The Valentine’s Day Dinner

Yes.  We did scatter dried rose petals all over the floor.  Yes, we did have a cello duet playing.  And yes, there were truffles.  And wine!  Elizabeth and I had this dinner at Jospeh Jane Winery.  It was all very romantic.  Except in the kitchen.  Where I was freaking out.

What I love about Leon and Kayla….the owners of Joseph Jane…is how laid back they are.  They are just truly wonderful people.  There’s no weirdness, no pretentiousness, and no drama.  Their baby is adorable and the dogs love to play.  And I can’t stop drinking the wine.  It’s just a fantastic group to be around so it made sense to do it there.

Yes, I know it is way past Valentine’s Day.  But just when I was getting ready to do this post, we lost power for three or four days in the snowpocalypse.  We survived!  Elizabeth says there’s another storm on the way and she is still without power as I type this.

We did six courses.  Here’s the pictorial:

The menu!

The table…

The all belly porchetta and the cause for my freaking out.  It was falling apart while slicing and I was losing my mind.

The notorious cauliflower soup with Norwegian lobster, candied orange peel confit, vanilla oil, and pistachio.  I beefed it up with my pumpkin vegetable stock this time.

The team in process….(ugh my double chin gross)

The sous vide American Wagyu beef in black currant merlot sauce sprinkled with maldon salt with roasted garlic and leek knishes.  No one got a pic of the vegetables, which were white wine creamed spinach gratin with bacon and herb salted roast broccolini with shaved romano.

And once again, we missed the pics of the sorbet, which was kiwi.  Le sigh.

The salad of baby greens, jicama, strawberries, Cara Cara oranges, and cucumber in balsamic and shallot cream

Dessert!  Chocolate ancho pie with fresh vanilla cream dusted with cinnamon.

The guests….

Some of the guests ordered truffles to take home.

The end of the meal….I love talking to people about what they liked and what they didn’t like.  Some felt there was a little too much food.  Oh darn!  Lots of pie was taken home.