Tracie's Seafood Extravaganza

You know, it's really not fair. In the dinner party club rotation, I am after Tracie. And she pulls off the most amazing 7 course dinner party BY HERSELF. Ok, I helped by peeling beets, etc., but that doesn’t really count. But how am I supposed to top her? Since I am next, whatever I do pales in comparison! There have been studies on this particular dinner party phenomenon, of having to top the person who had one before you. On to the menu…

She started us out with a nice spread of delicious cheeses and fruit, including homemade butternut squash dip. She also had this pear chutney-type thing that I kept spreading over brie on a cracker—I think I ate about 10 of those.

Then we had a field green salad with roasted beets, tangerines and feta. The dressing was a tangerine/lemon/mustard. It was SOOOO good. I don’t even LIKE beets. Apparently, I hate the canned ones, because I actually ate the entire roasted beet which was placed on my plate. Since I peeled them, I thought I might as well try one. They were sweet and still had a nice crunch to them.

Of course, no event with Tracie is complete without her delicious roasted roma tomato toasts. She made them with a lemon goat cheese spread. The tanginess of the lemon with the sharp goat cheese contrasted beautifully with the sweet tomatoes. Soooo good. (It’s no wonder I stole it for my last dinner party…. Although hers admittedly was better.)

Then we had mini crab cakes with herbed aioli. My GOD I love crab cakes. The best I ever had were at Ruth’s Chris in San Diego. Just huge chunks of fresh crab served in a pound of sizzling melted butter. Tracie’s crab cakes were definitely on par. The flaky fresh Dungeness crab meat just melted in my mouth. Also, she used Japanese panko bread crumbs instead of regular commercial bread crumbs, which made the crab cakes very light and not all bread-y (which is the mark of a cheap crappy crab cake). Also, I admit when I make crab cakes I used the canned lump stuff. If you can afford the fresh stuff, it’s definitely worth it! The herbed aioli had lemon, garlic, parsley and chives. Not to overwhelming, just enough to add a bit of crisp flavor. I could have eaten about 24 of these.

The coconut shrimp with maui mustard sauce went perfectly after the crab cakes. Sapna helped with the frying, since she’s an expert. I admit, I’m not a fan of coconut UNLESS it’s wrapped around a shrimp. These were FANTASTIC. Crispy, with a juicy delicious plump freshwater shrimp inside. Quite the treat! And the sauce was made with pineapple, apricot and mustard. It was savory-sweet just like the shrimp and was amazing! In fact, Tracie and I re-made the recipe while we were studying for finals. Trusts and Wills are much more palatable after a delicious crispy shrimp.

But the true piece de resistance was the pasta with mushrooms and pumpkin gorgonzola sauce. I actually don't like pumpkin very much. But I was converted when I went to Bologna (which is famous for its stuffed pastas... and Bolognese meat sauce obviously). In Bologna, they love pumpkin ravioli, and I just had to take a bite and make sure it was gross. Oh god, really good pumpkin ravioli are fantastic-- no matter how little you actually like pumpkin. Just think of it as orange squash, and not that overly sweet nutmeg drenched stuff they try to pass off out of a can at Thanksgiving. Oh, but I digress. ANYWAY, this pumpkin gorgonzola sauce reminded me of Bologna. Creamy, delicious, with just a touch of sweetness. With all the tons of mushrooms and onions, it was actually not that unhealthy! In fact, Tracie confessed it was a Cooking Light recipe. If all "light" food tasted that good, I might actually be a size 6 instead of a... well... you get the point. ;-)

Sorry there are no pictures, I had some but they got lost in the ether of my computer...

Mediterranean Feast Dinner Party

We hosted at the haunted mansion




The evite read like this: Hello my darling Messieurs et Madames! Travis and I (chef maestros extraordinaires) have been talking about having a co-dinner party on IM for ages. And we have finally done it! The theme will be Mediterranean. A little Greece, a little Spain, a little Italy, etc. Just bring yourselves and a little vino and your taste buds and prepare to be dazzled. Attire is cocktail lite... look sharp but no requirements. Opah and kali orexi (buon appetito)!

Travis and I really went all out on this one. We picked up supplies on Friday afternoon at my parents’ restaurant. It was fun to go shopping in the walk-in! Plus we got a really good free lunch out of the deal. And my aunt graciously let us use her fabulous quasi-mansion to host the party in South Pasadena. Somehow in all the photos it ends up looking like the haunted mansion….

