Tasting Spoons

Since I’m giving updates about things in general, I’ll fill you in on two fronts. If you’ve ever had small flea-sized bugs eating your chocolate stash, read on. And I’m finally writing an update to our 7-month saga of our backyard . . .

Bugs

I wrote up on my blog the other day that I’d discovered a LOT of little black bugs dining away on my chocolate in the pantry. Last week I cleaned out many pounds of chocolate (varying kinds from chips, squares, bars, large bars). [Never let it be said that I ran out of some kind of chocolate I needed when the inspiration hit me to bake something!]  It pained me to throw away all that stuff, but I surely wouldn’t eat any of it if these bugs (and a few tiny white worms) were even munching away on the other end of the bar. I know, we consume lots of bug fragments every day with food we eat, but I don’t ever do it intentionally. I made a trip to the Container Store the other day and bought some sealing-type plastic boxes (hopefully they seal well enough to keep these little critters OUT). So today I began cleaning out the shelf the chocolate bin had been living on. Well, let’s just say that my housekeeping skills have been lacking. It’s been 18 months since the kitchen remodel was done, and I hadn’t cleaned those shelves since. And it showed. But what was ON those shelves was not dust particularly, but bug bodies, live bugs (yes, more of them) and all kinds of detritus from said bugs and other bugs. The moths/bugs that thrive on wheat-based food/flours were in evidence too. Dave helped me, finally, when I’d just about exhausted my energy schlepping bottles, cans, boxes, bags of stuff from the pantry to the island. I smashed hundreds of the little black bugs. They’re not hard-shelled, so they squish fairly easily. But I’m quite certain I haven’t gotten them all.

Once Dave started helping me we discovered them – both the flying type and the little black pinheads in lots of places. I threw out nearly all of the remainder of my chocolate (including all the bars of Scharfen Berger chocolate I bought at the factory last year). These were the packages that were on the other side of the pantry that I THOUGHT weren’t affected. Uh, no way. The bugs were all over it. In crevices in the packaging. I’d open a package and they’d be in the folds inside, AND having a smorgasbord on the chocolate itself too. And leaving piles of their poop behind. Then I decided I’d better look into the grain bins I have (just big plastic unlidded boxes I use to house various types of beans and grains). I’d gone through all that stuff a few months ago when I discovered the flying critters in there. Well, they’d gotten desperate for wheat food, and had delved into the imported French lentils, for whatever reason. There were dozens of the flying ones inside a tightly sealed plastic box of polenta cornmeal (perhaps that’s where the critters came IN to my kitchen, since there were a couple hundred in one small container). They weren’t really eating the lentils or the cornmeal I found out, but they liked living in the bags or bin. Then we found them in most of the opened boxes of pasta. They weren’t eating the pasta either, but they’d made nests in the bottom of the boxes. I wasn’t enamored with trying to sift out the detritus, so all that went into the trash too. About the only good thing about this exercise was that I have a bit more room on my pantry shelves now.

The Backyard

I know . . . the back yard looks lovely, doesn’t it? That’s new brick coping around the pool and a new pebble-textured plastering job in the pool itself. But first, backtrack a bit. I think it was in January or February that I mentioned that we were having drainage problems around our house. We live on a hill, as you can see from the photo. If it weren’t for the cloud bank out in the distance you could see the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles out there. I could write several chapters of a book on the stages of drain repairs around here about that. We did get it fixed. We think. Then there is the pool (and separate spa) - we had a couple of run-ins with the county about permits, but eventually paid the piper to get them. All we did was re-plaster our pool and spa and the permits cost us upwards of $2000. In the process they were quick to inform us that if and when we replace a water heater, a permit is required. Or if we replace a single or multiple windows, a permit is required. Or replace a garbage disposal. I mean, a garbage disposal, for heavens’ sake? We were, to say the very least, astounded. [In case you hadn’t heard, our county and our state - California - are in serious financial difficulty . . . we’ve concluded the powers-that-be have decided  homeowners needs to bear a significant brunt of paying up . . . the legislators can’t get a tax increase passed, but they sure can raise fees.] Anyway, back in February we had a bunch of deep holes (shafts) dug around our yard – I think I posted pictures of one of them. We were trying to figure out where water was standing underground. We finally discovered where (just to the left of the pool in the picture above), although we only HOPE the drain repair has rectified it. We won’t know until next winter when the rains come.

