Here's hoping all our readers had a wonderful Christmas, we sure did!
After a leisurely sleep-in (we let Marg sleep in even later!) we enjoyed coffee then Mimosas made Orange-Tangerine juice with Piper Sonoma Brut and watched "A Christmas Story" on TV ("You'll shoot your eye out!!")
After opening our packages we got ourselves organized and headed up to the Foothills area to Oakhurst and this fabulous Inn that we had made reservations at for Christmas Dinner. Here's a URL if you want to have a peek. http://www.elderberryhouse.com/
Everyone we talked with said that Erna's Elderberry House was just fabulous but we really had no idea.
After a lovely sunny drive north from Fresno we arrived in Oakhurst and found Erna's. Well, nothing could have prepared us for our welcome there.
This exquisite jewel of an inn and restaurant welcomed us as though they had waited their whole life for us to arrive.
When we were seated we were presented with a personalized hand decorated menu. "A Very Merry Christmas to The Schneider Party"....a first!
It was a prix fixe six course menu with a couple of extras thrown in..beautiful lamb sausages and homemade sauerkraut with a beautiful honey fig mustard and amazing home made bread; A sturgeon fillet wrapped in Serrano ham with a Kale risotto with saffron and parsley sabayons; this was followed by the most surprising dish, an oxtail ravioli in beef and mushroom consomme....sounds kinda plain but it was NOT!
This was followed by the main course which was a perfectly roasted goose with Brioche, apple and sausage stuffing, accompanied by orange-cranberry chutney, braised leeks, savoy cabbage and the most amazing roasted sweet potatoes we ever tasted!
The next course was an amazing salad of mixed lettuces, persimmons, pomegranates and pine nuts with a pomegranate/mint vinaigrette and topped with a froth of rose water.
Dessert was a trio: Poppy seed almond cake, pear and dried plum tarte tatin, and elderberry ice cream.
The wines were all perfect. There were five and ranged from a lovely German Brut Rose Champagne, a German white we had never heard of, A beautiful California Pinot Noir and a Cab Sav. BUT the crowning glory was the wine served with dessert. It was my all time fave dessert wine Quady Elysium.
This was most fortuitous as Marg and I had driven up to Madera on Christmas Eve to check out Quady first hand. of course we had to sample the wares and brought a few bottles back. Now, to be fair Marg isn't a really serious wino, she rarely visits Okanagan wineries though she has been known to enjoy a glass or two. BUT she really likes the sweet dessert wines produced by Quady. We each bought several bottles and I have to report that the bottle of Elysium that we bought is already gone as I write this!
BUT as is my habit, I digress! The atmosphere, the meal, the service, the wine and everything about Erna's was superb...as was the price! But, one has to splurge once in a while! If you go to their website, note the prices for the Inn, we won't be staying there anytime soon! But if the Inn is half as nice as the restaurant it too must be an experience!!
Today, Boxing Day (though that specific holiday is not recognized here) after our Stollen and coffee we had another appearance by Santa! This for some of the youngsters in the trailer park which has been our home for the last two months. It was lots of fun as there are some real cuties here!
We then decided to head out for a bit of exploring. We visited Kearney Park and the Kearney House the home of one of Fresno's pioneers. There's more information here:
http://www.valleyhistory.org/kearneyhistory03.html
The house is just amazing but we weren't sure it was open on the day after Christmas even though the phone message and sign on the front door said that they were.
There was only one car in the parking lot and the lights were on in the house and finally a wonderfully enthusiastic young man named Jeff appeared and asked if we wanted a tour! We did! And it was just fascinating. Originally Kearney intended it to be the superintendent's house but he was going to live in it (he never married) until his Chateau was built.
Sadly that never happened as Mr. Kearney died in 1906 and willed his entire estate to the University of California. They maintained much of the estate in its original condition completely furnished as a working farm of about 5000 acres.
The University sold of most of the land in the 1940s and the house sat vacant until 1964 when the Fresno Historical Society was able to acquire it and commence restoration.
After that we drove down Kearney Avenue to downtown Fresno. This palm lined avenue is about 11 miles and was Mr. Kearney's attempt to make his land more glamorous and attractive to investors.
We next visited the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science. We visited "The Met" on our previous visit and were fascinated by it. It is newly renovated and was originally the home of the local paper "The Fresno Bee."
Unfortunately due to some mis-management and the economic downturn, the Met is officially bankrupt and will be closing sometime in 2010. Very sad.
Currently they are exhibiting (among other things) "The Art of Dr. Seuss" which celebrates the art and life of Theodore Seuss Geisel. In addition to lots of background on many of his popular books such as "The Cat In the Hat" and "The Lorax" there are extensive examples of some of his other work. Including cartoons, magazine covers, and his amazingly zany sculptures.
It was a truly wonderful day, topped off with a Jack Daniel's Manhattan and some wonderful home-made tamales given to us by one of Ross elves on the set at the mall. And of course the last of the Quady.
We're going to be eating quite a few tamales in the next while....Ross wanted to have a wee dooooo for the staff after closing on Christmas Eve. Soooo I asked around and found that everyone seemed to like the tamales from one particular restaurant so I ordered three dozen for our little soiree. What I didn't realize was that these tamales are HUGE. One is a meal for a 'normal' person and two for a piggy. So, long story short we have a few left over...lucky they're very tasty and we have some room in the freezer!
Tomorrow we're off to Monterey for lunch with the Boss. Should be a lovely drive through the coast hills...prediction is for good weather.
Then after that it's time to pack up and try to make tracks for the desert.
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