A GOOD FRIEND, LOTS OF GOOD WINE AND TONS OF GOOD FOOD = ONE HAPPY DAWN!

Awhile back I helped my friend Cathy with a little healthy cooking.  She just wanted someone to guide her through cooking some food with the whole bunch of dietary limitations she has.  She knows how much I love food and good food for that matter so she gave me a call.  I was happy to help.  We went shopping at the local co-op, good, all fresh, organic, gluten free and dairy free food.  The challenge for me was to cook without cheese!  I know, right?  No one should eat meals without cheese.  Just sayin'.

So I cooked up some incredible chicken broth from the chicken carcass that I baked, made some enchiladas with ground turkey, my grandma's recipe for stuffed peppers made with ground up bison meat, eggplant parmesan without the parmesan but with homemade marinara sauce, and a braised pork loin. Nummy!

Well, because Cathy is just this awesome person, she wanted to treat me to a night out.  A local winery here, called Four Daughters,  had a Chef's dinner night, so Cathy said we had to go.  Who could turn that down?  They were offering a tour of the winery, a three-course meal and wine tasting.

We took a cab so we could really enjoy ourselves and had just the best time chatting with the cabbies.  I never took a cab here in Rochester, didn't know they were so friendly and fun, them cabbies.

We got there about 7 and sat at the bar to wait, there were supposed to be a few more signed up for the dinner.  About 7:15 they assumed they weren't coming so we got started with the tour.

Our first course was a scallop with bitter greens and balsamic redux.  We got that while having the tour.  Then our next course was a peice of artisinal pizza.  At this point I'm thinking this is great!  But the best part is when the two Chef's announced that they were 'practicing' tonight and were gonna serve us more like 8 courses, which turned out to be 9.  Yeehaaa!  Glad I wore my leggings instead of my jeans. Seriously.  And don't forget wine poured with every course!  Yeehaa!  Dawn's living it up tonight!

We didn't get pics of the first two courses, we were still in a state of shock from the sumptuous taste of the them.

Next came a baby pear, goat cheese and beet …. I guess you can call it a... salad.

Then it was duck proscuitto and housemade grape jelly.

Then the Chef loves to use a noodle.  One long noodle.  And a shrimp with some house pickled pepper pepita salsa. Chef said he likes redundancy.

Then there was the potato soup with bacon - yes, BACON!  (Bacon should always have an exclamation point)

And then… it was the pan seared roasted duck breast with sauteed kale and this bread pudding made with housemade driend grapes and andiuolle sausage. I think… it was getting a little fuzzy by then and I didn't write all this down.

then the intermezzo was a house made pita chip with 5 year old cheddar.  Cheese!

Well, now that we are ready to roll out of the room, dessert arrives. It's two ginger pancakes stuffed with this amazing cream filling that tasted like heaven!

Now that's what I call a good time.  Great food, good wine, good friends and just an overall great night out.  I just really love my life.  Of course it wouldn't be this great without my really great friends. : )

And Marilyn.