Home of the Wanderer

It’s quite quick and easy to reheat last night’s dinner, though I have no more crab or duck to go with everything else. Still delicious!

One of the most wonderful things about sharing a big meal with friends: leftovers. After a quick review of duck confit, concluding that it is beyond my reach today, I reheated duck and veggies from last night, snacked on a partly-eaten crab cake, and dished up a portion of sweet potatoes. And a side of chutney. Yum!

I just had an amazing dinner with my friends Robert, Megan, and Gabe. I played with Gabe while Robert and Megan cooked up a meal in the spirit of the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon - roast duck (from Wooden Bridge Farm -thanks Dan!) with a cherry-cumin chutney (organic Oregon Bing cherries), molasses whipped sweet potatoes (also with a touch of cumin), dungeness crab cakes (with crab from the Oregon coast), a sautee of winter vegetables (asparagus, green beans, carrots, and brussels sprouts, first simmered in salt water them lightly sauteed), and an apple sponge cake casserole. We had a Covey Run fume blanc with the crab, a 2004 Rex Hill Pinot Noir with the main course, and a touch of pommeau from Wandering Aengus Ciderworks with dessert.

Delicious. All told, about four hours to prep and eat today (they made the sweet potatoes yesterday). If we’d thought to look more closely at the recipes ahead of time, we might have adhered more closely to the Inaugural menu - as it was, Robert and Megan worked wonders in the kitchen and left me burgeoning with leftovers.