Dinner and Serafina

Last night KeeKee hosted me, Giselle, to a wonderful dinner of chicken stuffed with couscous, a side of cinnamon sweet potatoes and an apple pecan salad. The couscous stuffing consisted of a combination of mint and pine nuts. One lesson of the evening learned by Ms. KeeKee is that dried couscous is not easily swept off the floor! Both side dishes were delectable! ‘Tis the season for apples and sweet potatoes, after all! The sweet potatoes were a simple mixture of nutmeg and cinnamon, baked to perfection. The apples were mixed with toasted pecans, julienned celery, and grapes, tossed in a lemon champagne vinegerette….I know….fancy fancy!! The wine that accompanied the meal was a 2005 Red Table wine from one of my wine club wines at Fidelitas; it was a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. All in all, we give the meal a 3 bottle rating. We thought the chicken could have had some sort of sauce…a mushroom sauce perhaps. Both the apple salad and sweet potato recipes were keepers.

We reminisced about our weekend; shopping (and spending way too much money on random crap,) discussing KeeKee’s friends that we had met for drinks the previous night, the continuing saga of sick people in our life’s, and plans for my upcoming Christmas party. The big topic of the evening was plans for New Year’s Eve and trying to find cheap tickets to Chi-town!


Since KeeKee lives in the Eastlake area, we took a stroll to Serafina for a glass of Prosecco and slice of flourless chocolate cake…which should have has some ice cream on the side!

It was a fun evening, but work this morning came awfully early!

Our bottle of wine is empty....until next time.

Dinner Night #1

On this inaugural evening, much heming and hawing went on in regards to the first blogged dinner. Giselle was looking for something quick and easy (since KeeKee sprung it on her an hour and a half before that SHE would be in charge of dinner for the evening since KeeKee's busy social calendar was keeping her from cooking) she finally decided upon preparing a Pappardelle with Chicken, Mushrooms and Wine accompanied by a spinach salad.

The combination of mushrooms, fennel, pancetta and sage paired well with the wine chosen for the occasion. In honor of it being fall (and all that hunting stuff going on..) and being as that we are both from the Midwest, KeeKee chose a bottle of Tagaris 2006 BoarDoe. Get it? Bordeau? A blend of Cab, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec picked up a on recent wine tasting trip in the Tri Cities over in Eastern WA.

The skinny on dinner in just a few words. We both felt as if the noodles (since Pappardelle was unavailable at the local market) would have been better had they been more incorporated with the mushroom and wine sauce. Other than that, the dinner was very good and we even have left overs for lunch tomorrow. On a G&K rating (using wine bottles of course instead of stars) with 5 being the best, we give it a 3.5 bottle.

Since we hadn't seen each other at all this week we were able to catch up on our lives and trade stories. Sick co-workers, Giselle with her airport horrors aka being stuck in probably the smallest airport in the state of Washington with no bar on a Friday night no less. KeeKee with her hopeful and adventurous plans for the future as well as her always entertaining bus rides to and fro with her fellow Seattlites. Wouldn't life be boring with out the drama?!

Since our bottle of wine is empty we bid you ado.  Happy cooking and may you stay away from the swine flu!

Welcome to our blog!

Family and Friends,

Now I am sure the first question on your mind is, who the heck are Giselle and KeeKee?! Hint, some of you know KeeKee but haven't been formally introduced to Giselle. I will get to the answer soon but first, I want to welcome you to our blog and the story behind it.

Earlier this summer, Gina and I decided to implement Sunday night dinners. This was our night to catch up with each other, try a new recipe and open a nice bottle of wine without feeling like a complete lush for opening it by ourselves. At home. Alone. Thus began our journey of lovely Sunday evenings.

This week while Gina and I were exchanging emails, we decided that we wanted to start blogging about our dinner experiences. While trying to come up with a name for our blog, I half jokingly said 'why don't we use stage names like Giselle and KeeKee.' Gina liked the idea so here we are. As you probably figured out, Gina will be 'Giselle' and I 'KeeKee' from here on out.

Again, welcome to our blog. We hope we can provide some good recipes, wine suggestions and a little entertainment along the way.

Giselle and KeeKee