A new computer and SPECIAL dinner guests

Our old computer is ancient, a dinosaur - sooooo slow that it stutters. It was time to bite the bullet and upgrade. Sure, we had our laptops but there's something about a big screen desktop.

I wanted to look at a Mac or a touch screen. Why, can't tell you, it just seemed like a good idea, different, new technology. Nope, I was out voted, by the family - as always.

This is Gem checking out some new things in the house - she doesn't like to see changes in her environment. It makes her nervous and uncomfortable. She certainly will when I turn up the sound on this computer.

Check this out - it has big sound, it's really fast and it has a glass of wine as well. The Woofer and tower are hidden below the desk.

We had our old desktop for 4 years, maybe more. My memory is a bit like the old computer, full of trivia. It was sooooo slow that I gave up on it and used my laptop and the note book that we use for travelling.

We needed something that would store all our photographs and music. Oh yes and a sound system that would do the music collection justice.

Technology is a great thing - we have phones that play music, give travel directions, receive email, AND we can actually make and receive phone calls - how cool is that?

We had guests arriving Sunday night for dinner and it was for a very special occasion, but more about that later.
Sue can explain the menu for the meal.
Made some hummus to start with sumac dusted pita crisps for nibbles with our drinks.

Sue prepares the ice cream mix

We started with the same old garlic, chilli,ginger,lime prawns quickly char grilled with lime and sweet chilli sauce. Boring, but I love them and they look good on the slate plates.

Next I cooked a big leg of lamb for 4 hours on a low temp, nestled in a bed of diced potatoes and garlic, till it all went sticky and fell off the bone. I served that on a bed of rocket with an aioli sauce. Had some roasted cherry tomatoes on the top for a bit of extra flavour and color. The veges you see went on a separate platter, as did some french beans with a bit of lemon garlic oil on them. Garlic is a recurring theme in this house!

Dessert was a caramel, nut tart (walnuts and almonds) served with  salted butter caramel icecream. A flavour I love from France, and have been able to make here thanks to David Lebovitz. A little bit of cream, and just in case it wasn't rich enough, a sprinkle of praline over the top!

Our friends brought some lovely chocolates to go with coffee, and I cleverly forgot to serve them. I found them in the kitchen in the morning. AND, although I felt bad about it, the son and husband have been pretty pleased during the week!

One of our friends is not a big meat eater so we made sure that plenty of veggies were on offer.

The leg of lamb was sooooo yummy.

And looked so great on the table - not much left over for my lunch the next day.

 

The wine was flowing with an aperitif of Kir Royale. Progressing to the dinner table, the red was a Coonawarra Cabernet. To match the desert, we had a Monbazillac sticky which was introduced to us on our recent Paris trip by friends.

The door bell rang - our guests arrived for a Sunday night meal and also a celebration dinner. Al and Tracey are to be married soon in Thailand. We can't make the trip due to having our time in Paris last month so we thought that we would offer our good wishes with dinner. The other couple, Denise and Darren joined us as well.

 

Tracey and Alistair open their wedding present - take note of Al's plate, I think he licked it clean.

Dazza and Al will be sailing in the Australian Championships after Tracey and Al return from their honeymoon.

Alistair proposed to Tracey with a Van Morrison song. We are both rabid Morrison fans, that is until we saw him live. We both were at the same concert many years previous before we knew each other.

Al asked if I had many Van Morrison CDs, silly question!!!!!!!!!!!