Good Times 2011–Part One

You know what?  2011 was quite a good year!

• Happy 2011 – nothing like ringing in the New Year with a great friend and an all night party!

January

• Started photography class – really interesting.  I’ve forgotten everything I learned.
• Thai at Home Cooking Class – I’ve raved about this class all year long.

February

• I met Chibi at a dinner party – little did I know that naked little Xolo was coming to be my new roomie.
• Chinatown grocery shopping – such fun.  I really need to do this again.
• Snowpocalypse – doesn’t Mother Nature know it doesn’t snow in Victoria?

March

• Chibi arrives – and never leaves. :)
• Culinaire Victoria 2011 – foodie fun at it’s finest.

April

• Chibi’s One-Monthiversary – clearly we’re a couple now.
• Curry Party – complete with delicious chick pea curry and refreshing Kachumar salad.

• Hockey playoffs start – and so do my incessant posts about the Canucks.
• German Sparkle Party – you know you want to listen to that nutty song over and over again. 
• Sooke Harbour House – one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever had, complete with lovely overnight stay and gorgeous views.  {Part One} {Part Two} {Part Three}

May

• Empress Afternoon Tea – nothing but the finest finger sandwiches for my Mom!
• Backyard Shrimp Boil – bet you didn’t know this is actually where Michael and I met.  That dog in the photos?  Yep, that’s his Burl.  :)

June

• The one where I sneak in a mention of our first date – but don’t give you any details.  mwahaha.
• Trip to Vancouver – complete with Canucks Cup fever!
• {Post One} {Post Two} {Post Three} {Post Four}

• Tragedy Strikes – when the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup.
• True Spirit – stupid people rioted, lovely people cleaned up.
• V.I.C. Fest – local wine, local beer, local art, local music, local food, good friends and good times.
• Fernwood Bites – more local food, more local wine, more good friends and good times.

Wow, all of that went down in just the first six months.  If I ever complain of being bored please refer me back to my own blog. 

Part Two tomorrow.

Curry Partay

Staying up until 6am is not necessarily the best idea I’ve ever had.  Nor is following up a few glass of red wine with a few too many glasses of vodka/cranberry/soda.  Needless to say most of Saturday was a write-off.  A lot of sleep, a very patient dog, a gigantic Coco Cappuccino and deli-made pasta salad saved the day.

As did my friend Laura.

My friends Jamie and Chris decided to throw a potluck with an Indian curry theme.  While this sounds like an amazing idea I realized that I have really never ever cooked anything Indian!!  Oh nooooooes!

Thankfully Laura came to the rescue with one of Chef Heidi Fink’s recipes!  North Indian Tomato Curry (with Cauliflower and Chickpeas).

My biggest concern was actually cost.  I was very worried about having to purchase many spice ingredients I didn’t have on hand to make the homemade curry powder and garam masala.  Thankfully Laura had very recently made fresh batches of both and brought me a spice gift package!!

Including fresh curry leaves!

And black mustard and whole cumin seeds…

Due to my super duper late night I pretty much slept the day away on Saturday and thanks to some glitches with my Blackberry I wasn’t hearing text messages or phone calls and actually slept right through the time Laura and I had planned to get together to work on the recipe.

Doh!

She was a superstar though and still met me later in the day to help walk me through everything.  Honestly, she pretty much cooked the whole thing…but seeing the few tricks up her sleeve make me confident I’ll be able to do it myself next time!!

I am very pleased with how this turned out.  So flavourful! 

Along with this I also did a fresh and simple Kachumar Salad.  Sweet onions for the win!

The veggie slicing took some time but I arrived at the dinner party just in time to eat!  We had such a beautiful variety of contributions and everything was delicious!

Dinner Guests:  I want that Butter Chicken recipe!  Um, and the naan while we’re at it.  Oh, and the tandoori.  Ah well, throw in the raita recipe too please!  :)  and Alex:  What was your dish with the egg??

Admittedly I avoided the cocktails.  One night of drinkin’ is enough for me this week.  Lordy.  I did indulge in a second serving of almost everything and two too many cookies though.  Fooooooood.

Some sort of ridiculous Wii game kept us all rather entertained for the remainder of the evening…

…before I brought myself home and tucked into bed for a much needed 12 hours of sleep.  Major props go out to Chibi who totally let me sleep as much as I needed.  My dog is clearly a rock star.

I’m teaching her well.  zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Thai at Home

While shopping without a list last night I ended up with some Bolthouse juice in my cart.  Better than winding up with Cheetos in my cart!

Sipped a glass this morning alongside my yummy new-to-me coffee…straight from Guatemala thanks to a generous Navy friend…

…and *tears* the last of my delicious Tofino peasant toast with sunflower butter and pomegranate jelly.

Breakfast and lunch were almost back to back because I got wrapped up in a work call for the billionth time and of course didn’t think to eat before I dialled.  So the toast was followed up an hour later by a much needed bigass salad…

Featured protein for the big silver bowl today was leftover salmon with capers.  Yum!

On top of a bed of spinach, carrots, tomatoes and yellow peppers tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and coarse salt.

I made all of that hold me over until late evening when Tiffaney and I attended Truly Thai at Home…a basic Thai cooking class by Chef Heidi Fink.  It was so fun, delicious and educational. 

I will do a full recap for you sometime this week but we sat down to a delicious six course Thai meal…each course prepared by a different pair of students.  Everything was fresh and flavourful and I enjoyed every bite.

Now quick, someone get me a bowl of coconut sticky rice.  Stat.