Lamby and the revolving HH game.
The annual braised lamb shank and Turnbull wine dinner.
The Stilton (blue cheese) bread pudding turned out well, the salad was OK, the Brussels sprouts were unremarkable but the lamb... was delicious. It's a laborious dish that I started the day before. I braised it for two hours at 200 and another three hours at 325.
It's also fortuitous that I casually mentioned there is a banana in the braising process that ends up in the gravy. One of our guests has a banana allergy. It would be rude to poison a guest. Nobody died and we enjoyed a few bottles of Turnbull along with a nice fire. Likely the last fire till Fall.
HH updates:
Kat and I ran a few errands Saturday afternoon and stopped off at Little Barrel & Brown. They have a daily Happy Hour (including Saturday and all night on Sunday!) The Gravlax Deviled Eggs were good, as well as the Kale Caesar Salad. I was really excited about the Duck Confit Sloppy Joe sliders, But, the sloppy joe sauce overpowered whatever the duck confit was supposed to add to the dish. I wouldn't order them again. Still, a nice comfortable place with great service and good food.
The kids had burgers from Hat Creek burger company and ate them in the tasting room of our neighborhood brewery, Strange Land. Kegs don't make for great stools.
This was our THIRD party at the Contemporary while the Tom Sachs exhibit was there. Yelp hosted us with open bar and free food. Things just didn't feel right so we left early.
We stepped over to Backspace.
The universe has a balance to it. While we had just discovered a new place that has a great weekend HH on weekends, we found that Backspace has discontinued theirs completely.
I tired to smile... I tried really hard. I sympathized with my kids, I often argue with them as I instruct "smile, smile bigger" and they get frustrated and come back at me with "I AM SMILING!"
I really felt like I was smiling...
This was like my third or fourth attempt (above). I decided I need to go BIG but Kat wasn't looking. She was just smiling naturally.
The Whipped Lardo with Citrus Wedge Bruschetta was really good at Backspace.