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| Outstanding in the Field |
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| Chef Graham (GD) Dodds |
Keith's brother Graham was invited to be the feature chef at the Dallas leg of
Outstanding in the Field. While in Texas only 3 weeks earlier fro FUCAT, we decided to fly back and join the family for the dinner. Our flight got in late on the Friday night due to thunderstorms in the area - we almost didn't land as the pilot said we may have to land in Austin. As a result, we did not get to Chez Dodds until quite late and thus went straight to bed.
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| Jen, Keith, Peter and Margaret |
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| Jean and Graham |
With the blackout curtains at the house, we really slept in - Shawna did not rise until 10am! With no time to got to the gym, we just went for an hour walk around the neighborhood, ending up on the
Cotton Belt Trail which is a nicer walk than just walking Glade. It took about 1.5 hours so we had a quick shower before heading to Dallas. The event was held at
Spiceman's FM 410, an urban farm in East Dallas. Before going to the farm we stopped by
Jimmy's Food Store, an Italian grocery store just a couple of doors down and picked up a few bottles of wine.
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| Peter and Jen |
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| Shawna and Keith |
The farm is a 11,000 sq ft lot behind the retail space for the store which distributes local organic produce. There was a single long table set up in the field for all 100 of us to sit. Peter and Jen had arrived 10 minutes prior and snagged the 7 seats at the end - so we were set with a place to sit. Margaret showed up shortly after we did - Owen's soccer game was rained out so she was able to join us on time. The afternoon started out with Duchman Family local wine as well as appetizers including manchego with chorizo and apple, burrata with fig, rabbit pate and scotch eggs. We chatted with each other until the owners of Outstanding in the Field gave a short speech - then we all sat down for dinner. The dinner was served family style, with kale and watermelon salad, crispy okra, roasted beets, eggplant puree, herb and mushroom ravioli, short ribs with squash and finally "mum's" mince pies for dessert. We ate and chatted until about 6pm when the dinner wrapped up. After dinner, we joined my parents and sister for Gone Girl at a movie theater across from Keith's old Steak and Ale. The movie was nowhere near as good as the book.
Food from the Event
Sunday was another sleep-in (lazy!) - Keith did a bit of work in the morning and then we joined Keith's parents for a walk around the
Dallas Arboretum which was decorated for the Fall. We saw the new
Children's Garden for the first time - it was really well done. Following that, we had lunch at
Toulouse where we had a bottle of wine and mussels all around. Following lunch, we headed over to the
George W Bush library. It was really well done so we spent about an hour looking around. We then drove home, had a needed nap, then headed to Margaret's for some BBQ ribs that Damon had been smoking all day - they were just fantastic. Margaret took us to the airport which then ended a great weekend.
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| Dallas Arboretum |
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| Madam President and Mr. Vice President - Bush Library |