Here is our fantastic menu:

Cocktail hour
Homemade hummus
Homemade tatziki
Homemade pita
Crudites with ranch
Cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto

Travis made the hummus, according to my strict instructions, and it turned out fabulously. I made the tatziki, and it wasn’t that good. I grated the cucumbers, and next time I think I am just going to dice them, so they add more of a crunch to the sauce. I made the pita, and I think I proofed them for too long, they were a little on the dry side. I will have to work at Daphne’s Greek Café for a day so I can steal their recipe. Ben made the cantaloupe, which was more of an assembly job, but it looked great! He was quite a help to Travis and I in those final moments when we were trying to get everything ready. Everything was paired with prosecco and pear juice cocktails. I wanted to make Bellinis, but pear was a good substitute for peach juice (which I couldn't find).


Me serving the warp appetizer course ---->

Warm apps
Spicy cheddar green pimiento olives
Bacon date blue cheese yummies (apparently called remoulade)

Zen and Ben (haha, I rhymed!) helped make the olives. They were supposed to be frozen before going in the oven and they sort of lost their shape and melted into one glob of cheese that stuck to the wax paper. But they TASTED amazing. I’m sure if we didn’t skip the freezing step next time, they would be fab. And of course, I had to make my bacon date things. Which my aunt informed me were really big in the 50’s and are called remoulade. Here I thought my genius chef friend came up with them all by herself. This course was paired with Trinchero chardonnay.



Laura serving up the salad with the main course

Pasta course
Pastitsio
Balsamic roasted tomatoes on goat cheese crostini

Pastitsio is a Greek dish, it’s basically macaroni layered with lamb ragout and then finished with a hearty béchamel. It is hands down one of my favorite dishes to make because it is SO good and pleases just about any palate. That was paired with these amazing roma tomatoes. Travis made those, according to Tracie’s recipe. They are so good. You roast them for over an hour in balsamic, and they turn out amazing. The sharp coolness of the goat cheese really contrasted with the sweet balsamic glaze. This course was paired with a nice Tuscan table wine, Cancelli by Coltibuono.

Everyone with the main course


Main course
Roasted rack of lamb in herb crust
Lamb burgers wrapped in prosciutto
Greek salad




The plated lamb burgers

Ok, I salted the lamb and it was too salty. BUT if you scrapped off some of the salt, the rack was delicious. Travis did a great job on them. They were succulent and flavorful. I wish I hadn’t been so full or I would have eaten more of them! Travis also made the lamb burgers according to a Giada de Laurentiis recipe. They were really good, especially since they were wrapped in prosciutto and finished with basil and roma tomatoes. We served it with a traditional greek salad. This was paired with my favorite affordable wine, Masi Campofiorin, which is an Amarone ripasso.

Travis and I getting ready for some main course action



Dessert
Espresso spiked with Frangelico
Homemade baklava

Honestly, this baklava was my crowning achievement of the evening. It took FOREVER to make. Each little layer of phyllo dough has to be brushed with butter. AND I had to shell the pistachios myself (which I will NEVER do again… I think it took me an hour to get the 1 ½ cups of pistachios. The reason I think this turned out so well is because I used a Turkish recipe. I loved the baklava when I went to Istanbul, but here in LA only the Greek version seems popular, which is much more sticky and sweet and not as delicate and buttery. Travis labored with my tiny espresso machine to make everyone espresso, and it truly was the perfect way to end the evening.

If anyone wants the recipes, please email me. All photos courtesy of O'Ryan McKinney.

Dinner Party Club

All of us in Sapna's fabulous living room



The Vegas Loyola gals plus our friend Alex decided to start a dinner party club, since we all love cooking and eating. Sapna hosted the first one, back in January, and naturally prepared us an Indian feast. (We wanted Sapna to make us Indian food, Alex to make us Armenian food, and me to make us Italian food. Tracie is British, so naturally we DIDN’T want her to make us British food… but then again maybe she could change our minds with some of the “jewels” of British cuisine… if they exist. Katherine is totally American, but she IS from Texas, which we don’t hold against her because she’s awesome, so maybe she could make us some Tex-Mex stuff.) But I digress.

