Newfie Night

Turns out I was able to be done work right at 5:00 today. Nice! I hopped straight in the shower since I didn't have time to do that when I got home from the gym. I hate waiting that long to shower after a workout!

While waiting for my hair to dry I put together the Spinach Dip to take to book club. I only made a half batch and even that was too much, but it was tasty and our club hostess got leftovers.

I knew we'd be eating some snacks and such so I made a relatively light dinner (oh, and I only ended up eating half of that FABULOUS chocolate croissant). I had a bunch of leftover water chestnuts from making the spinach dip so that gave me the idea for a quick stirfry. This reminded me of the bag of shelled edamame that has been in the freezer for months (I've made stirfry twice and forgot to use the beans both times!). I just sauteed up some veggies in a bit of chicken broth and soy sauce, added the edamame (boiled for a few minutes to take the freeze off) and served with some leftover pork loin. Deeelish. (I ended up not eating hardly any of the pork).

Good thing I opted for this light meal, because when I got to book club our hostess had made us some tasty Newfie treats in honor of our book The Shipping News. She is from Newfoundland and was excited for us to try her fish & brewis and partridge berry pie (aka lingonberry). I wish I had taken my camera now because it was so fun...it would be nice to show you guys. For her fish & brewis she used fresh cod (as opposed to the traditional salted fish) and added some potatoes along with the hard bread. It was actually a very light and tasty dish...I would totally have it again! (although I do think she skipped the cholesterol loaded ingredients like scrunchions). I had about a cup??

Her pie was beautiful. A Martha Stewart work of art. I can bake a mean cookie, but now I want to bake a pie like that! Her crust was perfectly light and fluffy...and the filling was quite tart but jammy and delicious. I ate one piece, but wanted more just for the crust! (and I'm not even usually a pie person at all!)

Along with all of this I also had two glasses of a really meaty Californian Cabernet Sauvignon.

We blathered on about all kinds of stuff and eventually remembered we were there for the book. It's been a while now since I read it but it was a fun rehashing of the story and our differing opinions on it. I've missed book club...glad we finally got it together. Another book soon!

And now, it's midnight and I'm still waiting on my damn matress cover to finish drying so I can make my bed and get to sleep. I have A LOT to do tomorrow and need me some zzzzzzzzzzzz's.