So what exactly did we have to do to finish this job? The drains were repaired about 5 months ago. We didn’t have to have a permit to do that! But the pool - we had to install a second drain in the bottom of the pool (a safety code). We had to install a second self-closing gate on the other side of the house. We had to put a new lock on the fence gate at the bottom of our hill. And we had to pay for an inspector to come and look at the work three times (that alone was about $200 per pool - and spa - per visit, since we also get to pay his mileage and the time it takes for him to drive here). We didn’t have to re-fence our property, fortunately.

So about 5-6 weeks ago we thought we were “done” with the pool and spa. Then about a week after the last worker-bees left we noticed our spa was losing water. I won’t belabor it – somehow the skimmer had developed a crack (probably from all the jack hammering that had been done to remove brick coping and the plaster). That cost $1500 to replace. The next day the spa lost 4 inches of water. The worker-bees who had replaced the skimmer had jack hammered one of the Jacuzzi jets, so a hundred or so gallons of water (I guess) had drained into the soil around the spa. There were a number of expletives-deleted words said about then. That got repaired the next day at no charge. We thought THEN we were done. Wrong. Two weeks later we noticed the main pool was losing water. A lot of water. Dave went to the deep hole that’s closest to the main pool and sure enough, there was standing water in the bottom of the hole. We found out the skimmer in THAT pool had developed a crack too. We’ve now had the 2nd skimmer replaced (another $1500 for this one too). We hope, just hope and pray, that we’re now finished. And that we have no more leaks. It’s been nearly 7 months in the process. Meanwhile, our flagpole (the photo from my other post) is still leaning, and probably will continue to do so. We can’t fix that without removing all patio areas, re-grading, compacting and re-constructing. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars for that. We’ll live with a leaning flagpole, thank you. 

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Oh, one more thing - the person who was stealing by blog posts has ceased and desisted - her website no longer contains any content. It’s still there, but it’s empty. Thank goodness and good riddance.

Our newly replastered pool, and the view to the west.

In case you hadn’t heard, we had a significant 5.4 magnitude earthquake here in Southern California on Tuesday. At 11:42 am. It lasted for about 15 seconds, although the most severe portion was only about 8 -10 seconds, then it gradually faded after that. If you’ve never been in an earthquake, it’s hard to describe. It is a very deep roaring-wrenching sound first - you hear it initially, in the half second before you feel the earth start to shift. I was near a major beam in the house, so I didn’t move. Light fixtures swayed, the water in both our pool and spa began sloshing around, although no water lapped over the edges. (Ten minutes later the pool water was still moving.)  The wrenching noise continues. It feels like forever. It’s frightening, yes. The fear, of course, is that maybe this is going to be the BIG one, the one that’s going to bring down the house. Sometimes I run to a doorway; other times, depending on the severity, I’m frozen, in suspense, listening for sounds that indicate major damage. glass breaking, pictures falling and shattering, or worse. Part of the wrenching sound is the house itself, the structure, the beams and wood screaming against the bolts and screws, leaning from the nails that hold a house together and to a cement slab foundation.

People who don’t live here wonder why we’d possibly live in earthquake country. Well, for me, this is paradise. We’re some miles away from the San Andreas (an-DRAY-us) Fault, the deep, underground schism that the experts tell us has been caused by thousands of years of shifting ground, where the greatest amount of movement comes. There are many other fault lines here in California too, but that’s the major one, the San Andreas. We, perhaps, delude ourselves, that since we’re so many miles away from the Fault, therefore we’ll be immune from significant damage.

In response, I ask - why do people live along the shores of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, in known hurricane country? Why do people live in the midwest in the land of tornados? There are negatives, I suppose, about lots of places to live. For us, it’s earthquakes.

