Last nights dinner

We had a friend over for dinner, the kind of friend that only ever makes sense. In celebration we went kind of all out on the food front. Here's the menu:

Steaks - Dead, happy animals, not factory farmed BS. BBQ'd to rare. Only problem was I got too much meat for two people to eat. Not everyone felt this was a problem.

Potato - Kind of scalloped, but without cheese or flour. Sliced and layered local, organic spuds with onion, minced Ontario garlic, paprika, salt and pepper and a dab of Becel in every layer. Potato ends saved for the top to keep in moisture. Put in an enamel cast iron pot with lid and baked at 300 for 40 min, then 400 for 20 min. This turned out very, very nicely and will happen again.

Alt salad - No idea where I was going with this one at first, but it seemed like it might be tastey. Fried up some onion and red bell peppers until they were soft (onion first, bell peppers much later) in Becel. Steamed one sliced, pitted pear, skin left on. Steamed some slices of scrubbed (but not skinned) beets. Served very hot - bed of peppers and onion topped with beets, topped with pear and finally goats cheese which melted just slightly into the pear and beet. Fucking awesome. Will be doing this one again for sure.

Other salad - Just torn up organic lettuce, poor bastard. It was breakfast this morning, no one paid it any heed last night.

Veg - Asparagus, cleaned and chopped, tossed with olive oil and fresh cracked salt and pepper, BBQ'd in a steel wok. Still crunchy when served, this might be my new favorite way to have asparagus.

Wine - Normally I drink red, but last nights guest drinks white so I had to go outside my comfort zone in shopping. I picked a low range bottle of Le Clos Jordanne Chardonnay, cousin to a higher range bottle that had beat out wines from all over the world in a competition last year. Oh my goodness, it was good. Buttery, round and full of life. It had character and stories to tell. It told us about sun splattered days and shenanigans at the vineyard and we were highly entertained.

Now, our guest had brought a bottle as well so we moved on to another Chardonnay from Niagara, Peller Estates. Normally quite a palatable wine it was unremarkable by comparison, a relative wallflower. This drastic side by side goes to show that you can’t judge a wine by it’s region, ever. There’s so much more that goes into making wine, and people who go on at me about there being no good Canadian wines? Have simply not met the right one. Le Clos Jordanne – or Jordy as we like to call her – is welcome back any time.