five courses of happiness

I took a vacation from baking this week. My oven was not preheated for cookies, cakes or anything resembling a pastry (unless you count frozen Rhoades rolls - deliciously not baked from scratch by moi). Fortunately, I still have a taste of happiness to share with you. Five courses of happy tastes to be exact.

For our Saturday date night, Greg and I decided to clean ourselves up a bit and go out somewhere nice. Plus, he owed me dinner from a bet I won about a month ago, so I decided this would be the perfect time to visit than my Chef's restaurant in Broadripple. Chef talks about his restaurant sometimes during class and we are all eager to try it, but it's not somewhere you can go everyday because of the price tag. This Saturday in class he described a new dessert they just started serving: banana bread pudding with candied bananas and pecans on the side, fresh oranges and Grand Marnier on top, finished with crème anglaise and caramel sauce. And a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. My mouth immediately started watering.

At the restaurant, we chose the three-course Chef's tasting, which includes wine pairings with each course. We had no idea what would be on the menu for us - he chooses the entire meal for you and brings items out to explain what's in every dish. Very cool. First up for us was a potato skin with lobster, herbs and sauce on top. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to describe the how, what, why and where every ingredient was used in these dishes, but be rest assured that everything tasted amazing. And the wine pairings went along with the dishes fabulously as well.

Second course: salmon with Granny Smith apple slaw and white cheddar poblano flan with a mesquite smoked tomato citrus glaze

This was my favorite dish by far and I would have been completely happy going right to dessert next. Instead, much to our delight, we were treated to the five-course tasting and had two more entrees to go.

Third course: Indiana duck with wilted spinach and arugula, shallots and maple bread pudding with a blueberry orange zest sauce

While the duck was not my favorite dish (you know how I am with raw chickens, let alone cute little quackers), it was still very good and the blueberry sauce was amazing.

Fourth course: filet mignon with potato rosti and a corn shiitake mushroom mixture

Wow. This potato was probably the best I've ever had in my life and I wanted to lick the strange looking corn mixture off of the plate. The filet was perfectly medium rare and delish, but my stomach was too busy quacking to enjoy the whole thing. I was not too full, however, to scrape every last morsel of food off of the dessert plate.

Fifth course: needs no further description

The mood lighting (or perhaps the wine) was affecting my photography at the end of the night, but you get the idea. Delicious food, fabulous company and five courses of happiness. What else could a girl on a baking break ask for?