Did we have damage? Yes and no. Yes, we had some damage, but no it wasn’t major as far as we know. During the hardest wrenching when the noise was near-deafening, we didn’t even hear the cans and bottles fly off the shelves in the pantry just 10 feet away (albeit behind a stained-glass door). They landed in piles, some shattered - jam, jelly, salsas, oozing out on the hardwood floor and glass shards flew in every direction. About 10 bottles made huge dents in the wood floor as they broke. Sardines in a tin were hit with something which made a hole in the metal, so the area smelled of fish for awhile. Sigh. Dave made a quick survey upstairs - nothing major. Later I did discover about 15 books had fallen off shelves in my office upstairs. Drawers throughout the house (except in the kitchen where they’re held by a magnet) were ajar. No windows broke. No pictures fell off walls. But we had aftershocks for hours. About 2 hours later I was sitting at my office computer. The screen has a partial reflection of the window across the room. Although I couldn’t feel it at first, suddenly the screen/reflection began shaking. Concentrating, yes, I could feel the movement. We had several of those.

Our biggest concern was our newly replastered pool and spa. Fortunately there appears to be no change there; no drop in water level. The picture above is of our main pool and the view toward the ocean. You can vaguely see the mound of fog way out there, that usually bothers us in June, not July, coming in from the sea. [And yes, I know, I need to write up a post about our back yard . . . I’ve had a couple of people email me privately asking about the status of our leaning flagpole and our hill/patio/leaks. I promise, I will do it soon . . . just when I think we’re “done” with our back yard, something else happens, and we’re not finished with our 6 months and counting problems.]

The epicenter was about 15 miles away as the crow flies, about due north, in an area called Chino Hills. There, there were broken water mains, some ceiling falls, a Macy’s had to close because of water damage, broken windows in businesses and homes. But I haven’t heard that anyone was injured. Thank goodness.

As a native Californian, I read, years and years ago, a fascinating book called The Last of the Late, Great State of California. It’s a novel, based on an earthquake aftermath when the western half of California sinks in the ocean after the BIG one. It addressed issues (some immediate, most long term) that one wouldn’t think about. Huge problems. Financial and political mostly. I thought the author was brilliant in analyzing how such a big one would affect those left behind.

We have earthquake insurance for 3 of our 4 houses (2 homes we live in and 1 rental home are covered; the rental condo isn’t covered) - a very expensive proposition, I’ll tell you! But if we did have a big one, once we paid the huge deductible, we’d be covered. Most people don’t have it. I understand why, because it’s so costly. Life has returned to normal here, however. For now. Until the next one, which we know is coming.

I’ve had very few days since I started this blog when I didn’t have a recipe to post. Uh, that’s today. Having been away for the weekend, I enjoyed preparing a simple meal on Monday night. Yesterday I spent catching up on one thing or another. My 2nd book club met in the morning and we discussed A Kiss From Maddalena, a touching story which takes place in WWII Italy. It was my suggestion we read it, and we all enjoyed it. It’s not really a romance, although from the title you’d think so. Sure, there is a romance in it, but mostly it’s about the hell that happens to the village itself and all its inhabitants during and after the war. The book is a tad bit hard to find. I read about it in Bas Bleu, a book catalog that I so enjoy reading. Sure, I can buy books cheaper at Amazon, but I like to support the little guys too, so at least once a year I order books from their online store. The book is no longer available there, though. What I love about Bas Bleu is the write-ups about books. My other book club is reading another Bas Bleu recommendation for our meeting tonight, The Covenant by Naomi Ragen. Really interesting read about an abduction in a Palestinian neighborhood in Israel. I’m leading the review tonight, so have some homework to do about that. It’s deeply discounted at Amazon, and no longer available at Bas Bleu (just a guess - because the author has been sued or accused by two different people/publishers for possible plagiarism in writing two other books).

