we start celebrating Steve's birthday

last night we went to Goosefoot with Steve and Suzanne to start the celebration of his birthday... being the beginning of the week leading to his actual birthday was reason enough to indulge so we readied our wines and headed off for culinary bliss - provide by Chris and Nina Nugent at their amazing restaurant Goosefoot.

before we left home we started with a little bubbly:

here is the menu:

Then here are the courses with some of the wines along the way:

the amuse - a golden beet with a hint of goat cheese....

the first wine-

we have had three of the same wines 2002 C-M Morgeot so far (another one for tonight) but this has been the clear winner - but of course it would be since it is a monopole...

the scallop course:

another guest came by and dropped off some lovely Chablis -

one of my favorites the garlic custard in the egg shell-

another C-M since we were sharing now with the other table - we went to bottle number two the back up - which was good but not quite as good as the first - and LOL it was blurry  - only kidding it was my photography skills in fail mode - LOL

the "to die for" soup -

the salmon- perfectly prepared but I think the esplette overwhelms it-

and here is the wine we started with for the reds- I think we all agreed that it was the wine of the night! a fabulous burgundy - perfectly balanced between fruit and acidity- really superb!

the farm egg course - another favorite...

the meat (filet) course- and the wine we matched it with - the 1982 Leoville Las Cases which was showing nicely but no match for the burgundy in the wine slap down....LOL

the cheese course- oh YUM!

the pomegranate and yuzu palate cleanser

the dessert wine- a 1990 Y'Quem which had an aged label and also was kind of showing some age (unexpectedly)

the fruity dessert-

the chocolate dessert-

after some of the glasses had been removed and we had a bit more elbow room-

the end note- a Chinese goose berry dipped in chocolate-

 

and finally- yes sadly-  the evening ends and we say our goodbyes to Chris and Nina and leave with our empty wine boxes and carriers and head home - only to be planning for tonight's wines as we continue the birthday celebration.

it's been forever...

since I last posted but I did warn you I was getting busy - so I will do my best to catch you up on things since the last entry - which was the end of last month (about three weeks ago now) - on the night of the last post we had dinner at Brian and Tina's house - did mention the fabulous potato salad? well I should have.  A lovely evening before Tina left town to visit family in MD. 

Then that Friday at the last minute we decided to go to the lobster six course tasting dinner at Restaurant Michael in Winnetka (maybe Wilmette?) - I didn't take photos but trust me it was amazing- Sheila and Mary decided to go as well so we had a nice evening more or less (for us) on the spur of the moment. 

Over the following weekend I got things ready for a journey in September to Florida - boxes packed and stacked awaiting transport.... on Tuesday I left for a DART trip to what I then knew as upstate NY (LOL- innocent that I was...)

You may recall that my travel buddy Tom (TB) from Denver - and I go with some regularity on road trips to the past - given the name Disappearing America Road Trips (DART) by a woman in TB's past- they seek out the byways that were once well traveled in the golden age of family vacations in station wagons (sans dog on top - thanks Mitt)

We were headed for eight days to what we NOW know is north country NY- the Adirondacks Park (ADK) and the St Lawrence Seaway (Seaway).  Here is a map of our journey- I defy you to follow the route lined out here but the following posts will give you a day by day description of the trip and the great things we saw and did along the way....

when I returned it was full speed ahead with other things- Phil and I grabbed one dinner at Moody's and then our social calendar kept in full swing with Phil's three baseball games in five days, a concert and we managed to see Brian and Tina for dinner before Tina left for a big family reunion thing.  We also went for the first time in nearly ten years- back to Anna Maria Pastaria for dinner with Neil and Sheila and Mary... why? because we can again bring wine there.  Food was good so we will probably go again as it is easy for both Neil and us to get to...

I also rushed off to the framer's at Artist's Frame Services on Clyborn to get some of my Florida artwork framed in time for transport south when I go- this place is great - I am always happy with their work---- here are two choices we were working on for the latest painting I took there- I couldn't decide so I went with the wavy frame in the gold-ish color....LOL....

This week we have had family visiting - Steve, Suzanne and Jack & Marissa have come for a few days to visit Chicago.  And tonight we are celebrating Steve's birthday at Goosefoot with a 90 burgundy and an 82 Leoville Las Cases and some Krug etc... more on that later.  But here is a parting shot for this quick post - from our night at Moody's - I love their garden and the food (which was hit or miss for years) has actually gotten to be consistently decent....

Do stay tuned- I have lots of superb photos of the ADK and Seaway trip to North Country NY - and just in case you cannot wait for the photos - they are posted here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbtHDNo4ZtVJ50

safe travels!!!!