Taste of Belgium OTR

Tuesday 4 November

Lauren and Zac suggested that we all go out to the Over the Rhine outpost of Taste of Belgium for their Tuesday specials: all-you-can-eat moules-frites and half-price bottles of wine.  What a good idea!

The two types of mussels on offer were cooked with either white wine, tomatoes, and basil, or cream and tarragon; we each had each, and the creamy one won the popularity contest. 

Each of us also had our own big cone of fries, with spicy remoulade to dip in, and they brought more if you wanted some, though we could barely finish what we had.  Oh, and a bottle of white, and a bottle of red, so no ugly fights.

Beef Wellington, Again?

Monday 3 November

When you have some end slices of beef Wellington, its mushrooms, pumpkin slices, marinated beets, and horseradish and yogurt sauce, why would you complain about eating leftovers?

Fusilli and Pesto

Sunday 2 November

Jon and Lois had to take off this afternoon, so it was just a simple meal for Maggie and us.  Still, our fresh-made pesto makes any pasta into a summer vacation.

Beef Wellington for the 1989 Beaucastel

Saturday 1 November

We wanted to serve our dear friends something extra special this evening, so a few days ago we went into our wine cellar (aka the basement) and brought up four half-bottles of the precious 1989 Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape from the case we'd bought back in 1991 (we bought it after the Wine Spectator named it wine of the year; it was $35 a full bottle then, now $140-280).  You have to stand it up well in advance, because it throws a sediment, and it takes that long to settle. 

We had to serve something worthy of such a historic wine, so Holt and Jon spent the afternoon in a puff-pastry master class, getting ready to construct a beef Wellington out of the giant slab of beef tenderloin we'd bought at Findlay Market this morning.

We'd had a light lunch of fried green tomato caprese, so this was also our chance to use the tapioca starch and make those Brazilian cheese puffs to snack on before the meal.

Unfortunately, though the Wellington looked perfect going into the oven, the sliced mushrooms on top made the pastry slide down the side of the tenderloin as it baked.  All the ingredients were delicious, though, served with a quick yogurt and horseradish sauce.  

And the wine was luminous - clear sherry-garnet colored from all the settlement, but not too tannic at all, and still with smoky black cherry notes.

We also used our Halloween pie pumpkin to make Ottolenghi-style roasted pumpkin slices, but instead of the parsley and parmesan, we made them sweet with cumin seeds, chopped figs and apricots.

And we did not mind having gingerbread and ice cream - again! - for dessert.

Halloween with the Old Tucson Crew

Friday 31 October

Maggie was driving down from Albany, and Lois and Jon from Champaign-Urbana, to have a big Halloween weekend.  The weather was bleak and rainy, and we hardly had any trick-or-treaters.  But there was plenty of champagne, and a big bowl of fresh kale chips and small bowls of our pickles and olives kept us from dipping too deep into the Almond Joys.

When it was clear that we couldn't hijack any more kids and force them to accept candy, we rolled out the dinner that had been waiting in the oven: Barbara's Big ol' Butt, with sliced potatoes and shallots that had roasted for an hour in a pan on the rack on top of said Butt.

For dessert, Holt made "Gingerdead Men," slabs of gingerbread with a chalk outline of icing and Graeter's black raspberry blood - with vanilla ice cream.  Horrifyingly good.