Crazy make-em-ups

Our neighbors Susan and Stewart came for dinner, and I was working all day so I had to improvise. The smoked chicken carcass became a lovely broth, strained and reduced, while the salmon that Christine bought got a double treatment as both tartare and sashimi. Haricots and shiitakes, blanched and caramelized respectively, plus shaved chioggia beets and the remaining smoked chicken meat all went into a terrine that was glued together by the reduced broth.
























Given the short time frame, it didn't get quite cold enough to gel, but was really yummy. We drank, in order, a Château Roquefort Corail rosé, then a 2003 Millbrook Hudson Valley reserve chardonnay they brought which was quite yummy -if not quite living up to the Burgundian claims on the label- I will seek this out and see how it ages. It augurs well for us getting more of our wine locally. Then a Pleiades XV to introduce them to the wonders of Thackrey. For dessert, we had kind of a fluke: a gorgonzola that was improperly inoculated, so only the rind was blue; the interior was pure white and tangy. Delicious, though, and despite the lack of blueness still a good match for a half bottle of 2000 Château Theulet Montbazillac.