Tracie with some of the spread




Sapna started us out with a variety of Indian appetizers, including homemade samosas stuffed with potatoes, peas, and spices, and other pastries with caramelized onion, and some with mixed mushrooms. These were served with a variety of delicious sauces, including mint, and tamarind/date and I forget what else. We sat in her Morroccan-inspired living room, which was featured on HGTV (I’m friends with famous people!). The main course was fabulous. We had stewed chicken in a flavorful broth, yummy basmati rice, chapati (an unleavened pancake-like bread, similar in flavor to nan, but not as thick, and not prepared in a tandoori oven), and delicious cucumber yogurt sauce. Alex brought some delicious pastries, and fun was had by all.

These chapati things are addictive




For my dinner party, as an appetizer I decided to make my delicious bacon-date-blue-cheese- things. Mostly because I wanted to eat them, and everyone loves them. I used Neiman’s Ranch uncured applewood smoked bacon this time, and it was yummers. I also wanted to do a nice cheese board, because this would distract everyone while I labored over the main course, a porcini mushroom risotto. So I went to Steve’s store to get the Arborio rice, cheese, and porcini. For the board, I picked a humbolt fog (yummy goat cheese), Spanish Mahon (mild cow’s milk), English cheddar (mmm one of my favorites), and a Roquefort (stinky French blue). The Roquefort was the real hit, it was tangy but not too stinky. I rounded out the board with some seedless red grapes, provencal black olives, pimiento-stuffed olives, and sesame water crackers.

The spread at my house



Now for the main course! I LOVE porcini mushroom risotto. My mom made it when I was a kid, and it’s a specialty of my dad’s region in Italy (oftentimes the relatives will prepare it when I come to visit, and I always ask for seconds). I got some recipe pointers from Checco, the amazing chef at my parents’ restaurant . He told me to sauté whole garlic in some EVOO until it was burnt, then to take it out. He said adding the actual garlic or onions would overpower the flavor of the porcini. Apparently shallots would be OK, but not necessary. (I just left them out.) I used dried porcini, which I soaked overnight in what started out as boiling water. I also used frozen porcini, which I defrosted overnight in the refrigerator. I diced them all up and mixed them together, and added them to the garlic olive oil and sautéed for about a minute. Next, I added some of the porcini water and then the Arborio rice (about 1 lb.) and a cup of chicken stock. I just used boxed chicken broth, and I threw in a porcini mushroom bullion cube for some flavor. I kept adding broth one cup at a time until the risotto was al dente (about 20-30 minutes). I then mixed in some EVOO, parmesan cheese, and some cilantro (I actually prefer it over parsley because it has a more tangy lemony flavor). And it was divine! Not the best I’ve ever had, but passably good.


The group at my house

To round out the meal we had some delicious pain rustique from Trader Joe’s (crusty French bread which is not all the way cooked, so 10 minutes in the oven makes it perfect), and a salad with homemade honey balsamic dressing, sliced strawberries, and toasted slivered almonds. For dessert we had mini-cheesecakes, also from Trader Joe’s. I LOVE that place. For the wine selection, we started out with an amazing 1993 Barbaresco (Produttori di Barbaresco). I break out the good stuff for special occasions. :-). Then we moved on to one of my favorites, Tuttobene, which is a new supertuscan; a Bogle cabernet; a Korbel rosé; and a Fantinel Pinot Grigio. Mmm! For our round of Trivial Pursuit, I broke out more cheese and some hard salami. Hehe, I don’t mess around when it comes to food and hosting!

Christmas Madness!

Elizabeth, Chelsea and Candy in front of Chelsea's gorgeous centerpiece



The spread



Daddy carving up the turkey










Christmas Eve:

Starts out with me running around the grocery store looking for gruyere to make my savory cheese puffs, and CURSING myself for being too disorganized to get it in time from Steve's store. So, I'm wondering if Ementaler is going to be a good substitute all by itself, or if I should combine it with some cheddar or Havarti to kick it up a notch, so I call Steve. He first chastises me for not buying it at the store, but then greenlights my substitution. OK, good. I get home and shoot off an email to Steve apologizing for being so hyper-holiday on the phone, and assure him I'm not on drugs or anything. (Normally I'm very chill, but when I'm rushing and need to get a bunch of things done in a short amount of time I turn into what my ex calls "work mode," from my days working as a server.)

