Not gonna lie. I hit a slump. A big HUGE ugly blogging slump. I know I’m not the most consistent poster. I’d be a much better blogger if I was, I’m sure. But I usually spend a lot of time thinking about future posts and what pictures to use, and feeling bad about not having posted.
Not recently though. In fact, typing this right now, required a LOT of motivation. I had let my domain registration lapse. I even started balancing my checkbook as a way to procrastinate writing…yeah. I don’t know what has been up with me, but I’ve been doing a LOT of reading lately. Reading all kinds of books. Let’s call it R&D….
But the fact that it has taken so long for me to post isn’t fair. It’s not fair to anyone who reads this blog, and it’s not fair especially to the people who made the food that makes up the content of this post much MUCH earlier.
I wanted to post earlier, but I just for some reason, couldn’t get my butt into the chair in front of my computer. I sincerely apologize, and here it is:
Some people look forward to Thanksgiving every year. Some people to Christmas. Me? I look forward to Oscar Sunday every year, because it is consistently one of the best meals that I’m guaranteed to have all year. (I’m pretty sure any posts I’ve done about Oscar Dinner in the past are tagged as such, so please feel free to check the archives.) It’s not just that the food is delicious, because it always is, but it’s that I get to spend an evening with one of my best friends, Chrissy, and her wonderful family. That they have included me in their family tradition year after year, never ceases to make me feel just a little bit extra special and I love them for it.
This year’s menu featured some items we’ve done in the past – I think Tom started off thinking that this year would be a “Greatest Hits” kind of menu, but Chrissy informed me that he kept finding new stuff he wanted to try, so there were a couple of new additions as well.
Our first course was this beautiful Corn and Lobster Chowder. I like corn, I like lobster. Can’t really go wrong here. Especially since it had a little bit of a kick – just enough to cut through the sweetness of the corn and make you go, “Oh!” and then smile…
That was followed by a “re-run” of a lovely Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Pistachios that we’d had a few years ago. I enjoyed this dish the first time, and I enjoyed it again this time. Beets might be one of my favorite root vegetables…
Along with the beets we enjoyed some expertly baked Gruyere Gougeres, which I think we may have had last year, and they were definitely a hit. This was another great item to see again, and I was lucky enough to be given a bag of yet unbaked gougeres to take home and bake and eat later…basically the next day because I wasn’t going to let them wait to be eaten! 
A couple of new additions included this beautiful Yukon Gold Potato Pancake with Creme Fraiche and Caviar. Golden brown perfection…
And also, this portion of Spaghetti Squash with Fresh Herbs. Spaghetti squash is all the rage right now, and I’m not going to lie, I liked this so much, I ended up trying to duplicate this dish for dinner later that week…
We couldn’t have had an Oscar Dinner Greatest Hits without a return of the Striped Bass in a Salt Dome. This dish is not only massively impressive, but absolutely delicious. I wish I could eat all my fish prepared this way, but that seems like a lot of work. It’s just that it comes out so tender and flavorful and, well, perfect. I remember the first time Tom made this, after dinner, Scott and I literally stood over the carcass and with our fingers, picked out any remaining bits of fish flesh we could find, like ravenous vultures.
To top off the dinner, Tom traditionally does a chocolate dessert, and this year was no different. This was an Orange and Almond Chocolate Tarte.
Some other highlights of the evening…a nice dry bottle of champagne:
Winning the Oscars game…again!
And this Cream Sherry I brought…which was perfect with our chocolate dessert!
I am so blessed to count these people among my friends, and I look forward to next year!