Last week I made another batch of the roasted balsamic strawberry ice cream from a couple of weeks ago. That ice cream is so darned addicting. In my first batch I used a product called Tulocay’s Made in Napa Valley Blackberry Balsamic Vinegar with Pear. Having made the ice cream a second time with more pedestrian balsamic, I’m now craving more of this pear balsamic. So far I’ve been unable to find it. I’ve phoned several sources listed on their website, but they don’t carry that particular product. Will have to widen my search, or pony up to have it shipped from the producer. I bought it last year in Healdsburg (wine country) near where it’s made.

A second batch of the Thin & Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies yielded a different cookie altogether. I made an alteration (know that it’s problematical anytime you make a change in a baked good) by using some Splenda instead of white sugar. I wanted my DH to be able to enjoy some of them. It totally changed the chemistry. Not a great cookie did it make. Although maybe it’s a good thing because I’m not craving them like I did the first, the virgin batch. I suspect, however, that I will make these again using the original recipe. They’re that good.

Last night my DH and I went to Laguna Beach. First it was dinner, at the Sundried Tomato Café, a fabulous restaurant (serendipity, since we didn’t have a plan about where to eat). I had a glass of Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc (one of the few white wines out there – other than champagne – that I truly enjoy, since I’m mostly a red wine drinker), an exceptional Caesar salad and a perfectly ripe avocado stuffed with a spicy-dressed Oregon bay shrimp salad (an appetizer, but was ample as an entrée). We ran into friends, Jackie & Don, as we were leaving. The restaurant is one of their favorites! Then we walked to the Laguna Playhouse to see The Marvelous Wonderettes. That may have been one of the best plays (actually this was a musical) I’ve ever seen there. We both just loved it. It’s all the music from our past - a step back in time to 1958 with four girls who are friends, who are asked to sing at their Senior Prom. In the first half they tell their stories (of love, school, teachers, growing up, etc.) using music of the era. In the second half they have returned for their 10-year reunion, and sing more of the 50’s and 60’s era songs. The costumes were just darling (I can’t believe we wore stuff like that, but sure enough, I did) and the four women had great voices. If you live in Southern California, I highly recommend you try to see this musical. It’s playing through August 31st. (And it’s opening in New York at the end of August.) Go have dinner (at about 5:45 pm to give yourself ample time to walk back to the theater for the show at 7:30) at the Sundried Tomato over on Forest.  

A few shots from a very fun weekend in San Francisco. My daughter, Dana, has not, in previous decades, been all that interested in traveling. She WANTS to travel, but leaving home and hearth gives her a bit of trepidation. She has been to New York and Philadelphia (when her brother graduated from Wharton School with his MBA), Hawaii (family vacation we planned), Baja California (on a cruise) and Seattle (another family trip we did). I lured her out this time by offering her a trip to San Francisco for a mother-daughter “bonding weekend,” I called it. I packed the calendar with activities from the moment we arrived until we left mid-afternoon yesterday.

We actually met in Berkeley on Friday night at Chez Panisse. I think this is the 4th time I’ve been there now. It was delicious, as usual. Then we parked my daughter’s car at one of the BART (rapid transit) stations in Oakland and whisked on over (under the Bay) to the city late that evening.

We stayed at a hotel near Union Square (Hotel Rex - okay, not exceptional, rooms are a little tired), used the cable cars many, many times, to get from there to the Embarcadero, the marina area and Columbus Circle. They are just so fun to ride. I never tire of the cable cars.

They’ve re-done the Square (a good thing) and it’s now a teeming center of activity. A concert was a-happening as we left yesterday.

Uh - not one of the glamour shots of the century, but we were having lots of fun here. This was with the Segway Electric Tour Company. These things are just the greatest. I took a segway tour in Paris two years ago - one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, IMHO. This time it was with about 16 others, and we toodled all over the wharf, North Beach and the Embarcadero area. They have several tours (about $70 each, online), including an advanced one that goes down Lombard Street (wheeeee), and a nightime one too, all about 2 1/2 to 3 hours long, including at least 45 minutes of training. We did the beginner’s because my daughter hadn’t ever done this before.

We also went to see Beach Blanket Babylon, a very funny, corny musical revue with garish costumes and comedy. Very entertaining. Might not have been my first choice of something to do, but knew my daughter would like it. Indeed she did.