Now, gotta prep the dough for the rolls since it has to be refrigerated overnight. And it's sticky, why is it sticky? I put so much flour in it! Ugh! And the egg wasn't even that big! Now I'm wondering if I measured the milk incorrectly or put the yeast in too-warm water. Curse my inadequate memory! Ugh. Whatever, it's going in the fridge and I'll deal with potential disasters tomorrow. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off since I have to leave at 1 p.m. to work at my parents' restaurant. Merry Fricking Christmas to me. And since Alessandra is in South Dakota with her husband, my options were 1) work at the restaurant, make money, and have lobster, or 2) sit at home by myself and cry watching some stupid Christmas movie. Naturally, I chose option 1.

Mmmm mmmmm mmmm and Francesco (the chef) can make him some lobster. He's cute, awesome, and I have a soft spot for a man who can cook. He's from Venice and we talked about Padova (where I used to live, which is 30 minutes from Venice). He used to have a one-Michelin-star restaurant there. Too bad he's 40 and married with child. *sigh* The lobster was grilled, so it was super tasty, and kind of crunchy, since he split it in two to do the grilling. And I started with a baby octopus salad, and my dad paired it all with this AMAZING Soave (white wine from my Dad's region of Italy). And almost all my tables left me 20%. Not bad for being out of practice for a few years. It's totally weird using a computer to send the orders (I know, I'm a fricking restaurant dinosaur), but whatever, I'm adaptable. And my dad keeps going to the tables and being like, "dis is my dodder, she is going to be bigtime lawyer," and I'm like, "Dad, shut the hell up, they don't want their server to be smarter than them, they want to imagine me going home to my trailer park and 3 children under 5." But then they think he is cute, and don't really understand what he says anyway, so, I ended up OK.

Christmas Day:

Morning Prep

The alarm goes off at 9. Ugh. I run around the kitchen deciding which dishes I need to wash, when I see it. A bowl with something that looks like ghee in it. Oh no. It can only be… the melted butter I forgot to put in the rolls. At least I figured out why they were sticky. So I take the dough out of the fridge, melt a new half stick of butter and work it in. Roll crisis averted. I KNEW there was something wrong with the dough. Now, onto the Zuppa Inglese. I made a custard for it (which was really better than the finished dessert), and layered it with Amaretto and Frangelico soaked poundcake slices, and topped it with some homemade whipped cream. Then, onto the cheese puffs. I’m starting to run short on time, but I’ll be damned if I went through the gruyere debacle only to not make them. In the middle of the recipe I get confused, BECAUSE THERE IS AN INSTRUCTION MISSING. I have two piles of dough, and nowhere did it say, COMBINE. So I hope that now is the time to do the combining, get a second opinion from Mom, and then start baking them. (Luckily, they turned out fine.) Now, for the hard part. Blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I don’t have a recipe, but I saw Sidoe do it. OMG I DID NOT BUY PITTED DATES!!!!! So now I have to figure out how to pit a fricking date. 30 minutes and one sticky chopstick and pair of tweezers later, they are pitted. What a pain, I am not making that mistake again. I awkwardly stuff them with blue cheese (Sidoe made this all look way easier, but she is a professional chef), wrap them in bacon and pop them in the oven after the cheesepuffs.



My cheese puff yummies (we ate all the bacon things before I could take a picture)

Then I take a shower. In the middle of the shower the smoke alarm goes off. I didn’t think about the fact that bacon releases a lot of grease and since I put the dates on a cookie sheet and not a jelly roll pan, all the grease is just dripping and catching fire at the bottom of my oven. It is at this moment I realize I have not wrapped any presents. I’m in my towel, opening windows and disabling the smoke detectors. I decide I need reinforcements. I call my parents. On each of their cell phones, and on their house phone, and they don’t pick up any of them NOR do they call me back. *ugh!* This is why people hate Christmas. Anyway, we finally get our crap together and leave.



My Zuppa Inglese------------>


Dinner!

So we arrive at casa Redcay, and let everyone go to town on the appetizers. Daddy opens this amazing wine, made by the people who do Sassicaia... it goes really well with the bacon date things. To my delight, Robby has in fact already MADE the eggnog, all we have to do is fold in some egg whites later. Robby also made the mashed potatoes. He has skill, but this time they were a little chunky for my taste, but the flavors were spot on. And the problem is if you overmash, they get gluteny and become inedible. So erring on the side of undermashing was a good call. The turkey was absolutely gorgeous, brined to perfection. Plus the Redcays actually know how to make gravy so it was super tasty too.



