Really, these reality shows aren’t my cup of tea. None of them have “done” much for me. With the exception of the “Next Food Network Star.” In case you haven’t seen it, or heard about it, each year the Food Network narrows down thousands of contestants who want to have a regular half-hour show on the network. They start with about 12 people, I think, at the beginning of the TV competition. For a series of weeks (probably 2-3 weeks altogether in real time) the Food Network gives these people some tough challenges. This isn’t like Iron Chef (which I don’t watch). Nothing is beyond reach, but some challenges are harder than others. They move them to different venues, they give them difficult foods, tight timeframes, they make them work in teams (which doesn’t always turn out well), and each week they eliminate one person.

From the first show this season, I was rooting for Melissa d’Arabian. She’s charming. She’s cute. She’s informative. And she’s a home cook with no formal culinary training. Plus she’s the mother of 3 very young children. And she won. I’m just so excited for her. I thought she did a stellar job all the way through the weeks of competitions. She held her cool, she learned well, and she offered a lot of good ideas. She did her first 30-minute program the same week she won, and already she’s started a series of Saturday noontime programs. The very first recipe sounded great (it was) and it looked very easy (yes, it was that too). With chicken breasts at hand, I made this entree in about 30 minutes from start to finish. With a small caprese salad on the side, that was dinner.

She sliced chicken breasts in half, horizontally. I just cut them in half and pounded each piece to make thinner ones. After sprinkling them with salt and pepper with some dried thyme, you coat the pieces with plain flour, then pan fry them in olive oil. Once they’re cooked through (probably takes about 5 minutes total) you remove the chicken, then sauté the onion (I only had a sweet onion, not the red onion Melissa suggested) and more thyme, then you add chicken broth, a little white wine and the juice of 3 lemons. Meanwhile, you cook up some spinach (fresh, or frozen if you’re in a bind for fresh). The broth and onion mixture cooks down some, you add a little bit of butter to it off heat then serve: first you make a “bed” of spinach, place the chicken on top, then the onions, and drizzle the sauce on top. Garnish with some fresh thyme if you have it. REALLY easy. It’s the lemon juice that makes this dish (you add some to the spinach too). Do make this – it’s good. A quick, easy and tasty meal. Meanwhile,  I’m tivo’ing all of Melissa’s shows and collecting recipes like crazy.
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A year ago: Leg of Lamb with Lemon
Two years ago: New Wave Garlic Bread (a half-Asian kind of rustic garlic bread – really good – really, REALLY good)

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Any of you (probably over age 50) remember this dessert? Pinging my memory cells, I recall a dessert that was all the rage in the 1950’s. My mother made this or something similar for the pinochle nights my parents had with friends. Some of these 24-hour chilled desserts contained gelatin, both flavored and not. Nearly all of them contained whipped cream. Although some used evaporated milk (well chilled, then whipped – I was never very crazy about that canned milk flavor, but in case you don’t realize it, evaporated milk WILL whip up to a whipped cream consistency). Usually these desserts contained some fruit, some nuts. And vanilla wafers (crumbled). Some were frozen too, rather than chilled. Some were made in the Pyrex 10×7 dish (like this one). Others were done in a bread pan so you could slice a slab of it (mostly the frozen ones).

I made this for my friend Norma, who has graduated from being able to eat only soft puddings, to something like this. She isn’t fond of ‘nilla wafers, so I made it with crumbled graham crackers instead. So it’s not exactly true to the original, but close.

It’s an extremely easy dessert to make, and there’s no reason, really, that you couldn’t eat it as soon as you make it, but the butter layer does firm up just a bit if you chill it overnight. This one is not made with gelatin at all. Here’s the drill: Place the crumb layer in the bottom of a 10×7 Pyrex dish. Then you cream butter and sugar, add 2 eggs (yes, this dessert contains raw eggs) and a tad of vanilla. That is layered into the dish (not too heavy-handed or you’ll pick up crumbs with the spoon. In a clean bowl, cream is whipped, and you add the pineapple and chopped walnuts. That’s spread into the dish, then more crumbs on top. Chill 24 hours. How difficult is that?