Yesterday we had a lunch tea (Tea for Two, they call it) at the Leland Tea House about 8 blocks from Union Square. I chose it because it’s a more casual atmosphere than some of the starched tablecloth kind of establishments that serve afternoon tea in the area. The tea and food were delicious. I’d go back there. All the food is made on premises, fresh every day.

We really didn’t go to San Francisco for the food, although we certainly ate well enough. We had lunch on Saturday at Castagnola’s in North Beach. Right on the wharf. Food was really quite good, although overpriced. The waitress steered us to choices that were out of the mainstream for tourists (i.e., she said no on clam chowder, lobster wontons and fish and chips). The food was actually better than I would have expected (we had calamari, oysters rockefeller, caesar salads, and copious amounts of sourdough bread and butter from Boudin). We had dinner at an old-time Union Square restaurant called Sears Fine Food. Nothing remarkable, but good, plus we got in and out there in time to get to the theater.

Yesterday we did the tea thing, some shopping, took the BART from the city to Oakland. Then it was time for tearful goodbyes as I flew south and Dana drove back to her home in Placerville, about 2 hours away. Dana had a great time. (That’s progress.)

My DH spent the weekend on our boat in San Diego, took our other daughter and her family plus a group of their friends out sailing for several hours on Saturday, then took some other friends sailing yesterday. He drove north just in time to pick me up at the airport last night.

Can you hear the lyrics? I’m taking a short trip to San Francisco. My daughter who lives in Northern California is going to meet me there and we’re spending a weekend together. I’ve spent hours plotting nearly every minute of the 48 hours we’ll be together. I wish I’d realized the trip I was planning coincided with the BlogHer conference in San Francisco - I didn’t put two and two together in time to go a day early and attend that too. Maybe next year. Several of the food blogs I read are written by women I’d just be thrilled to meet and they’re going to it. Alas.

I’m not taking my laptop - there simply won’t be time to blog while I’m there, so I’ll post again on Monday, most likely. And at the moment I don’t have any recipes lurking around to be posted. So, Tasting Spoons will be silent for a few days . . .

It’s been nearly a year (in just a few days) that my DH Dave and I went to San Diego (about 90 miles south of us) to spend a few days on our sailboat. And it was on July 3rd that I stepped off the boat, twisted my ankle and broke my foot. Until a few days ago, I hadn’t been back. My DH goes there all the time, usually stays for one night, sails one day, tinkers around on the boat another, before returning home.

I kinda made an issue with my DH. I wouldn’t go back to the boat until he bought a new step (read better, HIGHER) for me to get on and off (would you believe those little things cost about $150?). We had had one, but somebody stole it, and my DH replaced it with a 7-inch high step from Target. I’m very short, so getting on and off the boat using that very short step was nigh on impossible - my DH is very tall and has no problem, even with two artificial legs. You can see the new TALL step in the picture above (just behind the s in sailboat).

The boat is really mostly my hubby’s. He adores sailing. I get seasick. So when I go to the boat with him, we stay inside the harbor, or relax at the dock. We were only there for a couple of days this trip. The weather was absolutely plu-perfect. Couldn’t have asked for two nicer days of sunshine and cool nights. Next time I’ll take a pix of the tiny galley. I have a very hard time doing much cooking on board. Usually we go OUT.

If you’re a foodie, and have an interest in France (and French cooking), you’d likely enjoy reading Patricia & Walter Wells’ new memoir, We’ve Always Had Paris . . . and Provence: A Scrapbook of our Life in France. Now in their 60’s, the Wells have lead a charmed life, in my opinion. Not without a lot of hard work, however. They’ve now been there for over 30 years. Both from journalistic backgrounds (New York Times), they decided to take a risk and move to Paris. Their story doesn’t quite fit the romanticized vision of such a move - I assumed they lived high, in the toniest of digs. But, the reality was a small rented apartment, with minimal space and furniture. However, they managed that way for years and years. Meanwhile, Walter worked hard at the IHT (Int’l Herald Tribune) and Patricia was eventually hired by the New York Times to write a column about Paris/France from a food point of view. Both of them are “driven,” to keep working, to improve, to learn, to grow, but it’s all fueled by their utter love of life.

