Lunch at the Scottish Rite

As you may recall, my husband is quite involved with various Masonic bodies. As he currently is an officer in the local Scottish Rite Valley, that means that I also am kept busy with the Ladies' Luncheons. Despite my cold, I had to head out on the road this morning to attend a luncheon at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis. And I even saved you a seat...

I had heard good things about today's menu. Thomas Caterers of Distinction always does a very nice job, though.

Our salads have arrived. The menu card tells us that this is a Salad of Seasonal Greens with Apples, Black Walnuts and Goat Cheese tossed with a Dried Cherry Vinaigrette.

The entree consists of Pecan and Honey Mustard-crusted Pork Tenderloin with a Cinnamon Port Wine Demi (sauce), Vermont White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Sugar Snap Peas, and Rolls with Butter.

I have got to find or figure out the recipe for the pork loin and sauce. This was all kinds of good.

Ooh, dessert. Here we have Bananas Foster with Graham Cracker Crumb Base.



I found the Graham Cracker crumb base. I'd say a fair amount of brown sugar was mixed in with the Graham Crackers.

And now, on to the entertainment.





A gentleman from a local florist came to demonstrate how to arrange these beautiful roses.

I learned that the wimpy little angles I was cutting into my flower stems aren't nearly enough. Got it: go big.

We learned that linear arranging is the hot new thing, and that as the roses age, we can extend the life of the blooms by cutting the stems down and rearranging the flowers.

Afterwards, each lady was invited to come up and pick out a flower to take home. We decided that we would start with the oldest and move down to the youngest (me). After the other ladies had chosen their flowers, I went up to pick out one and the nice lady who works for the Cathedral handed me a bunch of flowers to take home. Well, I would hate for them to go to waste, so...

I put my new knowledge to work and created a nice arrangement with these beautiful blooms.

And now I think I'll rest, if you don't mind. Two hours at the luncheon and three hours on the road in heavy traffic is rather tiring, after all.

Home Alone Again, Part II

Now, you would think that my family would know better by now, but apparently not. For, once again I have been left to my own devices. Let's see what mischief I can come up with in the kitchen today.

How about some Bananas Foster? That sounds like a plan to me.

Here I have some light rum, bananas, brown sugar, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon and unsweetened, unsalted butter.

Melt the butter and brown sugar and cinnamon in a pan. For one serving, I would use one tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

Cut the banana into thirds and then lengthwise in half. Cook briefly in the melted sugar mixture.

Pour 3 tablespoons rum in a bowl or cup. Now you can pour the rum into the pan. If you are cooking over a live flame, remove the pan from the fire to prevent accidents.

Stand back and light the rum. Allow the flame to burn out before continuing. Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and stir to mix in.

Serve over vanilla ice cream. Rich and sweet and decadent.

That will teach my family to leave me home alone.