It occurred to me that I've made a few recent meals worth mentioning:

Roasted Zucchini
Broccolini with Sherry Vinegar and Lemon
Spaghetti with Dried-Tomato Tapenade
Scampi
[Il Fornaio] Artisanal Bread
[Trader Joe's] Cheesecake with fresh peaches
We drank a bottle of Pinot Grigio with dinner

I appreciate the input I got from this group on the menu, and our
obsessively-picky dinner guest ate a LOT, which is high praise in itself.



Cups of Vegetable-Beef Soup
Elk Tenderloin Tournedos with Brandy-Mustard-Caper Sauce
Scalloped Potatoes
Pickled Peppers & Onions
We drank a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape with dinner

This was the first time that I cooked elk, and I was deathly afraid of
drying it out because it's so lean. I ended up following something similar
to a Steak Diane method, cooking the tournedos in shallot-laden butter at
medium heat rather than searing them. WOW, they turned out tender, moist and
flavorful! The sauce was made by adding capers to the pan juices and cooking
them for a while, adding mustard and stirring it around, and finally flaming
with brandy -- which pure macho showmanship, of course. This dinner was just
for Lin and me, and we polished off almost all of it. We've got two little
nugget-sized pieces of cooked elk left; I'm thinking of making them into
hash for breakfast.

It had been quite a long time since I had scalloped potatoes that I liked; I
was very happy with these. I did add a bit of a twist by putting just a
touch of cardamom into the béchamel sauce.

Lin's the one who made the soup, which was delicious. I'll let her post
about it if she wants. It had actually been made a couple days before, and
like many soups and stews, had improved in flavor over that time.

The pickled peppers and onions were simply cooked briefly in a mixture of
white wine vinegar, sugar, and salt. Their purpose was to provide
counterpoint to the creaminess of the sauce and the potatoes.


Bob