Dinner with Friends
We had a few friends over for dinner a week ago Sunday, and I'm finally getting to blogging about it.
We started with some cheese and olives and drank a bottle of Spanish Red (the name of which I no longer remember) that Kiyo and Peter brought, which was perfect with the cheese. Next we opened a Contra Costa County Old Vines Mourvèdre 1993 from Cline that Samantha and Barbie brought. It was fabulous.
For a main course, we had a lasagne made with pumpkin, leeks, prosciutto, bechamel sauce, walnuts, and parmesan that Debbie made. It was really good, and very autumnal. If anyone requests it, I'll post the recipe. With dinner, after we finished the Cline, we had a 1993 Pinot Noir from Alloro Vineyard in the Willamette Valley that was recommended to me by Alain at the T&C, and his recommendations are usually spot-on. He said it was his favorite Oregon Pinot, and I have to say I wouldn't disagree. Samantha made a salad of arugula with seared ahi tuna and a balsamic vinaigrette, which was fabulous. My son Stuart whined about the pepper on the ahi, so Barbie graciously carved off the outside of some slices for him.
For dessert we had a really great chocolate port nut tart that Kiyo made, à la mode. I wish I had some right now! Being Sunday night, nobody was quite up to having port with the tart, everyone remembering the ferry beckoning them at some ungodly hour of the morning. I left the pears and blue cheese for another day, because everyone was stuffed, and you really need to eat that while drinking port for the full effect.
After it rained a bit just before dinner, while we were standing around drinking wine and eating olives and Humboldt Fog, the sun started breaking through, and we got an amazing double rainbow. None of us thought to run and get a camera, because we all stood in the backyard and said "Ooh!" Other residents of Bainbridge, however, did manage a few shots.
After dinner, Samantha demonstrated the Martha Stewart magic Chinese Laundry t-shirt folding trick, and we were all awed. Two pinches, one fold, a third pinch, one shake, and one more fold, and you have a perfectly-folded t-shirt, in about 1/4 the time it used to take me to fold a rumpled mess. My life is transformed. (I wear a lot of t-shirts...)
We started with some cheese and olives and drank a bottle of Spanish Red (the name of which I no longer remember) that Kiyo and Peter brought, which was perfect with the cheese. Next we opened a Contra Costa County Old Vines Mourvèdre 1993 from Cline that Samantha and Barbie brought. It was fabulous.
For a main course, we had a lasagne made with pumpkin, leeks, prosciutto, bechamel sauce, walnuts, and parmesan that Debbie made. It was really good, and very autumnal. If anyone requests it, I'll post the recipe. With dinner, after we finished the Cline, we had a 1993 Pinot Noir from Alloro Vineyard in the Willamette Valley that was recommended to me by Alain at the T&C, and his recommendations are usually spot-on. He said it was his favorite Oregon Pinot, and I have to say I wouldn't disagree. Samantha made a salad of arugula with seared ahi tuna and a balsamic vinaigrette, which was fabulous. My son Stuart whined about the pepper on the ahi, so Barbie graciously carved off the outside of some slices for him.
For dessert we had a really great chocolate port nut tart that Kiyo made, à la mode. I wish I had some right now! Being Sunday night, nobody was quite up to having port with the tart, everyone remembering the ferry beckoning them at some ungodly hour of the morning. I left the pears and blue cheese for another day, because everyone was stuffed, and you really need to eat that while drinking port for the full effect.
After it rained a bit just before dinner, while we were standing around drinking wine and eating olives and Humboldt Fog, the sun started breaking through, and we got an amazing double rainbow. None of us thought to run and get a camera, because we all stood in the backyard and said "Ooh!" Other residents of Bainbridge, however, did manage a few shots.
After dinner, Samantha demonstrated the Martha Stewart magic Chinese Laundry t-shirt folding trick, and we were all awed. Two pinches, one fold, a third pinch, one shake, and one more fold, and you have a perfectly-folded t-shirt, in about 1/4 the time it used to take me to fold a rumpled mess. My life is transformed. (I wear a lot of t-shirts...)
posted by Peter at 9:07 PM
