Our dinner on Saturday — a hearty winter menu

On Saturday, December 4, 2004, Wendy & I hosted a few people for a ‘let’s roll into the holidays’ dinner at our house. The meal also served as our ‘official’ unveiling of our new dining room (we decided because of the type of entertaining we like to do, that we should switch our large-and-mostly-unused living room with our small-and-often- used dining room).

Wendy set and decorated a beautiful table, glittering with crystal and candles, and I created the menu and prepared the food. Here’s what we had:

* Foie Gras over baked apples: A rich welcome. The foie gras was a surprise, even for us. We were drooling over the foie gras at Jungle Jim’s, and the guy at the meat counter offered us a deal we could not refuse.

* Baked goat cheese with garlic toasts. Martini Asti Champagne to set the mood.

* Apple and Chestnut Soup with Spiced Cream: A recipe of my own, this is a great warming soup for colder weather. We served a 2003 Adler Fels Gewurztraminer with this.

* Roquefort Salmon with North African Glazed Carrots and a Wild Mushroom Risotto with Asparagus & Sun-Dried Tomatoes, served with a 2003 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc Viognier.

* Dessert 1: Molten Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Melba Sauce. We had a really nice Malbec (Norton 1999) with this.

* Dessert 2: Vienna Cherry Cheese Torte with (one of my favorite dessert wines), a Cascinette Vietti Moscato d’ Asti (2002).

It was a lot of food, drink, conversation, and fun, and a really nice way to head into the holidays.