After-dinner (com)mints

[slipjig3]

Well, the dinner last night went off without a hitch. Smitty, Cheech, Colleen, Trey & Jimmy showed up, ate, had a good time, didn't die of salmonella poisoning, played games, and left looking tired and overfed. All in all, a successful evening. A few bullet points:

* The pouring-Cognac-on-chicken-and-torching-the-sucker-with-a-fireplace-lighter portion of the food prep went swimmingly, seeing as how I still have my own eyebrows. I'm still wondering why I converted $2.50-worth of booze into 15 seconds of pretty blue fire, but I'm just following Food & Wine's orders.

* Trey ate all of her zabaglione, even after I told her that the first step in making it involved separating 18 eggs and throwing out half the whites, before breaking out the heavy cream. She weighed herself, and is officially a pound heavier.

* We played Cranium for the first time, which was quite groovy. Second game was boys against the girls, which we would've won if the last round didn't involve having to act out "low rider." I was going for a syllable-by-syllable thing; Kristi mimed hip-hugger jeans and got it in three seconds. As she put it, "Don't try to beat a bunch of girls on a clothing question." At least I managed to scare people with my anagramming abilities. (It's my job. Don't blame me.)

* Jimmy insisted that I bring down my guitar. he impressed me greatly with his playing skills. Don't ask me why I chose to play "The Wonderful World of Sex" by Michael Smith, but I did; I almost gave poor Kristi internal bleeding, she was laughing so hard. I told her I was going to dedicate it at my next performance to my wife; she informed that if I did, it would quickly become EX-wife. I kinda knew that.

Speaking of, Kristi's about ready to turn in, and the Mac's next to the bed. Nighty-night, all.

Comments

[paganmommy.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you had a wonderful evening! I am so glad! :) You are as bad as I am, stressing about something that ultimately ends up great. :)

Oh, and about the egg whites? next time freeze them in ice cube trays and pop them into a freezer bag. Next time you are doing something that needs whites only (a glaze or what have you) you already have them. Each cube is usually one regular large egg white. :)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that's not a bad idea; I do the ice cube tray thing with chicken broth, but I hadn't considered trying it with egg whites. As it was, I ended up hollering, "Can anyone here think of any conceivable use for nine egg whites in a bowl?" Another reason why I love Kristi: she had to stop and think about it.

And thank you! :)

[paganmommy.livejournal.com]

Yep, chicken broth, and tomato paste too, if you only need a little and have a bunch left, though I find that they form nice round mounds all by themselves and saves you on the frustration of washing PAM out of the damn trays.
'Bout those whites, another use would of been merengues, my kids LOVE them. You can shave chocolate really thin into them and they are gourmet even. ;)
Very welcome my dear. :)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Now, see, the meringues is what I should have done. The egg whites that I did use got converted into a meringue, which was mixed with the whipped cream and the wine pudding to make the zabaglione. Heck, I wouldn't even have needed to clean out the stand mixer... I'll know for next time, I guess. :)