Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Weekend of Lovely Things

This weekend included such lovely things, including a few that I can cross off my list.

On Friday, Sean and I attended a concert by one of Sean's most favorite artists, Orla Fallon from Celtic Woman fame. The seats we had were amazing and the meet and greet afterwards was wonderful. She's one of the nicest celebrities I've ever met in person.

An added bonus to the evening was discovering a new band, Tin Cup Gypsy. They were the opening act as well as the backup musicians for Orla. I had never found an opening act to be very good - HAD being the important word here. They started their first song and I was immediately smitten. Beautiful harmonization, thoughtful lyrics, amazing vocals, and gorgeous melodies. I've been listening to their CD non-stop, I love it so. (Yes, I am the crazy girl rocking out in her car while stuck in traffic on the beltway.) They were also super nice when we met them at the end of the performance. Cassandra in the band makes her own jewelry so there's a crafty side to the band, too. Seriously - go check out some music samples.

On Saturday, a visit with my chosen sister and little nephew brightened the day. We invited over some other friends to join us for dinner so there were five adults, two toddlers, a baby and one very excited dog in the house. It was deliriously fun chaos from which Seamus is still recuperating. There was also CAKE!

Chocolate Stout Cake

Perches' birthday would not go uncelebrated during her visit so a new recipe was tried. This is Stout Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream frosting from Bon Appetit's Dessert cookbook. The name of the recipe comes from the fun ingredient - BEER! Instead of Guinness, I opted for Rogue Brewery's Chocolate Stout as a way to include more chocolate in the recipe. I modified the frosting a little to make it fluffier and a tad bit sweeter. It still needs work as I didn't love the consistency or the flavor. Maybe using milk chocolate instead of bittersweet chocolate next time? And I highly suggest making this cake in square pans. It was too difficult to cut a small piece from the round cake. Smaller square slices would be much better considering how ridiculously rich the cake was.

And when will this be made again? In just a few short weeks for Sheep and Shenanigans 2011!!!!

But back to this past weekend...

On Sunday, there was bacon, eggs and french toast for breakfast. There was also a quick crochet lesson about crocheting in the round. In the afternoon, there was nap time, more chocolate cake, and a lesson on crocheting a puff stitch. Such a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

It turns out it was a wonderful weekend for two good friends. One welcomed a baby boy into the world and another got engaged!

How wonderful was your weekend?

4 comments:

Kate Smith said...

what a lovely post to read, Sam. Thanks for brightening my evening!

La said...

Sounds fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Good friends and good food sounds like a PERFECT weekend!
"C"

Anonymous said...

best. cake. EVER!! Did you find that the booze seemed to ferment in the cake? Seriously, the leftovers just got boozier and tastier. Genius!

Thanks for a lovely weekend :)