by Eowyn Ivey, an Alaska native. Set in very backwoods Alaska in the 1920s, a middle aged couple arrive to try to realize their dream and to get away from mentally crushing angst about losing their only child in utero. They homestead. He works the land and she takes care of the house and lives in nearly perpetual loneliness and sadness. At times the couple come together in loving accord, but often they do not. One day they build a snow man. Well, a snow girl. The next morning the snow girl is demolished and the mittens and scarf have disappeared. Eventually they spot a small child who darts through the woods (with red mittens and scarf) with her pet fox and barely seems to touch the ground. Is she real? Where does she live? Is she a figment of their imaginations? Anything else I say could ruin the story. It’s a vivid portrayal of the rough homesteading life back then, yet it’s full of love and friendships. And full of the magic of the snow child. 
by 
by Helen Bryan. I got it as a bargain Kindle book. Liked the idea of the story, but I had difficulty keeping track of the characters. It’s about 5 women from all walks of life who converge in a small country village in England during the middle of WWII. They have numerous trials and tribulations, from relationships to just getting food on the table. The men or boyfriends they’re involved with are also very different, so each person/couple has a different story to tell. There were many, many typo’s and sentence errors in the Kindle version – distracting to be sure. But for a bargain book, I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I felt the editor didn’t do his/her job for this author as the story just didn’t have the cohesiveness I was hoping for. I nearly abandoned the book altogether about half way through, but stuck it out.The author wraps everything up at the end, maybe a bit too neatly, which may not be very realistic.
What a book. I was riveted. My friend (and cooking instructor) Tarla Fallgatter recommended this book, and what a treasure it is. I can’t tell you a whole lot about it or I’d be giving away too much of the story. It opens in London, with an ordinary man, with an ordinary wife. He is asked by his sister to help construct a leakproof cement box for her and her husband to take their valuables on an across-the-ocean voyage on a sailboat. They’re planning to move from England to Canada. He does, since he’s a master of constructing small things. Meanwhile, they also ask this childless couple to care for their young daughter for 4 months while they do this traverse-the-ocean thing, and then they’ll have her fly to their new home. Can you guess? They don’t make it, and that’s an integral part of the story too. The husband (and now the new father of his niece) embarks on a journey to – - well, go to the place where the hurricane foundered them. Oh, but there’s so much more to the story. This is written by 
by Rosie Thomas. (There are lots of other books by the same title, but they’re about shawls, not a novel.) In cleaning out their father’s belongings after his death, Mair comes across an incredibly beautiful shawl with a tiny saved lock of blonde hair. The shawl is exquisite. Her grandparents were poor. She knows there must be more to the story. She’s at odds and ends, and decides to retrace her grandparents’ steps when they were missionaries in India around 1940. Part of the story is told from the viewpoint of the granddaughter (Mair) and part from her grandmother (Nerys). There’s a huge cast of characters, but the story is fascinating, particularly since war was raging in Europe, and this couple was sheltered in many ways by being in India and Srinagar. Not quite a page turner, but it’s very interesting. Worth reading for sure. This is a new book.
. It’s a real winner. It brings to the forefront some very touchy issues, about decisions one makes, or that two people make, that can have huge repercussions, not just today, tomorrow, next year or a generation from now. The background story involves a relatively remote island off Australia (this takes place before satellites and the internet or cell phones), and a young man goes to work at the lighthouse on this island. Eventually he marries. A good woman, and she willingly goes to live on this remote island too. She miscarries 2 children. Out on this remote island with no help. Then one day a boat washes ashore and there’s a dead man and a tiny baby, who’s alive. I don’t want to ruin any of it. Just read it!
; 
(just the cutest book – with a miscellany of things – letters, grocery lists, notes, reminders, confessions the author discovered hidden inside the books he purchased for his used bookstore); and 
.
For my dear hubby’s birthday dinner (celebrated a couple of weeks late) that we had with friends last weekend, I knew his first choice would be beef. Steaks, specifically. Good steaks. Make that really good steaks. Our favorites are rib eyes. We made the mistake two summers ago of buying USDA Prime steaks at our local independent market/butcher. We both thought we’d died and gone to heaven. Now we’re spoiled, and don’t want the regular, pedestrian steaks at all. Costco to the rescue.
Now, in case you don’t know about it, Costco now carries (at least in our part of the country) prime steaks. The story goes like this (according to our local newspaper Food Editor, Cathy Thomas), because of the recession, fewer people are going to steakhouses. Or if they are, they’re perhaps not ordering those fantastically thick high-ticket steaks for which they charge an arm and leg. So the beef distributors have had to find new avenues for the extra-tender beef. Enter Costco on the scene. Their prime rib eye steaks are about $8-11 apiece, packaged in fours. Generally Dave and I share ONE steak. For this dinner I prepared 4 steaks for 6 of us, assuming maybe the guys would like an extra portion. Actually, we had enough leftover to serve dinner to friends the next night.
