Alphabet Dinners: Egad!*

This week, we enjoyed E at the Walls/Widger Estate (i.e. chez Double Dubs) where we were entertained by the ever effervescent -- and engaged -- Ashleigh and Preston. We were extremely excited to have a few esteemed guests as well: Ashleigh's enchanting mother ("The Jude") who was enlisted to execute our eats; Mark, emcee extraordinaire; and Preston's parents, Burt and Ralene, who were easily the most established Seattleites of the evening.

Thanks to the Elysian brewery and Erath winery, it seemed expedient to drink local this week. Other elixirs were glen Ellen, Este and Ercavio wines.

We eased into eating with Edam and edamame. I was also eager to experiment this week in an effort to emulate the delicious beef and and humita empanadas I ate on an excursion to Argentina. (My college roommate lived in Buenos Aires for a year while working for an amazing non-profit called Endeavor.) I ended up with an expanse of little stuffed pastries, but they came at the expense of a few exigent errands. (My estimate of time required to roll out and shape the dough was embarassingly inadequate. This meant that Miikka had an extra day to escape under the fence and eat emetics in the neighbor's yard.)

Evidence of Widger ingenuity is the fact that we managed to eat so many "egg" foods without forcing Steve to eat any actual eggs. Our excellent entree of eggplant -- with spinach, tomatoes and cheese -- was accompanied by egg noodles. Dan and Abby, our emblems of enthusiasm earned their Alphabet points with an endive and english cucumber ensalata with elba (balsamic) emulsion.

We ended with eiswein and espresso floats (chocolate ice cream topped with shots of espresso and rum). It might be excessive to say that we enjoyed an evening of ecstasy, but it's safe to say that no one escaped with an empty stomach.

* Egad! is the name of an exceptionally entertaining album by our friend, Andrew Thompson. Steve and I like to watch this video of Andrew's when we're missing Brooklyn and this one when we're missing Brooklynites.