Where Have I Been?

It's been a while and I know there are millions that are wondering what I have been eating lately. We had a wine dinner at Ursula's Wine Bar & Cafe in beautiful downtown White Bear Lake (I own it you know) on March 16. Nick Nicholas from Anam Cara Cellars in the Chehalem Mountains in Oregon spent a delightful evening of food and wine pairings talking about his wine. We started the evening with his riesling and marinated scallops over frisee with blood orange and citrus vin. Chef Dennis Lewis, doing his first wine dinner by the way, hit this one out of the park, everything blended wonderfully. Course 2 was pork belly with sweet potato puree and chipoltle mole sauce served with 2007 pinot noir. My favorite dish of the evening. All the components sang in harmony and the wine added to the fun. Dennis then prepared basil crusted halibut over tomato soup with 2006 pinot noir. First thought would be halibut and pinot, no way, but with the tomato soup it was tremendous. We then had the reserve pinot noir with marinated elk strip loin with shitake marsala sauce and roasted celery root puree. Four for four, the wines were outstanding but sharing equal footing with the entries. We finished the evening with an almond pear crisp with homemade lavender ice cream and gewurztraminer. The lavender ice cream was crazy good and the gewurz was stunning, not too sweet but sweet enough. The dinner was a delight and hats off to Dennis for a job well done.