A NECK STRUNG WITH BEADS OF APPLE CORAL

Had dinner with the misses last night to celebrate our sixth month as a romantic entity. We decided the best way to celebrate the occasion was to get ourselves at a table at the Hash House and order some fine foods and drink (like the ones we see on TV) for once in our little lives. This meant a bottle of Baileyana 2002 Pinot Noir from San Luis Obispo with an appetizer of skewered chicken fritters with watermelon in a BBQ thai sauce. She had the all-blue crab cakes with butternut squash and barbequed vegetables in a chili mayo drizzle. I had to have the crispy Indiana-style hand-hammered pork tenderloin stuffed with griddled smoked mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, fresh spinach, portabello mushroom and house charred tomato crowned with a BBQ cream sauce on a bed of horseradish mashed potatoes served with grilled corn on the cob. All dishes came garnished with a towering branch of rosemary. The plates were large enough to seat a six year old child, and the portions were so generous that despite our best efforts at eating a downright gluttonous load by even a trucker's standards, we were forced to slough off the excess into titanic doggy bags that hold tonight's equally sizeable dinner.