The recipe I started with was waaay too sweet, so I’ve reduced the amount of sugar in the version below. But if you prefer sweeter stuff, by all means add more powdered sugar to the butter mixture. The taste was nearly what I remembered. I need to look further for some other similar pineapple desserts to see if this is the only version. It was good. And not too bad for us if you take small portions. It does serve 12. Some recipes suggest adding another dollop of whipped cream on top and a maraschino cherry on top of that. Probably looks pretty, but it really isn’t necessary.
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A year ago: Tomato Watermelon Salad

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In the summertime I enjoy serving a cold soup to guests – in a short glass as pictured above – when we’re enjoying conversation and wine on our patio. Not everyone likes cold soups, I’ve found. So you have to know your audience, your eating companions.

I hunted around for an appropriate recipe. I’ve made several cold soups over the years. My regular gazpacho is a favorite, but it is quite a lot of work. More than I felt like doing. Besides, we were having a lebanese layered salad with dinner that contained many of the same veggies. One of my favorites is a strawberry gazpacho – perfect when strawberries are at their peak (they’re past that now). But my DH doesn’t love that soup as much as I do, and since this was a party in his honor, I had to scratch that one off the list. I also have a citrus gazpacho that I concocted many years ago, trying to copy a soup I’d had at Cafe Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now I have Katherine Kagel’s cookbook and it contains the real recipe – different than mine. But that wasn’t what I wanted either. Then I also have a white gazpacho – actually it’s an almond and cucumber combo – delicious – but I realized that was the soup I made for this same group of friends two years ago. We also needed a soup that would stand up to a Cabernet, which was what we’d be drinking. What to fix?

I finally decided to try this chilled avocado soup. In retrospect, perhaps it really wasn’t the right pairing with Cabernet – the avocado has too delicate a taste – or I should say the Cab overpowered the soup. But the soup itself was really good. Thick. Tasty. Not really like thick guacamole – it’s much thinner than that. I added some garlic powder to it – to give it a little kick. The other nice thing about this soup is that it must be made ahead, so it can chill. At least 24 hours. It will still good 48 hours later, and we had the last of it in tiny shot glasses 72 hours later. It was still bright green and tasty. Would I make it again? Yes, with the right meal. So keep that in mind if you decide to try this. Maybe serve it with white wine – I think it would pair better that way.
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A year ago: BBQ Macaroni Salad (so easy, so good)
Two years ago: Halibut Osso Buco (a lot of work, but worth doing)

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You’ve heard it here before. Brown food is hard to photograph. Hard to determine what’s IN there, isn’t it? I strategically placed the dried fruit so it would at least give the photo some color. It’s called Fesenjen – an Afghan dish – a braised chicken dish with a load of walnuts and pomegranate. Not much else except a bay leaf and some sugar. It’s also a popular celebration dish in both the Iranian and Persian cuisines, where it’s spelled fesenjan. Apparently some versions don’t add the sugar, so it can be anything from tart to sweet. But, in any case, it’s to be served with yellow or white rice in all of the cultures.

Cooking is sometimes serendipitous. You cook what you have. This is certainly an example of that kind of cooking. I had a chicken in the refrigerator that HAD to be used or I’d be throwing it out in the trash. The day I cooked this I had a very busy day, with little or no time to spend in the kitchen. Enter the next step of serendipity. The day prior my friend Cherrie gave me a birthday present (actually two) but one was a new cookbook fav or hers, Secrets of Slow Cooking, by Liana Kassoff.

Quickly perusing the index, yes, there was chicken. Several. But this one it had to be because I had all the ingredients. Well, most of them. I didn’t have all chicken thighs. I didn’t have a fresh pomegranate, nor did I have barberries (dried). So, more of the “necessity is the mother of invention.” I made this with a whole chicken and I made it with dried cranberries. The best part of the recipe was how easy it was. Very little prep time required. You don’t even have to brown the chicken. You DO have to toast the walnuts and grind them up in the food processor. See the photo below – toasted walnuts left, sort of fine ground nuts on the right. But the rest of the prep takes about 5 minutes or less.

So, exactly what’s involved? Place the raw, skinned chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker. Toast the walnuts and whiz them in the food processor to a fine grind. Toss in the slow cooker. Add a bay leaf and some water (or chicken broth). Slow cook on low for 3-4 hours. Remove chicken, cool slightly, remove meat from the bones.

Now, my slow cooker insert can be removed and used on the stovetop, so that’s what I did to finish the sauce. But if you don’t have that kind, you could pour it out into a saucepan (probably a better option). Or, just turn the slow cooker to high (put the lid back on) and get that juice to boil. Add the sugar (if using) and the pomegranate molasses. You want to boil down the broth. A lot harder to do in a slow cooker. If you leave the lid off it may never boil. If you leave it on, the boiling liquid inside can’t escape (most returns to the broth via steam). So, leave it on until it reaches a boil, then tilt the lid slightly so the steam can escape. You need the broth to reduce down and get a little thicker.

