Christmas party season is well upon us, and Michael and I attended our third, last night. Technically, it was a farewell party hosted by Stephen Duckett, his charming partner Terri, their lovely daughter/generous wine pourer, Sarah, and a friendly black cat I spotted when I was admiring their spiffy and well-stocked wine racks. I really must remember to carry a measuring tape and graph paper, because to know me is to know we have an abundance of wine still in boxes in our storage cupboard, and I’m always on the look-out for efficient wine storage ideas.

We had a most wonderful time last evening, connecting with people I chat with or cross paths with through social media. I met sons and daughters of Facebook and real-life friends. I discovered people who have stashes of real honest-to-goodness Montreal bagels in their deep freezers. Also discovered there are some people who are not familiar with food blogs. *pause* I know! I felt the exact same way. Our conversation went something like this:

Scene: Groups of two, three, four chatting among each other. Some holding glasses of wine, beer, others napkins with canapes. Atmosphere is festive, friendly, chatty.

Characters: CATHY, food blog writer, and JOAN (not her real name) uninitiated to the world of food blogs

JOAN: You write a food blog!?

CATHY: Yup.

JOAN: What does that mean?

CATHY: I write about food.

(CATHY and JOAN banter back and forth sorting out what a food blog really is).

JOAN: I think I understand now.

CATHY: (raised eyebrows, encouraging smile)

JOAN: I can’t just get a recipe from your blog can I? I have to read through a bunch of stuff in order to get TO the recipe?

CATHY: (laughs confidently) Yup.

JOAN: And some days you don’t post a recipe, you just write about food.

CATHY:  Yup (and wonders silently if she should admit some days she doesn’t write about food at all)

The End.

Remember readers, I am a food blog writer, NOT Stewart Lemoine.

Last night we were served an assortment of delicious canapes, but the star of the show was Stephen’s pate. Pate, to me, is a very grown up food item – served from a nice bowl, a palette knife is used by the guest to apply as much pate as their heart desires on a fancy cracker or piece of bread. Even the word, pate, come on, say it, paa-taaay, sounds so elegant.

You must understand, I grew up with things like cheese you could squeeze from a plastic sausage-like tube directly on a cracker. Or cooked and sliced wieners with a toothpick stuck in it, dipped in ketchup. So anything served on a cracker that is French and involves cooking chicken livers is exotic.

Without further ado, for the first time ever in Walsh Cook’s history, here is special guest contributor, Stephen Duckett! *crowd cheers*

Stephen Duckett’s Pate (in his own words)

I’m not much of a recipe person but this is easy pate:

ingredients (this time)

1 packet bacon
1 large white onion, 1 small white onion, and because I had used up all the white onions in the cupboard, 1 large red onion
2 cloves garlic
ground sage to cover the pan
bit of ground black pepper
4 packets chicken livers
quite a few glugs of port

Method
fry above (in that order – onion fried in bacon fat)
put in whizzer as you go
put in bowls
put in fridge
put in tummy

Thank you Stephen!