Mission Accomplished!

One of the best friends I have ever had and still do have is the Proconsul, Gaius Derf. Gaius Derf and I would worship the gods in particular Apollo (God of exercise) and Bacchus (you can look that one up yourself). Unfortunately Derf (as we call him for short) was exiled from the new Rome (Albuquerque) three and half years ago and now finds himself out in the boondocks province of Salt Lake City. While we occasionally see him and talk to him regularly, we truly miss having him here at court.

With the wisdom that only comes for achieving the status of de-Intimidator, a brilliant idea came to me that if he couldn’t be here at court, I could bring court to him. Also knowing him, he would never let me get tarred with his disgrace and would say, “no, no don’t do it.” So the whole mission had to be planned and executed without his knowing. Fortunately one his closest and most trusted household members had been compromised by the de-I intelligence services. We will call her by her code name, Agent Weasel.

With the assistance of Agent Weasel, we were able to set a date for the operation. Coordination and planning were extremely difficult as Gaius Derf is highly attuned to plots and subversions against him. However, our surprise was total and complete. Wife and I drove to Salt Lake City Thursday night. Once Derf was off to work at the regional court where he is consigned we rushed to his house where we linked up with Agent Weasel. A celebration of Bacchus was mandatory in order to properly celebrate the glory that is Derf.

We went to the local market and stocked up on all kinds of goodies and set to cooking away the afternoon. This included a foray into making ravioli from scratch. Gaius Derf arrived and our surprise was complete and total and the ensuing celebration went on for four hours.

The Menu:
Assorted Antipasti – Olives, cheeses, hard salami, tomato salad with vinaigrette, wilted cucumber salad with lemon and olive oil.
Chilled cream of asparagus soup
Chard, ricotta and pancetta filled ravioli with sage butter sauce
Fire roasted chicken with a red wine, pancetta sauce
Sautéed cabbage
Cheese (a fabulous triple cream brie from Australia of all places!)
Four fruit granita

The Wines:
Marilyn Remark - 2005 Marsanne (a Rhone varietal from Monterey, CA
Saint Amour – Cru Beaujolais – Georges DuBoeuf 2005
Domaine Carré Courbain Vielles Vignes – Volney 2000

And now scenes from the operation

Agent Weasel and Mrs. de-I Deep in Bacchus Celebration Planning

Wife Ponders Bacchus Scriptural Texts for Proper Intepretations

Agent Weasel taking out frustrations of undercover work on pasta dough

"So how are you suppose to do hand rolled pasta?"

Ravioli being prepared for storage prior to cooking

Wife working on the granita

The Antipasti

Gaius Derf Showing his pleasure

Still Life of Wine and Granita

Action Shot of Wine and Granita