Good guests, bad food

Well, the food wasn't bad exactly.... it just wasn't very good. So went our first dinner party in our new kitchen. I cooked Barramundi, which has become one of our all time favorite fish(es?) - the Barramundi tasted great - it just wasn't very, well you know .... attractive. I had also made a lentil and rice salad dish -- that somehow came out in an amount to easily feed one of the local footy teams (rather than six as stated in the recipe). I broke the golden rule of serving an untried dish to guests. Bottom line is that there was a lot of not very good salad. Even the dessert which I had high hopes for - a chocolate mousse layered with whipped cream - had stayed too long in the freezer and came out.... hard. Needless to say I had to encourage conversation during this part of the meal hoping to give the dessert time to thaw. Now, you're probably sick of hearing this from me.... but our breadmaker saved the day. It produced a lovely lightly herbed loaf that everyone enjoyed. Phew.

We invited a lovely young German couple who just got married and were nice enough to invite us to their wedding a couple months ago. Our other guest was from South Africa - one of those "good at everything he does" kind of guys. Sheesh. Before he left for S. Africa, he bought Tim and I each a gift. Tim's was a DVD about Bob Dylan, and my gift was a great veggie recipe book. Considering the dinner, his gift was both thoughtful and appropriate. I'll be sure to try out recipes before I inflict them on my guests.

Do you remember those plastic flute things you used to have as a kid? It had a metal stick in it and it would toot up or down depending on which way the stick was moved. Now think of one of those sounds - either up or down. Now think of that sound playing over and over and over and over and over..... such is the sound a new bird in our neighborhood makes... and it's not a "white noise" kind of sound.... if only I had a bb gun....

Cheers, Judi
PS: Just kidding about the bb gun - a slingshot would be better.