Elizabeth working her green bean magic --->



The modified stuffing recipe turned out good, they substituted corn and other veggies for the apricots, but it was a little too herby for me. Too many flavors and I just get overwhelmed. But there was this wild rice dressing with pomegranate seeds, and that was super incredible. Apparently a pain to make, but everything worth it is a pain to make, right? Of course there were my rolls and AG’s sweet potato buttery goodness with chestnuts. Green beans a la Elizabeth, Bristol Farms cranberry sauce, and creamed spinach to round out the table. Then we took a break, opened some presents and then it was onto dessert. AG made a pumpkin pie, and homemade cookies (which Elizabeth decorated) and then we had egg nog and my Zuppa Inglese. The Zuppa was O.K. With the eggnog it was just too much custardy alcohol. Oh well, you never know you don’t like something until you try it. Now when is someone going to invite me over for Chanukah? I can rock some latkes and noodle kugel with the best of them!



My parents are too fricking cute!

Thanksgiving

Alessandra getting the stuffing out of the turkey. I put it in cheesecloth to make removal easier. Pure genius. Wish I thought of it, but I think I stole the idea from Yahoo food.




Me making rolls. From scratch. With yeast and everything. ;-)




The beautiful bad boy all trussed up




The Perogi (Russian meat dumplings) that Alessandra made, with my beautiful finished rolls




Daddy making cappuccinos. He's the master. Mmmm and then we added Frangelico. MMMMM.





Me, Josh & Eric (Navy boys). The first time we cooked for Josh he said, "I need to marry me an Italian girl." So cute. He's our adopted little brother. He even takes out the trash when I ask! And Eric helped me a lot with the turkey, it was damn heavy with the roasting pan and everything.




Alessandra rocking out to my ghetto culo shaker music, making spinach dip.




Okay, so my parents opened a restaurant in Riverside a few months ago, called Trilussa. As a result, this year my mom announced that if my sister and I wanted Thanksgiving, we were going to have to do it ourselves. She’s too busy. Luckily for the fam we are culinary masterminds. We had 12 people over for the best Thanksgiving of their lives. I'm not exaggerating. I’m not just tooting my own horn. The only snafu of the evening was now Alessandra and I have to do Thanksgiving every year. Not exactly conductive to studying for finals, but the food was damn good. What did we make? Read on.

I put Alessandra on appetizer and mashed potato duty (her mashed potatoes are always amazing, this year they were garlic mashed Yukon Golds MMMM). She made homemade Perogi, which took FOREVER but were sooo good. I ate almost all the leftovers. They make a great breakfast actually! She also made low fat spinach dip, that actually tasted good. Then she made sautéed herbed shrimp. Everything was FABULOUS. She got all recipes from the new Joy of Cooking. Ever since I failed at the JOC's apple pie recipe I have been skeptical of it, but apparently the new edition is fab.

For the piece-de-resistance, I ordered a Williams-Sonoma organic free range 20 lb. turkey. It comes via FedEx! So cool! I brined it with my famous turkey brine recipe which I forced on my mom a couple of years ago (I am willing to share it). Since then it has become the family recipe. If you've never brined a turkey, you don't know what you're missing. It seems like soaking a turkey in a salty apple cider bath would make it taste weird and salty. But it doesn't. It just tastes like delicious tender goodness. Plus the fact that I ordered a fancy expensive turkey also helped with the tenderness and flavor factors.

For the stuffing, I found this great recipe for sausage apricot cornbread stuffing. I actually used Stove Top (and admitted it to everyone) and it was still amazing. I have no idea why. I guess Cooking Light just has the best recipes ever. ;-)

Then I made homemade rolls. I found this recipe last year. They turn out buttery and flaky, sort of like less-greasy croissants. You have to cut the dough and stack it to make little "fans." And I have a weakness for anything with poppy seeds. The very first thing I ever baked was a loaf of challah in 3rd grade. It wasn't very good, but ever since then I've had a fondness for baking bread. It smells really good, and kneading the dough is a positive non-destructive way of getting out aggression. I think bread making should be part of anger management programs.

Every year my Auntie Gay makes this sweet potato chestnut dish. It's sooooo good. So I requested that she bring it this year. It's got gobs of butter and brown sugar, but that's why it tastes so good. ;-) Auntie Gay also brought cranberry sauce from Bristol Farms, it had whole cranberries in it and was great, sweet and tart all at once. One year she made homemade cranberry sauce herself, but she said it was a pain. This was much better than the stuff in a can (obviously).

