Darn Good Meal

I had the pleasure of eating at the Sheppard's Mansion last night.

The Chef has a blog that I enjoy reading.  If you want great local food and great cuisine in our area-- I'm giving it the thumbs up.

It was a Wednesday night dinner and our table might have been the only one in the place (though I think we saw one other couple earlier in the evening).

I shared an appetizer so I was able to try the Mac and Cheese with Lobster as well as a homemade ravioli.  The Mac and Cheese gets rave reviews.  The Mac and Cheese with Lobster was darn good-- but the homemade ravioli with braised beef was better.  I tried a taste of the scallops and those were also great.

I then had for the 'salad plate' ham hocks that were baked in hay on top of pumpernickel bread.  Really great.  On the side were arugula and pea shoots.  Who knew you could eat the shoots of peas?  Those have been growing randomly in my garden and I've been picking them out as weeds.  

The 3rd course was rabbit... hassenpfeffer.  It was also so tender and the homemade noodles it was served on top of were to die for.  Our rabbits are almost old enough to have offspring-- so in 3-4 months we'll be making our own hassenpfeffer... I can't wait!

I actually think the noodles and these marinated onions that were served with the rabbit were the highlight of the meal for me.  I could have eaten a plate of those noodles. 

I've yet to make homemade noodles with our pastured eggs-- shame on me-- that will be a winter project.  If we invite you over for pasta dinner this winter-- don't pass it up....   :)

Lastly was desert and I was fortunate enough to try 3 of the desserts.  I had a peanut butter tart topped with a concord grape sorbet.  It was great....   I also tried out the chocolate desert plate-- yum plus pumpkin cheesecake-- double yum.

All in all-- it was a great meal.  The only thing slightly disappointing was that we didn't see anything of the kitchen or chefs and only our servers.   Being the only table at the place I guess I expected that someone from the kitchen would come out and say hello to our group.  

I'll definitely be going back for another dinner and this time I'll take Mike and we'll make it a night out.  We'll try a Friday or Saturday night when the place is a little more lively.