Barking Frog is part of a little resort in Woodinville wine country called Willows Lodge. We’ve never actually stayed there (it always seems a bit silly, since it’s 10 minutes down the road), but we’ve now been to Barking Frog twice — the last time on our anniversary, where we had a fantastic Oktoberfest tasting menu complete with beer. Someday I plan on writing this up as if it happened in World of Warcraft, because Grant’s main (Valinar, a Night Elf who left Teldrassil to study gnomecraft and eventually wound up serving in Alterac Valley for several years — do I have that right?) and my former main (Ovistine, a dwarf raised in Stormwind who spent her whole childhood trying very hard to be as un-dwarfy as possible in order to fit in, but who eventually found a group of really fun dwarves to hang out with, and has started reclaiming her native culture) would totally have gone for a meal like this — and WoW even has an in-game festival called “Brewfest” which is pretty much just like Oktoberfest. :)

But! That was not what we did last night. Last night, we had an utterly divine dinner that started with Salty & Sweet Big Eye Tuna (topped with toasted peanuts, wasabi sprouts, and Asian caramel), followed by a Warm Dungeness Crab Timbale (with green apple, butter braised leek, and spiced walnuts), and then I had Seared Ahi (with crispy pot stickers, baby bok choy, and soy-miso butter sauce), and Grant had Sea Bass (which isn’t on the online menu, it’s newer, but it was served over this amazing lentil thing that had prosciutto and onions).

Every single bite of dinner was outstanding. We actually started out with a tasty homemade bread with butter that had mustard seed in it (yum!), and then the tuna arrived. It was a seared tuna with a spicy crust, and every bit of flavor was interesting and fun. The Dungeness crab timbale was delicious, every bite better than the last — if I have any complaint at all, it was that the apple slice wasn’t quite large enough that I could have a bite of apple with every bite of crab; they went together wonderfully. I also really enjoyed the walnuts, and if I could find those at a local store, I’d definitely buy them, but I may have to make my own — they were spiced with cinnamon and sugar and perhaps a little ginger, and were delicious.

As for the dinners, mine was just wonderful. The seared ahi was great, but it was even better dipped into the soy-miso butter sauce. Unfortunately, while I love miso, I have a slight sensitivity to it, which meant Grant finished off my tuna while I ate a good bit of his lentils. Oh my! I’m going to have to figure out how to do that with lentils, because that was great. Meanwhile, Grant’s sea bass was great as well. If anything was less than stellar, it was perhaps my pot stickers, which were crispy-fried instead of pot-…stuck. Whatever it is they normally do to pot stickers, I think that would have gone over better than the crispy-fried. Still, with so much on our plates, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything!

We came home and had cake, which may not have been our best choice ever; as people who have stopped eating sugar for the most part, we really can’t have cake without it having serious consequences. However, I feel pretty good this morning (and hopefully Grant will feel better this afternoon), and although I sure don’t feel like eating anytime soon, I’m really, really glad we went out there again; we had a great time. :)

Anyway, apparently stracciatella is Italian Egg Drop Soup, made (in this case) by combining bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, and an egg, and putting it into chicken stock. The results were not great. Unlike Chinese Egg Drop Soup, where the egg is thick and present enough to form a really nice base for a soup, in this one it didn’t add a whole lot, and the soup desperately needed something to add more flavor — maybe sausage. However, rather than trying to add sausage, I’m going to try a different recipe and see if I can come up with something I like better.

Not every new thing I try is going to be a success! I’ll chalk this one up to a learning experience and try something else next time. I have clam chowder on the menu for later this week. :)

Tonight I had an urge for Tuna Noodle Casserole, and I looked through all my cookbooks for the different recipes. Mostly they differed in how much butter, milk, and cheese to use, though one of them suggested adding green beans. Ultimately, I followed the recipe out of TJOC with two minor and one major change: I used green and red bell pepper instead of just one or the other (and I added a little more than the recipe called for), I used Colby Jack instead of cheddar because it was what we had on hand, and for the major change, I added those green beans!

Well, Grant thought the green beans were overpowering, and in retrospect, I agree with him. (I guess I should’ve followed TJOC more strictly!) However, they were still good, and I really enjoyed the way this recipe turned out! What we didn’t eat has been saved for leftovers (two small and four large pieces), and I’m definitely looking forward to the next recipe out of TJOC. :)

I also have a goal to try out 24 new recipes this year — despite my great love of trying new things, I’ll all too often end up sticking with the same six tried-and-true things I always make — and this is the first out of that 24! Go me! :)