A Mess of Mussels

2 lbs mussels + tomatoes + onions + white wine + herbs = one nice dinner for two

Scallops and Slaw

CJ is working late tonight, like REAL late, so dinner was up to me.

Tonight, seared scallops with wasabi broccoli slaw.

Not Pretty, I know

Last Friday, I spent HOURS in the kitchen making this not so pretty meal. I make "Mexican Pot Roast" using bison. We chopped it and used it as taco meat. It didn't taste very Mexican to me, probably due to the lack of Mexican spices. I should have known better and used cumin, cinnamon, chilies, and/or nutmeg. Also, the bison was a waste in tacos. Alone, you could taste it, but in the tacos it just tasted like beef.

To the left of the pic, you can see beans. Beans made from scratch. Tasty, tasty refried beans with cheese. They were very good, though I'm not sure they were worth 2 hours of cooking. I guess if it wasn't 80 degrees right now I may think that of course it was a good idea, but the last thing I want to do right now is cook.

Lately, we have been eating meals at other peoples' homes. What is better than a home cooked meal that you don't have to cook? Not much.

Review: Our Anniversary

Oh boy, happy anniversary to CJ and me!

Saturday was our first anniversary. We decided to go all out for the day. Debauchery ruled.

We started at the Autumn Brew Review at the old Grain Belt Brewery. With 40 breweries and 150 different beers were available, we knew we were in for a good time. It was a lot of fun. I tried about 15 different brews, including 3 different Meads. I really loved the Mead. It was from White Winter Winery and very tasty. I also especially liked beers from Tyranena Brewing, Surly, and North Coast Brewing Co. We will definitely be going again next year.

After a nap at home, we went to our 9:00 reservation at La Belle Vie. It was spectacular.

We both got the 5 course tasting menu. I got the wine flight and CJ had a couple drinks. It was truly an amazing experience. I've never had food that was so good, so creative, and so beautiful. You can see the basic menu here (.pdf).

We started with two amuse buches. The first was a goat cheese puff pastry and the second was some salmon thing with caviar. Very hard to explain.

The first course was crispy soft-shelled crab. It was on top of tomatoes and watermelon with a very light, thin broth. The crab was perfectly done, crispy, and flavorful.

The second course was seared sea bass. It was a small piece on top of white asparagus, artichokes that were fried and trout roe. It had a couple sauces also. The textures of this dish were wonderful. The sea bass crispy on one side and firm on the other. The trout roe popped in your mouth. The asparagus was firm and the artichokes were crunchy. It was great.

Next was grilled poussin. I can't remember what the veggies with it were, but it was not what was listed on the menu. It did come with one Sweetbread, which I love. It was lovely dish, with a very flavorful reduced poussin or chicken stock as the main sauce. I need the sauce for my house.

Next was a lamb rib eye. It was wrapped in eggplant and had about 4 sauces on the plate. After mixing the sauces together, it tasted like beef stroganoff, which I really like. The lamb was VERY rare and really great. The eggplant was nicely prepared, not too mushy, but not fried.

Finally, the dessert course was an ode to apples of sort. There was a little olive oil cake on top of a thick applesauce. Next to it was an apple sherbet. The third apple treat was a baked apple with a gooey, sweet middle. The whole thing had a thin piece of apple sugar tying it all together.

After the meal, we were given four little treats, three chocolate and one a passion fruit marshmallow, to finish off the night right.

Everything was so good and so pretty. I hope we get to go back again soon. The lounge has much more reasonable prices on a 4 course tasting menu. I'm hoping to try it soon.