Steak & Pumpkin Pies!

The dear friends had us over for dinner and drinks. It's very much nicer to chill out at home for the evening. When we turn up at 6.30pm and the night ends at 10.30pm, that's really lovely. We never stay beyond that because everyone's got an early start the next day, and our hosts would need to clean up. That takes time. I don't want them to have sleep later than necessary.

It wasn't meant to be a Halloween thing. It just so happened that we could all make it that weekend. We did say that we weren't dressing up. It was hilarious because they had touches of Halloween decor, and added a wee bit with accessories with their very normal clothes. Hehehehe. No ghoulish make-up lah. They didn't go OTT. When we don't live in a city that marks it, or an estate that goes gaga over it, we needn't be obligated. And I'm honestly not very fond of crowds to have them around for Halloween. Luckily I don't live in a house/estate that would be subjected to a weird-ass committee's demands (the terrifying HOA style) for holiday decor.

N bought the right size of a lovely ribeye. She had wanted a tomahawk; luckily it was out of stock! Nooooo. This was the ideal size for a steak. N wasn't having the steak, and she had a baked fillet of codfish. That beautifully-roasted slab was done medium-rare. IT WAS PERFECT. It sliced up and shared; all was eaten. Nothing was wasted. There were three chunks of rock salt to accompany the mains Wheeeeee. My biggest weakness is sodium. I grated them into sprinkles over the steak. Gorgeous.

She went big on the sides too — broccolini, Brussels sprouts and an avocado tomato salad. We finished the Brussels sprouts and broccolini that were still crunchy and delicious. We simply couldn't squeeze in the avocado tomato salad except for a few spoonfuls. Luckily that salad could be kept for the next day.

We brought dessert from Pantler, but it was intended for our friends to have it the next day rather than inhale it in a night. Heheheh. So they kept that since they also offered pumpkin pie from Culina! It was surprisingly not overly cloying and didn't hold the spices that I'm not very fond of. (I no like 'pumpkin spiced' anything.) Culina at Dempsey doesn't offer this pie all year round, and it's certainly not very advertised. But it hops out during Halloween. N went big and got us a slice each! She didn't want anyone to share. Hahahahaha. Alrighty. I ate one all by myself too. That was a superb pumpkin pie.