Food Etc!

Food Etc!

Yes, Cheryl, Kazzie, Leslie and I did have a very late night out to celebrate Kazzie's birthday. Kazzie had Pina Coladas and switched to a Snickers Martini (or some candy bar name) and Lesley and I went from Chocolate Martinis to Snickers or maybe it was a Milky Way Martini…. We had a good time. Kazzie doesn't drink, but it was a celebration so she did. We were planning a night out at Todd English for Lesley's birthday and Kazzie asked if Jeff Boy was going to come. She got this really surprised look on her face and said, “I don't know where that came from.” I told her that I am sure Jeff Boy would be very happy to skip it.

We are doing better with friends. We met a couple from Elkhorn, WI that are doing the whole trip to Southampton. They are about our age. I had met the woman at the gym earlier on the cruise and knew she was from WI, but we hadn't all talked until the other night. They are on early seating so our paths really hadn't crossed much when we were on late. We discovered that we were all on the transatlantic on the Carnival Liberty which was also the cruise we met Sandra and Peter, our Brisbane friends as well as Lesley and Frank from California who I think are following the blog. Last night we met them at the World Cruiser Cocktail party and talked more. I knew we were with Cheeseheads when Rick was talking about some dried fish they had seen in Kota Kinabalu. He said they reminded him of Smelt and asked if we knew what they were… a cheesehead moment! Their names are Bonnie and Rick. We also discussed the Brett Favre resignation with them. Didn't tell them the part about how I only like football for the dip!

We had dinner at Todd English last night with Cathy and Bob from Brisbane (Vince and Debbie's friends) and two of their tablemates. They are an older couple from New York, both Professors I think. It turns out he went to UW Madison and loved it. She talked about the first time she was able to visit “the exalted place “( the UW campus). We had a lot of fun and great conversation. It was great of Bob and Cathy to set it up and invite us. Bob is very funny and it was great to learn about their life…very interesting.

Here it is… the food!!!!! (the things I remembered to photograph anyway)

Starters:
Lobster and baby corn chowder with whipped parsnip, black truffle and potato. Photos are before and after adding the liquid. (After pic isn't uploaded yet.)
Lobster and flat bread starter
Maine crab cake with fiery sweet and sour tomato sauce

Entrees:
Grilled beef tenderloin and toasted garlic spinach, country ham, peas, caramelized red onions and Roquefort cream

Grilled veal loin, artichoke and veal sparerib ragú
Pan-seared swordfish cheroula grilled shrimp, cipollini onions, spinach, carrot and coconut creamRoasted duck breast, confit leg and ginger carrot cannelloni, whipped cauliflower and braised cabbageDesserts:
Chocolate fallen cake with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauceMandarin orange crème brulee with fresh berry shortbread

COOKING CLASS:
Pacific Rim seafood curry with Hawaiian fried rice
Mediterranean cheesecake on pimento coulis with a sundried tomato glaze

We have the culinary fair today, but it is during my hair color appointment, so we will see if I get pictures of that.

One other nice couple we met again was Sandy and Tom from Virginia. They sail on the Chesapeake and once kept their boat at Moss Marine for a month. Tom was Jeff's fencing partner. He liked them both from that, but we never saw them again. They are doing the whole thing all the way back to NYC on the QM2. We will get together with them again too. They were on our trip to the rainforest in Malaysia and we enjoyed the day together.

Things are looking up in the friend department… we continue to have an absolutely fabulous time. Looking forward to Liz and Tim tomorrow.