Weekend Update

Friday night we got together for dinner with a bunch of couples from the neighborhood at the new Troy Burne Restaurant. They haven't ordered any wine yet for the club so they let us bring our own bottles free of corkage fee. The new cook/chef there cooked up NY Strip steaks, walleye, crabcakes, and chicken breast with a cream sauce. The food was very good and we are very excited for the new menu to be released. This was just sort of a tasting and welcome to the homeowners. We had a great time with about 20 of us joining in on the fun.
On Saturday, Nicole was on call so when she gets up she calls the hospital to see if there are any orders. There were not, so that gives her the day off to do whatever. The weather was cold/rainy so no golf. We cleaned up the house and then went to St. Paul. We were having friends over for dinner and we were doing surf/turf so we went to Coastal Seafoods in St. Paul for the Tuna. We get our steaks in Stillwater at a place called Hegberg's, which is a little butcher shop in the back of a gas station, it's hilarious, but great prices and we have had great luck there so far with their steaks. We checked out some shops on Grand and spent a good part of the afternoon there. Our friends coming over for dinner were Tim and Cathy Renken and their son Samuel. Samuel is 15 months old and he was such a good boy. He ate steak with us and strawberries, but mostly he just wanted to play and run around. He was very active, but not too destructive.
We had 2 good bottles of wine, a Chardonnay from Trefethen and a Pinot Noir from Merryvale, both were excellent. The food was just ok, I would say my grilling performance was a B-. Tim wanted his steak Medium Rare so instead of my normal 5 minutes/side that I do to get them medium I went 4 minutes/side and they were more rare than Medium Rare. Nicole had to put hers back on for a while and I just ate mine. Tim said it was perfect though so at least he was happy. The tuna doesn't stay warm long when you sear it for 1 1/2 minutes/side which is about perfect, but you need to eat it pretty quick. Nicole had made a great salad and roasted potatoes which were very good. Samuel got tired around 8:30 so the Renkens' headed home. A very different Saturday night having a 15 month old setting the schedule. Nicole and I just relaxed the rest of the evening.
On Sunday we cooked breakfast on the grill with eggs and hashbrowns. We got a new grill a couple weeks ago so we use it pretty much every night. Nicole again checked with the hospital but there was only 1 order and it was an insurance she is not licensed to see so her partner will see that client tomorrow. So, she had today off too which was nice. I played in a golf tournament at 1:00 p.m. and it was SO WINDY! I didn't play great, but not too bad either, but not good enough to win any money. Bummer.
Grilling a full chicken on the grill tonight and having mojito's tonight. The weather looks very nice this week to hope to play golf everyday. We need the practice. Enjoy the sunshine this week.