Yesterday…all my troubles seemed so far away.

Bordeaux France

My little cousin Cindy, who isn't so little, she is 24, offered to go get my daughter, who is staying at my other cousin's beach house, it's confusing I know, on Saturday so that my daughter wouldn't have to take public transport for two hours that would drop her off in Bordeaux, a city that she doesn't know at all. Cindy is a peach and a wonderful cousin.

Change in the menu

Tags

audience, dinner party, menu, postaday2012

Yesterday I wrote my post speaking about the menu that I was expecting for the dinner party that my cousin Didier and his wife were throwing for us band of young cousins; I arrived at Didier’s, kissed everyone hello and Didier said that I had made a few errors in my post describing the menu. I laughed because ever since I arrived in France, my cousins have been reading my blog and they aren’t shy in their comments. I think that having my cousins reading my blog and getting interested in what I have to say is a huge compliment and makes for great conversations. Didier’s one sentence about my post was a gift for writing a new post, so here is an editorial correction of yesterday’s post.

First I have to say that Vivianne outdid herself in the kitchen, everything was faites maison, or homemade, and was delicious. For starters, at the aperitif or before dinner drinks, Vivianne served us, on several plates, these tiny little bowls, each one contained a different hor d’oeuvre, one was a tiny cubed salad of cantaloupe, cucumber and cheese, the cubes were tiny, tiny and the vinaigrette was light, it was so good and refreshing, the manual labor involved in that tiny salad was impressive. There was also a light presentation of smoked salmon over a herbed creme fraiche that was very good, there was also an Asian version of a tartare of salmon with a sauce, that was light and elegant as well.I almost forgot my favorite, I am a huge fan of the foie gras and breast of duck.Vivianne made a terrine of smoked breast of duck and homemade foie gras, she sliced the terrine very thinly and put them on small toast rounds, it was to die for, if I could have, I would have eaten much more than I did, but it isn’t good manners to hog a plate all to oneself, so I shared, begrudgingly.

After all that, we went to the table and the entrée or appetizer wasn’t the famous cantaloupe and prosciutto, it was a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad with basil, nice and light, perfect start before the famous kebabs. Leon, he who must be mentioned as much as possible lest he pout again at being left out of the conversation, he got a plate of cantaloupe and prosciutto as a joke, it was quite funny, he complains about everything, so Vivianne teased him quite a bit last night. The desserts after the kebab, salad and cheese course, I have to mention all the food we had before the desserts to give you an idea of how stuffed I felt by the time dessert was put on the table. Now if it had been ice cream, I could have said no thank you, I am so full, there isn’t any more room in my little belly, but these were homemade by our hostess with the mostest; I could not in good conscience refuse. She had made two tarts, one a simple apple tart and the other was an apricot tart with a beautiful custard filling, how do you say no, you can’t and they were delicious. When we all said good-bye, I made sure to compliment the chef, Vivianne, profusely because she had put a lot of work and time, we were twelve for dinner so it was a lot of preparation. I know that when I spend all that time and energy cooking it really makes me happy to hear all good things afterwards.