Food on Saturday

Our friend and fabulous DJ Andy Kline (KXLL Excellent Radio, live on the internet by linking to ktoo.org) and I are planning a radio cooking show that will have recipes that take 5 minutes (Speed Chef: Real Food for Real Life is our working title at this point. Suggestions welcome) to prepare and get a good meal on the table for a family. I am thinking Sharon's noodles are on the list. Yesterday's split pea soup is too: Chop up an onion, two stalks of celery, a carrot or two, sauté them in butter in a big pot, add the peas, a ham hock or other bacon-y ham like thing, a bay leaf, healthy teaspoon of black pepper and water to generously cover, and you are outta there. This cooks for 4 -5 hours, true enough, but nonetheless, you have lunch or supper or dinner for (yesterday it was 20 or so folks) your family with very little actual kitchen time, it is tasty, nutritious, and makes the whole house smell wonderful. In the intervening 4 hours you can have a board meeting, or pay bills or something. It really takes about the same amount of time to make soup for 5 as for 20, just a bigger pot, so make a lot, and freeze some.

Dinner was a special treat, with dear friends who are on the out right prolonged laughter list and bona fide good foodies. Every time we get to visit their home, which they built from scratch, there is a new wonderful addition: This time, a beautiful spiral staircase in gunmetal and light cherry wood, apparently reclaimed from black and ugly. Anyway, they had been slaving away in the kitchen all day, and the dinner was marvelous: salmon empanadas, goat cheese crustini, sushi, a marvelously lemony chard soup, a spinach and greens salad with pears, grapes, seasoned cashews and a delicate dressing, and luxuries of all, fresh halibut baked (did he say in Ranch Dressing?? Delicious!) with rice and home made bread, followed by an exquisite hazelnut and chocolate torte and home made lingonberry liqueur. Fabulous food, great conversations, much laughter, and there was a lot of wine, although since I had to be up at 4:45 am and was the DD, I limited myself to a bit of Villa Maria Chardonnay and Marietta Old Vine, two of my favorites. Life is good.