Confluence

This past weekend was a busy and fun one, filled with many great activities in the Twin Cities. I don't want to post about them all in one sitting, as I'm afraid that my beloved readers (uh, that's you) will lose the greatness in one or all of them. So, here is installment one of three from my weekend. Look for the others this week...

On Saturday night, Mark and I really wanted to do something fun and special together. We've been so busy and out of sorts lately - me with traveling, training and catching up with friends and Mark with school, work and being sick - that we really needed a night together. A date night.

As always, it was quite the task to decide what to do. Should we stay in? If so, what will we do? Should we cook dinner? What should we cook? Should we rent a movie? What movie should we rent? Should we go to the movies? If so, which one? What time? Which theater? Maybe we should go out for dinner. Where should we go? What are we in the mood for? Yeah, it was something like that.

After about an hour of that, we decided to make the short trek down to Prescott, WI, and have dinner at a quaint restaurant on the St. Croix River. Mark had talked about Confluence quite a few times, and his parents go there often. I kept asking Mark to take me there, and he finally gave in.

Prescott is about a 45-minute drive from our place in Saint Paul, and by the time we arrived at Confluence, I thought I was going to pass out from hunger! We were quickly seated at a table in the corner. The menu was small but sounded amazing. There was a soup of the day, three to four small plates, and five entrees. Although the menu was small, it was still a hard decision. And, I always like to make my dinner decision prior to making my wine decision, as I usually try to pair my wine with my entree.

After some discussion and back-and-forth, Mark and I made our selections. Mark would start with the Chilled Cucumber and Leek soup, and I would start with the Walleye-Scallop Cakes. I decided to pair my seafood selection with a Pinot Grigio from Italy while Mark skipped out on the wine for the evening. When the starters came out, I was pleased with first the presentation and then with the amazing flavor. I tasted Mark's soup, and although it was good, I much preferred my cakes. They were moist and wonderful, each bite melting in my mouth. The cakes were served with a light sauce, and although it was amazing, it wasn't even needed. The cakes themselves had such a great flavor; I almost finished them off without offering a bite to Mark!

After our starters, I decided to let Mark order the "Pancakes and Bacon" and I ordered the Vanilla Butter Browned Halibut. I say that I "let" Mark order the dish because I had also wanted to order that. However, when dining out with Mark, I always like to get two different meals so that we can try both of them. My halibut was beautifully done. Browned in a sweet butter and delicious herbs, the fish was then served on a bed of sautéed vegetables and couscous. It truly was delicious.

But it was nothing compared to Mark's dish. The Pancakes and Bacon dish was actually beautifully done pork tenderloin drenched in a blueberry sauce and served with hearty potatoes and vegetable cakes. It was remarkable. I kept asking for more bites as we made our way through our meal. All of the tastes coming together were indescribable. He asked a few times if I'd like to trade, but I politely declined. I didn't want to take the succulent goodness away from my well-deserving boyfriend. And, let's not forget that my fish was quite good itself. But in the future, I will know that if something sounds good to me, I am going to order it even if Mark does as well.

I'm a big fan of dessert at the end of a meal, but we were just too full for it that night. And, we were both anxious to get home and relax. It was a long, hard week, and a Saturday night on the couch sounded better and better as the night went on.