Higher, Faster, Stronger, The Olympics at Buckingham Palace

We celebrated London and the upcoming summer Olympics with our Ides greeting June 16th.  Don and Janet organized competitions and medals were handed out.

OLYMPIC RINGS

1.  Slow Cycling Endurance - le tour de Beacon Hill - 5 metres whoever finishes last wins the gold
2.  Floatie Synchronized Swimming - pairs will compete on flotation devices to show off their best synch moves
3. Intergalactic Water polo - Beacon Hill residents vs. The Rest of the Known World of IDES
4. Ubermodern Duathalon - Watermelon seed spitting and swallow end of pool triple jump
5.  Linguistic Gymnasitics - The Olympic Committee pretentious wine tasting competition

Bernard won the Slow Cycling Edurance, the Bales won the Floatie Synchronized Swimming, the Intergalactic Water Polo was a tie and Jean-Claude won the Ubermodern Duathalon!  The Linguistic Gymnastics was a lot of fun but no winner was declared!

We had wonderful food.  Hors d'oeuvres were all needed for a Ploughman's lunch, cold cuts, pickles unions, gerkhins, deviled eggs, cheese.  Supper included cornish pasties, bangers and mash, lasagna and wonderful strawberry shortcake with freshly picked strawberries, freshly made jam, clotted cream and/or whipped cream! 

More pictures on Flickr! 

Lunch at Mariposa Farm - May 6, 2012

We had a beautiful day for our visit and lunch at Mariposa Farm.  Both the Wrights and Dextras-Barres travel the 45 km to the farm in Plantagenet every December 24th to buy the Christmas turkey.

Lunch was great with three choices, bison, lamb and duck.  We visited the farm, saw geese, duck, a sow and her piglets and the vegetable garden both outside and in the hot house.

The group just before going in to eat

Mariposa Farm offers foie gras

For more pictures, see Flickr album. 

Commemorative Titanic Dinner

Saturday April 14, 2012

Ides Commemorative Titanic Dinner

Today is the 100th anniversary of the last dinner served on the Titanic.  It sank in the night from April 14th to 15th.  The Ides Club held a dinner using recipes from the last dinner served on the Titanic on April 14th 1912. This is the menu served April 14, 2012.  There were 14 of us.  


Don surprised us with fresh Malpeque and Beausoleil oysters to sample with the bubbly provided by Michèle and Jean-Claude.  Don had kindly shucked the oysters and provided some red wine vinegar, shallots and lemon with them. 

The Bales enjoyed them!

Don explained how to eat the oysters

From the First Class

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First course

Potage Saint-Germain
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Second course

Tournados aux morilles

Choux de Savoie braisé

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Third course

Vegetable Marrow farci

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Fourth course

Asparagus Salad with Champagne-Saffron Vinaigrette

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Fifth course

Chocolate-painted Éclairs with

French Vanilla Cream 

From the Second Class

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Curried Chicken and rice

Paul and Dan enjoying the oysters

Our Captain Jean-Claude and Jolene served the first course prepared by Jolene, Potage Saint-Germain.  
We had a very enjoyable evening. 

Captain's Table

Everyone dressed up

Every course was wonderful, quite a treat including the "2nd class" Curried Chicken and Rice that had a very unique taste.  There was not much left on plates at the end of the evening.

March 24, 2012 Dinner with Chef Phil

Saturday evening ten of our IDESTERS gathered at Dan and Colette's to enjoy a meal prepared by Chef Phil Wood.  We really missed Michèle & Jean-Claude, Bertrand & Aline and Jon & Debbie.

Our Menu worked out by Don and Phil.

1. Roasted Poblano Chowder with seared Shrimp & Scallop, Corn and Cilantro in a small glass bowl
2. Risotto a la Bronzini (Blueberry, Gorgonzola and blue poppy seeds) and greens on a plate
3. Farro grain Ragout with Duck Confit/Roasted Quail with Blackberry Coulis & blanched Rapini on a large plate.
4. Port Poached Fig with Jerepico* crème fraiche in a Martini Glass with some exotic Asian tasting "Granola"tossed on top .. carefully.

The players.. 

Oversight,

Chef Phil preparing Risotto

Expectant Chatter ..

Some good wines were enjoyed.

Chef Phil prepares the meal..
adding blueberries and Cambazola cheese to the Risotto. He ensures the scallops are just right

Marinated Quail with Blueberries

First Course: Roasted Poblano Chowder 

  

 Second Course: Risotto a la Bronzini 

Two Quails each with Farro and Rapini

Adding the Granola

Much thanks to the Wrights for Hosting this fantastic evening and to Chef Phil for introducing us to some amazing new flavours. It was great.


We had some good wines.. I will leave it to the purveyors of the wine to comment on what they brought and when it was drunk.

Saturday September 26, 2011 - MEAT!!

Hello Everyone,

To keep Jon and Debbie in the loop, I will try to keep our blog updated every month.  I encourage all of you to add your comments whether you participated or not at a dinner.  Participation is key to keep everyone in the loop!  Also I am not taking notes at these dinners, so corrections and additions about our conversations or what we ate are welcome!

To the delight of several of our members, our theme this month was meat, meat and more meat!  We had quite a variety, all of it excellent.  Dan and Colette brought a musk ox stew that Dan made with meat he brought back from Yellowknife.  The meat was quite tender and the stew had a natural slight sweetness that came from blueberries.  Musk ox is a very lean meat.  Dan reported that he had a portion of it as a steak and enjoyed it very much with his son.

Jolene and Ted, who were our hosts prepared a chilli with cheese and sour cream toppers, excellent and of course since Jolene prepared it, there were lots of veggies in it along with, of course, meat!  Norm and Sharon brought a wonderful sesame chicken stew made with boneless chicken thighs.  Very nice flavours and no bones to deal with!  Jean-Claude and I brought a Thai-style beef salad.  Jolene provided Turtles for dessert!  Perfect ending to a great meal with good conversation.

Don and Janet who had opted to attend the NAC's opening concert with Sarah McLachlan, joined us later in the evening and were able to taste the wonderful meal.  They looked real spiffy in their formal attire!

Saturday March 26, 2011 - 1970's Retro Recipes

Wow gang what a great retro 1970 IDES last night. Groovy. Thanks to everyone for great food (no mackerel was served but mighty fine hors d'oeuvres like tasty white bread asparagus roll-ups and cheese dreams, mains like pineapple ham, upscale shepherds (shepards!!! pie) and jiggly jelly gazpacho and sangria salads and a mighty fine pineapple upside down cake for dessert).

Great wine (the mateus brought back some foggy memories) and great company and conversation (election talk was kept to a minimum).

Saturday September 12, 2009 -Original creation or significant variation to an existing recipe

Ides was held at Sharon and Norm's home. Dinner was outside with beautiful Thai decorations. Ted's innovative Mac & Cheese was the hit of the evening!