Over the years I’ve learned to trust Hugh Carpenter. He’s one knowledgeable chef. And an innovative menu creator. In addition, he and his wife have authored several cookbooks. Either last year or the year before, when we celebrated Dave’s birthday with this same group of friends (we all bring out our very special – read expensive - red wines to share with one another), we had another one of his recipes: Rib eye Steaks with Amazing Glaze. That one is a real favorite of ours. I’ve made it many, many times, always to raves. But I didn’t want to serve the same thing, so I went to his book, Hot Barbecue (where the other Amazing Glaze rib eye recipe came from also), and chose this one.
Recipe Tip:
Do double the amount of sauce you make – it’s SO good, and
you’ll find another use for it, either with leftovers or with some other kind of grilled meat a day or two later.
Carpenter explained that although the recipe requires a few steps to prepare, it’s worth it. It requires that you have a fairly extensive spice cupboard. It also requires a bit of sitting time (for the steaks to absorb the spice flavors). And you have to make the red pepper sauce. That was the most amount of work in the total prep. And even that wasn’t all that difficult. Just took a bit of time sitting on the stovetop simmering away (to reduce the quantity). The sauce becomes a bed for the steak. The steaks were slathered with minced fresh garlic, then the spice mixture was patted on. They sat for 8 hours in the refrigerator so they’d absorb the flavor.
The spice mixture was fun to make (well, it was for me, anyway). First a group of whole spices (pictured left) were toasted in a dry skillet (allspice berries, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and whole cloves). They required a bit of stirring (no burning allowed), but once the pan got up to a high heat, they began to smoke lightly. Immediately I turned off the flame and poured the spices out onto a plate to cool. Those were then whizzed up in my spice grinder (it’s a coffee grinder, but I dedicate it for spices). Other items were added to the mix: chile powder, dark brown sugar, dry thyme, dry mustard, salt and freshly grated nutmeg. That’s it.
The red pepper sauce is composed of bottled roasted red peppers, chicken stock, red wine, honey and some spicy Asian hot sauce. Be careful of the hot sauce – once it’s boiled down to a thicker consistency, that will heighten the spiciness (heat). Do not add salt.
Dave was more interested in this dinner menu than usual – because he really wanted the wine to pair well with the food. We brought out a very special bottle of wine. Those of you who know my husband already, will find it no surprise that he tells lots of stories. (He’s a gregarious kind of guy, can walk into just about any room, crowded or not, and make conversation with total strangers, and will tell stories about sailing, or his artificial legs, or a trip we’ve taken.)
A few months ago we were shopping at our number one upscale market (Bristol Farms) in Newport Beach. If we go there together (it’s a 30-minute drive from our house to Newport Beach), Dave will leave me to go through the aisles, while he spends most of the time in the wine department. The store has one wine cabinet that’s all locked up, but you can see the wines inside. And their price tags. (This story has made the rounds of all of our friends, Dave is so proud of himself!) As he glanced in the rows behind glass he spotted a 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Anyone into wine knows that’s one really great French label. We rarely buy French wine. But as Dave examined the label, he knew – bingo – that’s the bottle we have at home. THEN he looked at the price tag. Of course, an upscale market would charge a premium for all their wines. But, gee whiz. Big but gee whiz. They are charging $850.00 for it. Wow. Yikes. Zippity-do-dah! He came – all but running to find me – to tell me about it. And THAT’s the wine we drank with dinner last Saturday. Somebody gave us a bottle of 1990 Lafite Rothschild nearly 20 years ago. We think the bottle was given to us by our friend Russ – the little scribble on the label says 7/93 Ru–? B’day. We think that means Russ gave it to Dave for his birthday in 1993. If so, Russ, we THANK YOU. Likely it was nowhere near that much money in 1993.
So how was it, you ask? Well, we decanted it and let it air for an hour, and poured it into our Reidel Bordeaux/Cabernet wine glasses. We did all the snobby wine things – swirling, sniffing, more swirling, looking through the glass to see the clarity, more swirling and sniffing. The bouquet was beyond wonderful. Had that slightly brown side of red color. It was sensational. Not worth $850 for sure, but we’re grateful for the bottle. We each had a small glass of it with our appetizers (a Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread on Garlic-Oregano Grilled Pita Bread, some Caramelized Onion on toasted baguette slices and some Brie with blackberries). I’ll be posting ALL of the recipes from this dinner in coming days.
