My dinner club had our annual Christmas dinner, but we held it at a new venue.  We ventured out to the Oakland Hills Country Club, which is a noted facility and they were the host to the 90’Th PGA Championship in 2008.  While there may be some duffers in my club, we were not there for golf.  I was one of the hosts for this meeting.

One of the other hosts for the evening is a member of the club, and he made the dinner arrangements for the evening.  We started off with some Hors d’oeurvres which was slices of tenderloin topped with caramelized onions and bleu cheese, and the other was a Parmesan stuffed mushroom caps.  The dinner was a buffet set up, instead of a sit down dinner and it did go very smoothly.  The first course lentil soup, and then followed by salad bar.  There were dishes of Perch and Chicken Piccata with sides of whipped potatoes, Pomodoro Risotto and green bean Almandine.  For desert there was a Detroit themed Sander’s Hot Fudge Cream Puff Sundae.

The hosts also provide an open bar, and there were house wines as well being served in our room.  One of the other hosts and me opted to enjoy a bottle of wine from the wine list and we decided to pay for that ourselves rather then ask the other hosts to contribute funds for our indulgence.  We had a bottle of wine from the Willamette Valley of Oregon, made by Cristom Vineyards.  The actual wine was Cristom “Mt. Jefferson Cuvee” Pinot Noir 2011.  The wine had a thin nose with not much terroir being expressed, and the color was good.  We opted for a Pinot Noir wine for a little more body, as there was both a chicken and a perch option for dinner, because they were both in a Piccata sauce preparation.  The lemon and the capers in the Piccata sauce, I find works better with a red wine, then with a white wine and a Pinot Noir wine is not as heavy as some other red wines can be.  All in all it was a fine evening and dinner, and I look forward to the next club dinner