Our last dinner of this year-long experiment, and our last dinner of 2006, was anything but glamourous. Wendy was working on her http://www.drewvogel.com/?p=1522

Tonight, Wendy & I joined Anne and Larry for dinner to celebrate our anniversary at The Phoenix restaurant in downtown Cincinnati. The restaurant at The Phoenix has been satisfying Cincinnati locals and visitors for over 20 years. The food and service have received high marks in the Zagat Survey and the well-rounded wine list has continuously received the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.

The building, a former gentleman’s club, is spectacular with its 19th century elegance, a dazzling marble staircase, Tiffany stained glass windows, and majestic 35 foot ceilings. The dining room for the restaurant is in the old President’s room and is rich with dark wood and is very comfortable.

We started our meal with a lovely bottle of sparkling wine, and led into appetizers. Larry & Anne both had Mesclun Greens and Pear Salad, Blue Cheese, Bermuda Onion, Walnuts, Port Wine Vinaigrette; Wendy had Lobster Bisque; and I had a Goat Cheese Tart with Fresh Sage and Black Pepper, Carmelized Vidalia Onions, Cabernet Balsamic Syrup. Main courses were Osso Bucco for Larry, the Tilapia special for Wendy, a gigantic Steak Oscar for Anne (she took more than half of it home, much to Larry’s delight), and I had Duck Breast with Risotto. Everything was very good, and the portions were generous. We ended the evening with coffee and desserts and headed home.

Thank you, Larry & Anne, for a lovely evening. We were delighted to spend it with you!

Wendy had some cake decorating to do this evening, so we’re spending a very-much-appreciated night in. We had LaRosa’s bring us dinner. Wendy got her usual Deli Ciabatta, and this time I switched it up a bit and got Cheese Ravioli and a salad. Everything was very good and filling!

I’m going to spend the rest of the evening catching up on a few tasks I’ve had laying around for a while and hit the sack early. What a glamorous life, eh?!

As we come to the close of this year-long experiment of recording my meals, I notice that somehow my numbering system has gotten off… We’re not going to end with 365 meals for some reason. Eagle-eyed readers of this blog may be able to spot where it went wrong. If you do, please let me know so I can attempt to fix it!

We had talked about taking this evening off to see ERAGON, but when it came time, we were both too tired and just felt like sitting around the house. So, we picked up a couple of as-big-as-your-head burritos from Chipotle and hit the couch. We got caught up on several episodes of SOUTH PARK that were on the PVR, and now we’re relaxing and getting ready to hit the sack.

It was the right choice.

My friend Paul was in from out of town (he stopped working at University of Cincinnati and took a job at Notre Dame, about 4.5 hours away from here) for the holidays, so Wendy & I met him and Julie at Tokyo Restaurant on Chester Road for sushi and other Japanese delights.

After Miso soup and a good-sized plate of sushi (eel nigiri, eel rolls, salmon & tuna nigiri), Wendy tucked into her Chicken Yakisoba and I into my Ramen. We were full, and everything was really, really tasty.

It was good to see Paul & Julie, too.

After the hectic holidays, Wendy & I snuck to a dark, quiet Chinese restaurant (whose name I do not know — it’s the one near the Outback & Taj Mahal restaurants) for really good carryout-style food. Wendy had Pad Thai, I had General Tao’s Chicken (which was the weakest dish of the evening), and we shared some Pot Stickers and Cold Sesame Noodles.

We sat quietly in the mostly-empty restaurant, enjoying the downtime.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wendy & I woke up early to celebrate our Christmas together with the pets. Once done with that, we headed over to Wendy’s family’s home to celebrate with them before being joined in the evening by Wendy’s extended family and my parents to celebrate some more. Dinner was chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, salads, and additional items (which we wolfed down — in the course of our celebrations, we neglected to eat anything substantial, so we were HUNGRY!). Wendy made a beautiful fondant cake for dessert, and it was well-received.

Christmas was very nice this year. The cooperation of the weather made it just that much nicer. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

As you saw in yesterday’s blog post, here is the menu we served for Christmas Eve. Here, I’ve expanded it to include the wines we served.

My mother & father joined us, along with Paul, and Deb, two close friends. After Wendy & I went shopping Wednesday evening, I worked much of Saturday on preparing for the meal. Prep was pretty easy because I’d thought out a timeline, and everything went according to plan.

Goat Cheese & Marinara, Crostini
de Marques Gelida Sparkling Wine, 2001
I made the crostini at home, so they were crunchy and peppery. Delicious. The richness of the goat cheese and marinara were a nice foil for the sparkling wine.

Jonah Crab Salad
&
Asparagus and Cream Cheese in Puff Pastry
Verget Pouilly-Fuisse, 2005
This was a pretty presentation — on a small rectangular plate, I built the crab stack, pretty with the red salad, white crab, and green avocado cream, on the left side and put two discs of the asparagus & cream cheese puff pastry on the right.

