Baking for the office Christmas party

Tags

baking, party, postaday2015, tarts

   
 
My doctors have set up my remaining appointments; Friday I meet with the doctor who will be performing the endoscopic ultrasound on Monday morning, January 5th I meet with the psychologist and January 6th I meet with the surgeon, so there is serious movement being made by my doctors and nurses, comforting and unsettling at the same time.

So what better to occupy my thoughts then by playing with butter, flour, eggs, chocolate, heavy cream, pears and sugar? I made two chocolate and pear tarts, one for the Christmas office party and one for the children, they do not like it when their favorite pie leaves the house without them. Lol So I found it is best if I just make two, much less complaining.

It’s been awhile since I made them, they look good, they smelled tasty as they were baking, I hope they taste how they smelled, I always get nervous when I bring something to strangers. There will be other treats, so maybe it will get lost among the others. I’ll wait for the children’s verdict. I’m sure the pies are fine, I get so crazy insecure even after all this time as a home baker, I’m so silly sometimes. Lol

Off to the farmer’s market

Tags

family, party, postaday2015

   
    
 
   
 
We are still gathering and reuniting, today was a visit to the local farmer’s market to restock the pantry and the refrigerator for the next go around, this time at my sister’s rental house.

This year has a somber feel, it was only two months ago that we lost my eldest aunt at the age of 91, we weren’t prepared for her passing, she was very much loved and we just weren’t ready to part with her. I have other members of my family not doing too well so I am so very happy to be here, spending time with them.

It may look like a lot of parties but they are really just our way of expressing our happiness being together.

Daily Prompt: Shake It Up

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birthday, party, postaday2014

You’re 12 years old. It’s your birthday. Write for ten minutes on that memory. GO.

Why couldn’t it be 13? I can’t for the life of me remember my twelfth birthday so therefore I am making an executive and I will share my memories of my thirteenth birthday, trust me it was a good one.

My mother is the baby of the family so I have older cousins and that can be a very good thing at times. One of my oldest cousins Martine, who is fourteen years older than I, was married and had a baby, she lived near Marseilles in France and for four years running, during my teenage years, she would take in myself, my little sister and her younger sister and brother for a period of six weeks. Can you imagine spending six weeks near the French Riviera when you are a teenager? It was glorious. It was a family affair and my cousin Martine spoiled us, she cooked these special meals and there were fun parties on the weekends with her husband’s business colleagues/friends.

My birthday, Martine and her husband decided, was a perfect excuse for a big party. Did I mention that Martine’s house was right on the Mediterranean, her backyard led right to the private beach and the Sea. We always ate on the terrace and the Mediterranean was right there in all of her glory. Those years were idyllic.

Anyway, the presents were standout one of my favorite presents ever received; the Tommy album by The Who and the Rubik’s Cube. I played my Tommy album ever day for what felt like forever and I played with my Rubik’s cube everyday until I solved it, three months later. I still have it in my bedroom, right on the mantle of the fireplace. Martine made my favorite dessert at the time, homemade rice pudding, on top of all of the other things she was making for the party. Our other cousin Didier was also staying with us and he is the family favorite; he should be a comedian, he is so funny. At every family gathering we all try to make sure that we are within hearing distance to Didier because you are always guaranteed to laugh, outright belly laugh when he gets going.

We ate, we drank, we laughed and we danced. That was one of the best birthday party’s ever in my memory.

Daily prompt : Party animal?

Tags

blog, party, postaday2013, writing

After spending time with a group of people, do you feel energized and ready for anything or do you want to hide in the corner with a good book?

Nowadays I find myself very fatigued after spending time with a crowd. When I was younger, it was the opposite, I would be primed and raring to go, fueled on by the energy provided by the crowd’s dynamic. These days a few hours speaking with a group of friends will send me to bed rest to recuperate. I have come to appreciate quiet and get togethers with smaller groups over large crowds. I love peace, calm and tranquility.

