Dinner Parties and Dinnerware

Last night we had a fabulous dinner at a friend's house.  We made a shrimp pizza to bring over, and they provided a delicious mushroom pasta.  The shrimp and the mushrooms were local. For dessert, they also brought out local pears, served on Kathie Winkle side plates.  Which reminded me that I thrifted three dinner plates during August, but never posted about them.  Remember from this post, that I was going to keep my eye out for them?  Here they are...

 I won't start using them until I have collected a few more, but one thing that strikes me about these dishes is how small they are compared to modern dishes.  These dinner plates are probably 3/4 the size of the ones I am currently using (which are almost two decades old themselves!), and the side plates we used last night are about half the size.

On a sort of related note, we are hosting a dinner party tonight.  Lately, I've been caught up with watching the UK's "Come Dine with Me" and Canada's "Dinner Party Wars."  So, I've decided to make a three course meal as an homage to these shows - but don't expect my guests to rate me!  For a starter: Harvest Salad with goat cheese and pears; for the main: Panko-crusted oven-fried Halibut with homemade Tartar Sauce, new potatoes and an heirloom tomato salad, and a plum cake with whipped cream for dessert.  We are eating quite early, so I can shoo the guests out to watch the season premier of Dexter - but hopefully it won't be that obvious to guests!  I guess I'd better get at it, since my viewing of these TV shows have taught me that a dinner party requires sufficient preparation!

Reducing Myself Monday

Still maintaining at 140.  During the week I am seeing 138-139, but I guess I am living the high life on the weekends, so I'm back at 140 when Monday rolls around.  That's something I'll have to work on. Since school has started and I'm back in my dressy slacks, I am noticing that the waistbands are all a little looser compared to last semester.

Tonight I started my belly dancing class.  It was really fun and the instructor said I was a natural!  I guess having ample hips doesn't hurt; I can sure make those bells around my hips shake!  She is a great dancer and delightful to learn from.  Some people have doppelgangers and hers is Mad Men's Christina Hendricks; she even has the same voice.

Tomorrow I will head out for a run after work.  I've been doing 6 km runs, but should soon push myself to run 8s.  I know I can do it.

New (to me) Bling

Here is a photo of two recent jewelry purchases.  The clip on earrings are vintage and purchased at the 'VV Boutique' (Value Village) for $3.99, and I found the bracelet yesterday for $10 at our local Farmer's Market.  I love the apple-green colour and since it is apple season, I'll fit right in!

A Harvest of Free Things

Over the past month, I've been thankful to be the recipient of a number of free things!

Starting with two massive zucchinis and three cucumbers...

 (We've been eating a lot of chocolate-zucchini loaf!)

Followed by three jack Sockeye, two of which are still in the freezer.  And today, Hus came home from walking the dog with a huge bag of apples and a half full bag of plums, that someone down the street gave him. I also went blackberry picking with a friend a few weeks ago....

 And created this tart with the results....

 On the non-food front, I hit a garage sale really late in the day where they were giving away what was left, so I grabbed this scarf and immediately tied it around my straw hat...

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 I also found a quarter while walking a few days ago.

I probably accumulated other free stuff, but these were the only ones I remember right now.  It is great that our lives (and diets) can be enhanced by what other people discard and give away!

Reducing Myself Monday

Hi everyone, forgive me for another long hiatus!  But I'm back, and today am still 140 lbs.  Which means I've kept off 5-6 pounds this summer, and still hope to lose a few more.  I've been running and doing exercise DVD's and podcasts (and streaming ones! check out Exercise TV!) And I've signed up for bellydancing classes which start on Sept 20th!