Hi, Everyone!
Since we got back from Bangkok, it’s been getting warmer in Fairport. On St. Patrick’s Day, Grandma and I found the first crocus in bloom on the south side of the house. But look what happened after that! We have winter again! Grandma says that’s a good thing this week, because she had lots of cooking to do and she could use the garage as a second refrigerator!
Grandma and Grandpa made a dinner of the foods we ate this year on our adventures and invited friends for a party. I was a good helper. I mixed the seasonings and meat for the Chiang Mai sausage, then I checked to make sure the mangos were getting ripe. The next day, I helped Grandma and Grandpa use their new sausage stuffing machine to fill the casings.
After that, I helped Grandma make a big batch of braised short ribs, and then Grandma and I twisted the long sausages into links. Some of them didn’t want to stay twisted and we had to tie them with strings! When they were ready, Grandma baked them to make sure they would be cooked through. I was a good helper and checked the thermometer to make sure they were done!
Then Grandma asked me if I was ready for another moose quest. This time, it was really a chocolate mousse quest, instead! The chocolate mousse was very yummy and I wanted to eat it right away. But Grandma said I had to wait — that it was going to be part of a fancy dessert for the dinner, just like we had in Paris.
On Saturday, the florist delivered a beautiful arrangement of flowers. Grandma explained that friends sent them so the main dinner table would look especially nice for the party that night. The flowers smelled like perfume and reminded me of Hawaii and Thailand. Then my best buddies Joe-san and Nancy-san came over to help with the final cooking. Joe-san showed me how to make risotto, then I helped Nancy-san clean up some of the big cooking pots so we could put them away.
I was a good host and visited with the guests during dinner. It was fun to see friends who went with us on some of our adventures and to meet new friends, too. When everybody was ready for dessert, I helped Grandma and Nancy-san make chocolate Napoleons. That’s the special dessert we had in Paris, and the chocolate mousse went right on top of the puff pastry and ice cream. Yum!
Grandma made three desserts for the party, one from Prague, one from Paris, and one from Thailand. There were leftovers of everything, and I was a good helper, putting them away at the end of the party. Now I understand why Grandma was happy about the cold weather. We had to eat a lot of leftovers today before we could get everything stored in the garage back into the refrigerator!
Love,
Lion-san
PS – Grandma posted all the recipes for the travel dinner on her recipe website: http://www.jeannegrace.com/recipes/2011DinnerParty/index.html