La Toque Gourmande - - Christmas Eve 2007

Merry Christmas (Eve)! As per tradition, we had the very long 6 course meal for Christmas Eve. The theme this year was black white and silver. La Toque Gourmande had a successful serving another year in a row!

setting up the name tags

the table

a place setting

Once Arnaud and Jess arrived, it was time to get the little to eat her dinner before the guests arrived...

Isabella was intrigued by the train going around the tree...




I am not quite sure what she was up to here. She was running around the living room with the pillow, and panting with her mouth wide open.

Every at their places at the table...





We had the garage set up as the food storage area. And Dad needed to grill some beef as well, so we carted the barbecue in there so it was more comfortable to cook for him.

Just a few of the bottles of wine and Asti

First course:

From top left clockwise:
Creamy Smoked Trout with Apple and Horseradish on Born Bread
Prosciutto Roll with Arugula, Goat Cheese and Dried Fig

Roquefort Dip accompanied with Apple, Endive and Celery

Creamy Smoked Trout with Apple and Horseradish on Brown Bread

Prosciutto Roll with Arugula, Goat Cheese and Dried Fig

Fifth Course (main):
Bouef on Croute with a Spinach and Walnut Filling

Dessert:
Poached Oranges with Candied Ginger and Zest
Buche de Noel

Christmas Eve was small this year, but still just as merry as always. Each course was experimental, except for the Buche and the Sorbet, but everything came out better than I thought. It was a great night, and La Toque Gourmande may have another serving at the end of next year....

How Fast Time Goes By

Arnaud, Jess and Isabella came down to Orange County on Friday to spend the day with us. Mom and I first went shopping in the morning, we couldn't help ourselves, it was a denim sample sale. And when we got home, the LA gang had just arrived. Isabella has gotten so big, and now has 6 teeth! I'm not going to even have to mention how sturdy she is on her feet. We all were in the backyard enjoying the sun.

Arnaud looking around

I, Jess and Isabella

Isabella heading to Dad

When she gets excited she pulls either at her pants or pulls her shirt up :-)

Ready Set GO!

the perfect shot....MID STEP...

I'm thinking she's enjoying all the attention surrounding her

the happy family

What's that Nonno?

Well whatever it is lemme see!

darn, it's not candy

Caught in the act

Yes we're talking to you....

Nonno just couldn't get enough of Isabella

While Arnaud, Jess and I went to run errands, mom and dad took Isabella to the nearby park. Apparently dad and Isabella went down the big twisty slide twice, and mom took Isabella down the little slide. If only I had been there to witness that!!!

Summertime....when the living is easy...

Another marvelous weekend has flown by. The entire "gang" got together to celebrate Christine's birthday/graduation up in Big Bear! Happy 22rd Birthday to you Christine! I hope you had a fabulous time. The entire "gang" consisted of the Fortmanns (Dan, Cindy, Mike, Brian and Christine), the Reinzuchs (Luann, Kirk and Kirk's girlfriend), the Colantonios (Franco, Viviane, Arnaud, Sandra, Isabella, and Jessica) and the Bonewalds (Robert, Hayden and Connor). I cannot even remember the last time that we all got together the way we did this weekend. Let's just leave it at quite a few years (too many really).

The weekend went as follows:
My parents came to pick me up at 8am on Saturday morning. We stopped at Starbucks to have a quick little pick me up to start the trip. We then drove to Los Angeles to pick up Arnaud and Isabella. From there, we took the 18 through Apple Valley and made our way up to the lake. The drive was quite nice since we didn't have to sit on the freeway at all, and going up the mountain from this route takes about 20 minutes! Isabella started getting fussy towards the end, a good pair of ear plugs would have been nice. But we arrived around noon in time to enjoy hours of fun in the sun. The boys often went out on the boat, Christine opened birthday presents throughout the day. Time always seems to fly by when we are up there, before we knew it we were preparing appetizers and drinks and cooking dinner. For appetizers we had a hodgepodge of finger foods and toasted to Christine with Asti and Chambord. For dinner we had homemade lasagna and sangria. Then for dessert Christine had made an assortment of cupcakes (chocolate mint upside down cupcakes, lemon poppy-seed butterfly cupcakes, ice cream cones filled with brownies and whip cream, and cheesecake cupcakes.) To try to work off dinner, many of us went to the TV room and played Christine's Wii. I never thought I'd ever see my Dad play the Wii, and the bowling game at that! I wish I had a picture of it.

Christine, I and Aunt LuAnn

enjoying a drink in the spa ;-)

hanging with the babes

enjoying the stay with my niece

Christine and Connor having fun in the outdoors

Dan Mike and Hayden trying to fix the sailboat

*Cindy and Brian*

the boys of the family

getting ready to toast to Christine's success and future

Sunday came around all too quickly. The boys went out early in the AM to get some wake boarding in. While the rest of the group lounged around the house, enjoying the view of the lake, and getting lost in one's own thoughts (OK that was me, never mind). So many activities were going one....wake boarding, kayaking, jacuzzi, etc. My dad had made crepes for breakfast, then we all prepared the leftovers and had that for lunch, and for dinner we had all American food consisting of homemade burgers and salad! (Christine and I took it one step further and made ourselves "protein style" burgers wrapped in lettuce instead of bread ;-) .) By 8pm the house was cleaned up and we all had to leave , unfortunately.

Breakfast time for everyone-

my crazy American family....

The typical look of the backyard in the summer

Who knows when we will all be able to get together again...but I hope it is soon. in the meantime we will always have this weekend to remember just how life should be, in the summer.