We just returned home to 5 inches of snow. It is the 1st of this year and really beautiful.

Skaneatilis and the Dickens Christmas was charming and fun. Carol's party was great.

I added a link to the links column: Bar-RPB with information concerning next August. It is still being developed, so there is limited information at this point.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Next up...Christmas! The family holiday name raffle is as follows:

CHRISTINE gives to RACHEL
CHRIS gives to PHIL
KATE gives to CHRIS
NOAH gives to CYNDY
RACHEL gives to NOAH
PHIL gives to KATE
JOEL gives to PAUL
CYNDY gives to JOEL
PAUL gives to CHRISTINE

*cyndy*

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Deer

Happy birthday to Patrick!

The USA version of the Fiat 500 was unveiled today at the LA auto show. They also announced the list of 130 dealers. Armory Chrysler/Jeep is going to be our local Fiat dealer. The base price will be $15,500. Fiat wants to compete directly with the Mini.

Does this mean Cory will give Rachel and Phil two hogs?

Happy birthday to Cameron!

It was a fantastic birthday weekend at the farm where Cory (my brother) works! The weather was beautiful, the animals were happy to see us, and it was very relaxing. Cory is now raising 4 pigs which you can see in the photo.
These are the egg chickens (there are also some broilers- not shown here). Philip found about a dozen eggs this morning, so we had egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
Philip and I stayed on Cory's house/sea container- lovingly named the "Hertz Castle" since it is a Hertz container. There are three windows, a fold-up bed and very little furniture. It is surprisingly cozy and the sunrise and sunset views from the top of the hill are amazing!
The sea container from a distance.
I got some awesome birthday presents: a beautiful Christmas quilt; a four course (x2) duck dinner, and computer speakers.

-Rachel

What can I say? Retirement has caused me to lose track of the days of the week. Happy Birthday to Rachel, yesterday, the 13th!

Your duck dinner sounds fabulous.

We went to the Duck Duel Duex, aka Great Duck-Off, aka Fowl Mouth Dinner at the Grange Restaurant last night in Sacramento. This was a rematch of a friendly cooking competition between Hank Shaw, a food blogger, and Michael Tuohy, the chef at the Grange.

The menu was appetizing:


We skipped the wine pairings. One chef did the first item listed for each course and the other chef did the second item for each course. Otherwise, we didn't know which chef was first and which was second.

The way it worked was that we were served both items for each course and we voted on which we liked better on a little card that we then turned in at the end of the evening. At the end, there was also a selection for which we liked better overall.


Amuse Bouche: Little Egg v. Duck Tartare
Both Rachel and I voted for the little egg. The duck tartare was very good, but the little egg was exceptional. This was early when we hadn't figured out how to take decent pictures yet (it was quite dark).



First: Duck Consomme v. Duck Liver Tortelloni
Both Rachel and I voted for the duck consomme. It just may be too hard to put regular duck liver [not that there was anything particularly "regular" about it. It was still good] up against foie gras.



Next: Duck Confit v. Duck Leg
Rachel and I split on this one, although we both liked both. I went for the duck leg and Rachel went with the duck confit.



Main: Spice Scented Duck Breast v. Duck Breast Roulade
Rachel and I both really liked the duck breast roulade. The spice scented duck breast seemed to have too much sweet going on, although that may just be a matter of personal preference.

For the overall judging, Rachel voted for the first chef (little egg, duck consomme, duck confit, and spice scented duck breast) as the best overall and I voted for the second (duck tartare, duck liver tortelloni, duck leg, and duck breast roulade).




Desert was a non-competition item, mincemeat strudel, that used copious amounts of duck fat as a substitute for some of the butter. We both like savory things over sweet desserts, so this was also a big thumbs up.

No word yet on the compilation of all of the voting from the other guests.

A portion of the receipts from the evening went to the California Waterfowl Association.

The token halloween photo. Zombie Bride, Frog, Robot. Also the 2010 NY-Penn League championship trophy. Tri-City Valleycats won this year. The new Ferry Rd. bridge is now open. Photos this weekend possibly.

Happy birthday Tracy!

Happy Birthday Grandmother Steates!