See's Candies (specifically Nuts & Chews) 
Yo-Yo Ma's New CD - Songs of Joy & Peace 
Alison Krauss singing on the above CD
January's Wiscon Book Club Selection 
Hogue Late Harvest Riesling 
And realizing there's only 1 more day to go until another 4-day weekend
(also, "new guy" is now "ex-guy," so say, bye-bye).
Last night, DH and I celebrated our 21st anniversary since our first date. WOW. We did our usual thing and went out to dinner. We even went someplace semi-usual for us - Eno Vino has become our default fancy dinner place. We love the atmosphere and the service, and the food is to die for!
So I received an email invitation, informing me that reservations had been made for 7 pm. I went home with plenty of time to change into something nice (longish black skirt over black patent boots & a red blouse), fix my hair and paint my face. DH was also gussied up with a fresh shave and an olive/sage shirt & slacks ensemble (love the monochrome look - it's sophisticated) topped with a black sport coat. We don't usually go all out on the dressing for dinner, but this was the first anniversary in the past couple of years that we could actually celebrate in the style to which we have become accustomed.
When we arrived at the restaurant we were whisked to our table, where a lovely arrangement of 3 blushing roses were waiting in a vase. It took me a moment to realize that they weren't the restaurant's decoration - no other tables had flowers. The card read "Dinner, $100. Roses, $40. 21 Years of Love & Happiness: PRICELESS." Doesn't he write the best notes?!
On to the food: (we ordered one of each and shared everything)
Red Wine Flight - 3 oz each of a Beaujolais, Merlot and Syrah. They were all lovely, and the Merlot was a Hogue, so now I have another wine in that family that I'll be wanting on a regular basis.
Soup: Bisque of Cold Water Lobster and King Crab with a Brunoise of Vegetables - so butter & cream laden and luscious I could feel my arteries clogging! Garnished with a split crab leg full of succulent yumminess and a split lobster tail of goodness. The soup base was definitely vegetable - with tomatoes lending the soup an overall pinkness.
Salad: Mixed Field Greens with Kalamata Olives Red Onions, Feta Cheese and Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was almost syrupy and very intense. The salad made a nice counterpoint to the soup as we ordered these to arrive together.
We sipped the Beaujolais with the first course.
Next: we tried to order Grilled Breast of Pheasant with Truffled Fig Risotto, and Chestnut-Honey Jus, but they were out of it, so we substituted Seared Foie Gras, Apple Tart-Tatin, Spanish Sherry Vinegar Reduction, Truffled Greens. OMG!! This was fantastic - the sherry reduction was dark red, almost black and we couldn't stop dipping it up. I still would like the foie gras to be a little crispier and cooked more thoroughly, but the flavor was excellent. The apple tart is a wonderful accompaniment to the foie. I think the greens were more for decoration - I wouldn't have missed them. We sipped the Merlot with this course, and it paired very nicely.
Third: Grilled Double Lamb Chops, Roasted Fingerlings and a Minted Winter Vegetable Ragout. We totally agreed that the lamb could not have been prepared any better than this. The entire dish was excellent, but the lamb was awesome. The perfect outer salty crunch and a tender, succulent middle, hot all the way through and not quite medium. The roasted fingerlings had some blackened edges, and the vegetable ragout consisted of baby carrots, asparagus and zucchini, with shreds of fennel for garnish. All this was served on a long rectangular tray, in a pool of what must have been pan gravy. There was no description, and the jus was not completely thin, so it was finished with a touch of cream or butter. So So Good! And the Syrah, with it's spicy notes was brilliant.
We could have hurt ourselves easily, by ordering another full course, but we decided to settle for dessert:
a warm cinnamon chocolate fondue (in a pot, over a candle) with cubed buttermilk panna cotta (delish!), homemade marshmallows, chunks of strawberries and bananas and blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. I stuck a blackberry in my glass of Prosecco too. In 21 yrs, this was the first time we'd ordered the super romantic chocolate fondue for two. Go figure :) We didn't actually finish all the dessert, which was kind of sad, but we were plenty full of good food and good feeling. Also - solstice buds take note - the fondue is quite generously sized and would split well between 6 ::hint hint:: B tried to roast a marshmallow over the candle, but only managed to darken a corner. Our waitress confessed that she too had tried that trick and had ended up with the marshmallow stuck in the candle holder and burning in flames. LOL
Our conversation for the evening included a lot of reminiscing of that first date and all the subsequent fancy date dinners we've had. We're pretty sure that Eno Vino has been the most consistently wonderful place we've patronized and we look forward to many more special dinners there.
