Cooking Saturday Evening Away

One of my greatest pleasures is spending a blustery, snowy winter's afternoon cooking. I load the the stereo with jazz CD's (Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, and Sidney Bechet are favorites), build a cozy fire in the woodstove, and fill my glass with a big, chewy red wine. If I can find a Cahors, I'm in heaven, but any full-bodied red will do. Then, I get lost in slicing, dicing, chopping, whisking; the hours pass, the house smells yummy, and I'm rewarded with an awesome dinner.

Since moving to Iowa, I've found I can enjoy this pleasure in the summertime as well. On days like today when evening temperatures linger in the 80's with humidity to match, I crank on the AC, close up the house, and cook. I made trips to the Farmer's Market and the grocery store today, so I zoomed home after the 5pm service at church and began the ritual. This time the CD's are Edith Piaf and the wine is a chilled dry Vouvray...a white wine from the Loire valley in France made from mostly chenin blanc grapes. My first course was a puff pastry topped with melted goat cheese, a slice of rich red tomato, two strips of anchovy, green olives and a dusting of herbes de Provence. My travel journal reminds me that I had something similar at Patrick's in Goult. That pastry was layered with carmelized onions, carmelized tomatoes, and black olives. My main plat was a mixed green salad and a summer squash dish of my own invention...sauteed bacon, onion, and sliced squash with finely chopped Swiss chard melted in. For dessert...sliced melon. I put together panna cotta for dessert tomorrow night. J'ai mange tres bien! ***

The picture is from my April 2007 trip to Provence. Patrick had just filled the wooden basket with fresh veggies from market. Aren't they beautiful?

***I have eaten very well