At the end you return the chicken to the pot just to reheat it all. Serve it over rice. This has a very different taste – it’s about the walnuts. For one chicken, 3 cups of walnuts is a LOT of nuts. I think next time I might use a bit less. But you don’t really KNOW they’re walnuts. They don’t turn to mush. But they’re not firm, either. Not soft like onions, but not in the least bit crisp. Nothing else has the texture quite like a cooked walnut. I saw one version on the internet (when I was researched the culinary history of this dish) that included a chopped onion. I think I’d add that next time. And although I did boil down the sauce on the stove, as instructed, I ended up with not enough liquid. I wanted a bit more for the rice.

Note that there is no salt added. Or pepper. I did when it was served, but it only needed a tiny amount. So this is good if you’re on a salt-restricted diet. I use a low sodium chicken broth too. And, although I had to use a whole chicken, chicken thighs are best for this. The chicken breast meat was overcooked. Only dark meat can withstand that kind of long cooking and still retain some moisture. I used a LOT less sugar also (only a couple of tablespoons). If you or your family like sweet meat, then by all means add in all the sugar. The calorie count on this one is high because of the nuts. But they’re the good kind of fat, remember. The nuts make the dish. And the pomegranate molasses adds an elusive flavor to it. I’d make this again. I’d just add onion, and retain more of the liquid. And, I’d follow the recipe exactly, using chicken thighs. This whole dish could easily be made on the stovetop too. Probably cooked for about an hour only.
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A year ago: About the bugs that arrived in my pantry who ate a whole lot of chocolate, and a year later, they’re still there, although in far fewer numbers. Requires me to put nearly everything in heavy-duty plastic bags or sealed boxes, particularly grains and flours.
Two years ago: Calabacitas con Crema (oh yum, luv this stuff – it’s a mixed vegetable with corn and chiles and a touch of cream). I posted a second recipe that day (why?) called Crostini with Apples, Blue Cheese and a drizzle of honey. Has become one of my favorite appetizers.

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Last week I was reading Cheryl Sternman Rule’s blog, called 5secondrule, and having just written up a post a few days before about plums (everything you might possibly want to know about them) this cold soup recipe jumped out at me and said fix me. It took me a week to find good plums (at Costco) and another day or two to get around to making it.

The recipe (in its original form) is credited to Bruce Weinstein and  Mark Scarbrough, in their cookbook Cooking Know-How. And in their recipe it’s suggested as a first course. To me, it’s too sweet to be a first course, so I went at it thinking of it as a dessert. And is it yummy. Having just made the cherry compote with a bunch of spices in it, I decided to add a few more to this recipe. So, the allspice berries and coriander seeds are my additions. Otherwise the recipe is exactly as written.

It’s EASY to make. You simmer the plums in water and the spices, remove the spices and discard, remove the fruit, boil down the liquid, add it to the plums, then add in the sugar, yogurt and red wine. Puree – either in a blender, food processor, or with a stick blender. Chill. If you serve it as a first course, you might thin it out a little bit with a bit of milk (or cream or half-and-half). As a dessert I liked it a bit thicker. I also added the fillip of crème fraîche and the sprigs of mint. I had to sample it as soon as I made it, and also dished out a little glass for my DH. He proclaimed “wow, this is wonderful.” Just make sure you get out all the spices – so count them, okay? It’s not fun biting into an allspice berry. But make this, you should. Enough said.
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A year ago: Strawberry Coffeecake

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Without a doubt, this is the very best Tiramisù

I’ve ever eaten. Bar none.

It had been some years since I’d made Tiramisù, using an old recipe that I’d put together myself from about 3 different versions. Then I was watching America’s Test Kitchen last week and they made a rather simplified Tiramisù, and I was hooked. Had to try it. Caution: this recipe does have raw egg yolks in it, so if you’re interested in the version made without raw eggs, America’s Test Kitchen has that recipe too. A note: you do have to sign-in to a free ATK membership in order to view these recipes (so they can send you emails, most likely, which they do, but I like receiving most of them – except the two a week wanting me to subscribe to Cook’s Country – wish they would stop sending me that one – I’ve asked – no can do, I guess).

