You Can Never Go Wrong With Steak & French Fries

Growing up, my favorite meal was steak and French Fries. My parents bought their beef at Fisher Miller, a wholesale/retail butcher in White Plains NY. The sirloin steaks were great, but to be honest, the homemade French Fries were not. Mom had a small fry pot and the fries were always soggy. Mom was a great cook, but her Fries ,were never great

Last night we splurged a little with:

New York Strip grilled to a perfect medium rare
French Fries
Chopped “Three Hour” Salad
Pan Roasted Shishito Peppers
Caramelized Onion
Phelps Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Talk about all the food groups!

Steak

We don’t eat a lot of red meat. When I get the green light to grill a steak, I like to work with a thicker cut of New York Strip. We bought a whole loin from Costco. I cut it into steaks that were 2 inches thick. The added thickness widens the window to get it cooked to the perfect medium rare.

French Fries

What is not to like about homemade French fries. The French really know how to make them. I will never forget my first trip to Paris and getting fries at a Bistro and thinking: These are better than McDonald’s. Growing up in the states, my gold standard for French fries were found under the Golden Arches. After working with a French chef, I learned that the Bistro in Paris and McDonalds both know the magic secret to a crispy fry. YOU HAVE TO COOK THEM TWICE. The key is to pre-cook them, let them cool and then finish them quickly in hot oil. It works every time.

3 Hour Salad

My daughter Jennifer has renamed my Romaine Wedge Salad with Gorgonzola Aioli as the “3 Hour Salad”. The combination of:

Roasting homemade croutons
Sautéing bacon
Whipping together a Gorgonzola aioli
Prepping a combination of green onion, olives and grape tomatoes with live oil and vinegar
Chopped Romaine Lettuce

What takes me about 30 minutes, will take Jennifer 3 hours. There is something to be said about trying to cook while at the same time keeping an eye on three young.

Shishito Peppers

These are easy to make, taste great and add a perfect amount of zip/color to your plate. I love that they add the zip without too much heat, The funny thing is that 1 in 10 will have a real pop of heat, but that isn’t exactly a bad thing,

Caramelized Onions

These were a last minute addition. It just so happened that we have a lot of onions from our “Buying In Bulk” exercise. A wonderful offshoot is you will add something different

Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon

Our 5 grandkids wither double magnum’s of Phelps Cabernet

Talk about a little splurge. Phelps is one of our favorite vineyards that we first visited back in the 1980’s. Do their wines taste better to us because they remind us of a wonderful afternoon in an idyllic setting 40 years ago? Probably! Past that, Phelps makes a pretty tasty Cabernet.

Steak & Fries is our “go to” meal when having someone to the house for the first time. It is a consistent winner and pretty easy to make. Give it a try sometime.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Haste Ye Back

Haste Ye Back Is a Scottish expression encouraging visitors to return. It has been a year since our trip to Scotland and the crew got together for dinner to celebrate the anniversary with our significant others. The evening was memorable, or in other words, four old men got a chance to bore their wives with war stories from a trip to a foreign country.

Note: The picture of Chuck, Steve, Paul and Len from Turnberry Scotland in April 2022 (Check out the blog)

The menu for the evening skipped the Scottish typical HAGIS, but did build on the theme of one our favorite restaurants in St Andrews. We had a great meal at a small Italian restaurant in the Auld Grey Toon and the menu for the evening memorialized it.

The Menu

Teamwork made the menu fun

A fun aspect for the evening was that all the guys got to cook, or at least help out. A beauty of the menu was that it was mostly prepared in advance and just assembled a la minute. Having the four of us working together made the plating, which can be stressful, a lot of fun. While the foursome is pretty handy with a 5 iron, I wouldn’t say any of us is an accomplished chef. However, with an apron and a little instruction, the guys pulled off the plating with aplomb.

Paul arranged a plate as an example and then plated the pasta, chicken, and spinach/broccoli.
Chuck sauced the chicken with the fresh tomato/mozzarella topping and then dressed it with the basil chiffonade.
Leonard artistically arrange the fresh oregano blossom on the pasta
Steve grated a generous topping of Pecorino Romano cheese on the pasta.

The final product didn’t look too bad.

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the painting Len made to Chuck in appreciation for his masterful efforts in arranging the trip. We have been to Scotland before and have been on hundreds of golf trips, but the job Chuck did in arranging this trip was truly masterful. He got every detail to fit together, right down to slipping 50 quid to the Avis Rental Car lot attendant. Rental cars in Europe are always a challenge, but getting four guys with luggage and golf bags into a rental car in Scotland is a challenge. Chuck’s motivational skills learned in a caddy-yard in Chicago saved the day.

The final event of the evening was a screening of a slideshow from the trip. The show was projected on our 65 inch TV screen accompanied by music. It was quite impressive until the lights went out…literally. Not to be undone by the windstorm outside, we continued by candlelight, huddled around the screening on a laptop.

It was a great trip and a great evening. All four of us kept saying…

HASTE YE BACK

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

The Wine Glass Makes A Difference

The Right Glass

Drinking wine from the right glass, or at least, a good glass, makes a difference. Joseph Phelps Vineyard published a wonderful blog; Choosing The Right Glassware

Seeing this blog brought me back to a wonderful experience we had at Phelps Vineyards back in 2013. Those of you that are fans of this blog know that Phelps is a special place for Susan and I. Back in the 1980’s we fell in love with the place. Our daughter Jennifer was born in California in 1984. In 2013 when Jenn and her husband Ethan, were expecting their first child, we visited the Napa valley. Beforehand, in arranging for a tasting, I wrote Phelps a note about our connection to Phelps, how we bought a 3 liter bottle of Phelps cabernet in 1984 when Jenn was an infant and celebrated her 16th birthday with that bottle. In my note I also mentioned that Jenn was expecting and the plan was for her to reveal the sex of the baby while we were at Phelps. I only lied a little. As a result, Phelps went above and beyond sharing several special wines and also giving us an excellent class on glassware.

Jenn and Ethan Announcing “Baby Boy Begun” at Phelps Vineyard

A few side-notes:

Jenn is still upset with me for scheduling a trip to the Napa Valley while she was pregnant and not able to enjoy the wines. In her defense, she was a great designated driver.
I don’t know if it was payback, but during our next family trip to Cabo San Lucas, our son Brian’s wife Lauren was pregnant with their first and while Jenn got to enjoy learning about good tequila, poor Lauren got to be the DD.
Our godson Mike Schuler and his then Fiancé, Jessica joined us on that Napa trip and the changed their wedding registry as a result of the Phelps class on glassware.

Note: the wine glasses featured in the “Feature Photo” are Jessica and Mike’s “wedding registry” glasses

Brian, Lauren, Jennifer, Ethan, Jessica and Mike getting ready to learn about wine glasses

Following are some excerpts from the Phelps blog. I like to say that I only drink from the glasses recommended, but the truth is, we tend to be a bit more practical. We try to follow the principals learned, but the practicality of entertaining with “dishwasher safe” glasses just makes more sense. I also need to confess, that while I enjoy wine from expensive/thin glasses, being a bit of a clutz, has led to my breaking more glasses than I want to admit.