Tuesday, July 1, 2008

C, eh, N, eh, D, eh!

It's official. Serdic and I throw great parties. This evening we hosted a Canada Day party for a few friends and it was a great success, if I do say so myself. I was a little worried because a lot of the people we had invited hadn't met each other before, but everyone clicked very quickly and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. We decided to take advantage of our new BBQ and so that was the starting point for the meal -- Serdic grilled chicken, salmon, and portobello mushrooms, along with some veggie skewers. I was responsible for the "inside" portion, and made a potato salad, a broccoli salad, and tzatziki as an appetizer. Rounding out the meal were the dishes our lovely friends brought (a pasta salad, strawberries and whipped cream and chocolate chip cookies for dessert, lots of fresh veggies and fruit) and we all stuffed ourselves.

I was particularly proud of the potato salad, as it was my first time attempting such a thing. It has been a long standing family tradition that I ask for my grandmother's potato salad at any meal taking place between May and October, and it is understood that I get the first helping and have first dibs on any leftovers. So when we decided to host a barbeque I knew I had to try to carry on the tradition. I called her last night and got the recipe, and was surprised by how simple it was. I was expecting some grand secret ingredient (Serdic tells me that ingredient is "love," but he's corny like that) but it was surprisingly easy. I won't say that it was AS good as my grandmother's, but I was very pleased with it all the same. That recipe is definitely a keeper.

It was a little weird not to be downtown, in the heart of the action so to speak, for Canada Day, as I have been for the last four years. There are times when I really miss living downtown and today was one of them. Although I don't miss the crowds and the noise. But I did miss standing out on my balcony watching the fireworks. We talked about going downtown to watch them but by the time our guests left we were pooped. A long day of cooking and cleaning will do that to a person! We're definitely getting better at this dinner party thing ... we have our timing down to a science now, and we are even learning how to share the kitchen (a hard fought battle)! This was our first time actually serving dinner to this many people at once and it went surprisingly well. We're lucky in that we both enjoy entertaining and we like to share the tasks involved. It's something we do particularly well as a couple -- we were both good at it individually, and we're even better at it together.

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

3 comments:

cupcake said...

The chow looks delish!

Are you willing to give up Grandma's potato salad recipe???

You Look Like A Nail said...

The potato salad is most acceptable!

Kiy said...

I have to 2nd cupcake's request. I make the world's worst potato salad. No, seriously, I do. Ask Tlar. I have never made it for him and we've been married 15 years!

BTW, the line: Serdic tells me that ingredient is "love" sounds just like something he'd say. And, he's right. Probably why your's turned out so good too! <3

Happy (late) Canada Day you too. I've been thinking about you both.

Kiy