I'm about to go WAY over the top. Bear with me. Because this year our Christmas Dinner featured some of the most extraordinary things I have ever tasted...
Happily ensconced between our Christmas tree and a roaring fire, we had a lovely meal of some of our favorites... Chicken saltimbocca with a mushroom and Madeira sauce (search for the full recipe posted August 17, 2012), peas, and wild rice.
Then came the kicker: earlier in December, while having dinner with friends at L.A.'s terrific wine bar and restaurant Vertical, we happened upon a cheese I'd been searching for for five years! I first tasted it at an opening night reception while doing Tamburlaine at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, but couldn't remember the name. All I knew was that it was the most extraordinarily full-flavored blue I'd ever tasted, and that the cheese was encased in dark, almost black, leaves... it looked as though it had been excavated from beneath the forest floor. I now know that it's a Spanish blue: Valdeón. It's amazing. But that was only part of what was to come.
A few years ago, a dear dear friend, knowing my love of Port, gave me a rare vintage from 1942... Yes. Really. My friend was almost apologetic, because he knew the port had been badly, carelessly stored at his parents' house, so there was every chance it was going to be an expensive bottle of very old vinegar! But he also knew that if anyone would enjoy and appreciate the drama of opening it, not knowing what would be inside the bottle... We would!
My friends... This magical elixir had somehow survived bad storage, temperature changes, moving and shaking and all the rest to emerge virtually perfect... a beautiful, eerie, dusty orange color, a light but characteristic port nose, and then the most haunting, full, long-lasting finish I've ever experienced from a glass. We stared at each other and laughed out loud. I could bore you with wine-speak words - cinnamon, wood, caramel, cocoa, etc. - but there's not much point.
I'll just say we sat in front of the fire for almost an hour after dinner was done... eating tiny bites of this explosive cheese and taking tiny sips of this liquid gold... talking about everything under the sun, feeling ridiculously grateful for... well... everything.
Now that's a bottle of wine and a hunk of cheese! Happy New Year!