Why I have to eat vegetable soup all week

My weight lose efforts are beginning to pay off. As of Saturday morning I had lost about 15 pounds. I’m still not going to blow away in the wind but the pants are getting a little baggy. I am happy with my progress and fully understand that weight management is a long term lifestyle decision in which I control my own destiny. I am also realistic about my love affair with good food and wine and happy to eat carrot sticks for the next week to make up for last Saturday night’s feeding frenzy. Tell me if you think it's worth a week of rabbit food.

Along with our friends Dave and Tawnya Senior, we gathered at our friends Beth and Bob Herman’s home for a food and wine extravaganza. We had gotten together a couple of weeks earlier to work out the details of the meal and each couple agreed to provide 2 courses with wine pairings. As with most events with this group there was some food creep and we ended up with 8 courses not including the appetizer, sorbet or frozen grape palette cleansers. Here's what the kitchen looked like before the frenzy began.

One of the highlights of the evening was seeing three men in the kitchen together doing their fair share.

Here’s the basic run down, minus the soup course which I forgot to photograph. It was shame because Beth out did herself with a cold corn with a fancy French name and it was beautifully topped with drops of cream shaped into little hearts.

Course 2 was scallops with chorizo and sautéed fennel and tomato.

Course 3 - Cuban Surf and Turf. A blackened pork loin medallion topped with a grilled prawn on a bed of lime couscous.

Course 4 – Grilled duck tossed with rocket and candied pecans in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Course 5 – Homemade fettuccini with wild mushroom ragout.

Course 6 – Beef fillet topped with brandied cream sauce served with bacon wrapped asparagus bundles and oven roasted tomatoes.

Course 7 – Cheesecake

Course 8 – White chocolate tiramisu.

The final dessert almost got forgotten, which is why it got globbed on to the plates with the cheesecake. We had a glass to Champaign to start the evening off at 6 p.m. and a glass of wine with each course. It was sometime after 10 by the time we started on desserts and nobody was fussing with presentation after 8 glasses of wine!