We needed to keep busy so we dived into working on the Riverside Children’s Theater set production. They are putting on the play “Alice in Wonderland”, which is a set-heavy production. Good thing - it kept us busy. Not busy enough to feel better, but busy enough to get through each day. This is the first play that this particular director has done for the Children’s Theater and he has a lot of ideas about what he wants, plus it's a short production cycle, so there was a ton of work to do. In fact, the guy in charge of the set-technicians bet Martin (the guy in charge of creating sets) that the sets would not be done in time; the bet was about who would pay for dinner for the crew. That was before we showed up; Randy worked with Martin to build sets while I painted sets and drew details for other volunteers to paint. We only had a few days there but all the volunteers worked together and got it done. It was a wonderful dinner, at Don Jose's, and all the better because Mike was paying!
Recently Randy decided to stretch his cooking skills a bit, so he talked to Aunt Jean about getting together a dinner for some of her friends. Ten people got together on the 10th of this month at her place where Randy served an amazing nine-course dinner. Since there were so many courses, it was a “Tasting Menu”, with small, perfect servings of each dish. At the beginning of the meal some of the guests quietly wondered if they would get enough to eat, but there was no question about that by the time it was over. The menu included appetizers, seafoods, a light sorbet, a vegetable dish, red meats and desserts:
Stuffed Mushroom on a bed of Wilted Spinach
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Endive Fruit Boat with Crème Fraîche
Shrimp Scampi with Cheese Grits
Pan Seared Scallop with Summer Truffle Risotto
Lemon Sorbet
Eggplant Stack
Prime Filet of Beef with Balsamic Glaze
Lamp Chop with Cabernet Sauce
Zabaglione with Fresh Berries
Panna Cotta
And (no surprise to me) the dinner was a total success. The guests were talking about it days later. I was a bit surprised how many of these dishes were new to the guests but that is probably because I have spent years with Randy, and Randy has spent years exploring the culinary world. This is what he loves to do - it was a ton of work but so very much fun!
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