Oy, hugely BIG food and wine night tonight, courtesy of Ana Scofield & Rudy Maxa, with Debbie & Stu Wiiliams (of course), and new friends Tessa Marchessault & Greg Becker. Yep, major oy. Poor John, he's such toast, he can't truly eat heartily of shrimp cocktail, pickled herring, smoked salmon...and lobster tails with drawn butter, rice pilaf, crusty bread, mixed greens...and fabulous wines, ice cream, carrot cake...while chatting & making merry... At least not without a bit of fading after a good effort. Oh, not because he doesn't love hanging with good friends - because he obviously does - but because he's just naturally rather quiet, my Johnny, aka Mr. Not Party (who very luckily puts up with Ms. Party Party. Party. Wheeew.).

So, we're safely home, oddly (perfectly) matched as we are, and I'm insanely writing at 1:40 a.m. about the greatness of our lovely dinner, particularly the sips of various and sundry wines (but a sampling):
1980 Dom Perignon Champagne
1992 Bollinger Champagne
1996 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
2001 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
2003 Chateau Potelle (VGS, aka Very Good Sh*t, no kidding)
2005 Chalk Hill Botrytised Semillon

Come fill the bowl, each jolly soul
Let Bacchus guide our revels.
Join the cup to lip, with Hip, Hip, Hip
And bury the blue devils.
(aka Rudy's New Yorker cartoon "cards," thank you very much)

Good night. Morning! Yeah.

Two down, one to go! Woo hooooo, we are party central again this weekend! Friday night we were invited to dinner by a family at Nathan's new school. So fun - cool people, lovely home, great kids, and delicious wine and food. Salmon, fresh herbs and vegetables, a drizzle of lemon juice and olive oil, all wrapped up in foil and passed over the grill. We opened up the individual packets to find perfectly moist and fragrant fish, with lovely juices that flowed handily over to the pile of rice waiting patiently on the other side of the plate. Yum. I baked and brought a Cherry Tart with Almond Crust, with fresh cherries as well as fresh peaches and blueberries. Good stuff.

Then yesterday, another pool-and-wine party with Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius (Rudy and Ana are in the Hamptons, poor souls, ha). Sooooo fun, a gorgeous, hot day, perfect for floating and sipping. And eating! Stu and Debbie brought two Turley wines, in honor of our Napa trip (and stay at Larry Turley's home), both delicious. In the pool we drank the white, a 2003 The White Coat, a rich blend, quite golden and delicious. With dinner we drank a 2004 Lodi Zinfandel, from the Dogtown Vineyard (not the one we overlooked), fantastic. Tasted just like Napa, sigh.

After a quick shower, it was time to get some food on! I started by grilling bread for a quick appetizer, served alongside hard salami, roasted peppers, and olive tapenade from the deli. For a first course I made a red cabbage salad - red cabbage sauteed until wilted and then tossed with crispy bacon and a warm shallot dressing and topped with a warm, breaded goat-cheese medallion. Crunchy, creamy, salty, gorgeous - all the good stuff (recipe in comments, below). And for dinner I grilled a couple racks of lamb chops, cut into two-chop pieces before smearing them with a mixture of minced garlic, mint, oregano, rosemary, and tarragon (the herbs on my deck) bound with a bit of olive oil. Alongside I grilled Potatoes on the Grill, or more accurately, La Finca Veggies and Potatoes on the Grill, because I threw in carrots, fennel, green pepper, and onion, all from my veggie share this week. For dessert I had baked a Lemon Picnic Cake (lemon cake soaked in lemon icing, yum; recipe in comments, below), with whipped cream and raspberry sauce. Uff, we were stuffed as we chatted in the dark, watching the pool lights shimmer eerily off the trees, while Nathan took a pre-bedtime dip.

So! Now it's Sun-day, and time for a Baseball Moms and Players Swimming Party! Another hot sunny day, perfect for grillin' some 'dogs, eating lots of salty chips and appetizers, drinking ice cold beer, munching on cookies and bars, and chatting the afternoon/evening away while the boys raise hell in the pool. Yeah, baby!

"You're supposed to take a nap-a, not move to Napa!" Carrie Bradshaw to Mr. Big, Sex and the City

Well, I'd move to Napa, any day. So long Minnesota! Oh, right, I have a life here. Dang. Sigh. Well I'll just have to go back (this was my third trip, it really is my favorite spot) again SOON, right Honey?

