ELLEA--Edna, Lucy, and Lynette's Excellent Adventure, #2

Sunday evening we ate dinner at 3 Doors Down Cafe, where my older son Lamont is sous chef and my younger son Leland used to be a prep and line cook. Y'all know, if you follow my blog, just how outstanding the food is there. And I have to say that I'd believe the same exact thing even if I didn't have a familial connection to it.

In the photo, left to right, there's Lucy, Lamont, Mama (Edna), Leland, and Kailey (Leland's girlfriend). Of course the other L of ELLEA is me, and I took the photo!


Here's the appetizer Lamont made for us, with the chanterelle mushrooms he picked last week, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and fresh-made-by-Lamont pappardelle pasta. As you can tell, we were so hungry that we started serving before I remembered to take a photo! In a very few moments, it was gone.

Several of us had the salad of romaine leaves with classic caesar dressing (which they make there at 3DD), sprinkled with grated hard cheese and served with herb croutons.

Mama and Lucy shared the meatballs and buccatini with a hearty tomato sauce--I didn't take a photo of them.

Kailey had the parmesan risotto with chanterelles, celery root, and butternut squash.

Leland had the grilled carlton pork loin, with roasted pears, celery root, delicata squash and mashed potatoes, and a wonderful slice of oven-roasted cippolini onion.

I had the pan roasted blue marlin with chanterelles, leeks, pancetta, and creamy lentils.

To go with my entree, I ordered the New Fangled Old Fashioned, a drink I first had on Halloween night when I rode the bus over to 3DD after work--nope, it wasn't another cheesecake run, just a chance to relax over good food and drink. That night I told Chucker, the bartender, that if you were ill, that drink could heal you. It's made with house-made dried maraschino cherries, muddled with fresh orange slices, Bulleit Bourbon, Angostura bitters and cherry syrup. He told me that the cherry syrup is house-made, too.

For dessert, Kailey got a piece of banana cream pie, Mama and Lucy shared bread pudding, and, lo and behold, Lamont sent me a piece of cheesecake, I didn't even know that there was cheesecake in the house!

All in all, each of us had a memorable end to a great day. Lucy and Mama had spent hours and hours playing a card game that they love, called Hand and Foot. Lucy explained to Kailey that it's a sort of double canasta. I had spent hours and hours with NASCAR on the Speed Channel and then on ABC, sitting on the couch, working with photos for Flickr and Walgreens, the two places where I store them. We got a good night's sleep and spent today being chauffeured around the Columbia River Gorge and the bottom of Mt. Hood by Lamont. Pictures to come, I promise, 'cause I took a whole lot!