When exactly Patricia arrived on my foodie radar, I don’t recall, but it was a long time ago. She used to free lance articles in Gourmet, I believe, so I knew Patricia was linked to Paris somehow. I read her first Bistro Cooking cookbook, published after she’d lived in Paris for some years. Last year I bought Vegetable Harvest, a lovely book of every imaginable vegetable recipe. With this newest book, though, Patricia and Walter trade off telling the story of their lives, their jobs, learning French, cooking in their small Parisian apartment kitchen, their neighbors, the telephone system, and a lot about restaurants. The difference with them vs. us, the average joe, is that Patricia WAS on an expense account much of the time, so they were able to eat at some of the finest restaurants in that city, night after night, for free. I suppose, given those circumstances, when I might cook at home it would likely be simple food.

Eventually they bought an apartment and there were interesting tidbits about the renovation, which took nearly a year. Then they bought a farmhouse in Provence, and began going from one to the other place nearly every weekend. The Wells know/knew some very impressive people, (like Paul Bocuse, Joel Rubichon, Julia Child, even James Beard), but entertained them with relatively simple food when they visited in Provence. Patricia has a real willingness (and a competitive nature) to learn and make some very difficult food (more than I do, for sure). They raise a varied garden at their Provencal home. Eventually Patricia rented a Paris loft too and outfitted it as an office and cooking school. I’ve always thought it would be great fun to take a class from her. However, her Provence classes are $5,000 for 3 ½ days, not including lodging. Her entire cooking classes schedule for 2009 is full, as of this writing anyway.

With each chapter there are one or two recipes. Sometimes they were related to the chapter subject, or a recipe received from a local chef. The recipes are not particularly complicated except for the ones around foix gras. A few looked interesting: peach wine (homemade), dried cranberry and apricot bread, lemon chicken and scrambled eggs with black truffles. I didn’t buy the book for her recipes, though, but for the charming stories of their lives in France. They love it there and it shows. Highly recommended read.

It was a few weeks ago I went to yet another cooking class. (Lucky for you, you don’t have to pay for the class, but you get to have the recipes!) The subject was entrees suitable for entertaining, by Phillis Carey. I’ll post most of the recipes (one of them I didn’t like much, so will ignore that one) in the next couple of weeks.

This marinade and glaze for flank steak looks like it’s got a lot of ingredients (it does), but it goes together quite quickly. Don’t eliminate the Tabasco – I loved the little bit of heat in this marinade. And the overall taste was excellent. The meat is tenderized (it needs to marinate for at least 24 hours (even 2-3 days would be fine). Cut on the bias and across the grain for very tender slices.

Orange Marinated & Glazed Flank Steak

Recipe By: Phillis Carey

Servings: 6

2/3 cup dry red wine

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon orange zest — zested before you squeeze the oranges above

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

4 pounds flank steaks — (about 2 pounds each)

1.  Combine all the ingredients (except flank steaks) in a shallow baking dish (or large plastic Ziploc bag) stirring the honey until dissolved.  Add the flank steaks and turn to coat in marinade.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.  May be kept for 2-3 days in the marinade.

2.  Remove steaks from marinade and transfer marinade to a saucepan.  Let steaks stand at room temp for 45 minutes.  Bring marinade to a boil and continue boiling until liquid is syrupy, about 10 minutes.  There should be about one cup of sauce.  Cool. Pour our about 1/3 cup to use as a basting (remainder to pour over the meat as a sauce).

3.  Brush this sauce/glaze on both sides of the steaks and grill (outside or stovetop grill) or broil (about 4 inches from the heat) until nicely glazed, about 5 minutes on each side for medium rare.  Let meat rest for 5 minutes with a piece of aluminum foil very lightly tented over the meat.

4.  Transfer steaks to a cutting board.  Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle, cut the steaks across the grain into thin slices.  Transfer the meat to a platter and drizzle with any remaining glaze.