So, our last day, boo. We opened with a big, BIG lunch at Bouchon, Thomas Keller's (of The French Laundry) bistro in Yountville. It's everyone's favorite spot, absolutely delightful. I arrived with Stu and Debbie, only to find no tables available! Nooooo! BUT, there were three seats at the bar, so forgoing our commitment to find seating for Rudy, Ana, and John as well, the three of us bellied up to the nickel bar and ordered...why champagne, of course, and a few oysters as well. Welcome to Bouchon! Eventually Rudy and Ana and then John popped in, and found seats at the bar as well, so we started passing them food. Salt cod fritters on roasted tomatoes. Tuna salad with butter lettuce. Salmon rillettes with toast points (a combination of fresh and smoked salmon, to die for). Mussels and pommes frites. More fabulous wine, including a dry Gewurtztriminer Stu had tracked down and brought with him. Now that's lunch, my friends. Damn.

We rolled on out of Bouchon and made our way to Cain, a homecoming of sorts for Stu and Debbie as it was the site of their wedding. It's a gorgeous winery, exactly opposite Howell Moutain and up just as high as the Turley's home. We had another terrific tasting, then snaked back home for a quick change and then back out the door - and down Howell Mountain, yet again - to Bistro Jeanty, also in Yountville. Somehow, some way I found room in my stomach for some of the most incredible French bistro fare I have ever sampled. I opened with lentils braised with pork fat and foie gras. Good Lord, what was I thinking, but my god it was good. Beyond good. For my entree, which I needed like a hole in my head by that point, I had crispy sole, which was lovely, but which I barely touched because I was waaay too busy digging my fork into Stu's cassoulet. Yes, I actually ate more legumes cooked with insanely rich meats (this time sausage and duck confit). It. Was. Fabulous. And I. Was. Stuffed. Like, beyond stuffed. Like, I didn't even sleep well that night. Like, that was one of the more immoderate days of eating I have ever had. Like, in my life. Yeah. I haven't been hungry since - I think I put my digestive system in shock. Whew.

So, back home now. Back to salads and soups and lots of veggies. Get this - I did not gain one single pound on that trip. How can that be? I have no idea but damn, I'll take it. Decadence without consequence? Right up my alley, heh, heh, heh...

OK, more Napa... Day 2, Stu and Debbie arrived, so all six of us met up at Harlan Estate winery. We had an amazing tour, given by Sheila and Katherine, thanks to Stu. It's not just anyone who gets a tour and tasting at Harlan; luckily, Stu has been on their mailing list for many years. Woo hoo for Stu! We sampled and chatted about both Harlan Estate and The Maiden - what a treat, my friends. I'm quite sure I'll never drink either of those wines again - a bottle of Harlan Estate was on the menu at our dinner later that evening for $895 - so it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I loved it.

After our Harlan tour, we headed back "home" for a bit, and then made our way to a festive, casual dinner at Redd in Yountville. After our absolute feast the night before, I decided to play things a bit lighter with a lovely skate filet. I slept like a rock that night, whew.

Day 3 opened bright and sunny on Howell Mountain, so we decided to spend some time with a bottle of Turley Zin on Turley's deck overlooking Turley's vineyards and the Napa Valley. NICE! Fortified with cheeses and sausages from Dean & Deluca, Stu, Debbie, John, and I had one of those spontaneously amazing vacation days, where everything falls into place - food, wine, sunshine, a beautiful setting - and could hardly motivate ourselves to get our butts on down the road to Ladera to meet Rudy and Ana (who'd enjoyed their own lovely morning at Meadowood swimming and lounging). But motivate we did, and thoroughly enjoyed our tour, chat, and tasting with Pat and Anne Stotesbury, formerly of Minnesota.

From Ladera we made our way down the road to Littorai, for another Stu-arranged tasting with assistant winemaker Neal (who the guys dubbed Cute Neal because 1) he is, and 2) all the ladies got a little twittery around him). In fact, after our tasting, Neal dropped by the house for - what else? - a glass of wine and some snacks on the deck. After he hit the road, we six dove in to cooking our dinner - over the fire, no less, thanks to grillmaster Rudy (and the Turley's cool fireplace/grill set-up). Steaks and veal chops, oh yeah, with more D&D salads, crusty bread, and cookies and cheeses for dessert. Ohhhh, sitting in front of that roaring fire, all stuffed and toasty warm, full of great wine, laughing and talking, what a night! Unforgettable.

