Food, Wine & Friends Page 279
Our friend Dane FitzJensen was celebrating his 14th Birthday,
so we volunteered to host a simple Summer Sunday lunch feast for the young man.
We posted this sign on the front door:
That's a photo of Dane from perhaps a decade ago.
Dane's Father Jesper Jensen, sister Alanna FitzJensen, Dane and Mom, Amy
Fitzpatrick.
We visited Burlingame's "Fresh Market," a Sunday open air market
featuring organically-farmed produce, some breads, flowers, jams,
etc.
I picked up some Olive Fougasse from the baker.
Our friends in Germany will be thrilled to see the baker also makes some
"pretzel bread."
Once everyone had arrived, we sat down at the table, rolled up
our sleeves and got busy.
In addition to the breads, we had some anchovy-stuffed olives, some truffle pate
slathered on baguette slices and some Dolmas.
A bottle of Santa Giulietta Rose was opened as our starter wine...a pink wine
from Corsica.
It's a bit quiet on the nose and bone dry on the palate.
In fact, there's a tiny tannic 'bite' to this wine which some people will like
and others will reject since it's not sweet, "mellow" or smooth.
We enjoyed it, though.
The second bottle we opened was the 2014 L'Hortus Rose from the Languedoc.
The salad featured some mixed greens, avocado, smoked trout,
some Italian grilled artichokes "sott'olio" and Amy's home-grown
tomatoes.
The L'Hortus Rose is more fruity than the Corsican wine and nicely berryish on
the palate.
I guess my salad dressing was not sufficiently salty!
The next plate featured some homemade, cheese-free Pesto with some Rock Shrimp.
We paired this with Salvard's Cheverny...a nice Sauvignon Blanc blend from the
Loire Valley.
It's nicely aromatic and shows some citrusy and herbal notes. Dry...no
oak...light, yet flavorful.
And so we raised a glass and had a toast to Dane.
The room actually fell silent as everyone dug into the pasta.
I went into the kitchen to work on the next course...and
people would get up from the table and go sit someplace a bit more comfortable.
The Fresh Market has a farmer from Brentwood, across the Bay, selling fresh
corn.
Damn, that's good!
A farmer from Half Moon Bay brings some wonderful Artichokes,
so I made a braise of those, mushrooms, zucchini and some red pepper...
Pierre and Aviva brought some Poulet Roti.
We opened two bottles of wine made from the Gamay grape.
We had a Gilles
Bonnefoy 2011 Côtes du Forez "Migmatite"
which is made from vineyards planted on a soil that's both Metamorphic and
Igneous rock. The wine is faintly aromatic and not especially
fruity. It's a medium-bodied red and much less exuberant than a good
Beaujolais, for example.
Perfectly sound winemaking, but the wine is not very compelling.
The Domaine Labruyere 2012 Moulin-a-Vent was a tad more complex, but another
swing-and-a-miss for me. It had brighter red fruit notes on the nose and a
shade more charming on the palate.
I didn't find it to be superior to the Moulin-A-Vent we have in the shop from
Jacky Gauthier, for example.
Oh well. Live and learn.
"Life is an experiment."
Dane was drinking only some lemonade, so this is difficult to explain.
I
think Pierre and Amy were discussing the Iran Nuclear Treaty.
Not sure, though.
Alanna and Clementine were exchanging text messages, apparently.
Dane and I attempted to strike the same pose as Dane in the photo on my apron...
Eyes Closed.
Amy and Aviva.
Now
Dane and Alanna were exchanging texts apparently.
Sleeping Beauty...
Of course we had to have a Birthday Cake for Dane.
Someone huffed and puffed to blow out the candle.
Then he needed to have another go...
This came from The
Cakery in Burlingame.
The Water Pitcher.
Homemade Nutella Ice Cream
There's no time like the present, so we gave Dane a little
gift...
He
also received a Warrior's T-Shirt.
And
some cool Comic Book Posters...
And
with that, we cleaned up the kitchen, got the dishes in the washer and the
Sicards and FitzJensens made tracks back to Santa Clara.
Much fun!
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