The roses are currently lending their fragrance to our bedroom from their perch on the shelf above the bed. And the girl brought us a bouquet of flowers too - all autumnal colors of roses, lilies and suchlike. They're in the dining room. It was a truly wonderful celebration of "The Long Run."
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bzdchrisand busman1994decided to purchase 4(!) pounds of frozen foie gras from D'Artangan because it was on sale. Once faced with the 4 lbs of excess in hand, it became clear that a steady diet of seared foie gras atop everything would soon lose its lustre, so bzdchris decided the best way to handle the "problem" would be to plan a dinner party that featured the beloved foie in every course. Several months of planning and recipe gathering later, we finally celebrated Foie Fest last night in our lovely backyard dining room.bzdchris and busman1994arrived around noon to finish their prep, and I was in the middle of prep for my course, which was planned to be 4th. I still have trouble with the digital oven timer though, and somehow didn't get it set. When I realized this, I panicked and started looking in the oven every 5 minutes. Finally, after all 4 of us conferred, we decided the flans were finished, and removed them to cool until the appointed time. They were nicely set and a beautiful golden color.bzdchriswas gracious enough to move the next course up so our guests wouldn't be twiddling their thumbs waiting for the flan. The mushroom fricassee went back in a bowl to stay warm, we rinsed the plates and turned our attention to the Tournedos Rossini.bzdchristoasted slices of semolina bread as the base, layered them with rare tenderloin slices and the seared foie. The port wine sauce was painted artfully over the plate by busman1994. They served a 2005 beaujolais that paired nicely. We all took great delight in making sure we tried every combination of foie, tenderloin and bread available during this course.bzdchrislooked at me and said "oh no! I forgot the palate cleanser!" Okay, my flans were supposed to sit for 15 minutes anyway, after they came out, so I dumped the mushrooms back in the bowl, laughing hysterically by this point, since I now had to wash my plates again, and we still hadn't eaten any flan.barley52and the sommelier's help, I managed to unmold them finally. They were still slightly runny, so that a puddle of custard developed on the plates, and we had to scrape the bottoms of the ramekins out onto the tops because that was where all the minced truffle and cracked black pepper had settled. Once the ramekins were empty, barley52created a ring of mushrooms around each flan and garnished each with a sprig of fresh sage. The sommelier poured our Luzon Jumilla and we finally, finally got to business. Oh. My. God. The flan was some kind of silken foie and truffled heaven! Seriously - I was so full already, but this was fantastic. I felt it was at this point in the evening, maybe a little too large of a serving (even though I'd used only 3/4 cup ramekins), but no plate went unlicked. If someone was incapable of finishing theirs, another was there to volunteer. "I now know that clouds are not made of ice water, they are made of truffled foie gras flan" was the best quote of the course.drstarbuckand mc_bethbzdchris's cookbooks - it's a sickness, a hobby and something useful all wrapped up in one! Of course, I didn't figure any of this out in enough time to order crystal, so I was running around town Tuesday night looking for someone to sell me some. When it comes to fine crystal folks, it's not much of a cash-and-carry world. In the process, I discovered the pattern Debut Platinum by Lenox. This pattern is very similar to the pattern of the beautiful glasses we received as a 10th anniversary gift, so of course there was no other acceptable pattern for me. Luckily, Boston Store had 2 white wine glasses (on sale even) that I could take with me. Score! I can always order more later.
barley52. We both enjoyed our choices. I could actually taste where the oak would have been, and the wine was crisp, tart and bright without it. We paired these glasses first with Crab and Cabbage Spring Rolls in a sweet chili sauce, plus a soy-ginger dipping sauce. Then we had Chilean Sea Bass and Seared Dive Scallops which were dressed with a basil butter and tomato jam. YUM. We’ve had this dish before, and it’s still amazing. The thing to remember with Eno Vino is that the plates are smallish for an entree, but just right for sharing with one or two others, when ordering multiple plates.barley52 chose another French wine, a Cotes du Rhone which also had a big nose, but was more of apiece. The funny thing was, I thought these two wines represented opposite sides of the same coin. B thought his was akin to a lager – all smooth flavor, the layers blended and aged into one taste, while mine was more like an ale with the complex layers being preserved. We each liked our choice so much we ordered a second glass. And of course neither of us can remember the actual winery! We paired the first glasses with the Roast Pheasant and Truffled Risotto. There was a sauce there too, and the plate was drizzled with truffle oil. Scrumptious! The second glasses accompanied the Petite Filet with Goat Cheese Potato Pancakes (silver dollar-sized) and Beurre Rouge (Butter sauce made with red wine). MMMMMM. We’ve had this dish before also, and it was still quite excellent.
mmmag
