~~~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! ~~~
My husband has been beside himself with joy and enthusiasm these past few weeks in the planning and preparation of a dinner and wine tasting event he was privileged to host for my sisters and their husbands, and ME ! He has piles and piles of cook books, cooking publications, and hours of perusing food and wine blogs and Food Network T.V invested in this dinner.In other words, he has been enjoying himself immensely. Of course he has the every day part of his life which requires he go to work, repair our well pump himself- which went out last month, and just last week and on into this week,he had to repair our septic pump which required digging up our septic system,working on it, spending lots of money and back-breaking labor on it , and then coming indoors and cleaning up so he could resume his passion, preparing for special dinners with people we love! ( Above is the center-piece of Friday night's event)
How does the table look so far? I'm just getting started. The china and carefully hand-washed and dried wine glasses are on the table, there is so much more to do...."Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. A new friend is as new as the wind: when it is old, thou shall drink it with pleasure." Ecclesiates 9:10 And dear sisters, you are long time ( not old yet!) friends as well as sisters dear to my heart~
My husband prepared one of our home raised ducks for this dinner ahead of time. He ( the duck) is carefully killed and plucked ( I helped with that) and cleaned , ready to be the main course.
Because one of our home-raised ducks is the center- piece of the dinner, we used our ducks as the theme. The menu and table setting reflects this. I took pictures of our duck flock, enlarged them and added the menu and made a wine-tasting mat the same way. "Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make men drunk. When drunk with moderation is the joy of the soul and heart." Ecclesiastes 31:35-36 The menu was also the place card and contained a Bible verse central to our philosophy regarding God's abundant blessings.
Here is the menu on a picture of our ducks on our pond. "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry.." Ecclesiastes 10:19
Close-up of the menu. " Eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart." Ecclesiastes 9:10
This is the setting with the 4 wine-glasses . Each wine glass sits on a circle delineating the type of wine to be tasted. My husband also provided a wine-tasting sheet to help the tasters decide the qualities of the wine. "One not only drinks the wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it, and one talks about it."King Edward the VII
Close-up of this wine-tasting mat for wine glass placement(above).You might notice this is the picture I use for the header of this blog. "Wine can be considered with good reason as the most healthful and most hygienic of all beverages" & "The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry." Louis Pasteur
My sisters , well, 2 of them with their husbands. (Tricia, wish you could be here!) My sister Joni and her husband Tom on the left, my sister Karen and her husband Kaare on the right. We had so much fun, and the meal was wonderful!!!!! I will post the recipes and more in the next post. Be assured, my husband did good, very, very deliciously and just ducky good!"With years a richer life begins, the spirit mellows:ripe age gives tones to violins, wine and good fellows." John Townsend Trowbridge
My husband, the chef! He really could do this for a living...but maybe it is all the more wonderful he does this for love. "May our love be like good wine, grow stronger as it grows older." Old English Toast
"He makes grass grow for the cattle ( and ducks) and plants for man to cultivate-bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted." Psalm 104
