Celebrating #9

We thought it was just too good to be true: one of our favorite restaurants, L'atelier, did an Italian wine-paired dinner the night of our anniversary.  We enjoyed every minute of it!

 The first course was a mixed green salad with "compressed grapes," brioche crouton, and a citrus vinaigrette.  This was served with a Villa Antinori White Blend -- one of our go-to white wines.

 Then we had smoked manila clams with a curry foam & shallot confit.  This was absolutely delicious: the curry was mild and did not overpower the clams at all.  This was served with a Castello della Sala Bramito del Cervo Chardonnay.  I don't usually love chardonnay, but I enjoyed this wine: it was neither "buttery" nor over-oaked.

 This might have been my favorite course: a morel ravioli & grilled lamb sausage, with a sage brown-butter and butternut squash.  You could tell the sausage was made in-house; the texture was awesome.  This was surved with a Guado al Tasso Super Tuscan, which is always a favorite for me... I love Sangiovese.

 Our next course was gilled bison sirloin (perfectly cooked, I might add), with a root vegetable "mille fuille" (you can't really see it -- it's the stack in the back -- but the root vegetables were extremely thinly shaved, and that little block probably had 25 layers).  This was paired with an Antinori Tiganello Toscana Super Tuscan.  Although I certainly love super tuscans, we didn't purchase any of this (at the "sale" price of $100/bottle).

The dessert was a raspberry filled eclair, served with "shattered" chocolate.  Now, eclairs are not often my favorite, but these were PERFECT.  This was served with a Montenisa Brut Sparkling -- which was excellent.
After the meal, we stayed downtown (so neither of us had to drive home!) at the Bradley Inn.  We were fortunate enough to share the evening with our friends Mark & Joanna Rosenblum.  All in all: a perfect anniversary!

another day in paradise

As our friend, Mark Rosenblum, is known to say: "Life is better at 70 degrees Fahrenheit."  Indeed.  We took a walk along a local trail today (one of the few that's been reopened since the floods) and it couldn't have been any more perfect.

poor basement

Unfortunately, while Tom was in Montana, we had a beer catastrophe.  It involved me "putting gas" on the kegerator without the pop-off valve being turned on... and, eventually, 4 gallons of beer sitting on the floor for a couple of days.  I must admit, after trying to clean this up, I have a whole new appreciation for all the people who got flooded in the big Boulder floods.  If 4 gallons makes this much of a mess, I cannot fathom what 40,000 gallons will do.

Yeah, Montana!

Every year, Tom and our neighbor Jack go on a fishing trip.  This year, they went to Montana -- to the Bighorn River.  As you can see, they had a fantastic trip.