How many newfies does it take to debone a quail?

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For Monday night dining, this week, we wanted to keep things simple, due to all of the events going on in our lives, with upcoming world premiers of Stephanie Martin’s Babel, and Opera in Concert’s world premier of Isis and Osiris. As we were trying to come up with some dishes that we could do, without much prep, Shawn came across a package of quails in the freezer.  “Well we need to make some room in here.”  And thus it was done….  To heck with simple, let’s debone quails. read more

2 does not a trio make

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Grilled lamb chops with celeriac puree and swiss chard, with balsamic reduction

This week presented us with a conundrum…  Steph would not be joining us for Monday night dining.  I know, I was as shocked as you….  The question in everyone’s mind is “does MondayNightDining exist, if Steph is not here?”  We decided to soldier on and dine anyway. And since our friend Luke was over, we already had a guest.  The question then became “what do you feed an Aussie on Monday?

We had some leftover “spag bol” (spaghetti bolognese) in the fridge, so decided to make a lasagna, for the appetizer. read more

A new milestone

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Seared scallop with pea puree, pancetta crisp and parmesan foam

This week we had a conundrum… is 2 courses of seafood astronomically redundant??  More on this later…  More importantly, this week our little blog reached 10,000 views. I realize some blogs get those numbers everyday, but I’m actually happy that most of the views are from people we actually know, which makes it harder to get the numbers, but for us more satisfying.

This week we have, our accompanist for Pax Christi Chorale, Simon joining our trio for MND.  We have known Simon for many years, but always manage to learn something new about each time we chat with him. read more

Australian/Asian Inspired

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Braised pork belly

This week we have a house guest.  Our house guest has been wanting to meet a certain friend of ours, after seeing her Facebook page…. So the guest list is set. Joining our trio will be Luke and Trish. It turned out to be perfect timing for Trish, after a trying weekend. Her response to our invite was fabulousness itself.

I was unaware how much Asian influence there is in Australian food, until our friend came to stay, so this week we decided to go with an Asian theme. Once our guests were settled with a lovely Ontario wine, we gathered at the table to enjoy Sweet potato soup with ginger and lime, and crisp mushroom roll. read more

A quorum of schola

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Cauliflower soup with seared scallop and lemon oil

This week Steph has invited two special friends, they not only sing with us at Pax Christi Chorale, but also sing with Steph in Schola Magdalena, Jo-ann and Janet. So with Shawn and I and our three scholara, we gathered for what I think was quite a special meal.

For our first course, Shawn discovered lemon oil….  and we served cauliflower soup with seared scallop and lemon oil.

Cauliflower soup with seared scallop and lemon oil
Cauliflower soup with seared scallop and lemon oil

This is one of those moments when the final product is more than just the sum of the parts. This is a very delicate dish, with layers of subtle flavours. Shawn’s sear on the scallops was absolutely perfect too. read more

A dream duet

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Hot fudge molten chocolate cake

This week, in honour of family day, MND was moved to Tuesday. This also means that we did not have rehearsal immediately afterward, so we moved the venue to Steph’s house, where we can stretch out a bit. This week’s guests were to be Teri and Larry, but alas Lar could not attend, so he sent us special guest Juliet,  in his place.

For those not in the know, Teri was Shawn’s voice teacher for years, and he used to read Juliette bedtime stories after his lesson. I did not realize until just a few years ago, that Teri and Steph go much further back. read more

MND double bill

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chicken breasts baked with green chilis and onions

Sometimes when planning a menu for Monday Night Dining, we just don’t know where to start. This was one of those weeks…. We were just stumped.  Until our friend Luke came over. We were eating Tim Tams and talking about Australian food, when he mentioned Halva. Shawn pulled out a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, with a Banana Halva recipe and we knew it was time for Indian food. I know, seems like a stretch from Pavlova, pot pies, and fairy bread to Indian, but sometimes that’s how we get inspired. read more

That Special Ingredient

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Zuccotto

This week was a special week. We were celebrating Shawn’s birthday, so Shawn got to pick the guest list, and of course the cake.  I must admit, for a special occasion like this, I might consider missing rehearsal, to celebrate with friends.   There were some discussions about the menu, but in the end, Shawn chose every dish and accompaniment.  And it was quite a meal.

More important, was the guest list. It turns out, in this crowd, I was the new guy. We celebrated Shawn’s birthday dinner with some of his favorite and most lasting friends. Our trio was joined by Shawn’s first friend, after moving to Toronto, Alessandra. Next was one of his first Toronto choir friends, Mary. Rounding out our group  was another early choir friend, and perpetual favorite, Kathie.  For the menu, we put together some of our old favorites, in an Italian themed menu. read more

A touching gesture

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Antique pudding mold

Sometimes it’s the simple gestures that touch us the most. At our Italian Christmas dinner, we had the pleasure of having Dr. Sheila with us.  During the evening, we mentioned that we had been looking for a mold for steamed puddings. When next we saw Dr. Sheila, it was a New Year’s eve, and what did she gift us with…  An antique pudding mold. That someone would remember the conversation, spot this beauty for sale and bring it to us, was very touching (people who were at the New Year’s party may remember Shawn being a little…. emotional over this gesture.)  Now what should we make??? read more

Traditions

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Shawn and his great nieces and nephew.

First of all I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, friends, joy and tradition. As well I wish you all the best in the New Year, whether you are hoping for a new beginning, a continuation of a good year past, or just maybe you are hoping for a better year than the last one. In some ways I am hoping for all three.

We have just been through the busyness of Christmas and New Years. I have to admit with all the hub-bub at Christmas we barely had time to take a picture. So for this week’s blog, I wanted to start with a few moments from the holidays, and what should be a national holiday…. my birthday. A few culinary highlights for me were the bouche de noel, which was similar to a tiramisu, covered in chocolate ganache, that we made for boxing day. read more