Then I served a chilled Avocado Soup (like Guacamole in a glass) with a spoon, which we enjoyed before we sat down to dinner. We ate outside by candlelight to the low-setting sun. We opened a bottle of Jordan Cabernet, then a magnum of Canoe Ridge Cab.
Now, let’s get back to this fabulous meat . . . those spice-marinated rib eyes (pictured right, as they squeezed into a ceramic bowl to “marinate”) were put onto the hot grill, seared both sides, then put off to the side (not over direct heat, in a racked pan) to continue cooking until they reached about 123 degrees F (medium rare). Meanwhile, I had cooked some fresh corn on the cob and slathered the hot ear halves with a little bit of butter, then sprinkled them with the spice mix I used on the steak (I just made more of it from the beginning). The corn was a real highlight. I’ll be writing up a separate blog post about that. I also set out a Lebanese Layered Salad (which was ever so good). When the steaks were served I slathered a bit of the red pepper sauce on the piping hot plates, put the steak on top, then sprinkled it with fresh goat cheese chèvre and minced cilantro. Dinner was done. The rib eyes were fantastic. I don’t use that word all that often. They were SO good – the sauce and spice rub made it, though. I didn’t think I’d like the goat cheese, but it also was a nice foil to the beef. Yes, indeed, I’ll be making that recipe again. And maybe I’ll be making just the sauce by itself (Carpenter suggested you could use it in a variety of other ways) and freezing small portions so when we have a steak next time we can have more of that slather.
For dessert I wanted to make tiramisu, because it’s one of Dave’s favorites anyway. I had a new recipe (via America’s Test Kitchen). It was really, really good. I’ll post all the recipes in the next week. I apologize for this loooong recipe for the steak. It’s really not that hard. Believe me! And worth the time for sure.
printer-friendly PDF
Sizzling Rib Eyes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Recipe: Adapted from Hot Barbecue, by Hugh Carpenter
Servings: 4
NOTES: My advice: make twice the amount of the sauce – if you have leftovers of it, you’ll find other uses for it. It’s really delicious. If you use chicken stock granules, don’t add water – it’ll take a lot less time to reduce the sauce.
STEAK INGREDIENTS:
4 whole ribeye steaks — 1/2 inch thick
3 ounces goat cheese
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, whole
flavorless cooking oil to brush on the grill rack
SIZZLING BEEF RUB:
4 whole garlic cloves — minced
18 whole allspice berries
1 piece cinnamon stick — about 1-inch long
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds — 1/2″ cubes
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
3 tablespoons chile powder
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar — packed
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
ROASTED RED PEPPER SAUCE:
1 cup roasted red peppers — jarred, drained
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Asian hot sauce
1. STEAKS: Trim excess fat from the edges of the steak. Place the steaks in a glass container.
2. RUB: Rub the garlic cloves over both sides of the steaks. Place the allspice, cinnamon, peppercorns, coriander and cloves in a small dry skillet. Place the pan over medium heat and toast (stirring and shaking pan frequently) until the spices just begin to smoke. Some of them will just start to pop – watch for smoke, remove and pour onto a plate to cool.
3. Place the toasted spices in an electric spice grinder (or use a mortar and pestle) and grind finely. In a small bowl combine all the remaining spices and add the toasted spices. Stir to evenly combine them. Reserve 2 T. of the spices (for the sauce).
4. Rub the remaining spices over the steak surfaces, cover and refrigerate the steaks for 1-8 hours.
5. SAUCE: Place all ingredients for the roasted red pepper sauce in a blender. Add the reserved dry rub, then puree. Transfer the mixture to a heavy-duty saucepan, bring to a boil over high heat, simmer until the mixture has reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Cool and refrigerate. This can be made ahead and refrigerated.
6. 30 minutes before ready to cook, remove steaks and allow them to come to room temp.
7. Preheat grill to medium (350). Brush the cooking rack with a paper towel doused in the cooking oil. Insert a meat thermometer into the side of one of the steaks. Place the steaks in the center of the rack. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, grill steaks about 3 minutes per side (longer if steaks are thicker).
8. Once you’ve acquired grill marks on both sides, move steaks over to a part of the rack without direct heat. Continue cooking until a meat thermometer reads 123. Remove steaks, tent lightly with foil for about 5 minutes, then serve with the sauce.
9. During the time the steaks are cooking, reheat the sauce and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Spoon the sauce onto 4 heated plates and place meat right in the center of the sauce. Sprinkle the steak with goat cheese and cilantro. Serve immediately.
Per Serving: 563 Calories; 28g Fat (43.6% calories from fat); 29g Protein; 51g Carbohydrate; 11g Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 1599mg Sodium.
A year ago: Wellesley Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two years ago: Goat Cheese Chive Muffins (a favorite)
Leave a Comment!