Since we're usually Home Alone on Christmas day, Randy and I have long gone out for dinner rather than eat at home. But, as my standards have improved, my satisfaction with what's available on The Day has diminished. This year I suggested a good, simple meal at home on The Day (which we had and loved) followed by a meal out later. Which was today.
Being new to the north half of San Luis Obispo County, we're just learning the restaurants up here. Tonight we tried Villa Creek in Paso Robles. O.M.G. I had one of the best meals I've ever had in my life, no kidding! VC aims to be local, sustainable and organic. In addition, Executive Chef Tom Fundaro is putting out some really tasty food.
To start, the waitress brought a basket of small, warm flour tortillas with a deeply-flavored, smokey salsa. Since we demolished that in record time, another round was promptly served. Boy, this was way better than the usual bread and butter routine!
Randy started with "fuyu persimmon & bitter greens, Maytag blue cheese, spiced walnuts with apple balsamic vinaigrette." He would only have made the persimmon slices chunkier. My "winter squash soup with sage oil & toasted pumpkin seeds" was perfect. Truly flavorful.
Randy went on to "grilled pork tenderloin with cider mustard sauce, sauteed apples & roasted root vegetables, herbed potato puree." His plate was bare at the end of dinner. I think he even ate his parsley sprig.
You know I love, love, love venison, so I went straight for the "pan seared venison double chop, quinoa lentil stuffed pumpkin with cherry almond demi-glace & sage." There was also some wonderfully flavorful spinach on the plate. The meat for perfect, topped with the cherry sauce. The pumpkin stuffing was surprisingly spicy and lively. The tiny pumpkin was worthy of eating, too, although I only had a few bites and brought the rest home. Let me tell you, the plate was absolutely gorgeous as it was composed. The entree was, by itself, the single most satisfying thing I've ever been served.
Yes, we soldiered on through dessert and coffee. Randy had a fabulous fruit crisp with pecans and a richly scented vanilla gelato. I had an amazing chocolate torte that I nearly couldn't finished. Well, I forced myself. The coffee, unfortunately, was pretty weak-kneed, although generously served in a large French press. Only the coffee kept the entire meal from being nearly perfect.
Yup, the whole thing was pricey, but no worse than a full lunch at the Chez Panisse cafe. I'd rather eat out less often and eat better quality food when we do. I am a happy little foodie tonight.
Otherwise, I spent our cloudy, drizzly day reading and unpacking. The upstairs storage closet is FINISHED! The upstairs bathroom is FINISHED! And I made a major dent in the remaining boxes piled in my studio. YIPPEE!! Mind you, although my studio is large, it has to contain nearly everything that I had spread throughout our entire Los Osos house. I had a lot of my weaving stuff in the family room and garage. Tons more stuff, including all my dyeing stuff, in the garage. Everything else in the sewing room and its closet (which was stuffed to the gills). There was a loom in the living room with assorted stuff scattered about. The only rooms in that house that weren't full of my stuff were the kitchen, bathrooms, and our bedroom. I even had some of my books in Randy's office. Admittedly, I'm putting much of my weaving and knitting yarn into the upstairs storage closet at this house. But, that stuff will get "used up." I promise.
Oh yes, I'm making a quart of Honey-Preserved Clementines today. They have to sit in the frig for a week before using, so I'll let you know about this experiment next week!
