During the holiday season or anytime, you may enjoy creating some traditions for enjoyable evenings at home. For us, having dinner together is always enjoyable. What would it be like to alter the setting and instead of going to a restaurant before attending an opera but rather to have a fancy dinner in front of the fireplace while listening to a favorite opera?!
The table is always in the center of the room. We moved the chairs in for the special dinner setting. The tablecloth is one of my creations using painter’s drop cloths. It was originally made to take to a table out in the garden. The drop cloth fabric resembles Belgian linen. More on this topic in another post!
We received Courtney Allison’s book, French Country Cottage: Inspired Gatherings as a gift. Her book, filled with photos of beautiful table settings and sumptuous food and floral arrangements is indeed inspiring. My husband is dubious about eating at one of the remote spots in the garden or on the rock bridge over the arroyo. Perhaps the right menu…
When we moved to the Hill Country we brought several boxes of CDs with us. Unpacked and organized, they awaited our purchase of a CD player to work with our in-home sound system. Of course, you can access a variety of music online as well. If you stream your music you will be able to pause the music when conversation ensues or it’s time to serve coffee and dessert. However, we had a collection of opera CDs purchased on evenings when we attended the opera and were looking forward to hearing them again. Handel’s Julius Caesar is a favorite. We enjoyed the live performance so much we returned to the theatre a week later to hear it again!
We are both looking forward to going to an Opera San Antonio performance. It is particularly interesting to note there are performances held at the Tobin Center and at community venues around San Antonio.
We stopped at the market to get the ingredients for one of our favorite special occasion dinners; Lobster Fra Diavolo. We have adapted a wonderful recipe for Shrimp Fra Diavolo from Giada De Laurentiis’ Everyday Italian. The only change is to add a lobster tail to the top and some angel hair pasta underneath the sauce. We use small lobster tails, clipping the along the back and gently pulling the meat to the surface, then basting it with a sauce of butter, lemon, garlic and paprika and broiling the tails for 8 minutes.
Open the doors to the terrace and the slight chill of the evening air enters the dining area. Light the fireplace and the candles on the tabletop. As we pull our chairs close together and prepare to toast one another the sound of the fountain in the garden and the first strains of Julius Caesar are heard.
An evening to remember! You are certain to have ideas about making your own special evenings. Coming up for us is an evening which will include curling up on the Chesterfield couch with mugs of hot chocolate and listening to an audiobook!
Happy traditions!
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