A Fireside Dinner

Instead of bringing flowers home at the end of the day, Tim surprised me with roses at breakfast. He kept them in the garage overnight. Lovely, deep red ones.

I've not taken many (or any) photos of our home since the move. That's because most of our big pieces of furniture - dining room table and chairs, couch, loveseat, china cabinet, piano, bookcases, etc. are still in Parksville, making the house there look more attractive to buyers. That hasn't worked yet, but we're praying that it will soon. For now, we have a small couch, one easy chair, our kitchen table and chairs and a few end tables and our bed, plus a few odds and ends. Functional, but a bit sparse.


So last night, we lit a fire and some candles, spread a blanket on the carpet, and enjoyed a meal of homemade tapas. It was different. It was fun. 

One tapa was Quinoa Pepper Verrines. Verrine is a French word, and in this sense means a glass, or food in a glass dish. I found the recipe here on Tartelette's blog. Because I had no avocado, I made a roasted red pepper cream to top it off. 

Sizzling oven baked shrimp was another course, along with stuffed mushrooms, roasted asparagus wrapped in Tuscan ham, and Patatas Bravas - roasted potato slices dipped in a spicy tomato sauce. The Patatas Bravas recipe came from a Fine Cooking magazine, but the recipe is also on their website. Just click the link above.

To finish it off I made Lemon Meringue Cups - lemon meringue pie without the crust, baked in custard cups. Clicking the link will take you to my recipe blog. 


Tim is always willing to try new dishes, which is a good thing since I love to try new foods. Or serve familiar foods in different ways. This was great for conversation, unhurried and fun.