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This has not been the week to lose weight. However, I regret nothing.
Friday, Gordon decided that he felt like going out somewhere. Cathy and Dave had mentioned Mirabelle (wow, that is some awful web page design) as being a neat place to have a good meal, so I suggested that.
None of the main meaty entrees were looking like what I was in the mood for, so I decided to go with a salad- based meal. I had a cup of their soup of the day, which was amazing. It was a cream of cauliflower, and I was going to give it a pass because as a rule I don't get too excited about cauliflower, but I figured why not. They gave it some curry flavoring, and a few slivered almonds, and it just ended up being the most perfect combination of flavors... probably the best soup I've had all year. I said at the time it was the best cauliflower soup I'd ever had, but that's not saying a lot since as far as I recall it's the only cauliflower soup I've ever had. The bread they served was really good too.
For an appetizer they had a sauteed mushroom dish I had to try. I love mushrooms more than any other food except chocolate. This was a pile of 'exotic' mushrooms with a few pieces of cheesy bruschetta. The cheese they used on the bread was way too strong for the shrooms, sadly, but the shrooms themselves were fine. I think they over-cooked them just a little; mushrooms have a very subtle flavor and when you cook them too much they just get a sort of generic mushroom taste and you miss out on the finer differences.
The salad I had was the Szechuan "Hacked" Chicken Salad (grilled, marinated "hacked" chicken breast with field greens and Napa cabbage, topped with a fresh corn relish, honey walnuts, fried cream cheese-peanut dumplings, and sesame-ginger dressing). It was a perfectly serviceable salad, pretty hefty in size. The dressing was pretty spicy. It didn't taste particularly Oriental to me, but then again I'm not 100% sure what 'Szechuan' anything would taste like.
For dessert, I tried their chocolate mousse, which was served in a large glass rounded tea cup which probably has some fancy name. It was topped with a whole bunch of fresh whipped cream, but I was so full I scooped that off and dumped it on the plate and focused on the mousse. In addition to being wonderful and chocolate and denser than I expected, and very cold which I also liked, it had some tasty orange liqueur in it as well. Nothing incredible, but a fine dessert.
Now, when we got home Eric started preparing the coq au vin, which is chicken legs and thighs cooked in wine and veggies. The chicken had to soak in the wine overnight. Then the next day he basically stewed it in more wine, onions, and mushrooms and it turned out amazingly good. The kitchen still smells like it. It's not light as you'd expect with chicken; it's a lot more like a pot roast. The wine used was Ste. Genevieve Pinot, so the chicken was a dark purple color. I have a bit of a quirk about having to pick meat off of bones, but this was barely necessary since the meat more or less fell right off. Work Stephen was our guinea pig and he brought a chocolate satin pie from Marie Callendar's for dessert, which topped off the meal well.
Friday, Gordon decided that he felt like going out somewhere. Cathy and Dave had mentioned Mirabelle (wow, that is some awful web page design) as being a neat place to have a good meal, so I suggested that.
None of the main meaty entrees were looking like what I was in the mood for, so I decided to go with a salad- based meal. I had a cup of their soup of the day, which was amazing. It was a cream of cauliflower, and I was going to give it a pass because as a rule I don't get too excited about cauliflower, but I figured why not. They gave it some curry flavoring, and a few slivered almonds, and it just ended up being the most perfect combination of flavors... probably the best soup I've had all year. I said at the time it was the best cauliflower soup I'd ever had, but that's not saying a lot since as far as I recall it's the only cauliflower soup I've ever had. The bread they served was really good too.
For an appetizer they had a sauteed mushroom dish I had to try. I love mushrooms more than any other food except chocolate. This was a pile of 'exotic' mushrooms with a few pieces of cheesy bruschetta. The cheese they used on the bread was way too strong for the shrooms, sadly, but the shrooms themselves were fine. I think they over-cooked them just a little; mushrooms have a very subtle flavor and when you cook them too much they just get a sort of generic mushroom taste and you miss out on the finer differences.
The salad I had was the Szechuan "Hacked" Chicken Salad (grilled, marinated "hacked" chicken breast with field greens and Napa cabbage, topped with a fresh corn relish, honey walnuts, fried cream cheese-peanut dumplings, and sesame-ginger dressing). It was a perfectly serviceable salad, pretty hefty in size. The dressing was pretty spicy. It didn't taste particularly Oriental to me, but then again I'm not 100% sure what 'Szechuan' anything would taste like.
For dessert, I tried their chocolate mousse, which was served in a large glass rounded tea cup which probably has some fancy name. It was topped with a whole bunch of fresh whipped cream, but I was so full I scooped that off and dumped it on the plate and focused on the mousse. In addition to being wonderful and chocolate and denser than I expected, and very cold which I also liked, it had some tasty orange liqueur in it as well. Nothing incredible, but a fine dessert.
Now, when we got home Eric started preparing the coq au vin, which is chicken legs and thighs cooked in wine and veggies. The chicken had to soak in the wine overnight. Then the next day he basically stewed it in more wine, onions, and mushrooms and it turned out amazingly good. The kitchen still smells like it. It's not light as you'd expect with chicken; it's a lot more like a pot roast. The wine used was Ste. Genevieve Pinot, so the chicken was a dark purple color. I have a bit of a quirk about having to pick meat off of bones, but this was barely necessary since the meat more or less fell right off. Work Stephen was our guinea pig and he brought a chocolate satin pie from Marie Callendar's for dessert, which topped off the meal well.
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no subject
Date: Oct. 19th, 2008 11:11 pm (UTC)From:(Much like my favorite hot & sour soup - but you already know that)
I owe my love of coq au vin to the very dear, very departed Metis, without whom life continues to be much more work & much less fun than it once was. Among the many other things she left me is her recipe, which I only prepare in winter, & then only once or twice a year - it's almost TOO good.
Reminds me: I have a recipe here for beef & cabbage soup that'll make you slap yo' gra'mama...some perrano cheese, some cracked-pepper bread, an' you'll never go hungry again....
no subject
Date: Oct. 19th, 2008 11:48 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Oct. 19th, 2008 11:53 pm (UTC)From:Getting ready for class right now, but I'll dig it out for you.