Ski Weekend: A Cozy Après Dinner Party
Creamy tuscan bean soup, arugula salad and white bean salad, and roast cauliflower with pistachio pesto.
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Quaintrelle is written by me, journalist-turned-sommelier and party host, Erin Henderson. If you have food and drink lovers in your life, please share this post with them.
There’s no point living in Canada if you can’t enjoy a brisk winter weekend every now and again.
Not every weekend, mind you, just one that comes every now and again. You know, intermittently.
Last week, I mentioned a Polar Vortex had ensnared Toronto in its claws. I thought it had lifted, but my weather app – and my stinging, raw cheeks – suggest otherwise. Today it felt like -17°C in my neighbourhood.
Soup was needed.
One of the first recipes I shared on Quaintrelle was for tartiflette, a rich, French potato casserole of sorts that my cooking instructor, Jean-Jacques – JJ for short – insisted was the mandatory meal after a hard day of skiing in the Jura mountains.
“All day we zkee zo haardt!” he would emphasize in his lilting Normandy accent, voice throaty from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day since emerging from the womb. “But, haf-taire! Haf-taire zkeee, we après zkee even haaaaird-aire!” JJ would recount evenings of post-athleticism Bacchanalia, tucked in a warming chalet, wine flowing and hot tubs bubbling. What allows hard-partying skiers to hit the slopes bright eyed and bushy tailed the following morning, according to JJ, is the dense tartiflette, what he calls the booze “suck-aire.”
As much as I love the salty, cheesy, tangy, wine-y tartiflette – and I really, really do – I promised you we would lighten things up this month, with cozy, healthy-ish dinners that can double down as tote-able lunches, as well as temperance cocktails, and ideas for gatherings beyond the oh-so-adored cocktail party. So far, we’ve gone hiking, enjoyed a snugly movie night in, and this weekend, we’re headed to cottage country for a ski escape.