My need for external stimulation has vastly decreased in the past few years. I find myself keeping my immediate surroundings quiet for longer than I used to, the t.v doesn’t go on until mid-afternoon, the car ride is done in silence. Contrary to my youth when I started my day listening to music and the television was always on while I was reading and writing. Now my reading and writing are done in silence, my brain seems to thrive in silence as opposed to the constant stream of external noise that used to fuel it.

Party poop or party animal?

Tags

crowds, energy, extrovert, introvert, party, postaday2013, socializing

Do parties and crowds fill you with energy or send you scurrying off in search of peace and quiet?

I enjoy parties especially dinner parties. The dinner party is more my speed; a manageable crowd of usually ten to twelve people with a noise level that rarely gets over the top and the end usually seems to appear around the midnight hour where everyone’s welcome hasn’t been overstayed. When I was a young single adult, fancy free and adventurous, I still preferred the dinner party, but the only dinner parties that I was privy to were the ones given by my parents and their friends. They were tremendous fun but for a single young lady, not quite the environment for meeting prospective suitors.

Whenever I went out with my friends, we hit the nightclub scene in the city but that got old after a while. I do not do well with tight crowds, I have a touch of claustrophobia, not so much the tight space, but the tight space made by too many people, so after an hour or two of intense deafening music combined with throngs of people and I was done for the night. Once, my claustrophobia really got the upper hand on me; my friends and I were at a club called the Playgirl Club. The Club was the women’s answer to the Playboy Club, instead of Playboy Bunnies, there were handsome men in tuxedo jackets and a bow tie minus the dress shirt. These handsome men were everywhere within the club; upstairs at the bar area and downstairs in the dancing area. My friends and I were downstairs dancing and the crowds plus the heat were really getting to me, I went up the stairs because I could feel the walls closing in, lucky for me I got to the top of the stairs because I took one final step and fainted dead away. When I came to, there was a very muscular shirtless man’s face just inches away from mine and our eyes were locked for a few seconds. When my brain made sense of my situation, I scrambled to my feet and sat at the bar where I passed out in convulsions this time. I woke up to the words “Is there a doctor in the house?” I then felt nauseous so I bolted out of the club, threw up outside in the gutter and then flagged down a taxi cab to go home. I didn’t go out for a while after that. I kept up with the dinner parties, they were more my speed.

After marriage and parenthood, I can’t say that I missed the crowds and the clubs. I still love the dinner parties, I actually love them even more because since I have become even more of a light weight when it comes to staying awake. If we were at a club, I’d be falling asleep somewhere and that would be awful. Trust me I have actually fallen asleep at a nightclub; it was once in high school, I was sitting next to a speaker and I fell asleep. My incredible talent for sleep is a point of jealousy for many who know me.

So there you have it, I would be the absolutely happy hostess of any dinner party and even more, a highly delighted guest, but when it comes to the club scene, leave me at home and don’t feel bad about not extending me an invitation, I would never be upset.

Another party

Tags

barbeque, kebabs, party, postaday2012

Tonight we are invited to my cousin Didier’s house for dinner. Dinner at his house is a tradition between all us cousins who have spent several summers together at the beach on the Mediterranean. We have such great memories that without fail we spend the whole entire evening reminiscing and laughing. The menu is simple, cantaloupe and prosciutto to start and shish kebabs on the barbecue, the kebabs are a combination of beef, pork and lamb marinated in olive oil and Harissa, spicy red pepper paste, and French fries. The menu is a given, we have had it for twenty years now. Now that I have just written the word twenty, it hit me that we aren’t the band of youngsters that we once were and that we laugh about. What makes these evenings so great is that it’s almost as if we are back in time, at least in our minds. I’m making sure to get this post out early because I know that for a fact that I won’t be in any shape to write because it will be in the early morning before I will be getting home. I’m getting chauffeured but who knows I might be the one driving home because I don’t drink anymore and my chauffeur does like his red wine.