I was unsure of how to celebrate Joel's 40th or my own this past month and as mine drew closer, I felt a little pressure to figure that out. It's supposed to be a big day, it's supposed to be momentous. Finally we landed on the idea of Joel cooking one of his epic feasts out of two of our Ottolenghi cookbooks and I searched for the most ridiculous show-stopper of a Birthday cake I could find. We invited our pod and Joel spent the week preparing and receiving mysterious packages. Then we were given notice of extreme fire weather over the weekend and told the power would be cut for 24 hours starting during our planned dinner. We changed nothing but checked the batteries in the LED candles and lanterns and made sure the 2000 watt power inverter was set up beside the car and there were extension cords spread around the house to the fridge and freezer so we could be on back-up power in about 10 minutes when needed. When the day arrived the dinner was absolutely perfect, I'm going to share some pictures. The power went out as we finished the final courses and we cheered and made espresso by the flickering light of a lantern hanging in the cozy kitchen.
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| Grilled Grapes with Mozzarella |
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| Beet, orange and feta salad |
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| Curried lentil, tomato, coconut soup |
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| Palette cleanser: home made vodka lemon sorbet with champagne |
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| Tri tip |
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| Roast cauliflower |
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| Baked home made gnocci |
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| Asparagus with almonds, capers and dill |
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| Roast eggplant with sesame, and sauteed shallots |
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| We began with one of my favorite chardonnays sent by my parents |
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| At the meat course this big peppery Cab Sauv came out |
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| Dessert was a St Honore, butter puff pastry crust with Italian pastry cream filling; layered with sponge cake brushed with rum; decorated with chocolate and fresh whipped cream and pastry cream-filled caramelized cream puffs. |
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| We also had a tray of assorted italian cookies by the same pastry shop |
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