In the spirit of Oscar Night, we paid homage to Wolfgang Puck who has catered the Governor’s Ball since 1995 by serving our version of his trademark Smoked Salmon Pizza With Dill Creme Fraiche and Caviar, our version of Mini burgers - our hamburgers are the size of meatballs, and Chicken Vegetable Dumplings. We also served Asparagus Puffs and Artichoke Squares because we knew that several of our guests attending this dinner do not like meat.

 

Our first course was Shrimp over a Parmesan-Polenta Cake. (Recipe as requested in Comment section.) Since tonight’s dinner menu was Oscar inspired, we served Sterling’s Gold Standard Reserve - the actual wine that they served Sunday, February 22, 2009 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governor’s Ball to the celebrities. If it is good enough to serve to Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Sean Penn and Brad Pitt than this is what we need to serve our guests -after all our guests are stars in our community. This special wine was very hard to get and obviously not sold at the local liquor store. In describing this wine, Mike Westrick, Vice President of Winemaking for Sterling Vineyards said, “The Gold Standard Reserve Chardonnay offers aromas and flavors of toffee, vanilla, gala apples and Bosc pear.”

 

The salad had organic greens with a cranberry balsamic dressing. This was topped with julienned beets, fresh mango cut up , sliced strawberries, goat cheese and glazed walnuts. We paired this course with Honig Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from Napa. According to the vitner, “It is a bright, fruit forward Sauvignon Blanc, with citrus aromas of grapefruit, lemongrass, and lime, overlaying passion fruit and mango characters. The vibrant tropical flavors linger, while the finish is crisp and refreshing.” Wine Spectator rated this wine 87 points and said that it is "Fresh and grassy, with good intensity to the lemon-lime and melon flavors. A refreshing, juicy acidity and peach flavors add to the charm.

 

 

Our last course is a Gorgonzola Blue Cheese Lobster Ravioli topped with lobster. We also had "fried" string beans (there is no batter). This put us in a bit of a conundrum. To us the lobster would work best with a pinot grigio and the blue cheese is pungent so it would pair well with a cabernet Sauvignon. For this course we offered our guest their choice of wine. The Cabernet was Sterling’s Red Carpet Reserve Cabernet - another special wine served at the official Oscar party. Mike Westrick, said, “The Red Carpet Reserve Cabernet shows notes of cassis, plum, blackberry and Asian spices”. By the way, only a few hundred cases of each vintage of Gold Standard Reserve Chardonnay and Red Carpet Reserve Cabernet are produced each year to celebrate this special night.  

 

The other wine offered was Kellerai Cantina Terlan, a Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige region. According to Banville and Jones Wine Merchants, “This wine is light straw in color with pleasant aromas of ripe melon and freshly picked Macintosh apples. Crisp and light on the palate with lovely pineapple, Bartlett pear and apple flavors that harmoniously intermingle with orange zest and almond notes. The finish lingers with spicy tropical fruit.”

  

Dessert was a chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream. We also had fresh raspberries with it. I meant to soak the raspberries in the chambord but forgot. To drink along with coffee, we offered a choice homeade cranberry liquor and Lemon cello that Jim Johnson made using my mother's recipe as an after dinner drink.

 

The Oscar  table setting started out with a white damask table cloth. We used black chargers with Wedgewood cream on cream dishes. As you can see from the photos - we couldn't make up our mind how to do the napkins. For our dinner, we used a black satin napkin with the white damask napkin underlay. We used our dragonfly napkin rings with swaroski crystals that added a little bling! For placecard holders we used mini clapboard picture frames and wrote their names in the font “Kunstler Script”. For the centerpiece we used a silver bowl with a crown point edge and filled it with cream flowers and green accents. More specifically we used two different size cream roses (sweetheart roses and floribundas), cream hydrangeas, green Belles of Ireland, babies breath and fern leafs. For candles we used a sparkly white.

 

Once again special thanks to Rob Peters for consulting with me on what wines to serve. Rob is the best!

And the award goes to Sandra Leonard, my mother for another outstanding dinner. What an amazing chef she is.

 

Next week will be having our St Patrick's Day Dinner Menu and St Patrick's Day Table setting! Hope you will come back to visit!