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Third Annual Oyster Feast Chez Moi

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Still basking in the warm hug of having my friends in my home for our third annual Oyster Feast.

Took me a while, despite Christiane’s most helpful aide, to clean up my kitchen.  Frankly, I said goodnight to my guests, looked at my kitchen and walked away.  “They will be there tomorrow,” I told myself.  Knowing full-well there ain’t no such thing as fairy godmothers who come in, wave their wands and “Poof!” all is gone…

This third gathering of ours is near and dear to my heart.  These are friends that I have known for forty years (though, how that can be when I can’t really be old enough, right?) except Julie, whom I discovered when going through my “souvenirs” book one day, that I went to Kindergarten and Grade 1 with before finding ourselves again in high school.  Truth be told, neither one of us remembers each other from way back then.  But still.

Though I pick up the oysters, this is a shared evening.  Everyone brings a little something to eat and drink.

Giselle and Dany brought a fabulous plate of Italian antipasto, Christiane and Martin brought delicious popcorn shrimp.  Julie (and Michael) made these beautiful individual salads with all kinds of goodies and a large green salad – both of which I somehow have no picture of  😦  However, she also made mini crostini with goat cheese, fig and balsamic glaze. And THAT I do have a picture of!

Antipasto Italiano
Popcorn Shrimp
Fig Goat Cheese Crostini

Nibbled on these goodies, chit-chatted about everything and nothing, sipped on cocktails while I worked on my Rockefeller topping for some of the oysters.  Time to get shucking.  Dany had “conveniently” cut himself a few days earlier with his new set of knives, earning his very first stitches at the tender age of 54, so he could not shuck.  He definitely entertained us with his hundred-mile-an-hour talking and videotaping!

Hard at work – C, Ma, G, Mi, J
Hardly working – D and D
An oyster mess – yum!

Deciding we have enough oysters – for now – we move to the dining room…

Rockefellers
A full table

But first, a group picture.  Sheesh, we almost missed Christiane!  Speaking of which, check out her oh-so-cool necklace made out of egg cartons!

Julie, Christiane, Martin, Me, Dany, Michael, Giselle
Necklace out of egg carton

The first batch of oysters gobbled up, I served my spicy pumpkin soup…  As we were eating, another high school friend of ours, Marc, texteded me asking what I was up to…. so I sent him this picture below…  He said, hey! I wasn’t invited!  Sorry, Bud.

Spicy Pumpkin soup
The gang

Now, this annual thing has been just us, the core four and spouses with the addition of girlfriends or boyfriends, depending, but no one else.  So after he texted, Marc called and asked if he could join us.  I put him on speaker so that we could all tell him that he was more than welcome…

But before he arrived, more horsing around…

Da Girls

Marc arrived in time for the second batch of oysters…

Time for a “Trou Normand” – where you basically take a shot of some rotgut to burn a hole and make room for more food.  Or calle it a palette cleanser.  However, Dany brought this fabulous “Amerable” – a bitter maple liqueur.  Starts off sweet and the bitterness slowly creeps in, in a rather surprisingly pleasant way… Dangerous stuff, is all I can say.

The bottle
The toast
Maybe we’ll have another

Time for dessert.  I figured we would be stuffed after all that food and I wanted to keep things light so I made orange Madeleines with Grand Marnier whipped cream and warmed figs with a drizzle of honey.  My second batch kinda sorta got forgotten in the oven, and, while not burnt, were, well, rather “tanned”… 😉

Perfect
Not so perfect

Dany, ever the comedian, likes to put blurbs on his pics occasionally.  Admittedly, they are spot on.  So, I’ve included his original in French, then did the English version 😉

Original
English version

Another successful evening with my peeps.  No one left hungry, that’s for sure!

And, judging by my recycling box the next morning, I’m rather surprised no one suffered!

And, lucky me, for the first time, there were actually leftover oysters!  We had some that we shucked and didn’t eat, so into a container they went and I made a soup with them… The others, I’m sure I’ll be able to treat myself to a couple more…

Missing a bottle…
Oyster Soup

Until next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

43 thoughts on “Third Annual Oyster Feast Chez Moi”

      • I get envious in reading.Schoolfriends long since dispersed. Work friends fell away when I was ill. I have family. That’s it. Great when I was ill and hadn’t the energy. And now I make the most of my i-friends. And those are precious to me, and those I treasure.
        And anyway, I was always better at communicating with the written word. Can’t hack back-slaps and gushes of emotion. 🙂

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    • Thanks, Kristian. That’s why only a select few can partake 😉 Gotta be an oyster lover!
      The dessert turned out quite well,for my first time and that bitter maple liqueur….Yummy!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Goat’s cheese crostini, wine and a fabulous dessert! Perfect. And I really like the look of Amerable. The word alone is delicious. And I really like that “C’mon” in the speech bubbles crosses the language barrier 🙂

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  4. Dear Dale,

    Has it been a year already? I remember being ‘invited’ to the last one. There’s a lot to be said for longtime friends, isn’t there? I love the last minute add on. Always room for one more. You are definitely the hostess with the mostess.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Rochelle,

      More than a year as last year’s was in October! There is a lot to be said, for sure. We all feel privileged. I tried to download Dany’s video where I call myself just that 😉😁. Didn’t work though…

      Lotsa love,

      Dale

      Liked by 1 person

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