Rainy Sunday

I love weekends like this one.  Laid back, nothing on the agenda.  Yesterday I kicked off my Saturday by making some biscotti for my friend Sara.  We had a shopping/wine imbibing date scheduled, and I wanted to surprise her.  One of my favorite combinations ever in food land is peppermint and chocolate.  Sara has always hated this duo, yet subjected to it at least once a year when my birthday rolled around and we all had mint chocolate chip ice cream cake because let's face it- it doesn't get any better than that.

The stars have realigned and Sara is now quasi-obsessed with this new combo.  So mint double chocolate chip biscotti was a must.  The recipe I used was modified from a Weight Watchers recipe (who am I kidding, we all know I was going to eat some of Sara's biscotti).  Although it's not bad, it's not my favorite, so I don't think I'll share the recipe on this one unless someone really wants it.  I was quite proud of my little wrapped biscotti parcel though.  I didn't have any decorative disposable food containers, so I wrapped the buggers up in some parchment paper.


So off I scampered to Wine Authorities for some fun wine tasting followed by shoe shopping and completely forgot my little parcel!  Ah well, such is life.  After a lovely afternoon of shopping, it was time to fire up the grill.  It was time for Jeremy to fire up the grill, rather.  He had gifted me with some parmesan reggiano and some crusty bread from Whole Foods still hot from the oven to go along with our beautiful London Broil.  I like to keep the seasoning simple for really beautiful cuts of meat, so I stuck with a generous rub of pink salt and course ground black pepper.  So while Jeremy Grill Master fired up the grill, I sipped on a glass of incredible Dom. de la Bouysse, Corbieres Rouge "Mazerac", Languedoc, France 2007 (say that three times fast) and cooked up the broccoli.  One large head of broccoli cut into spears gets steamed only until bright emerald green and slightly tender.  Meanwhile,  two thinly sliced cloves of garlic get nice and toasty in two teaspoons of olive oil with one teaspoon of crushed red pepper.  When garlic has browned, squeeze the juice of one whole lemon in the pan.  Let it continue to cook down until broccoli has finished steaming.  Toss with broccoli.  Take steak off the grill when medium rare and let it rest for five minutes before slicing against the grain. The meal was rounded out by the crusty bread spread with some local herbed dill goat cheese from Celebrity Dairy.

Simple, delicious, and one of my favorite weekend dinners.


Another favorite I haven't had in quite some time is homemade pizza.  The whole wheat dough is proofing in my fridge, I'm listening to some Robert Earl Keen and Johnny Cash, and about to cozy up with a nice cup of coffee.  I hope you're having a wonderful Day of Rest.