I suppose, from beginning to end, it took me about an hour to make it. Not too bad, I guess, although I thought it would take less than that. This recipe has a lot more mascarpone in it (1 1/2 pounds) than I’ve used before. But I sure learned exactly how to dip the savoiardi cookies – those are the Italian, dry ladyfingers used to make this dessert. Not the soft ones you can sometimes find at the grocery store.

That's how much coffee was left over

Even though I’m a fairly experienced home cook, and tackle almost anything, I’d never known HOW to get just the right amount of coffee into the cookies/the dessert. Too much and they fall apart into wet mush. Too little and the dessert is dry. You want a happy mixture of the cookies, coffee and mascarpone cream. That’s what I like about America’s Test Kitchen – they figure all this out for me so I don’t have to guess. They showed us exactly how to hold the cookie and how long to dip and turn it over in the coffee mixture. When I got done I had exactly one cookie left over and a little bit of coffee, so I dipped it in and bit into it. Exactly how it’s supposed to be – you only dip about 2 seconds, maybe 3 at the absolute most to get the coffee on the outside. When you cut (bite) into it, the center of the cookie is still dry. At least it was when I made the dessert. After it sits for 24 hours, the cookies had perfectly absorbed the flavors, but it wasn’t soggy with coffee, nor had it fallen apart. They still had enough “form” to use a spatula to cut and remove a nice serving portion.

The mascarpone batter was easy – eggs and sugar – some rum (rum was also added to the coffee dipping mixture too), the mascarpone and whipped cream. So, you dip the cookies in the coffee/rum mixture, put one layer in a 9×13 glass dish, slather on half of the mascarpone cream (picture at left shows spreading the first layer over the cookies), sprinkle with a bit of Dutch process cocoa, another layer of dipped cookies and the last half of the mascarpone and more cocoa. That’s it. Chill at least 6 hours, but 24 is preferable.  That was fine with me, so I got this dessert done a day ahead of our dinner party the other night. Just before serving I sprinkled the top with a bit of chopped semisweet chocolate shavings.

From this picture above (side view of the Pyrex dish) I can see that on the bottom layer I didn’t push and shove the tender soaked cookies tightly enough over on the right– they mentioned that on the ATK episode, about making sure the cookies are pressed snugly, to push a bit to fill in all the nooks and crannies. So I had a little dip there. Surely didn’t matter to the taste, though!

Results? By far the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I would make not one change to this recipe. It will now be my go-to one for this coffee and chocolate dessert. The leftovers were sublime, even 48 hours later.
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A year ago: Zucchini Pancakes

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Would you believe that of all the delicious and different things I served at our dinner the other night, I think nearly everyone raved the most about the corn. Followed closely by the tiramisu. The corn was probably the easiest thing I made for the dinner. I couldn’t get enough of it, both that night and the 2 subsequent nights when we ate the leftovers.

It was some years ago that I read about an herb and spice rub I used on grilled corn on the cob. It is a North African combination. I’ve used it dozens and dozens of times since. But it’s kind of fussy – you have to bend down the leaves, remove the silk, then bring back up the leaves, tie a knot at the top, then grill them.

In this preparation, it’s actually the spices that were used on the Sizzling dry rubbed rib eye steaks. Knowing we like spice-rubbed corn anyway, I didn’t want to mix two different types, so I just made more of the mixture when I prepared it for the steak rub. The prep does include toasting the whole spices to the smoke point. Then those are ground up in a spice grinder (or a mortar and pestle) and added to some other ordinary things like brown sugar, chile powder, dried thyme, dry mustard and freshly grated nutmeg.

The corn – well, how simple can it be? I simmered the corn for about 5 minutes, removed them to a bowl. I let them sit just a couple of minutes so I could handle them. I had a cube of cold butter handy, so I rubbed each ear (cut in half) very lightly with the butter, then sprinkled the spice rub liberally on each. Put them back in the bowl and served them. It took about 4-5 minutes, I suppose, to do that, and it did have to be done at the last minute. The rest of the meal was all ready, so I didn’t mind taking the time. If you’re busy with other things, have someone else do it!

