Weekend o' Fun

Photo: Gluttony, avec spaghetti alla carbonara.

This has been a great weekend. Thursday night out with everyone at work at the Court Jester was awesome, the market was fabulous yesterday, and our dinner & Wii night with Mar & Blaise was so fun.

I ended up making spaghetti alla carbonara, because it is super easy, and everyone loves it. Who wouldn't love bacon & eggs on spaghetti? It's breakfast in a bowl! I got some gorgeous double-smoked bacon at the market, the kind that comes in huge slabs with the rind on, which was amazing in the pasta. I also finally found a great baguette, at the Stonemill bakery on the lower level. All of the bakeries on the upper level were totally uninspiring, so that was a nice treat. And we got some really real hot cross buns, which were delish, although they were not, as the hubby kept humming, "one a penny, two a penny." Darn. The market was CRAZY, but that's half the fun. It makes me feel like a chic French woman fighting with a man wearing a beret over the most perfect lemon.

Dessert was mini angel food cakes (bought, not homemade. I'm not that brave), with chantilly cream flavoured with real vanilla bean (a first for me. I loved the pretty black specks) and strawberries macerated in superfine sugar and balsamic vinegar. The vinegar sounds strange, I know, but it really adds something. You can't taste it, but the berries are ten times more flavourful and juicy. This, or some variation on it, is my go-to last minute dessert, because it is so easy, and really not all that bad for you, as angel food cake is pretty much fat free.

Mar & Blaise brought their Wii and the projector with them, which was a good idea, as playing the Wii on our 13" TV probably wouldn't be so fun. We played some game about psycho bunnies, which was oddly satisfying and fun, especially considering that we weren't the most level headed by that time, having had much wine and Jagermeister. This was my first Jager experience, and not one that I'm sure I want to repeat. What do people see in the stuff? Much Wii-ing, jabbering of random nonsense, eating of pizza (by Blaise and the hubby) and napping (by me and Mar) later, we all crashed for the night, and Mar & Blaise are just waking up now. And that is what I call a good dinner party!

Tonight is off to Nanny's for ham & scalloped potatoes with my dad's side of the family, which will be a nice antidote to Wii craziness. And then back to work! Which doesn't feel like such a drag when I've filled my fun quota.