a pie) but maybe a parfait type.

[Guest]

Oh, this is great - thank you, Denise!!

[Lorraine]

Wow! Looks and sounds like a great time! I've been seeing blood oranges in the stores latesly, if you care to share the sorbet recipe......

[Gourmet_Mom]

Oh, what a wonderful time it sounds like you have had! The food looks great, and I've envied that kitchen for a while now! I love the blood orange peel idea and would also like the sorbet recipe. I, too, saw a big ol' pile of bags at Sam's Friday.

[foodfiend]

Great photos! I could *almost* feel as though I were there!