Eating High on the Hog!

I'm a stuffed piggy!

It all started Friday night meeting girlfriends at Grand Street Cafe for dinner. I had their seasonal signature drink called a 'Black & Blue' - but it came out a pretty pink. So cute, I wanted to not drink it but just take it home with me. It had a BLACKberry vodka, BLUEberry vodka, raspberry liquor, simple syrup, fresh sage leaves and (I think) lemon or lime juice. Man O man it was good! Then we started with an appetizer of white cheddar fondue with Granny Smith apples and Bavarian style pretzels. For dinner I started with a Spinach salad tossed in lemon vinaigrette, toasted pecorino Romano cheese, and brandied figs. For the main course, I took Ed's (our waiter) recommendation of Pan Roasted East Coast Cod with Crispy potato-bacon cake, mushroom ragout,and tomato-caper butter sauce. YUM-O! Katie ordered the Double Cur Pork Chop - Grilled 14 oz Alma Farms center cut chop,
herbed potato puree, apple cider jus,grilled cinnamon apple,sautéed spinach with
toasted almonds and onion. (I would love to take Brian back as I think he'd really like that plate.) And Sharon had their evening special which was beef medallions in pasta. It wasn't that great. Of course we all had to polish off dinner with dessert. I ordered the creme brulee, Katie their coconut spice cake with bananas and pineapple with coconut sorbet and Sharon their 'brownie' that was chocolate ganache in Phyllo dough with Raspberry sauce and chopped Hazelnuts. We were lucky enough to share and try all! And if that wasn't enough...

We had Dom, Kathy and Jerry over Saturday night and Dom treated us to his fine culinary skills. He spoiled us with the following...
Chicago 'Italian' Dog Salad
Adobe Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp in a Jack Daniels glaze
Chicken Dijon w/ red & green grapes - who would of thought grapes? I DO now!
Tiramisu - his first attempt and it was DELICIOUS!!!

It was too funny with the shrimp,(Dom was a gentleman by asking if it was ok to light it on fire in the house first) Dom thought Ty could do the honors of setting it on fire - he handed Ty the lighter and Ty lit it under the pan rather than lighting the Jack Daniels glaze on fire! :) After seeing the fire Ty and his buddy, Tyler, took out and went down to his house - didn't want to be there when the house would catch fire! ; ) Jerry thinks he left the house weighing 400+ is was that good! Move over Bobby Flay, Dom's in the house!

So with the culinary creativity still in the house Brian made pan seared KC strip, baked potatoes and roasted asparagus with Parmesan last night. Lisa and the kids came over, we told them the asparagus was green beans until after they ate them did we tell them the truth! ; ) And you know what? They actually liked it!

Wasn't the weather beautiful this weekend? I loved that I was able to open up the house and air it out!!!

Now wear are my walking shoes?

Peace.