The Bonafides of the Vanities

We lacked a name.  Were we SWIRL lite?  A mini-SWIRL?  SWIRLette?  How to describe our many variations.  Seven strong of ten entire. Enough I would say, although those absences were felt.

The night in the classy abode of B&S: arty, warm, soothing, and comfortable.  The classic joke: R&S have the apps and running late, but it never matters. We meld and shape to the evening, wherever we are, whoever is there and however it plays.

The apps mushroom and asparagus with crostini....I can scarcely remember, just that it was oh-so-delicious.  And the scene stealer, the widow, THE WIDOW!  There are more sophisticated bubbles, more precise and acidic or leesy, but the WIDOW always pleases. ALWAYS.

Suzie's to die for pork with polenta and kale.  I could die eating the crusty edges of Suzie's roast pork with no regrets.  The bevs:  a truly delightful montepulciano d'abruzzo (date can't recall) with overtones of rich soil and blood and tart berries (!), a puzzling 2000 pinot from Archery Summit that, in a blind tasting, I would have bet was a WWW syrah, so sweet and candied and so unpinot like, a 2006 Barolo that tasted basic and lacking in sophistry, and second label from Cougar Creek...involution? inception? convolution?  I can't recall its name but it was waaaay too easy to drink.  Well, they all were ant that should come as no surprise sports fans.

K's signature salad cleansed the palate with immense pleasure.  It was exactly what you wanted to eat to buoy up, for the evening was young yet. I can't be objective about that salad; it's one of my favorites, rich but not filling.  

Finally KT's dualing desserts: a chocolate torte and a wenatchee apple torte.  Both beguiling and befitting the end of such a delightful evening.  What is it about food and friends and wine and friends that stirs the soul, that satisfies the longing to be part of a larger reality...the great unspecified ALL? Don't really know but I do know that it works and that it works because of all of you/us.