I was showing Jason my excellent Karaoke disc collection (2 discs) on Tuesday afternoon and he showed great interest. Since we were due to visit them that very evening for dinner, we decided to spend some of the shared time warbling and tweeting to the distorted and awful backing tracks. It seemed the right thing to do, and it would also serve to test Jason's DVD player to see whether it handled the specialised CD format used by these Karaoke discs.
I was interested to hear Jason's singing voice once more, and to see how long I could go without laughing. I was afraid that Fiona might take it all too seriously, but it was, after all, just a bit of fun. What could possibly go wrong? Such a reassuring phrase. Not.
Anyway, we arrived and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. I am a lover of food, particularly good food, and it seems blatantly obvious to me that T is a great cook. Not only with traditional savoury things, also with breads. She makes heavenly pizza bases and amazing bread rolls, topped with poppy seeds or maybe grains of purest salt. The bread rolls had not left the oven too long before and were pleasantly warm. The effect of correctly fresh bread is something else. Not only is the aroma fantastic, the texture is soft and the consistency of these rolls was not far off freshly cooked Brioche.
Next came the risotto. Not some awful frozen thing - but a freshly made beast, rejoicing in proper Arborio or maybe Carnoroli rice. The delicate mushroom flavour was not lost by over-seasoning. Simply delicious. Such was the portion that I was almost persuaded that this was to be the main course and the the promised steak would not make an appearance.
It would be impossible for me to have been more wrong.
Some the room was fragrant with the aroma of frying steak, delivered to the plate impressively rare and with a splendid selection of fresh vegetables. The combined effect was sufficient to make me forget the conversation for a while and be transported off to a land where taste reigns supreme. The only thought which plagued me during this phase of the eating was a nagging worry as to whether I would attract too much negative attention by requesting yet another roll. I finally solved this by asking for several rolls to take home with me. Suitably assured, I continued.
As if all of this was not enough, a pudding followed. My apologies for not having pictures of these items. I assure you that I will not make this mistake again. The pudding was Strawberries and meringue and home made ice-cream. The ice-cream was in three flavours, strawberry, gin & tonic and melon. An exotic range, to be sure. Fiona tucked into the gin & tonic flavour, whilst I was more reserved and had some strawberry ice-cream to go with my strawberries. I liked the continuity.
All in all, a truly wonderful repast.
Thankfully there was a repeat of Big Brother's Little Brother on just as we finished the meal and we watched it as we drank some of Jason's legendary coffee. How he gets it quite so good, I shall never know. One day I will discover his secrets and finally know too much.
As ever, there was much to talk about, some it verging on the sincere. Nothing wrong in that at all - although i suspect that people in general rarely let the conversation drift to any higher subjects than strength of coffee, or perhaps thong quality and cut.
After the main edition of Big Brother was finished, we made our excuses and left. It was a great evening, and we look forward to repeating it very soon, only in this house here, and with us attempting to cook a meal fit for a King, whilst still possesing less than 13 grams of fat.
I've written too much already. Thanks for reading.
It was wonderful to see you both, and don't worry - as we suspected those stains, heavy as they were, came out of the carpet and furniture almost completely, leaving only a moderate smell. I'm sure your body will soon be used to the medication, and thank goodness, in a way, that it happened here, where we could quickly hose everything down and pretend nothing had happened. We also very much enjoyed the Karaoke, and hope once again to sing ALL of The Bay City Rollers' album tracks back-to-back in such an exuberant way. The evening was rounded off very fittingly, we feel, by the 3 rounds of Strip Twister (Bible Edition). It's funnier when we know you're playing to lose! Bless you both, and honestly, stop worrying about the death of our cats - anyone could have done that, and they were getting quite a nuisance anyway. It's no trouble! Bye for now!! XXX
Posted by: Toni | July 01, 2004 at 12:07 PM
Thank you for this, both of you. It really cheered my lunch hour (well, I use that term loosely ... maybe lunch 30 minutes on a good day). Now I go to tuck into my cold salmon and salad ... not a patch on the described meal, but I shall enjoy it. Let me know when the funerals are so I can be sure to be in another part of the country.
Posted by: Liz | July 01, 2004 at 12:30 PM