With Christmas preparations
New Year’s madness and my birthday!!!
Then 2 weeks of recordings… Things have been very busy. So finally we are back to regular rehearsals and our regular Monday Night Dining schedule.
This Monday marks the start of a VERY special project. CHH Parry wrote a major Oratorio in 1888. This work was quite the success at the time. It enjoyed many performances. Unfortunately this piece has fallen into obscurity. The orchestral score is not available. There is not a single recording of the piece and It has never been performed in North America. This is a major work that might never see the light of day. Pax Christi Chorale, under the guidance and fervor of Stephanie Martin, is going to resurrect this phoenix, from its ashes. Steph has managed to get a scan of the original, hand written score, in the composer’s hand. Two York master’s students are transposing it into a composing program, to create a full digital score. Dr. Jeremy Dibble, the worlds foremost Parry scholar will proof the results. This Monday the Pax Christi Chorale chorus begins rehearsals and on May 3rd, we will be in Koerner Hall, with full orchestra and amazing soloists, to bring this work back to life. We hope to also create the first ever recording of the piece. Can you tell we are excited?
But before rehearsal, we need sustenance. So Monday Night Dining it is. Our trio is back together, with special guest Tina. Our guests walked over, to get the juices flowing. To start we wanted something to knock the frost off of our guests, so we started with a Tuscan rustic soup called La Ribolita. This is a soup of white beans, simmered with vegetables, and ham hocks, ladled over bread. Strangely no ham hocks were available, so Shawn substituted pig trotters. This was a nice start to the cold evening.
For our main we had Apricot Wheat Ale Glazed Pork Tenderloin, that was pan seared, then finished in the oven. The pan was deglazed with the Apricot Wheat Ale. I thought we would have a hard time finding the Apricot Wheat Ale, but this was not the case. Strange beer easy…. ham hocks not….. The sauce for the pork also used Apricot Jam, to finish it off and give it a sweetness, that works well with the pork. This was paired with a silky risotto with dried cranberries and finished off with Gruyère cheese.
Dessert tonight was a new twist on an old favorite, Pouding Chomeur a l’Erable. Which translates roughly to poor man’s pudding. My regular recipe, which I got from my cousin Joseph, is quite basic, which makes it perfect for those nights when you have not planned a dessert ahead. This one adds a bit of citrus and a lot of maple syrup. Very nice recipe, but I have already decided how to change it for next time.
We even sampled a taste of Sortilege, a mixture of Canadian Whiskey and Maple Syrup. To heck with wine pairings!!! From now on it’s Maple pairings!
Although it was only a few weeks, that we could not meet for Monday Night Dining, it seemed like longer. Now we start on a new adventure with Parry’s lost Oratorio “Judith”.
***Warning shameless Plug Ahead*** If you would like to support this work and enjoy a nice evening out, with Italian food, wine and décor. Please consider attending our Venetian Black and White fundraising gala. We will have live Italian music, live and silent auction items, in a beautiful 3 level art gallery. ***End of plug***
