Late Summertime Dinner
Well we have to face it sooner or later. Summer’s winding down, or at least it is in Michigan. The evenings have turned cool and already there are brushstrokes of brilliant crimson and orange in the maples. There’s a crispness in the air and a light scattering of dried leaves on the lawn.
As beautiful as the fall is in our part of the country, there’s something sad about the end of another summer. As summers go, this one has been great – lots of parties, good swimming, horseback riding, water skiing, and plenty of mornings when we could catch up on our sleep, do the chores, and watch the hummingbirds at their feeders while we enjoyed coffee and toast against a backdrop of whitecaps tossing on Lake Michigan.
Cousin Gretchen and her family came all the way from Los Angeles to join us this summer. While she was here we managed to learn a thing or three from her husband, Ed, who turns out to be a maestro at grilling. First of all, gourmet quality grilling doesn’t have to be a struggle. With excellent quality assistance from the right products, anyone can produce an exquisite dinner on the grill with a minimum of muss, fuss, and bother.
My son Philip, and my nephew, Spencer, team up with Ed to learn a few things about grilling. The lesson includes instructions about emptying the old ashes from the bottom of the grill, venting the coals from the top and the bottom to control temperature and cooking speed, and having a good quality scraper in order to prepare the grill surface. Ed is good at determining the “doneness” of the meat simply by pressing it with the tongs. Very soft meat is rare. The more it cooks, the more resistant it becomes to pressure. While they’re absorbed with preparing the grill, Tara and Laura join me in the kitchen to help with the salad, the hors d’oeuvres, and the wine.
Our menu tonight is simple. We’re having a baguette of French bread with an excellent Spanish olive oil. We’ve used this olive oil to marinate sliced garlic cloves, and we’ve added some salt and pepper, some oregano, and a bit of parsley. For dinner we’re having grilled beef tenderloins served with red wine sauce, a tossed green salad, and orzo with a mirapoix. For dessert, sliced pineapple spears. It couldn’t be simpler. Tara and Laura sigh over the fragrance of the fresh basil that we’re tossing in the salad. I reach for my glass of Beaujolais. Summer may be coming to an end, but the autumn is full of promise, the Michigan apples are coming into season, and the spectacular fall color is already starting.
As beautiful as the fall is in our part of the country, there’s something sad about the end of another summer. As summers go, this one has been great – lots of parties, good swimming, horseback riding, water skiing, and plenty of mornings when we could catch up on our sleep, do the chores, and watch the hummingbirds at their feeders while we enjoyed coffee and toast against a backdrop of whitecaps tossing on Lake Michigan.
Cousin Gretchen and her family came all the way from Los Angeles to join us this summer. While she was here we managed to learn a thing or three from her husband, Ed, who turns out to be a maestro at grilling. First of all, gourmet quality grilling doesn’t have to be a struggle. With excellent quality assistance from the right products, anyone can produce an exquisite dinner on the grill with a minimum of muss, fuss, and bother.
My son Philip, and my nephew, Spencer, team up with Ed to learn a few things about grilling. The lesson includes instructions about emptying the old ashes from the bottom of the grill, venting the coals from the top and the bottom to control temperature and cooking speed, and having a good quality scraper in order to prepare the grill surface. Ed is good at determining the “doneness” of the meat simply by pressing it with the tongs. Very soft meat is rare. The more it cooks, the more resistant it becomes to pressure. While they’re absorbed with preparing the grill, Tara and Laura join me in the kitchen to help with the salad, the hors d’oeuvres, and the wine.
Our menu tonight is simple. We’re having a baguette of French bread with an excellent Spanish olive oil. We’ve used this olive oil to marinate sliced garlic cloves, and we’ve added some salt and pepper, some oregano, and a bit of parsley. For dinner we’re having grilled beef tenderloins served with red wine sauce, a tossed green salad, and orzo with a mirapoix. For dessert, sliced pineapple spears. It couldn’t be simpler. Tara and Laura sigh over the fragrance of the fresh basil that we’re tossing in the salad. I reach for my glass of Beaujolais. Summer may be coming to an end, but the autumn is full of promise, the Michigan apples are coming into season, and the spectacular fall color is already starting.
posted by JTH at 12:00 PM
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