Providing you like plenty of spices, you are going to LOVE this corn. Just remember that once you combine a group of spices together, they will lose their potency in about a month. No, I don’t know why, but it’s a fact. So you can’t make this up in big quantity and keep it for any longer than that. I beg you, try this one.
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A year ago: Layered Greek Salad
Two years ago: French Hamburgers (actually it’s Julia Child’s recipe – having just seen the movie Julie & Julia the other night – oh, I luved the movie, want to see it again – anyway, this is so appropos – the recipe comes from her first volume, Mastering the Art of French Cooking but it called Boeuf Hache a la Lyonnaise . . .)

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For our dinner party the other night, my friend Cherrie brought this appetizer. I’d planned to make a stuffed Brie, but whole rounds of Brie the right size seemed to be elusive, so Cherrie offered to bring this red bell pepper and walnut dip she’d already made, right out of this month’s issue of Gourmet. The dip is very easy – you buy bottled red bell peppers, and combine them in a food processor with fresh bread crumbs, toasted walnuts, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne and olive oil. That’s it. You’re done. Cherrie served this with another recipe from the same issue – for garlic-oregano grilled pita bread. She adapted it just a little – she used lemon olive oil spread on the hot, grilled pita bread, then sprinkled that with dried oregano and a bit of Himalayan salt.

She left the remainder of the spread with us, and the remaining pita bread, so the next night I made her quick-method for the pita – I just heated them in the microwave, brushed them with a bit of blood orange olive oil, then sprinkled them with dried thyme. Any of those Mediterranean herbs would do fine, I think. This is a VERY tasty spread – EASY – and I’d make this myself next time I need this type of a dip. Everyone asked about it (most thought it was a type of hummus) and wanted the recipe.
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A year ago: Jayne’s Gastropub (a San Diego restaurant)
Two years ago: Chicken Bamako

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When I saw the photo in Cooking Light for this salad, I figured I’d have to make it sometime. It was perfect for our outdoor dinner party the other night. I could make it ahead (at least 24 or up to 48 hours even), it provided a bit of carbohydrate for the meal, it was tangy with fresh lemon juice from the fruit of our Meyer lemon trees, and last but not least, it had lots of fresh veggies in it. With only two tablespoons of oil in the entire dish.

I set up my little photo studio as I made it. As if you didn’t already know how to layer things. But here goes. First I started with my tall glass trifle dish. I’ve served a green salad in it before, but it’s just perfect for this layered salad. The recipe said it served 8 – we were having 6 – so with some of the vegetables I used slightly less. It would depend on the bowl you used, too.

First went in the dry bulgur wheat. Just poured it in there.

The dressing was mixed up – 3/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, the 2 T. of olive oil, some fresh garlic and salt. I poured it in and stirred it briefly to make sure all the bulgur was in contact with the dressing.

The layer of onions was next. The recipe called for red onions, but I didn’t have any. However, I did have some Washington sweet onions.

Then I chopped up about $6.00 worth of heirloom tomatoes. It made two cups of chopped tomatoes. Almost hated to use them for this since I wasn’t sure the superior flavor would shine through. But it’s what I had on hand.

I cut some fresh mint from our garden, added some fresh Italian parsley and some fresh dill. Chopped it up finely, mixed it together with my hands, and sprinkled that on top of the tomatoes.

Next went a generous layer of cucumbers. I used the hothouse type and left the dark-green skin intact. That was spread around a bit to fill in the outer edges.

Lastly, a mixture of red and yellow bell peppers was added. The top was sprinkled with some kosher salt and freshly grated black pepper.

Then I sealed it tight with plastic wrap and refrigerated it for 24 hours.

Just tell your guests to dip down deep, so they get some of the bulgur at the bottom. Once the first person dips in, the salad loses some of its form, but that’s okay. You need to put the bulgur on the bottom, because it needs to absorb all that lemon dressing.

What I love about this kind of salad is the tang from the lemon juice. I have a favorite Syrian salad I make every summer that has crushed up toasted pita bread in it. (Joanne – thanks again for that great recipe – she shared it at an office potluck many years back – and now lives in Switzerland ) I just adore that salad. This is reminiscent of it, except it has the bulgur as the carb. If you have extra room at the top of your bowl, just before serving, chop up some lettuces and pile that in. The dressing will spread around once you dish this up so the lettuce would have some tang. Or, toss the salad with a bit of lemony dressing, then scoop it on top. I’ll make this again – particularly because I can make it the day before.
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A year ago: Zucchini (everything you always wanted to know)
Two years ago: Baked Fennel

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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.

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.
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A year ago: Wellesley Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two years ago: Goat Cheese Chive Muffins (a favorite)

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