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Thursday, January 01, 2004
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Last night's dinner was so much fun - this is such a great tradition. Long time fabulous friends, gourmet food, great wine, fireworks, and a winter wonderland!
Dinner consisted of four courses: appetizers, salad course, main course, and dessert. Each course is at a different house - all within one block of each other.
 Appetizers
These little tiki torches stuck in the snow in front of Kathryn, Allison, and Bernie's bungalow (inside pun) were the absolute perfect touch - very welcoming and festive. I think the tiki torches were a little confused - they thought they were supposed to be in the warm sand somewhere in Hawaii, not in a snowbank in cold cold cold Alaska.
The appetizer course was beyond amazing - staggering even. Unfortunately, I left my printed appetizer menu behind at KAB's so I'll have to wing it from memory: Kalamata olives, some great little rib thingies, crab, avocado, black beans in large homemade taco crisps, lamb in small Indian pastries, and a yam roll pastry thing. I have just totally butchered the names, but omigod, everything was exquisite.
And the wine - or in this case - Champagne, the ever popular Gloria Ferrer Brut. Simply the best value ever in Sparkling Wine.
9:45:40 PM 
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 The Salad Course
Both the salad and main course were at the Gerleks. Because I was the salad chef, the salad course should have been at our house, but I was still too wiped by bronchitis to actually entertain. So we combined salad and main course locales.
The salad was Arugula with Prosciutto and Mangos in Marsala. However, because of the holiday airfreight overload into Alaska, the arugula order got bumped - there is simply no arugula anywhere in Anchorage right now. So faux arugala it was - baby spinach.
The wine was a drop dead fabulous white blend: 2002 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas blanc - perhaps the best white wine I've had this year. It's a blend of rhone varietals and was just stunning. The initial flavor is dry and mineral like. Then the fruit goes roaring by. This is a must drink wine.
9:38:46 PM
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 In the Holiday Spirit
The Gerlek's walrus skull is definitely getting down for the Holidays!
9:23:42 PM
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 The Intermezzo
At 9:00 PM we all trooped a block west to Brown's Point Park to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. The fireworks are lit off in Anchorage's small boat harbour and Brown's Point park, high up on the bluff over the Inlet, is the best viewing location. There were probably a 100 people in the little park. It was a total blast (so to speak).
It was also quite cold: 5 degrees. There is something so fun about standing outside in the snow and cold, in a friendly crowd, on New Year's Eve and ooohing and aahing over fireworks.
The fireworks warming libation of choice was Tesoro (I think) tequilla. I am not a tequilla drinker so I did not partake. What I wanted was hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.
9:05:00 PM
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 The Main Course
Here we are getting ready to settle in for the Main Course - Curried Shrimp Masala with Coconut Milk prepared by Kathryn Gerlek and Melissa Abbott. Total Yum!!!
The main course wines were both white - of course - because of the (totally fabulous) curry: a 2001 Kenwood Sonoma Gewurztraminer and the 2001 EXP Viogner.
The Kenwood Gewurtz was nice - a good bit of fizz on the tongue and then a tart, not overly sweet taste.
I did not get a change to sample the EXP. However, I had the same wine in Septmeber.
8:51:46 PM
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 Heading off to the Dessert Course
Kathryn Easley plieing in her Bunny Boots - the ultimate in Alaskan footwear.
Check out those red bootlaces!
8:33:07 PM
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 The Dessert Course
By this point, 11:30 PM, things are definitely out of hand.
This is me making out with The Penguin.
The dessert was pretty fabulous - a chocolate gateau that was probably pure 24 carat chocolate and a bread pudding with a deadly whiskey sauce. The chefs du dessert were Kathleen and Kevin.
Instead of wine, we had liqueurs - I indulged in a little Chambord.
8:30:49 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Stephanie A. Kesler.
Last update: 3/5/2005; 8:40:05 PM.
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