Post Gala confab

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Finally the secret is out.  For the past couple of months I have had to keep quiet about the décor for the annual Pax Christi fundraiser. Now I can finally show you what we have been up to, in the slide show above. I think the evening was lovely. Our musical guests, The York Jazz Trio, and Meredith Hall, accompanied by Bernard Farley, helped make the night a success.  We are truly blessed to call Meredith and Bernard friends. So engaging, warm and uplifting. If you missed this event, or especially if you were there, you need to hear her, and me, and a hundred or so other singers, and orchestra in Elgar’s “The Apostles.”  You knew I would add a shameless plug. read more

Il cane si trova sul tetto

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Zucotto

Our friend Virginia has given us a challenge this week, as she is on a one month vegetarian cleanse. Then again, we have done veggie meals before, so maybe it’s not too challenging. The bigger challenge is where to put all of the décor items for the Pax fundraiser, that have taken over the dining room…. So Virginia joined our trio and Luke for a hearty Italian meal.

Soups are a great starter, when things are busy, because they can be made ahead, and with wintry weather, all the better. This Monday we had a hearty winter minestrone. read more

good ‘ol southern cooking

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Lately we have been trying out some Southern dishes, just to try our hand at the cuisine, including an early creole Christmas dinner.  The most important thing I have learned is that when cooking blackened catfish, they mean it when they say to cook outside and DON’T breath in the smoke. This week we thought, why not bring some creole to Monday Night Dining??  Our trio gathered with Luke and Lindsay, for the tastes of the south.

We started the evening with Louisiana crab cakes with piquante butter sauce and pickled okra/sweet pepper relish. read more

Up Up and Away…

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Limoncello Tiramisu

Now that all of the hub bub of the holidays is over, we can resume Monday Night Dining. This week also marks our return to rehearsals, as we start to learn Elgar’s – The Apostles. We are about to head up up and away, on a new musical journey, and this one is gonna be HUGE!  For me it’s always exciting, and a bit scary starting a new work, but I have the rest of the choir and Steph to help me.

Since it is our first week back, we decided to take it easy, with an Italian meal and just our trio and Luke. Once we were all gathered and had a moment to catch up, we started our meal with Duck confit ravioli, with thyme velouté. read more

Our trio.. down to a duet

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So this week, we are without our third, as Steph has taken ill.  So do we go ahead, or do we put off Monday night dining?  It turns out we are hungry, and we prepped a lot of food, so ahead into the fray we go…

We have been hanging around the Mediterranean lately, so Shawn decided on Moroccan for tonight’s menu.  We started the evening with a Moroccan lentil soup.

Moroccan Lentil Soup
Moroccan Lentil Soup

This is a hearty flavourful soup.  Great for fall and winter. The chickpeas and fava beans add a lovely texture as well. read more

Bicycles… Mendelssohn… and Beef ribs…

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This week marks our return to rehearsals for Pax Christi Chorale, and it looks like quite the season. We are starting rehearsals for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with special guests The Bicycle Opera Project.  This is a big work, with a lot of choruses, and should be a great, innovative show.  This also means we are back to our in season schedule, so everything has to be prepped and ready to go.

I thought since we are just getting back into the swing of things, that we should keep to something simpler, the tried and true.  Then again, it’s our first week back to rehearsals….  So we want something nice…..  We did keep the guest list to just our trio, to get us back into the swing of things.  For our first course we served Lobster and Guacamole salad with vodka spiked tomato sauce. read more

A trip to the county

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Beet and goat cheese salad

The weekend before this dinner, we had a lovely trip to Prince Edward County.  We had a nice relaxing time, and were honoured to stay with our new friends Judith and Xander.  If you are looking for a great place to stay in the area her cottages are amazing. While we were there, we picked up a few locally grown items, so we could feature them.  OH and of course we picked up a little bit of wine too….  maybe more than a little….

Our trio gathered at Steph’s for a debrief and were met with a glass of PEC wine, to keep us motivated.  Shawn was inspired by some golden beets that we had picked up and came up with his own version of Golden beet salad with goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette. read more

New twists on old favorites

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Grilled oysters with mango pico de gallo, and horseradish chili

Steph and the Pax Christi Chorale, have been off to tour England.  So Monday Night Dining took a brief hiatus, while we grilled everything we could find and tested a few recipes.  Not that Steph is back, we wanted to get back into our routine, and who better to do that with than our friends Jen and Bob.

Jen was also here for one of our more famous Monday Night Dinners, the exploding shellfish.  This week we started with a new version of BBQed oysters, Grilled oysters with mango pico de gallo, and horseradish chili. read more

A Monday send off

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bistecca fiorentina

This week was the last Monday Night Dining experience, before Many of our Pax Christi Chorale family head off to tour England. With us being so busy at work, we had to go with a menu that would not need a tonne of prep. We also wanted to make sure these intrepid travelers would have a good feed, for the long trip across the big water.  So we gathered with our trio, and dear friends  Luke and Jared.  Jared has been away, for quite some time, so it was a great opportunity to get caught up.

We gathered with beverages and had a bit of time to chat. We then moved to the table in the yard, to sample Shrimp Ball Soup with roasted pepper and tomato. read more

Morocco : a culinary journey

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Our history with Moroccan food started quite a few years ago, when Shawn’s work was celebrating “diversity day”. His team picked Moroccan as their theme and we in turn learned a bit about the culture and flavours.  It is a great summer food and this night we invited some of our Pax Christi friends, Diane, Dan and Deborah.  We started of in the yard under the pergola, with a standard of ours, Moroccan cigars.

Moroccan cigars
Moroccan cigars

Phyllo pastry and butter wrapped around a goat cheese filling, containing paprika, parsley and garlic, what could be better? Crisping them of course. We opened some wine, while Deborah made us ankle bracelets and talked about the pending choir tour to England. All very exciting. read more