I woke up this morning — or rather was jolted awake at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm I forgot to turn off, which woke W as well. He eventually drifted back to sleep (a tiny Christmas miracle — that never happens), while I lay there thinking about a Fancy Dinner for eight I was supposed to make in Red Deer tonight: rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, soup, sides, goat cheese gratin and crème brûlée. At the same time I wasn’t sure the storm would let up enough to make the drive there and back safe in a blizzard. By 8 a.m. I was cleaning the kitchen and making crème brûlée (which must be done in advance), baking peppermint brownies and rolling truffles. I hadn’t slept much — I’d arrived home from an evening out at 9:30 and stayed up until 1 a.m. making two double batches of peppermint brownies for an afternoon event and writing a blog post — so this morning I felt like I’d been stabbed in the eye with something sharp and blunt all at once.
By noon the AMA was still advising against travel on Highway 2 and the forecast called for more snow overnight. I managed to reach the party planners in Red Deer and asked if they could order in; that stretch of highway is one of the worst, especially when temperatures approach -40 with wind chill, making it dangerously easy to slide off the road.
Mike later told me I actually fell asleep typing last night — somewhere in that last sentence I’d dozed with my fingers on the keys. He wanted to take a picture but the camera was plugged in uploading photos. Probably a good thing I wasn’t on the highway between Red Deer and Calgary then.
So I called off the birthday party in Red Deer and worked the afternoon at Willow Park. And instead of working, I got to enjoy a holiday gathering. On a snowy Saturday a week and a half before Christmas, that’s exactly what you want to do. Our friends host themed Christmas parties and this year’s was Polyester and Cheese — everyone wore polyester and brought an interesting chunk of cheese. Each cheese was labeled as it arrived with a little stand-up card, and guests were encouraged to add tasting notes on the back.
N made a genuine Swiss fondue (being Swiss) and a batch of meatballs — one of my favourite party foods. My own meatball sauce is made with chili sauce and grape jelly; N’s was a simple mix of a bottle of beer, a cup of chili sauce and a quarter cup of Worcestershire sauce. Platters of sweets covered the table: sugar cookies, tarts, chocolate bark and Nanaimo bars, a childhood favourite at holiday parties. I brought leftover peppermint brownies drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes. I used Trish Magwood’s brownie recipe, omitted the espresso and replaced half the vanilla with a teaspoon of peppermint extract; if you want to make a large batch you can double the recipe and bake it in a rimmed bun pan. N’s Swiss mum sent an enormous platter of poppycock studded with tiny wrapped Swiss chocolate bars — I’m definitely going to pester N for that recipe. It was a fantastic spread and I ate far too much. The kids had their own cheese platter and a bowl of cheesies in the basement, and I could tell W was as delighted as I once was as a child when parents were distracted at parties and the buffet table became ours.
My favourite cheese on the table was a lemon goat cheese from Salt Spring Island (pictured above), purchased from Janice Beaton. Mike’s pick was a maple-marble cheddar whose exact name I couldn’t remember. We brought pepper-and-cranberry Boursin, which I highly recommend — I would have chosen something more local, but I pulled it from the freezer when I was planning to be in Red Deer. Boursin is a soft, spreadable cheese that freezes very well without changing texture. That sparked a conversation about how Boursin tossed with hot pasta makes an incredibly easy and impressive pasta dish. It’s an accessible cheese you can find at most grocery stores.
I’ll keep this brief — I need to jump in the shower and scrape off the barnacles before an all-day meeting to write scripts and set up 13 episodes of It’s Just Food, which we’ll be taping in the first two weeks of February. I have to be there in 45 minutes!