dinner with tom and doug

we started with arancini made from a red wine risotto with truffles, troy's pickled green tomatoes, and a couple pates: duck liver and pheasant with persimmon. we drank st. germain martinis. i added sparkling water to mine.

then we had a butter lettuce salad with shaved fennel and cara cara oranges with an apricot tarragon vinaigrette.

by the time we got to the beef en daube with buttered fresh pasta, i'd lost the ability to focus my camera. maddie thinks the head of the table is hers. tom and doug brought a couple stunning wines: a brick house gamay noir and an ayers pinot noir which lead into dessert nicely.

but i regained my ability to focus on the dirty dishes. i got us steak knives that day at an estate sale right across the street. i scored.

for dessert we had a cheese plate with camembert, a smokey blue from rogue creamery, an aged fontina from willamette valley creamery and a buddah hand citrus marmalade troy made, with chocolate fleur de sel cookies.

making beef en daube

our present to ourselves for the holidays this year was a beautiful robin's egg blue enameled casserole. i was dying to try a braised beef dish. having been intrigued by beef en daube, with its orange peel and bitter chocolate additions, it seemed just the thing to inaugurate our present.

the flavor is built up by searing cubes of beef, then using the bacon fat created from a few strips of bacon to saute onions. after those just begin to caramelize, add a couple spoonfuls of tomato paste, flour and smashed garlic cloves and toast those up.

a big glug of cognac never hurt anything. that's followed by a couple cups of wine or so. add in the bacon and seasonings and let it simmer for a few hours. later i added sliced carrots and parsnips and mushrooms that i'd pan-seared.

breakfast the next morning

new years eve breakfast.

the eve of new years eve:

artichokes with lemony herb butter

martinis

butter lettuce with seared scallops, shaved fennel, cara oranges and tarragon apricot vinaigrette

fresh tagliatelle with shaved black & white truffles

champagne