Da Curious

i went to my first "adult" dinner over the weekend and what an experience it was. mr marshman and i were invited to mr pio roda's place for a nice homecooked meal on a friday night and it was everything i thought it would be and more. is that saying too much? it's pretty much how i would want my apartment to look when i settle down and get a place of my own. meaning i'm still in the ikea stage of my life while he has moved on to pottery barn. everything matched perfectly. there was a nice ambiance to the room with candles set up on the fireplace, on top of the tv...somewhat similar to a model home in my mind. dinner plates were set complete with napkin holders, coasters and wine glasses but the one thing i was most impressed with was the wine markers. i've never really seen them before and wasn't really sure what to do with them (you mean you don't drop it into the wine glass?) which made me feel a little foolish but i am now officially in love with them. i think i will buy myself a set for when i have company over. which won't be for a while yet.

i felt so sophisticated the whole night...me holding my wine glass while discussing the brad pitt and jennifer aniston break-up all the while popping hors d'oeuvers decorated with little japanese umbrellas into my mouth. i wish i could remember what they were called. between the six of us we polished off four bottles of wine. two white, one red and a dessert wine. i'm just now starting to get into wine and it was as if i was attending my very own wine tasting. everything was just perfect except that we didn't get a chance to play cranium but no matter because that just gives me another reason to go visit. my goal is to hold a dinner party of my own one of these coming months but after my disastrous attempt tonight in trying to make the stir-fry chicken with pineapples i think that i may need to wait a little longer.

i received this fabulous chinese wok cookbook for xmas (from the same person who shall remain anonymous but who also got me my blogger t-shirt) and due to the simple recipes, big pictures and minimal ingredients i was convinced this was the dream cookbook i've been looking for all these years. finally i will be able to make chinese dishes like my mom. while it still is my dream cookbook my first attempt tonight did not turn out so hot. jon g can attest to this. first i put too much cornstarch into my chicken making it turn out lumpy. second i completely forgot about the chicken and ended up having to cook it hastily at the end and third i accidentally used crushed canned pineapples instead of pineapple cubes which apparently makes a big difference and made my dish turn out a little funny looking. so funny looking in fact that jon g only tried one bite and deemed it my worst to date yet. how depressing but i vow to keep on chugging. that and i bought bean sprouts last night for use in another recipe but was so demoralized by my failure tonight that i will wait until tomorrow to attempt cooking again.

oh and obviously i decided not to quit blogging. i still have some topics to discuss and well i musn't let my few fans down. they are a loyal bunch. and it isn't everyday i'm able to get the big three (marshman, wallace and pio roda) to all comment on the same post.