Party Like It's 2007

Our first Thursday Club of the New Year was one to remember.......through pictures......the next morning (see: www.painfulfridayhangovers.com). Jason prepared an awesome menu for us four (with Wax being the 4th man in) and we brought the wine, to a tune of 6 bottles. So much for sobriety being my New Year's resolution.

-MENU-

- Crab Salad served in an Avocado

- Escargo Provencal

- Duck Cassoulet (de Casséus)

Paired with the creamy flesh of the avocado, the crab salad had a ton of crunchy diced vegetables folded within and a nice curry spice to it. A nice, light way to start off.




Clearly, what makes a good plate of escargo is the amount of butter, garlic and parsley piled on top. As you can see from the pictures below, there was plenty to go around. Once it was done broiling, each moist little snail had it's own personal pool of fragrent melted butter to swim (one might say drown) in. This left plenty of golden goodness to mop up with a warm baguette.


The main course was gasp/groan/curse-worthy. Once the duck confit nestled in a thick and spicy cassoulet was spooned liberally onto our plates, conversation ceased with the exception of a few subtle ooohs and aaahs. The smoky andouille sausage and al dente white beans added a perfectly balanced flavor and texture to the entire dish.

After this feast rendered us unbelievable full (and unable to operate heavy machinery or drive), a hidden bottle of single malt scotch found it's way to the table. It looked a bit like this.....


I'm sure some of you photo-types out there would claim that this image looks blurry because of the lack of light on the object being photographed, therefore effecting the speed of the shutter and blah, blah, blah. Forget all of that. This is a first hand account of how that very bottle looked that night. The blurryness can be attributed to the amount of fun I was having.....after all, that's what Thursdays are for, right?