EY's Rants and Raves

So far, 2006 is quite nice. Had a WONDERFUL dinner last night at Acadia with The Boy. How do you not love "Fresh romaine lettuce tossed with a creamy sage caesar dressing with sauteed smoked duck, asparagus, and toasted almonds" and "Pan seared sea scallops with sour cream grilled vegetable ranchero sauce and cumin-cilantro soft baked polenta"?? Even the creme brulee was perfect...sugar on top was carmelized perfectly. I know, fluffy-sounding food, but it was darn, darn good. The salad was fresh and crisp and the duck was perfect. I have got to get over my fear of cooking duck. The cumin in the scallop dish was a little heavy-smelling, but the flavor balanced well. The sauce was great, the polenta wonderful. The scallops--a fav of mine, especially when done as well as these were--were the least interesting part of the dish.
The whole experience started out odd, but well. I had a DVD to take back to Best Buy, so we went early. But Best Buy closed early, so we drove around for a bit. Downtown was lively and the Peabody was covered up. We got to Acadia 15 min before our reservation. The Manager said "Hi" to us, I said hi to a guy I went to college with, then less than 5 min later, we were seated. The Boy asked how WE got seated early when other folks were waiting. I wasn't sure. Then as we're eating dinner, Manager stops by to tell us about a wine he'd gotten for way under it's normal cost and asks if we'd like a bottle. Sure we say. It was a bottle I've seen, but haven't bought because a half bottle is expensive. It was as good as I'd thought it would be. We were in the party room of the place, fairly small, so I could look around and see that we were the only ones with this wine. The Manager stopped to talk to other folks, but WE got the wine. Yes, my Pimp Hand was strong last night.
Came home and had champagne with The Boy. Very nice. Put black eyed peas in to soak last night and they cooked up pretty quick today. Washed and chopped some collard greens and the boy gave them a quick saute. So I've had my traditional lunch. Hopefully good luck and money will be plentiful this year.
And I certainly hope that for you as well, Gentle Reader.....