Scary ( ?) Picture and Recipe From A Noble Pig

~ Look at the picture of our porch carefully. I did not notice this until I pulled the picture up on my computer....( cue scary music )....I did not know my Joey cat was in the picture. It did not show up on the small screen of my digital camera.....shiver and tremble.... O.K., maybe I did not see him because I wasn't wearing my reading glasses and the screen is very, very small. But anyway, just look at him in the blur, barely showing. A black cat, a big pumpkin, October.....hmmm. And, I did NOT pose him for this. So this picture was just a bit of a treat, or trick ?~ Anyway, my Hubby and I have been a bit busy. I am getting ready for the Christmas bazaars, and he is busy at work, catching up on all the important things he needs to do at his job. I had to run a lot of errands and lingering in the back of my mind...no, blaring out to me " make me for dinner ! You're so hungry for me...make me for dinner ! " was the recipe I saw on Noble Pig's blog early in the morning as I was finishing up some e-mails and my blog. 1-2-3 Dinner! ~Well, don't you know, I printed up the recipe and stuck it in my purse before I went to bed. I had to stick it in my purse so I would remember the recipe and buy the few things we did not have stocked in our fridge or pantry. Specifically Chinese 5 Spice Powder. Never heard of that before, so I knew I needed to buy it. ~ When I got home from my errands, and with the above mentioned spice my Hubby began to make our dinner while I cleaned up and started the rice. The dinner is very, very good. Thank-you to Noble Pig's son who requested this recipe for dinner and suggested she post it on her blog. Thank-you Noble Pig for giving us this recipe, it is delicious and we will make it again. By the way, the only alteration we made in the recipe is we used MY home made plum jam and Hubby sprinkled sesame seeds on top of the chicken and rice when it was plated. ~ If you want to make this, and you will very much like it and especially appreciate how easy and quick it is to make, why just click on NOBLE PIG in my sidebar and take a gander at the October 23, 2008 posting of this recipe.

~Here is our dinner. Hubby made enough extra for his lunch tomorrow. Very good !~ "Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly." M.F.K. Fisher ~"Good food ends with good talk." Geoffrey Neighbor, Northern Exposure 1993

Fine (fun) Dining on Cedar Pond

~~~We had a spot of fun pond side this weekend. Hubby prepared a meal that was so delicious , I think it will be awhile before any dining out can even come close to what we ate ! Hubby has outdone himself and several fancy restaraunts ! ~~~First I must comment on the wine...oh, the wine ! This is a bottle of wine we bought in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Hubby did not tell me how much he paid for this wine, but I did not complain because we were in the area to buy some sheep for ME ! Let me just say, Hubby told me how much he paid for the bottle of wine AFTER dinner....and the bottle (before consumption) was worth far more than he paid for it.~~~Here is one of the sheep we bought on the trip. I stayed in the car with the crate of 2 lambs while Hubby checked out Winter's Hill vinyards' wines. It was a hot day and I needed to make sure the lambs were O.K. They were just fine and below is a picture of one of the lambs , now grown. I have to say, she is a fine ewe from Bide-A-Wee Jacob Sheep ! ~~~Here Hubby is cooking dinner for us at pond side..dear friends were here. Dear friends who we have dinner with every other week. Dear friends who we have known for many years and whose friendship is encouraging and together we have prayed for each other and shared together, and been there for each other ! (thank-you David and Kathleen)

~~~"Friendship, the wine of life, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed;", James Boswell

~~~ While Hubby cooked we enjoyed the view of the pond. The ducks are so entertaining. I always laugh when they go bottoms up in the pond. ~~~

~~~Hubby patiently waits for me to take his picture with the meal he prepared for all of us, with love(below). My only regret is that this meal was served on plastic plates. Had I known how amazingly delicious this meal was going to be I would not have allowed Hubby to be so considerate of me by making sure there were few dishes to wash. ~~~Here Hubby shows his plate of venison medallions on orzo, with green beans and carrots from our garden. The venison is deer Hubby hunted and harvested on his annual hunting trip with our youngest son. Hubby also does his own meat cutting. The venison was soooooooo...good! Prior to the main course of venison, he served us a spinach salad with bacon and cranberries in it and his own vinegarette dressing. And the wine, what can I say..... well worth whatever he paid for it. There is no way for me to adequately describe the taste of this very, very fine 2002 vintage Pinot Noir from Winter's Hill vineyard. Everything Hubby prepared just seemed to come together as a perfect and memorable dinner for me. Fine wine and food and fellowship! Thank-you Hubby! ~~~After dinner we sat around the fire pit, which we lit as it started to get dark. We had a wonderful time around the campfire. I don't ever want to take for granted these special times with my husband, our friends, good food and wine..and all of the many, many blessings we have!

~~~Thank-you Lord for all you have given us, the good and the bad. Help me to remember you are in control and you know what is best for us. Thank-you Lord for the blessings of friendship, humor, and the ability to appreciate your many gifts. Thank-you for your Son and Your gifts abundant! ~~~

Good Friends, Good Food...?

~~~Hubby heads out to the barbecue, friends are comin' for dinner~~~~~~Good friends for dinner....reminds me of a wine label we saw at the Redhawk Winery in Salem, Oregon. It was Donner Party Wine : Good Friends, Good Food ! I believe this wine label won at least one award for bad taste....'bad taste' , get it ?

~~~I was surprised when telling this story about the wine label, that most people did NOT get it. Do you ? DONNER PARTY ??? ~~~Anyway, we had friends over to eat dinner WITH US, not FRIENDS FOR DINNER ! Get it ?

~~~Hubby is barbecuing dancing chickens ! Aren't they cute ?~~~

~~~Don't they look like they are having fun ?They are dancing....wouldn't you if you had so much beer in you ? ( note beer cans chickens are sitting on )~~~

~~~Hubby carves the chickens and....what can I say, he had to elbow me away from picking all the crispy luscious skin off the platter before it could be moved to the table.~~~

~~~WE had freshly baked apple pie and peach pie. Our friends brought the Vanilla Bean Ice cream.~~~We also had fresh picked snow pea pods (from our garden) sauteed in butter, LOTS of butter. ...and a salad of freshly picked lettuces from Hubby's garden. Of course I added tomatoes, cucumbers, and lots of that cheese I like....but I am not s'posed to talk about that cheese anymore, Hubby says that is enough talk about that cheese...so our friends and I had a lot to say about how much we liked that cheese in the salad.....where could they buy that cheese ? What else could we add that cheese to ?....Ooops, not s'poosed to talk so much about that cheese. Well, at least I didn't add it to the brussel sprouts we had for dinner ! ~~~"Go your way and eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart (if you are righteous, wise, and in the hand of God), for God has already accepted your works." Ecclesiastes 9:7 amplified