Apple and Chestnut Soup, Spiced Cream
Crios de Susana Balbo Rose of Malbec, 2005
Our only ‘miss’ of the evening with wines — the 2005 Verget Pouilly-Fuisse we’d planned to serve just did not pair well with this soup — all the warmth was taken away from the soup by the wine. Wendy pulled the Rose of Malbec and it paired nicely.

Shrimp, Mushroom Ravioli, Sage Browned Butter
Verget Pouilly-Fuisse, 2005
When Wendy tried one of these ravioli while I was preparing it, she thought they were plain and somewhat boring. However, the addition of the sage browned butter seemed to bring this dish alive for her.

Seared Foie Gras and Poached Pears on Brioche, Moscato Glace
Mondavi Moscato d’Oro, 2005
My personal favorite dish of the evening. I poached Bosc pears in Moscato, sugar, orange rind, and spices. Once they were soft, I removed the pears and chilled them while I strained and reduced the poaching liquid by about 80%, down to a nice glaze. At service, we cut and toasted brioche rounds, cut thin fan-shaped slices of the pears, and seared the foie gras briefly on a very hot griddle. Assembly was putting the foie on top of the brioche (so it could soak up the foie juices), fanned the pears out around, and topped with the warmed glaze.

Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Port Sauce
All-Crust Potato Gratins
Brussels Sprouts with Pecorino and Walnuts
Tres Picos Borsao Garnachia, 2004
Three new recipes, and three successes. The pork tenderloin was seared, wrapped, and marinated overnight before it was cooked sous vide. Having the pork cooking on its own with no chance of overcooking allowed me to turn my attention to other items and was really a load off my mind. Plus, the flavors were top notch and the meat was exquisitely tender. The spiced port sauce was a wonderful compliment. The gratin was a thin layer of potato gratin that was flashed under the broiler at service to make it hot and very crispy. Really tasty and good textural contrast with the tender pork. Wendy & I really like Brussels Sprouts prepared well, and this preparation was very nice — toasted walnuts provided a crunchy counterpoint to the salty tang of the pecorino.

Cheese course — Epossies, Manchego, Pont-L’Eveque, and Cambozola.
Jonsey Old Tawny Port
I served individual cheese plates with brunoise of macerated pear. The Epossies is Wendy’s favorite cheese and it looked very nice on the silver spoons we used to present it.

Petit fours, white chocolate raspberry mousse in chocolate cups
Elio Perrone Clarte Moscato d’Asti, 2005
Wendy worked very hard to make beautiful petit fours and, boy, did she succeed! She also made a white chocolate raspberry mousse using a raspberry coulis I made for her, and the mousse was really good. Paul brought some sinful chocolate chip cream-cheese chocolate muffins that we added to the plate to take it over the top.

Chocolate-covered grapes
Elio Perrone Clarte Moscato d’Asti, 2005
These grapes are easy to churn out and are really a fun way to end an evening. Everyone thinks they’re being served rich, heavy chocolate truffles, but when they bite into one and get the squirt of flavor, they’re delighted and manage to find room to eat a few, even after the preceeding courses.

It was a great night. Wendy & I had a lot of fun preparing the meal for everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

After cooking all day for the dinner we’re hosting tomorrow, Wendy & I met up with Dave for dinner and some last minute shopping (we needed to find plates for the ravioli course and the cheese course and maybe the dessert course, and some more table decorations (since the decorations we’d previously accumulated no longer fit on our new, larger dining room table!)). Robin didn’t join us because of an ongoing battle with a nasty sinus infection. Sleep it off, Robin!

We went to OLD TIME POTTERY (which was closed), to Meijer, and to Garden Ridge. We found something suitable for the ravioli course and plenty of decorations, but no luck with dishes for the other two courses.

We stopped at IHOP for dinner — Wendy was craving it! While we were there, Dave asked me to go over the menu for tomorrow, which I did. Two ladies sitting near us asked, “What time shall we be there?!” and commented that the menu sounded great.

Here’s the menu… Comments and thoughts about the event will be published later.

Christmas Eve 2006

Goat Cheese & Marinara, Crostini

Jonah Crab Salad
&
Asparagus and Cream Cheese in Puff Pastry

Apple and Chestnut Soup, Spiced Cream

Shrimp, Mushroom Ravioli, Sage Browned Butter

Seared Foie Gras and Poached Pears on Brioche, Moscato Glace

Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Port Sauce
All-Crust Potato Gratins
Brussels Sprouts with Pecorino and Walnuts

Cheese course

Petit fours and raspberry mousse in chocolate cups

Chocolate-covered grapes

This evening, Wendy and I attended the first-ever Junior American Culinary Federation Dinner at Cincinnati State. A group of students in the Federation prepared a very nice meal — Roasted Butternut Squash Soup; Marinated Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with Caramelized Walnuts and Balsamic Vinaigrette; Turkey Roulade with Sausage Stuffing; Green Beans Amandine; Duchess Potatoes; Cranberry Chutney; and an English Trifle for dessert.

We attended this event with Chef Lilly, her husband Eric, and Angel and we had a blast, chatting long after the rest of the guests cleared out. Thanks for inviting us, Lilly!