To our few but very faithful followers, we apologize for being so late with updates. Truly we just have not had the heart. Losing someone so influential in our lives as Nanny-Mom-Jo has just left us with a huge gap in our hearts and our lives. For myself, it’s hard to put myself out there, when I feel so empty. Finally I have forced myself to sit at the keyboard for a little blogging therapy, and hopefully start to emerge from the cocoon of grief. I wrote a short blog entry about Mom, but just couldn’t post it at the time. If you like you can access it here.
Now I need to go back a few weeks, to the Monday before our big acapella show. We had invited Peter (the music director for the Menno Singers), but then realized the rehearsal this week was starting half an hour earlier. We thought about cancelling, since there would not be time….. Then again we like a challenge.
The question becomes how do you serve a 3 course meal in just an hour. Should we cut the appetizer?? Not have dessert? No, we will just plan and prep so it will work. The good news, our guest of honour was worried about traffic and arrived early, so we had one less concern. One funny thing that happened… Since we had sung for Peter, for our last rehearsal, I felt like I knew him, so didn’t even bother with introductions… I was one of 90 singers in the chorus, so he must know my name…. Once that foible was corrected and Steph joined us, we were ready to go.
To start, we needed an appetizer that would be ready to go. After checking Steph’s freezer, we realized we still had a few bins of tomato sauce in there. tomatoes that we grew, picked, roasted and pulverized, at the peak of ripeness. So a fresh tomato soup, with crostini and basil. There is nothing like home-grown tomatoes…
On a tight schedule, it’s necessary to serve things that can be prepped ahead, so timing won’t be an issue…. Then again, we needed some pizzazz, so Shawn whipped up a lemon risotto with grilled shrimps. We accompanied this with a Devil’s Wishbone – 2014 Wicked White.
We were not as brave with the dessert, so we went with something that could be prepped ahead and just plated at the time. We found home-grown rhubarb in the freezer as well. We served a rustic rhubarb and berry tart, and of course Steph’s favorite tea.
So that wasn’t so hard…. We finished with 2 minutes to spare… so what shall we do with our new-found free time? Too late, let’s get to rehearsal. It was so nice to not only sing for Peter, but to have a chance to get to know the person behind the music director. It turns out we have a connection, that I was not aware of…. His father was my family’s dentist, for many years. Who knew. We went off to rehearsal, looking forward to our upcoming show.
So glad to read that you are back up and writing. The tribute to your Mom (NMJ) was truly moving and I applaud your courage to put your very personal feelings into print. It helps all of us out here in the dark who have gone through love and loss to know we are not alone. Thanks, and looking forward to many more Monday Night Dinners. xoxo
Thanks for this, dear Shawn. Miss you!
Yesterday, I stewed some massive stalks of rhubarb from the back 40 (our garden), strawberries, Cointreau, and honey and maple syrup for sweetening. Took to our friends’ house for our first ‘sausage fest’ BBQ. The stewed rhubarb was accompanied by ginger or green tea ice cream. Delicious!