For dessert, I made my famous homemade apple pie. I have been perfecting the recipe for 10 years, and finally succeeded last year. I have always been a dessert maker. I think it's because my mom never bought junk food when we were kids. If I wanted a cookie I had to make it my damn self. Luckily, I was able to replicate my success this year. ;-) The key is in prepping it in a food processor and refrigerating it overnight. Auntie Gay brought pumpkin pie which I did not try because I hate pumpkin pie. To top off the evening, Daddy made cappuccinos for everybody with sambuca, grappa, or frangelico. Guess which I picked? ;-) Of course Daddy made sure we were well stocked with delicious wines, Amarone, La Roncaia Eclisse, some super tuscan I have since forgotten the name of, and Taurasi Villa Raiano.

Dinner With Chef Sidoe

A couple of months ago I was at a friend's wedding, and I sat next to Sidoe, who I know through mutual friends. Now, she is a chef, so this got me wondering if our powers combined we could do a wine dinner for our friends. (She'd be doing the cooking.) This is the result of our effort:

We started off with champagne, the Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires 1995 -- Rated 95 by the Wine Spectator. AMAZING. And I don't even like champagne (and yes, I've tried the best). The bubbles just popped on your tongue. The finish was dry and crisp, and didn't leave a funky aftertaste. I wish I would have had a man and some strawberries to share it with. We had planned to serve it with some palate-cleansing mint lime sorbet, but the ice cream maker was not cooperating. (Of course Sidoe was making it herself!) The picture (albeit blurry) is of me holding this fabulous champagne.

The first course was a delicious mild cheese, served with a dab of fig jam. I can't recall the name of the cheese (I think it was a type of gouda), but it was delicious. It was firmer than a cheddar, a little salty, and very tasty. Definitely cow's milk. Paired with the fig jam, the salty creaminess of the cheese really stood out, and the jam was not oversweet. We paired that with the Antinori Cervaro Chardonnay, one of my favorites. It has a hint of vanilla, goes great with food. It's bold enough to stand up to a Cakebread Chardonnay, but without the overpowering fruit and oak.

The second course was homemade pesto (some of the best pesto I've had, and that's saying a lot) topped crostini (slices of baguette which have been toasted with a brush of olive oil), with sundried tomatoes and Chevre goat cheese. We paired this with an Antinori Tenute Marchese Chianti Classico Riserva. This is a very classic chianti (hence the name, LOL... actually Classico means it comes from the Classico region of Chianti, the best part). Full bodied, with red berry fruit flavors, not too much tannin, and a dry finish.

The third course was my favorite, Saga blue cheese (from Denmark) stuffed dates, baked and wrapped in uncured applewood smoked bacon. This was heaven in a bite. The salty/sweet combination was perfect! We also paired this with one of my favorite wines, Masi Amarone. We decanted the wine about an hour ahead of time, so it was perfect to drink right away. Amarone comes from the Veneto region of Italy (where my dad is from). The unique thing about this wine is they dry the Valpolicella grapes on mats (so basically they are raisins) before they press them. This gives a heightened sweetness and alcohol content to the wine. Yet, it's big and bold all at the same time. Goes great with steak. Or these little divine bacon date things. Mmm....

And last, but not least, the main course. Thin sliced medium rare NY steak. The BOMB. Sidoe made this delicious demiglace sauce with some of the wine. The steak was paired with sauteed vegetables and a mushroom rice pilaf. I have always loved NY steak. When I was a kid at my dad's restaurant, I always ordered it, since I was born in NYC and I thought I should support my peeps. It must have been really funny to watch an 8 year old girl polish off a whole NY once a week. We paired this bad boy with a Val di Suga Brunello. Brunello is one of the best wines that Italy produces (aside from the recent Super Tuscans). Rich, bold, clean, with only a hint of dark fruit, sometimes blackberry or blueberry. With the steak it was just AWESOME. Of course by this time, our palates were pretty shot, since we were on bottle #5, so we didn't fully appreciate it. But still.

I hate to admit it, but we finished off the night with a couple of bottles of Charles Shaw. (Ah, even I cringe as I write!) The thing is, none of us were driving, so we figured, why not? And we couldn't really taste it anyway. Thanks to all my girls for making this one of the best girl's nights ever!