Oh my belly...

What a dinner, what company, what gluttony, what fun! It started with some fabulous cheeses with fig cake and grapes, moved on to a roasted tomato soup, then a plate of excess--beef tenderloin topped with a mascarpone-horseradish goo, roast asparagus and potato cakes.

Look at that beautiful beef! It was silky smooth.

After breathing for a bit, we decided to skip the salad (capacity was seriously questioned) in order to maintain room for dessert. It was worth the sacrifice (usually salad is one of my favorite courses) because the dessert was wonderful. Last time I made it, I didn't have the creme fraiche which was too bad because this time the blob of slightly sour richness offset the overwhelming chocolaty-ness.

Here we have a group shot, before consumption began....

and here is the individual ramekin of bliss. John took the beautiful food pics.

At the end of the meal, Rodney suggested that we needed to invent, and all be wearing a "gluttony belt" to help lug our sizeable stomachs home.

No doubt today we will try to recover from such excess. Lettuce, alfafa sprouts, maybe a little fruit. Don't think the system can handle much more than that. Unfortunately the old Y closed yesterday and the new one won't open 'till Friday so a good workout is not in the works (must repent! must repent!), but it looks like it may be about 40 degrees outside (though grey grey grey) so a long walk may be possible.