5 more days til Carl gets home!
6 more days til Carl gets home!
7 more days til Carl gets home!
8 more days til Carl gets back! 
Carl is off on another exciting trip--first he is taking a class at the Wharton Business School in my old haunt at the U of Penn, and then he heads to San Diego for the Annual Meeting of the National Council of Community Behavioral Health Centers. The only down side to this is that we aren't together!
Well, it's Easter, so dinner was a group effort among the Groshek and Burns clans. We had a lovely roasted leg of lamb, ham, and asparagus with brown butter and balsamic vinegar. Our contribution was Mashed Potatoes with Brown Butter and Scallions (which we have made before), and Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter and Lemon Juice, which was new. Roasted radishes have a much mellower flavor than raw, more like a turnip in some ways than a radish. It was a nice dish with the lamb. 
Tonight was another new cocktail night, as we joined Carl's friend Steve Dougherty at a celebration of his 60th birthday. Excellent wood fired pizza, and a really nice celebration! The cocktail we made when we got home is the Bangkok Margarita, from Epicurious.com. It has tequila, as any margarita should, set off by pineapple juice, ginger liquer, and a dash of salt, aleppo pepper and lime zest. It was nice enough--I would like to try it with fresh pineapple juice.
This evening we attended a Hush Nomad dinner. You make a reservation ahead of time, but you only find out where the dinner is occurring a day before your reservation. The chef was Ian Kleinman, who specializes in molecular gastronomy, so it was an entertaining menu, to say the least. The peanut butter poprocks and exploding whipped cream were perhaps the most entertaining items. 
Tonight's new recipe was a Mediterranean Supper Omelette with Fennel, Olives and Dill. This is another recipe from Epicurious.com. I think I overcooked the eggs a little--it was nice, but not my favorite dish. The wine was a Domaine de Pellehaut Harmonie de Gascogne 2009. The acidity was a reasonable match for the omelette, but overall it was not a spectacular match.
This evening Carl made a fabulous dish, Cuban Style Mojo Grilled Chicken with Greens Avocado and Mango, from Epicurious.com. Yum! As our guest, Sue Birch, said, "this may be the best salad I ever had." It was fantastic with the Villa Wolf Guwürztraminer 2009.
This evening the new recipe was Quinoa and Spring Vegetable Pilaf, from Epicurious.com. It was really very tasty. Since it had sauteed onions, leeks and mushrooms, I decided to pick a wine that would speak to those umami flavors, a Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Vignes Franches 2006, from Nicolas Potel. This is a very nice Burgundy, but when all is said and done, the green (peas and mint) flavors were dominant in the dish, so it was not a completely successful pairing. Ah well! Still a lovely dish--just would have been happier with a different wine!
We are continuing in vein of pairing food and wine. The September 30, 2010 Wine Spectator has 8 great pairings. Tonight we had Roasted Chicken and Bread Salad, from Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. I love bread salad--this one was like a cross between a salad and a stuffing, and was, as the magazine said, a spectacular pairing with a Malbec. We had a 2006 Punto Final Malbec from Argentina, a luscious, jammy wine with lots of dark fruit flavors. 
I have to start by saying that the snow at Mary Jane was much better than we dared expect. It wore me out! 
This dish looks different from most on this blog, because it is the components, instead of the finished dish. Carl surprised me with Spice Rubbed Chicken and Vegetable Tacos with Cilantro Slaw and Chipotle Cream. The recipe is from Epicurious.com. What can I say but yum? It is a fabulous combination of flavors. You don't hear "Taco" and "Elegant" in the same sentence very often, but it applies here!
This evening's treat came from Epicurious.com: Asian Shrimp, Pineapple, and Peanut Salad. This was a delicious and spicy salad. Besides the named ingredients, it had shallots, mint, jalapeño, lime juice and fish sauce, so there were a lot of different flavors blending to make a great dish.
Tonight I made Steak au Poivre, with a recipe from a fun book called Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier's Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food, by Evan Goldstein (with recipes by his mom, Joyce Goldstein). I couldn't find a link to this specific recipe, but the key to his sauce is a combination or brandy, white wine, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire Sauce. I served it with some roti chapati (you get the uncooked dough at Costco and finish it on the griddle--quite nice!) and a mixed salad with Viandox vinaigrette.
Tonight, Carl made a wonderful Moroccan Chicken with Tomatoes, Eggplant and Almonds, another Epicurious.com find. He served it over white rice. It has wonderful flavors, and is a complete meal.
The photo is of an old friend, Mark Krinock who was in Denver for a meeting and joined us for dinner. We had Tuna Kebabs with Ginger Chile Marinade, from Epicurious.com, with Basmati Rice and a mixed salad I made up with roasted asparagus, enoki mushrooms, sesame seeds and sea beans, with an asian vinaigrette.
Tonight we thoroughly enjoyed Beef Tenderloin with Morels and Tarragon Marsala Sauce, from Epicurious.com, with home created sauteed potatoes onions and peppers. This was fabulous! The salad was a mixed salad with a Dijon Tarragon Vinaigrette. The wine was a 2006 Chateau Doyac Bordeaux, which as an excellent match for the meal!!
This evening' recipes were Curry-Dusted Scallops on Green Pea Puree, and Black Radish Salad, both from Epicurious.com. Black radishes, if you didn't know, have a black skin but the flesh is white. So the color was not unexpected, but the radish flavor was mellow and delicious. Both recipes are from Epicurious.com.
This evening, Carl was waiting for me to return from Madison, and enjoyed Rick Bayless' Guacamole with Toasted Almond and Apricot. When I got home, he served me a wonderful cocktail, the Blue Moon. Yum!
Once again, I was out of town, and Carl had a meeting. The new recipe was the Income Tax Cocktail--getting the returns done was worth celebrating!
I was out of town and Carl had a meeting, so today's new recipe was a cocktail, the Little Devil.
Today I got to have dinner with Carl before heading out to Madison Wisconsin for a meeting. We had Pan Seared Scallops on a Red Onion Marmalade with Peas, Black Pepper and Mint, both from Epicurious.com. Both were excellent.
Tonight we had a Turkey Shrimp Dumpling in a Green Onion shiitake Broth, from Sunset Magazine. This was really nice! We used ground turkey instead of ground chicken (have you see ground chicken in your market?). We had this with a Lander-Jenkins Spirit Hawk Chardonnay 2009, which was a reasonable if not spectacular match.
Tonight we moved into spring! We had Sauteed Chicken and Radishes with Mustard and Tarragon, from Epicurious.com. If you, like me, have never cooked a radish before, here is a reason to do it! Sauteed, radishes gain and earthy sweetness, and lose some of their sharpness. This was an absolutely fabulous dish!
This evening we worked together to get dinner together. The main dish was both simple and fabulous: Gwynneth Paltrow's Fried Zucchini Spaghetti, from Food and Wine. This is not a complex recipe, but the flavors are fabulous! We had it with Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Wild Mushrooms from Epicurious.com. They worked together quite well!
This evening Carl prepared a lovely Egg Drop Soup with Noodles from Epicurious.com, accompanied by a Tomato Scallion Salad Dressed with Homemade Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese 7 spice). It was delicious! Since we were driving up to Winter Park for a ski weekend, we did not have wine with dinner.
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