fancy dinner

so last weekend (before Thanksgiving weekend), we thought our friend L. was going to be coming to dinner and bringing a friend, but we were wrong. Instead, we finally figured out what everyone had been saying at about 7pm, when suddenly we realized we had a feast for four and no dinner guests.

E to the rescue! Thank heavens she had been shirking plans, on account of being sick and not wanting to go out; a quiet evening in, doing that thing we always seem to do (dinner + TV or movie) was really nice. It's been a while.

So we had a salad with warm walnut-encrusted goat cheese balls, venison marinated in akvavit and crushed juniper berries, served with a cranberry-fruit chutney and venison gravy (above), and chantrelle and hazelnut risotto (also above; extra tasty as I did not have white cooking wine on hand and substituted leftover locally-made hard cider). We popped open a Negrette from Kenneth Volk, and finished off with dessert:

Steamed persimmon pudding, with persimmon slices and lightly whipped cream (sweetened with golden syrup). As this was my first steamed pudding, I let it boil extra long, but it still was a little underdone, but still tasty. Clearly, I have not yet mastered the English art of boiling food. I'll get there. ("please, don't," joked my fella.)

Nothing like familiar friends, a couple episodes of House and a feast on a wintry night. E said she was particularly excited to finally partake of one of the photographed blog-meals.