And then...our last day...stay tuned...

Hellooo! Back from Napa! And oh, what a trip. Trip of a lifetime. John, Stu the Wine Genius, his wife Debbie, and I all stayed in the gorgeous Howell Mountain-top home of winemaker Larry Turley (long story, we had rented a different house, but happily ended up in theirs). Rudy and Ana stayed at the bottom of the mountain at the famed and lovely Meadowood Resort. John, Rudy, Ana, and I actually flew in last Wednesday, a day ahead of Stu and Deb, so the four of us opened with lunch at Greens at the Marina in San Francisco. All-vegetarian, all-fabulous, it was a festive lunch as we were so very excited to head up to Napa. After pasta with fava beans, gorgeous salads, and coconut cake, we wiped our mouths and scooted out the door.

We eventually found our twisty-turny-backassward-wrong-way up to the Turley's, quickly changed for dinner, and were off for another twisty-turny-backassward-wrong-way to an unforgettable meal at Cyrus in Healdsburg. Wow. And I mean, wow. We arrived so lost, and so late, and so stressed out, that we were ready for some pampering and a serious meal and Cyrus delivered in spades.

As it was John's 47th birthday - nice birthday, in Napa, yeah, baby! - we indulged in a sampling of caviars, served with smoking-hot polenta fritters topped with smears of creme fraiche, sieved egg yolk, and minced chives. Damn but my stress melted away like caviar on my tongue and with a few sips of champagne, I was ready to roll, roll, roll.

I chose the four-course option (you can choose as many as you would like) but sampled many, many tasties. The several amuses bouches the chef sent out were mind-blowing - little marble-sized potato and chick-pea fritters with asparagus tartare...seared hamachi with white-soy-sauce consomme (one of the best things I've ever had, ever)...yeah, pretty kill. Then, oh yes, my actual meal, ha. I "opened" (half full already) with artichokes "a la barigoule," a mini-tower of artichokes both tender and crispy. Next up was a silky pureed cauliflower soup with a sweet-crunchy raisin, caper, and white pepper emulsion and toasted almonds. Now that I think of it, that soup was John's, but I thankfully scored several creamy bites of it. My true "second" course was foie gras mousse served with - get this - baby, buttery lemon scones. Lord, foie gras melting into warm scones, that is not light fare but the bites were so small, I snapped them right up. Divine. And last, a darling little piece of perfectly roasted tender-crispy chicken, served alongside a poached egg (which came first? Hahaha, sorry...) and lovely little vegetables. Again I snagged several bites of John's uber-truffly truffled red wine risotto with Parmesan foam. Beyond decadent - and I loved every bite. Of course!

For dessert? Ohhhh, a few half-hearted bites of three gorgeous cheeses. I was beyond stuffed, whew. But nice opening, eh? Yeah. Napa loves me, and I love it right back. More later...

Ah, I'm back, and so quickly! Ha. Now, dinner with Rudy & Ana and Stu & Debbie at The Sample Room this past Monday night. What a BLAST! I'd not been to The Sample Room before, it's absolutely worth a trip over to NE. Great place for a group, casual, funky, with a very friendly and knowledgeable staff. They're having fun and it's apparent. The "sample" concept makes up half the menu - a tapas-style, small-plate listing of various meat, fish, cheese, and vegetable dishes. The options for putting together large platters for a group or small platters for individual meals are very clever. I opted for the small platter option - choose any four tapas. Fried walleye, broiled shrimp, steamed green beans with spicy almond butter, and baked camembert cheese. Yum! We shared a couple of roasted vegetable salads for the table. And could have ordered entrees off the other half of the menu - but the sampling concept was too tempting. We also sampled plenty of fabulous wine, thanks to Stu and Rudy, oh my. Did I write any of it down? Hell no, I was too busy talking and eating, as usual! The six of us are heading to Napa Valley together soon so we had plenty of chatting to do about the various sights and tastes we're planning to experience. Suffice it to say, it's going to be a beautiful, unforgettable trip; I can't wait. I'm having a bit of an affair with California this spring, eh? It's been heavenly, I love Cali and so far it loves me right back. Rarrr...