eG Food Blog: mgaretz (2011)

[mgaretz]

Now on to dinner!

Ellens appetizer was medium rare salmon with batons of butternut squash, and an amazing cauliflower "cous-cous".

My appetizer was lobster in a tempura style batter with greens on top of asian spicy beef. The sauce was coconut dotted with mild and hot sauces. Very yummy!

With this course they served a Riesling that we both really liked:

Next course for Ellen was swordfish with pasta with a tomato sauce and olives. Ellen doesn't normally eat or like olives, but she liked these!

My second course was a large dumpling filled with smoked pheasant with a raspberry sauce.

The wine was a Somnoma Pinot Noir that was very pleasant:

Two glasses of wine and I forgot completely to shoot and what Ellen had for her third course and didn't remember to shoot mine until I was half done eating it! It was rabbit meatloaf with a carrot puree and mushrooms. In front is a pear-mustard puree. Chef Sutton served this to me but wouldn't tell me what it was. He came back afterward to see if I could guess. I got the rabbit part right, but incorrectly guessed the carrot puree as butternut squash. He then told us that the pairing of rabbit with carrot was their idea of kitchen humor.

The wine with the rabbit was a tempranillo from Spain:

Ellen's main course was lamb with roasted cauliflower:

Mine was a veal costolleta with batons of something I can't remember!

The wine was a "super Tuscan"

Ellen's dessert was a pumpkin creme brulee, but it also had a crust, more like pumpkin pie creme brulee:

I had an assortment of sorbets. From left to right there was mango atop fresh mango, a pomegranate-yuzu mix (yuzu is a Japansese citrus) atop fresh pomegranate, and concord grape atop concord grapes.

I really didn't need any more wine at this point (actually after the third glass, but hey..) but they served a very yummy Cabernet Franc Ice Wine:

Last, here's a picture of our fabulous waiter, John, who we remembered from our honeymoon:

All in all the highlight of our trip and a fabulous meal. I highly recommend you try the restaurant and give the Chef's Counter a try!

Edited November 12, 2011 by mgaretz (log)

[mgaretz]

kinder's bbq sauce! when my middle son was at ucla, one of his NorCal buds swore by the stuff. ended up buying a couple cases for the house...they drank the stuff, i think. (when they weren't drinking beer, i guess...)

They have it at Costco here. They used to demo it a lot and some time ago they told us to stock up because Costco was going to stop carrying it, so we did. Of course they still carry it.

[mgaretz]

Sales are exactly when I make it too! When something (especially good steak) goes on sale, I tend to stock up, vacuum seal and freeze.

[mgaretz]

Last post of the blog!

Today I taught my daughter how to make Challah. She's taken over teaching the Sunday School Pre-K class and every Sunday they make mini-Challahs. The previous teacher really had no idea how to approach it. We decided that since it's a two hour class, there wasn't time to make dough, let it rise twice, braid and bake the challahs. So we make the dough a day ahead, letting it rise twice, then storing it in our fridge. It comes out early Sunday morning so it will be about room temperature by the time the kids will braid it. We went through a couple of dough recipes and methods last week and last Sunday was our first experiment. The challahs came out great and the kids were so excited! Last Saturday I made the dough, but today Rebecca learned how to do it.

This evening we met an old high school friend in Novato for dinner. Her kids live there and she was visiting from New Mexico. We picked a restaurant called Hilltop 1982. It's set on a hilltop, but I have no idea where the 1892 comes from and I forgot to ask. I also forgot to bring my better camera, so these are iPhone pics.

Ellen and I split a rainbow beet salad made with greens and roasted hazlenuts:

It was amazing. I have no idea how they prepared the beets, but they looked and tasted like beet sashimi!

Ellen had braised short ribs, served with peas, carrots, mashed potatoes and topped with a horseradish cream sauce. The picture came out very fuzzy, sorry:

Our friend had the salmon, served with spaetzle, mushrooms and a champagne sauce.

I had the "jerk" pork chop which was served with baby turnips, broccolini, plantains and sweet potato fritters.

I thought the sauce was over-spiced and the chop over-peppered, which is a shame because the chop itself was very nice and flavorful, but the treatment way overpowered it.

I forgot entirely to shoot dessert, probably because I didn't eat any! Ellen and our friend split a huckleberry/apple crisp topped with vanilla-bean gelato. They said it was yummy.

Ok, folks, it's been fun! Hope you enjoyed it!

[eldereno]

Thank you!!! I enjoyed this week with you.

[blue_dolphin]

Not shown is a new salmon filet knife - it's a Cutco "mercy purchase".

You win the nice guy award - letting the girls have the salmon and making a Cutco "mercy purchase"

...

Ditto that!

The lovely individual chef's menus served to you and your wife at Napa Rose reminded me how you impressed me with the way you've tailored your home menus to suit the tastes of individual family members. Nice, indeed!

Thanks for taking the time to share your week!

[Tri2Cook]

Another fun look into the life of a fellow eGulleter. Thanks!

[heidih]

Thank you for inviting us into your food life!