Cake, Cardi, and Things Dinner Guests Have Done Over The Years

 

Movita's Birthday Cake - Before Decorating

 

Now, you'd think I would find baking Movita's birthday cake a daunting task. After all, she is the Baking Ballerina and doing an apprenticeship in a Nova Scotia bakery as I write this post. I look at it this way - however it turns out, given the long gruelling days she is putting in, it will be a treat to have someone else do the work for her! I made the Mile High Chocolate Cake from the Epicurious website and iced it with Martha Stewart's Fluffy White Frosting.

 

 

Keeping The Decorations Simple - Fresh Yellow Flowers

 

 

Zen Cardigan

 

Here's the little cardi that I knit with the Kona sport yarn that I hand dyed here in the kitchen with Wilton's food coloring! It is knit on much larger needles than sport yarn usually calls for, giving the sweater a lot of drape. I thought the garter stitch really worked well with the variegation in the yarn.

 

 

The little cardi is asymmetrical and knit from the top down with no seaming.

 

Pattern: Zen Cardigan

Designer: al-abrigo

Yarn: Henry's Attic Kona Sport Merino

Color: Wilton's Food Coloring (Cornflower Blue) with Clubhouse Food Coloring (Yellow)

Needles: Circular - 5.5 mm

 

Now, Dinner Guests:

 

We have had some odd things happen over the years with dinner guests. Though none of them have ever walked off with anything. Until now.

 

There was the young gal who came to a gathering of family and friends and arrived earlier in the day. She hung around the kitchen a lot and watched me cook and take the meal to the dinner table. Just after we all sat down and raised our forks, she announced with a sickeningly sweet smile that she was vegetarian! I don't remember what I had prepared for the meal but I remember thinking quickly that the only option open to the kid at that point in time was a peanut butter and jam sandwich! And I had the distinct feeling that she had played this little trick on hostesses in the past and liked the attention and dismayed reaction. After all, what cook doesn't want all her guests to enjoy their meal?

 

Then there was the earnest young lawyer and his wife who came to lunch one weekend when the children were very young. They arrived with their little boy and we had a pleasant chat before sitting down and we found them to be a lovely couple. As the meal was nearing an end, the husband leaned over and asked me directly what I planned on serving for dessert. I was a tiny bit taken aback. Usually, the hostess announces dessert and brings it to the table. There is no question period beforehand. I told him what I had made. He thought about it for a minute and asked "Well, do you mind if I go out to the car and bring in a dessert my mother made? I'd like that one more."

I was unusually speechless.

And I felt a little sorry for his wife. I wondered how many times over the years, he would be able to produce something his mother had done better...

 

We had two separate occasions when old friends were sitting around the table after the meal, chatting, and solving the world's problems. One was dramatically making a point, plunking his wine glass on the table, only to raise it again and find the stem and base left behind! Another old friend put her wine glass down just a tiny bit more forcefully than usual and was amazed to find the stem had no base when she lifted it up again.

Ah, well, accidents happen. We all have them. The rule here is that if you break a great crystal wine glass, you do penance for six months with a tumbler. Then you are given access to the crystal again.

 

The Case of the Missing Napkins:

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, Movita emailed me after returning home from a dinner here to say that 2.0 had taken his jacket and shoes off, then pulled one of our cloth napkins from his back pocket!! She was amazed that he had carried it off without noticing. And last night, getting back after her birthday supper, she wrote to say that he had done it yet again!

Either dear 2.0 has latent klepto tendencies or Naughty Nora is so distracting that the poor man can't think straight by the time he leaves. The latter, I believe, is far more likely...