My guess is that this weekend will be the best weather of the fall in Indianapolis. The sky has been that gorgeous clear blue you only seem to get in the fall. And, the temperature has been perfect. Warm during the day and a tad brisk at night. I suppose I'd get tired of "perfect" weather all the time, but I'd like to try it for a month or two :-)
Saturday morning we went to the farmer's market and picked up Annie's lamb treats for the winter. Terry Knudsen who owns Viking Lamb has his two little guys sell the dog treats. They're saving the money for college. We've not seen the kids for several weeks because they've had football on Saturday mornings. So, it was really nice to get to see one of them yesterday.
Then, all too soon, it was time for me to dig into my desk. I'd done pretty much everything I could do from home early in the morning but I was to the point I needed both computer screens. Ok, so let me rant here for a moment. When I first started working all those years ago, we had typewriters. My first computer was a dumb terminal on my desk at the bank. Everyone thought I was nuts because I created form letters for my clients and had to go to the computer room five floors up to pick them up. That was back in the day when I was a commercial loan officer. Man, am I ever glad those days are gone! Now, here I am with a computer at home that's got room for all my food photos, has full access to my desktop at work and can access any of the programs I use on the cloud. And, I'm griping because I don't have two monitors. As my beloved husband would say, Get over it!
Last night, we went to see, "I Love to Eat." It's a one-man play about James Beard. Showtime was 8:00. That meant that dinner needed to be quick. I had a couple of the little steaks from the Omaha Steak starter pack (what a bargain - it was about $1 a serving and we've enjoyed the stuff for months!) and I'd bought white corn and tomatoes at the market. And, I had some white button mushrooms to make lacquered mushrooms. My menu had called for steak au poivre. But, on our way to the market, I was leafing through Everyday Grilling and found a recipe for Florentine T-bone with Spinach. The sidebar had a recipe for Olio Santo - holy oil. I love a pat of butter on a good steak, but have never tried olive oil. Until last night. I spooned a bit on and added the rosemary and garlic cloves. It looked ok. In fact, it looked rather pretty. Then, I took a bite. Love it. OMG. Love it. The Olio Santo and the steak do a cha cha cha together. Oh la la.
Olio Santo
Ingredients:
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 t red pepper flakes
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan.
Heat them gently for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the oil to cool to room temperature. Spoon a couple of teaspoons over each steak.
adapted from Meals in Minutes, Everyday Grilling
Many years ago I lived across the street from a gal named Sue. She wasn't much of a cook but had one specialty that everyone loved. She called it Mexicali Scoop. I just call it really good salsa. This is the kind of stuff that you can sit down with a bowl of salsa and a bag of Tostitos and call it dinner. I know because I've done just that many times. You can change it out by adding cilantro like my friend Stacy does. Now, Stacy is a FABULOUS cook. Dinner at her house is always a treat because she likes to try new and different things. So, when she says she's tried something new with a recipe and likes the change, I normally try it the same way. The cilantro's great but I like it better without. Make sure you don't drain the tomatoes because they'll provide some liquid. In fact, if you don't mind your salsa pretty dry, you can leave out the oil and vinegar. And, even if you don't like ripe olives, don't wimp out and leave them out. This is ever so much better than that crud they sell in jars and call salsa. And, it's almost as easy as opening a jar of the crud!
While I'm on a roll talking about my oils and vinegars, I'd be remiss if I didn't chat about one of my very favorites. Daniel Orr is a chef who's created masterpieces in many of the world's finest restaurants. Then, he decided to come home. He grew up a bit down the road in Columbus, IN but decided to open his new restaurant in Bloomington, IN. I'm lucky enough to have my Columbus office down the hall from the folks who manage the on-line side of his business. They also happen to own the building... Christmas, 2008, my gift was a bottle of BIG RED Cranberry Vinegar. The bottle alone is reason enough to include this in your repertoire. But, the vinegar, oh la la. Fabulous stuff. I could probably drink it plain! This past Christmas they gave me Chef's most recent cookbook. I'll confess my first reaction wasn't total joy. I was kind of underwhelmed by the one cookbook of his that I already had. This one, though is different. Very approachable recipes. And, my favorite part is that it has some of what I would call scavenging in the yard recipes. We decided we had a bumper crop of dandelions and would try cooking them. I started with Chef's FARM Bloomington cookbook. Bingo - a wild dandelion salad with wild garlic vinegar. We also had a bumper crop of wild garlic so the recipe was perfect. The vinegar had to be made a couple of days in advance so I started with that.
Wild Garlic Vinegar
1 qt white vinegar
1/4 c sugar
2 t salt
15 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 tsp red pepper flakes
10 wild garlic plants, washed
Boil the vinegar, sugar and salt. When it's cooled a bit, add the other ingredients. You'll want to use a sanitized stoppered bottle. Make sure you use the stems and bulbs of the garlic and cover all the ingredients with vinegar. I used a bit less vinegar but the same amount of seasonings.
adapted from FARM Bloomington, Daniel Orr
