outstanding in the field

sorry to keep you waiting. i just returned home yesterday with high hopes of posting some pictures and info about my dinner but i failed. between a drive home, getting unpacked and getting settled i was out of it. the thought of selecting and editing photos just wasn’t appealing. so thanks for your patience.

anyway here are many pictures of outstanding in the field with some accompanying verbiage. enjoy the little tour of my dinner!

all in all the experience was amazing. beyond amazing. priceless. (and i think i drink enough wine to make up for the cost of the dinner!)

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this is the lovely farm. it was spread out over several areas of land in little town of roscoe, ny.

the farm is called mountain sweet berry farm. you can check out a video of the farm if you wish here. typically everyone attending the dinner gets a tour of the farm, but it seems our farmer was missing, so we didn’t get a tour. which, was slightly disappointing, but it worked out ok.

if you look really really close to the horizon line you can see the group of people attending the dinner. see them?

me in front of the table. they choose to set up the ‘infamous table’ along a creek that rain across the back of the farm. it was the perfect setting!

we saw fish jumping … a bald eagle flew over the table during the middle of dinner. magical.

we arrived to a welcome reception of wine and appetizers. the wine started pouring then … and honestly never stopped. and boy was it delicious! all the wine was from dr. konstantin frank’s wine cellars.

part of the tradition of the dinner was to bring your own plate. like bringing a piece of ‘you’ to the dinner. they are cleaned and returned at the end of the meal.

or first treat was a pureed strawberry shooter with coriander simple syrup and champagne. yummy! we had two!

a brave photographer hopped into the river to take a few pictures.

before we sat down for dinner we had some appetizers which i failed to get pictures of. we had a duck terrine with pickled vegetables and toast with radish, mustard better and micro greens. both of which were fab.

jim denevan … the creator of outstanding in the field.

our special guest chef was jim lehay. he is the owner of the sullivan street bakery. he also wrote this book. his bread was setting on the table when we sat down. it was out of this world! crusty on the outside. soft on the inside.

first up was a green salad (with mixed greens from windfall farms – cut that morning) garden vegetables, herbs and lemon-anise dressing. plus a mix of yummy edible flowers. delish!

this next course was a bonus course (not listed on the menu). a panzanella loaded with heirloom tomatoes, amazing bread and specially grown pea shoots.

this is where the cooking happened. just above us. in the field.

i know. when i first saw this i wasn’t overly excited. i’m not a big fish fan. at all. but i promised myself i would try everything. and it was actually really good. i asked for a middle portion so it wasn’t staring at me while i ate it. grilled beaverkill trout with roasted potatoes, summer squash and potatoes.

everything was served family style to a section of eight people. it was so nice to mingle, talk and meet new people! this is my brother.

next up … hudson valley duck break and braised legs with spigarello, scallions, lemon marmalade and turnips. again … just phenomenal.

me with jim denevan. (have you seen the move date night? if you did … this is what inspired this pic … if you didn’t go rent it and get ready to laugh! … it’s a really good movie!)

jim lahey signing my sister-in-laws copy of his cookbook. (i forgot mine! darn!!)

as night fell they brought out candles. i think this was olive oil??

of course, being next to the river, people were bound to test the waters. this was a great moment of the dinner … a ‘tagline’ of sorts was created at our table (which spread down the table a bit). i’d share, but i’m not sure its appropriate for here.

not the best pic but some super yummy cheese from calkin’s creamery. served with grapes and blueberries.

and finally dessert, which was impossible to get a good pic as the sun had set, but you can sorta see below.

peaches and cream crumble with highland valley farm honey and early bird cookery blueberry ice cream.

i’m pretty sure i did lick my dessert plate in the end. it was fabulous. and each course was paired with a wine from dr. franks … theny included … chardonnay 2007, dry riesling 2009, rkatsiteli 2008, pinot noir 2007, brut 2004 and semi-dry riesling 2009

i think i covered mostly everything. if you have questions leave a comment below and i will answer them in a separate post later this week.

if you love amazing fresh food, sinfully delicious wine, beautiful farms, meeting new people … you will love this. i promise. this is probably one of the best experiences i’ve had in quite some time! honest.

…and an overwhelmingly huge thanks to my brother and sister-in-law who made all of this possible for me. i wouldn’t have wanted to share this experience with anyone else!