Per Serving: 702 Calories; 36g Fat (47.8% calories from fat); 59g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 154mg Cholesterol; 919mg Sodium.

printer-friendly pdf

Another winner of a Phillis Carey recipe. I get a kick out of the titles she gives her recipes - she doesn’t want you to miss a thing when you hear or read the recipe title. You need to know that it has Cajun spices. You need to know that it’s a filet mignon. And lastly, that it has this delicious, scrumptious Creole sauce - with cream - in it too. She laughs at herself when she talks about the recipe titles - even she gets them mixed up sometimes when she’s demonstrating them in a cooking class. But with the recipe in front of us, the students, we take notes, adding her little quips to the process.

Several weeks ago my friend Cherrie and I went to a cooking class (entrees for entertaining) and this recipe was one of them. Phillis used a filet mignon. When I made this sauce a few nights ago, I only had frozen New York steaks, so I used them instead. So I just made the sauce in a separate pan, and my DH grilled the steaks on the outdoor barbecue. He’s got the drill down-pat. Sear, mark the meat, both sides, put on a rack not over direct heat, stick in the meat thermometer and remove the steak at 122 degrees F. The meat was solidly pinky-red all the way through except for the flat sides, which were appealingly grilled brown.

The sauce, meanwhile, was a snap to mix up. I had everything on hand except green bell peppers (a staple in the Creole diet), but I just used some extra celery instead. No biggie. I even had the fresh herbs in our garden and used more than was called for. My DH just loved the sauce. Wanted to know exactly what was in it and how I made it. Every so often he asks detailed questions about something I’ve made. I used to think - aha, he’s going to surprise me and fix a full meal some night. Uh, no. He thinks sometime he might entertain some of his friends when he spends the night on our boat and whip out this great sauce. But he never remembers what I’ve told him.

At any rate, this steak and the sauce were delicious. And yes, they’d be quite suitable for a company meal. The sauce doesn’t make all that much, actually. If you really like sauce, I’d increase it by 50% so you’ll have more.

Cajun Rubbed Filet Mignon with Creamy Creole Sauce
Recipe By: Phillis Carey
Servings: 4 (probably more)
STEAK & RUB:
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 pounds fillet mignon — 4 steaks, 1 1/4 inches thick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
CREOLE SAUCE:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup onions — diced
1/4 cup celery — diced
1/4 cup green bell pepper — diced
1 teaspoon Cajun Creole spice (from rub recipe above)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup dry vermouth
14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes — drained
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
STEAKS
1. Combine all the rub ingredients in a small bowl. Reserve 1 tsp. for the sauce. Coat the steaks well and let stand at room temp for 45 minutes.
2. Heat a heavy skillet over high heat until very hot. Brush both sides of the steaks with olive oil and add to the hot skillet. Cook 4-6 minutes per side to desired doneness, lowering heat towards the end to prevent burning. Steaks may also be grilled.
SAUCE:
1. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add onions, celery and bell pepper and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Stir in the reserved Cajun Creole spice and the sugar. Add the dry vermouth and bring to a boil.
2. Stir in tomatoes, hot sauce and cream and bring to a simmer. Cook until mixture reduced slightly and thickens, about 10 minutes. May be made ahead to this point.
3. Stir in fresh herbs, season to taste with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Serve spooned over steaks.
Per Serving (I think this would serve more than 4 people, but this is the original recipe and Phillis thinks everyone would eat 8 full ounces of meat): 945 Calories; 77g Fat (73.4% calories from fat); 44g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 216mg Cholesterol; 2995mg Sodium.

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Needing to clean out my freezer in preparation for receiving a quarter of a 4-H pig in a month, I’ve been working diligently to discard old stuff that I’ll never use and cook up things that have been hiding in corners. I had this nice 2-pound boneless pork loin roast, but what to do with it? I turned to my newest favorite grilling book: The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen. Sure enough, he had several pork loin recipes. This one fit the bill since it didn’t require me to run to the grocery store. All I needed was garlic (yup), rosemary (yup, out of the garden, in abundance), salt, pepper and olive oil. How cinchy is that?

