The best spaghetti ever

Alec made the best spaghetti ever tonight for dinner. Sauteed red onion in olive oil and butter. Ground beef - free range and grass fed. De Cecco spaghetti. TJ's marinara sauce. All put together just right makes the spaghetti the best ever.

In Denmark, one doesn't talk about food at the table.

Succulent winter king salmon, grilled (a perfect BBQ night: crystal clear, in the 20s, no wind) to perfection, some oven roasted blue potatoes, steamed cauliflower and broccoli, a tossed salad, and a loaf of fresh no-knead bread (the recipe is on the right and works perfectly every time). An orange and cranberry upside down cake that will be better for breakfast this morning. Some Belgian beer (Saison Dupont), a delicious Barbaresco, some Hedges CMS. Delightful company, including two unsuspecting friends who dropped in to deliver a bottle of very special olive oil and found themselves with glass in hand seated at the table and a gentleman from Denmark, here to film a TV piece on the death of Vitus Bering, a Danish hero who died on a beach near here many years ago, and a good friend who was doing the filming. Conversation turned, as it usually does as soon as the ritual Rotary rants are over, to food: to comparisons of mayonnaises, to memories of odd things the children would and would not eat, to favorites from the past, to how at times your body just seems to want eggs or steaks. At one point the Dane stopped us and said that in Denmark one would never talk about food while eating. How interesting! What do they talk about in mixed company then?

This set us off on an exploration of cultural differences mostly centered around humour, and how what is funny in one country may leave the audience in another country waiting for the punch line. We amused ourselves by telling several jokes that just don't translate into funny in another language, which was funny in and of itself. I think we determined that golfing seems to be a fairly universally funny activity. There was this one about the businessman and the bishop who were out golfing....oh but you've heard that one! Then there is the one about the priest, who has led a good life, facing St. Peter and has to confess that once while golfing he used the F word....oh, you've heard that one too! And we brought up the famous three part joke originally told to us by a Danish doctor and which was our kids' favorite joke for years. If you've not heard it, they can tell it well.

So what was funny made us laugh, and what was not funny made us wonder, and another wonderful meal it was.

For Mature Audiences only.

Friends invited us over to share yesterday's shrimp harvest and a selection of older, or as John would say "mature" chardonnays. The shrimp were perfect: denuded, lightly sauteed in olive oil with a splash of "mature" wine. Accessorized with bowtie noodles, and a Caesar Salad (dressed lightly in a homemade Caesar dressing with the perfect balance of lemon and anchovies). La Boheme on the stereo, and a selection of "mature" wines. Exquisite. Too bad us "mature" types had to toddle off to bed early!

Mancini memories

Yeesh, my first post and it's not even about food, exactly. Yes, Henry Mancini composed the soundtrack for "Charade," and reading about it made me smile because he was my first "celebrity" interview back when I was a journalism radio intern in college. I shared with him my unending love for the "Pink Panther" theme and he was quite gracious and charming, even as I rambled on about doing an interpretive dance to the song for a grade-school backyard talent show. Well, I guess that's enough to start with. Made some great Moroccan-style lamb chops over couscous with garbanzoes and apricots while the kids were away, Casa Lapostolle Sauv. Blanc and candlelight, taking a page out of the DeCherney empty nest book.

Nostalgia Noodles

Pasta with Peanut Sauce was on the menu at the Fiddlehead Restaurant for a long time, and made it into the Fiddlehead Cookbook. We had a surfeit of last week's veggies, and this recipe uses up veggies, and so John stepped back in time and whipped up a batch. I tossed a lettuce and water cress salad with rice wine vinegar and oil, and all was well. Villa Maria on the table. Robert Bluestone on the stereo.

Yams with Marshmallows meets Fois Gras

I don't want to sound like I'm underappreciative of French cuisine,
but I tried duck fois gras today and I didn't like the smell at all. It wasn't altogether pleasant....
REN

BBQ Pork Chops

Perfect BBQ weather (not blowing sideways and above freezing), so John put on a couple pork chops slathered with the Cherry BBQ sauce mixed with Hoisin sauce allowing him to claim the usual "Just the dad regular: Open frig, empty contents of the little tiny jars altogether." I am not certain where all these little tiny jars of stuff are coming from and why they are there partially used.

Anyway, tasty chops with steamed rice mixed with Forbidden rice, a particularly yummy tossed salad with watercress in it, and a plate of grapefruit and apples. The house white wine, Veramonte Sauvingnon Blanc.

Conversation turned to the movie we watched the other night, Bad Day at Black Rock, starring Spencer Tracy and a bunch of famous people and which I found to be two dimensional and wooden, as if someone used stick figures to act out High Noon, not to mention the fact that the set looked like the fake town in Blazing Saddles and there was only one female (young blonde cutie) living there who of course gets it in the end. John loved it, found it tense and suspenseful, very intriguing a lot like a spaghetti western. The music was by Andre Previn and indeed it was very atmospheric. Which led to a discussion of best movie theme songs: High Noon. Good the Bad and the Ugly. Third Man Theme. Shot in the Dark. anything by Henry Mancini. Charade. (is that by Henry Mancini?)