Let's Get Gourmet!

Oh yeah, Gourmet Night in the new house! Love it. And with a recipe from my lovely gourmand friend Stephanie, it was definitely a hit. It was so good, in fact, that I might just pull a Steph and add the recipe in my comments below!

Our gourmet group has been getting together for about 10 years now--isn't that crazy?! The eight of us are actually the second incarnation, Pastor Tim asked us to join after I accidentally blurted out "damn" in our new members class at church. There I was thinking I was surely going to hell and instead I got into a gourmet dinner group. (my love and appreciation for Pastor Tim started right then and there.) Only about a year after The Coreman and I joined, one of the couples left. (I've often wondered about that one..!) Being the newest of the group, we got to pick the replacement couple--which were Mark and Dawn. So here we are, basically in our 10 Year Anniversary...The Coreman and I, Mark and Dawn, Rosemarie and Greg, and Tim and Nancy. I could not be with a better group of people, I am so blessed to have them in my life! They are the sort of folk that even though our meetings sometimes don't go beyond our monthly dinners or a weekly 'hello' at church, there is an unspoken bond there that we all feel with each other. I know I could go to any one of these people with anything. That's pretty cool. After 10 years of trying to think of new recipes, we may not be very gourmet, but it's a sure thing that there will always be a hearty helping of laughter and fun.

I just love it when our turn to host the group falls around the holidays. The house definitely feels festive just with all of the holiday stuff out. Light a few candles and voila! Instant Glamour. Our table looks especially nice these days, last year The Coreman had a moment of insanity and told me to go to Pier One and buy some nice dishware. I was a little afraid but ran out the door without question before he could change his mind. The result is a plethora of beautiful golden plates and "crystal" glasses--sorry, we're not talking Waterford here--very nice. For this occassion I added some Christmas crackers which housed bad jokes and plastic charms--the best part of these things was the gunpowder smell that emitted from them upon cracking--and a mirrored trivet I purchased at World Market (my new favorite tchotchke place!) on every other plate, as a 'take-home gift' for each couple. I wanted to get a photo of my table all set up, but alas, I became too busy in preparation and forgot. Hate it when that happens!

Hosting the group around Christmas means you must have the White Elephant gift giveaway--to me, the highlight of the evening. I also affectionately call this 'Wrap Your Crap'. To those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, basically you hunt around your house for things that you have no use for and have no idea why they are still around, wrap them up disquised in wrong-sized boxes and/or pretty paper and then take turns opening them up. Some people play with dice--we just have each person select a number (in this case, 1-8 since there were 8 of us) and take turns picking out the gift. I believe something can be stolen twice, but on the third time around it stays with it's owner. I was sad to lose a beautiful holiday candle only to be given The Claw Award in it's place. Yes, even though Greg was the person who first opened this hideous thing, it was I that ended up with it. Luckily The Coreman has taken it to work for his own employee White Elephant exchange. What I really love about our gourmet version is the fact that Rosemarie never plays by the rules and actually runs out and gets really CUTE things from Target (everybody picks her gifts first, we are no fools) and Pastor Tim never steals anyone's gift. I guess you can take the Pastor out of the church, but...well, you know the rest. I actually did end up with a very cool 60's/70's glass vase from Dawn--I guess my threat to karate chop anyone who tried to steal it actually worked. This White Elephant thing is a true example of "One man's junk is another one's treasure"!

What a fun evening--fun that is, until it's time to clean up. Ah well, I guess we all take turns with this as the host/hostess of the month. That's the time I find myself cursing our big idea of fancy golden plates from Pier One, as they need to be hand washed. Who's idea was that anyway?!

Happy Holidays! (and don't forget to check out that recipe!)