Ideally you’ll want to marinate this roast for a few hours with the herb-garlic mixture all over it, but I didn’t have the time. I’d forgotten to defrost the roast until about noon the other day, so soaked it in cold water (all sealed up) for several hours. Some parts of the middle were still a bit on the frosty side, so I opened up the roast (which is a procedure in the recipe anyway) and let it sit at room temp for about 20 minutes.

photo, from Raichlen’s The Barbecue Bible, showing how to butterfly a pork tenderloin. I used the same technique for a pork roast.

The recipe indicates using a mortar for grinding up the herb mixture, but I had frozen little cubes of garlic to use (pureed) and it took no time at all to mince the fresh rosemary. I just minced and minced and minced with my long santoku knife, then mashed in the garlic, salt, pepper, and finally the oil. It took no time at all to make. I’m including a photo of a page in the cookbook about butterflying the meat. The meat I had was from Costco, and it was already rolled. I opened it up (it was already butterflied), but then you cut shorter pockets in each side (in the fat side of the loins) – not all the way through, and leaving ½ inch at each end. So it’s a kind of slot. To stuff the herbs into. You slather half of the mixture on the inside edges, reform the roast, tie it up (I used those nifty reusable baking rubber bands), then slather the remaining herbs on the outside.

We decided to rotisserie the roast. My DH warmed the grill to high, and between us we positioned the rotisserie prongs in the meat and started it up. You can also do this over indirect heat on the grill itself (positioning a drip pan under the grill, however). It took about 70 minutes for our roast to reach 160 degrees F. We removed it, let it rest for about 5 minutes while I quick-like arranged the artichoke half I’d just pressure-cooked, and a nice green salad. I had meat from the inside of the roast – it was delicious – absolutely mouth-filling with the garlic and rosemary. Loved it. DH had a slice from the outside, and he thought it was a bit overdone. Next time I’d remove the roast at 155 degrees F. and let it sit. And I’d push the pocket to almost the end, so only the very outside slice would be without some of the herb mixture in it. I might also make a sauce to serve with this – a pan sauce would be easy enough to do. Maybe just chicken broth, rosemary and garlic, perhaps some chopped up dried apricots. Boiled and thickened, then with some added butter just at the end. Just a thought. I’ll be making this again, in any case.

Rosemary Grilled Pork Loin

Recipe By: The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen

Serving Size: 4

6 cloves garlic — peeled

1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves — minced

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds boneless pork top loin roast

1.  Combine the garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a mortar and pound to a smooth paste with the pestle, then work in the oil.  Alternately you may use a spice mill or mini chopper and process until it’s a puree.

2.  Using a long, sharp knife, cut the pork roast almost in half lengthwise (butterfly it).  Open out the meat, then carefully cut a pocket in each side (lengthwise).  Do not cut all the way through or at each end, either.  It should make a small oval space, leaving about 1/2 inch at each end.  Spread half of the herb mixture on the inside of the meat, then reassemble the meat and tie with kitchen twine in 1-inch intervals, then spread the remaining herb mix on all sides of the outside of the roast.  If time permits, allow this to marinate in a plastic bag for 2-4 hours.  Allow to sit at room temp while you fire up the grill.

3.  ROTISSERIE: Preheat the grill to high and set it up for rotisserie.  Skewer the roast lengthwise and insert into the grill.  Allow it to rotate until it’s well browned and cooked through, to 160 degrees F.  Or, you may remove it at 155 degrees and allow to sit for 10 minutes until it reaches 160. 

4.  INDIRECT GRILLING: Set up grill for indirect grilling, placing a drip pan in the center.  Preheat the grill to medium, grease the grill with oil, then place the roast on the grill over the drip pan, cover and cook until internal temperature registers as above, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Remove to a cutting board, remove string and cut roast into thin slices crosswise.  Serve, hot, warm or at room temperature (the way they do it in Italy).

Per Serving: 329 Calories; 16g Fat (46.3% calories from fat); 40g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 100mg Cholesterol; 1494mg Sodium.

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