Sister of an Only Child

4.29.2011Does that title instantly put the tune of Owner of a Lonely Heart in your head? That is what I thought when I read it at first.

On Friday, I had the pleasure of celebrating my “sister’s” birthday. I’m an only child by nature but my best friend, S, is pretty much what I imagine a sister to be like. Her birthday celebration dinner was at the Ashby Inn in Paris. (Just for reference…I love S like a sister but it is Paris, VA not actually Paris!) It is this little Inn and Restaurant way out in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant prides itself on bringing a lot of local ingredients to the table which is always great!

For S’s birthday dinner, we started with wine from one of my absolute favorite local vineyards: Linden. I am typically not a big Chardonnay drinker because I prefer a brighter, fruitier white wine but Linden offers a stainless steel barreled Chardonnay that is so yummy! Linden is pretty selective about who they distribute to though so it is difficult to find it in restaurants.

After enjoying some our wine, we all decided to do the Chef’s 5 course morel tasting menu. For those of you paying attention, you’ll probably realize from the title that the menu is based around the very much in-season morel mushroom. It took us a little longer to get that…not a problem for 3 of the 4 people at the table.

First Course included a few snacks:

morel mushroom gougeres with smoked honey

buffalo wing cracker with ranch powder

parmesan and anchovy croquant with raisin sauce

goat cheese with breakfast radish

Second course was the most amazing morel mushroom soup with crème fraiche.

It was at this point that we realized the mushroom theme. (Reading = hard…especially after some wine) The only person at the table who ~~hates~~ isn’t really into is my husband, A. The rest of us tend to seek out menu items with mushrooms on them because we love them so much. The mushroom “issue” didn’t seem to slow A down though.

The next course was Corvine with…wait for it…morel mushrooms! The Corvine was cooked to perfection with a wonderful crispy skin and delightful lemon brightness.

The beef course was labeled by S’s husband as “the best dish he had ever had in his life”. Pretty high complement! It was beef rib loin with fried panisse (made with chick pea flour), morels and peppercress.

No course is complete with the perfect glass of wine to go along with it though. We had all ordered the wine pairing to go along with the tasting menu. I was so caught up in eating and talking that I didn’t ~~pay attention to~~ write down any of the wines we had except for the In Situ Cabernet Sauvignon. Cheers!

We were all stuffed at this point but the food just kept coming. After a palate cleanser of a hot and cold Arnold Palmer, up next was a French toast dessert with candied morels.

So, dessert = done? Nope…two more courses to go! After all the wine I had, I wasn’t very good at counting but now that I am writing this I realize we had way more than 5 courses. First up is the merry go round of dessert bites:

Finally, we were served a cheese course of garrotxa cheese (goat milk), ramp marmalade, ham nectar and morels with a glass of 10 Year Tawny Port.

Full? We certainly were! The food, wine and (most importantly) conversation were wonderful and a perfect way to celebrate one of the most amazing people I know! Thanks to the Ashby Inn for a wonderful evening!

**Apologies for the poor photo quality! You’ll find I am not the best photographer anyways but these were taken by cell phone in a dimly lit restaurant**

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