finally -- dessert

Dessert was another trio. Tom made three kinds of bittersweet chocolate truffles: one rolled in powdered sugar with coriander, cinnamon & allspice, one rolled in powdered sugar with cocoa powder & 5-spice, and one rolled in powdered sugar with cinnamon & chipotle chille. This was served with a homemade walnut icecream (also Tom's creation) and Mark's cherries in a wine reduction. A winning combination of talents.

next course: cheese, please!

Mark & Joanna had been aging their own Asiago, which they brought back from Italy about a year ago. Mark broke this open, and then served it with an aged gouda, as well as some grapes & a fresh country wheat bread (made by Tom). YUM.

main course

The main course was prime New York strip (Tom's offering) served with a beef Demi-glace that Mark had prepared. Mark described the Demi-glace process, which had taken two days -- and was unbelievable. This was served with steamed broccoli, as well as sauteed & then roasted mushroom tarte.

course #1

This was quite possibly my favorite offering for the evening: a roasted butternut squash (from Mark & Joanna's garden) & ham, wrapped in phillo dough. It had a sage sauce that was to die for.

the evening's wine selections

Mark chose two 1985 Bordeauxs for the evening, which we tasted next -- before adding to the following courses. We then continued to drink these throughout the night. It was fascinating how they changed -- not only because of opening up (on their own), but paired with the different foods they had different strengths.

As a comparison to the French wines, Mark also chose a 1984 California cabernet. It turned out to be similar to the French Bordeauxs -- also amazingly tasty. We were pleasantly surprised that none of the wines had "turned," despite being 25 years old.
This was the first time that Tom and I have really tasted wines like this: both the quality, as well as the age.  Tom says he now knows why people "talk about" these kinds of wines... they are/were truly amazing.

I was amused at the table -- since we all had 3 wine glasses and a water glass, it was pretty busy.

The most amazing dinner

This weekend we had the most fantastic dinner experience... Thanks to Tom, and our friends Lynne, Mark & Joanna. We've been planning this for months, and it was sure worth the wait!
Lynne has an extensive wine collection, which she agreed to share -- if Tom and Mark did the cooking. (What did Joanna and I contribute, you ask? Good question.)

The first course was a trio, served wtih a delicious champagne. (I know, technically it's sparkling wine -- but I don't care!) The trio was: pears that had been roasted in white wine, ginger & lemon grass, a roasted asparagus soup, and finally a pan-seared scallop with garlic and chilli powder. Cheers to course number one!

an afternoon with the kids

After our 2 days in the city, we went to the South Bay to visit family. We had a wonderful evening with John, Lynne & my parents; the following day we saw the San Jose - Browns. We had fun in the park... Garrett can climb to the top of anything.

Adrianna worked very hard on her two-wheeling skills (sans training wheels). She did great. She'll be riding her bike to school in no time...

fun in SF

We just returned from a week in CA. I went to the "Frontiers in Pediatric Hospital Medicine" conference, in downtown SF. As you can tell, Tom had spectacular weather. He walked and walked and walked... and enjoyed the city. We got to have a couple of dinners with friends we hadn't seen in quite a while... it was nice.

After the conference was over, my parents drove up to the city to pick us up. We went out to dinner -- a tasty Italian place. Then, because the night was so clear -- we did some night-time sight-seeing (my dad happens to be an expert when it comes to night-time city tours). Often, the Golden Gate Bridge is shrouded in clouds -- so this was a pretty cool site.

Wow! Did we get lucky...

Last night we decided to go out to dinner, as we had not been to a restaurant in a while.  There are still so many places we haven't been, but on the top of our list had been L'Atelier, in Boulder.  We couldn't have asked for more!  As it turns out, we stumbled into a pre-fixe wine-paired dinner, which is apparently offered approximately once per month. We were extremely pleased.

The first course was Beets with Humbolt Fog (the cheese) & Frisee.  This was served with a Cloudy Cape Sauvignon Blanc (2010).  We thought this was the best pairing: the wine was, by itself, nicely balanced (was dry but also had some sweet-melon flavors) -- but with the salty cheese, it was fantastic.  I would seek out this wine again.  Happily, it was the cheapest wine of the night -- evidently it sells for ~$12/bottle.

The next course was Black Cod with Sage Brown Butter.  Amazingly enough, what made this dish was the cauliflower (and since I'm not a big cauliflower eater, this is quite a statement).  We were thinking the fish might have been poached in butter -- it was basically an offering of buttery goodness from beginning to end (although not a lot of "pop" to the dish -- ?maybe needed some acid of some sort).  It was served with a Hazy Blur Pinot Gris (2008; ~$24/bottle).

This was Tom's winner for the evening: Pork Belly with Candied Lemon & Blueberry salad.  The sauce seemed like a mole sauce to me: very chocolatey.  We both basically licked our plates clean.  This was served with a Dutschke Willowbend (2007, ~$22/bottle).  The wine was nice, but I think we would have preferred a cab -- something a little richer and heavier on the oak flavor.  However, all of the wines were either from Australia or New Zealand, and apparently they don't produce great cabs Down Under, so this was a fine selection.

This was my favorite of the evening: Short Rib with Rutabaga Mash.  It was served with a Hazy Blue Shiraz (2006; ~$24/bottle).  I was surprised that the wine was a Shiraz: it was richer than I'm used to from a Shiraz, with black pepper flavors (the perfect pair for the beef).  I was in heaven... and again, a member of the Clean Plate club.

The final pairing was dessert: a caramel apple.  This was served on some sort of sticky-bun (which did not add to the dish), and a fantastic caramel sauce.  Just in case there wasn't enough sugar, it was topped with a cloud of cotton candy.  How wonderfully decadent!  It was served with a Dutschke Old Codger Port (I couldn't find a year listed on the bottle; sold for ~$22/bottle).  What an amazing evening... we'll definitely be going back for more of these dinner pairings.  

Tom commented last night that I'm going to have to run a few extra miles to burn off this evening's endeavors: I replied that I will happily do so, as it was WELL WORTH IT.

Adrianna in costume

Adrianna was Harry Potter for Hallowe'en. I'm sure he's never worn blue sandals before!

photo update

I haven't seen a pictures recently of my niece & nephew. My parents sent these today -- I think this is a fantastic photo of Garrett.