Becca's birthday dinner

Nothing like doing an eight coarse dinner for nine people out of a home kitchen. And oh yeah, plating up on a wobbly beer pong table. All things considered though, I think we pulled it off. It was a little shaky at first and not the prettiest service, but no one noticed and all of the food was money. Sorry that my brother couldn't make it. He hates missing out on all of the fun. Duty calls though and there's always next time bro. Anyways, time to talk about the food. Mike made some breads. One was the five day starter Altumura bread that he mentioned in his last blog and the other was an olive loaf. I had to interrupt his toast after cutting into it and having the aroma pour into my olfactory. It seemed greedy to keep it to myself and not pass it around the table. The first course was African squash tortellini with ricotta and foie gras emulsion, pickled onions and bacon shards. Second coarse: Fritto misto of calamari, artichokes and puttanesca with banana pepper emulsion. Third coarse: Oyster mushrooms and Arugula, tomato gelee, aged balsamic, pecorino crisp. Fourth coarse: Chianti braised beef agnolotti with bone marrow(some tasty duck liver was also incorporated into this dish). Fifth coarse: Roasted Lamb, marinated olives and kumquats, sage gnocchi, garlic jus. Sixth coarse: Duck Reuben( Mike will want to explain this one). Then we threw in a cheese coarse and ended with Balsamic sorbet, olive oil tuile, mascarpone mousse and chocolate straws.