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The tradition continues.

Montchèvre Cranberry and cinnamon goat cheese
Sautéed duck liver
Trader Joe's sliced truffles in olive oil
Assorted crackers


Roast duck with cranberry-hazelnut stuffing
Sautéed potatoes and onions
Roasted acorn squash

Trader Joe's "everything" ciabatta rolls

Tossed salad with balsamic vinaigrette

J. Lohr Syrah 2021 (Paso Robles)


Denver chocolate pudding
Moroccan mint tea


The truffles were kind of strong all by themselves; I liked them OK, jwg was more dubious. I think they'd be good as an addition to rice or mashed potatoes.

I started the duck – a rather large one, at over 6 pounds – at 425F, reduced to 350 after 15 minutes; at just over an hour the meat thermometer claimed about 190, so I took it out. I don't think it was that well done; the legs seemed a little on the rare side, but it was fine. I still have no clue how to actually carve a duck.

The wine was nice. We've done pinot noir with duck at times in the past, but I prefer something s little more robust.

The Denver pudding (which is basically a chocolate cake imbued with chocolate syrup, from a recipe in my mother's old Fannie Farmer cookbook) came out exactly right (there have been occasional problems with its consistency in the past), probably because I was reminded by reviewing an earlier instance of this report to use slightly less milk and sugar than specified. The tea, which was one of my gifts to John, was very good, and complemented the dessert nicely.

Maintaining the tradition (and also so I'll know next year what we had this year):

Octopus in olive oil
Mt. Tam triple cream (from Cowgirl Creamery via Whole Foods)
Somerdale "Cooper Hill"
Assorted crackers

Roast stuffed Cornish game hen
Roasted sweet potatoes with cranberries
Asparagus with hollandaise sauce
Dinner rolls from Whole Foods
Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Serie Terra B5 Malbec (2019)

Pear and blackberry tart
Gil's peach wine (2006)


Notes on the cheeses: The Mt. Tam is a soft cheese with a brie-like texture and rind, but rather milder in flavor. I think "Somerdale" is a brand name, and their "Cooper Hill" is what I've seen called "Cotswold" elsewhere, which is to say Double Gloucester with chives.

Notes on the main course: These were fairly small hens, with the consequence that I cooked them a little too long, but they were still good. I would not have attempted hollandaise as part of an elaborate meal, but jwg had made eggs Benedict for breakfast, and there was hollandaise left over, which paired very nicely with the asparagus.

Notes on the wines: The Malbec was smooth and pleasant. The dessert wine was made by a dance friend named Gil (since moved away from the Boston area), who always brought a couple of kinds of his home-made wine to our summer party, and as you can see we've had this one lying around for a long time, so we decided it was time to drink it. It's very nice, and went very well with the tart, which is a good thing, since we have a fair amount of both of them left over. (The tart is an old standby of ours, using a recipe we got from my mother many years ago.)

Some things were a bit different this year.

Black lumpfish caviar
Lactaris Petit Brie
Point Reyes Toma
Assorted crackers

Roast tenderloin of beef
Oven-roasted potatoes
Brussels sprouts sautéed with balsamic vinegar and walnuts
Mixed green salad with mustard vinaigrette

2014 Guenoc Valley Petite Syrah

Chocolate éclair (from Whole Foods)

Tea Forte "bleu mint"


I had been trying to decide whether to make a duck or a rack of lamb as in years past, when I came upon a recipe in the Boston Globe for a roast tenderloin that looked both very good and pretty easy. (The piece suggested accompanying it with a sour-cream-horseradish sauce, which we omitted, although I might want to try it sometime, using plain yogurt rather than sour cream, which we don't generally have in the house.) One thing I might do differently next time if I make this again: the roast was seasoned with garlic and fresh rosemary, which it said to chop very fine "until it's almost a paste", and then press onto the surface of the meat; I was not really able to get a paste-like consistency by chopping, and most of the seasoning came off in the pan when I browned the meat. (This may not have mattered, as I had followed the recommendation to put the seasonings on the night before.) I don't know why they didn't recommend crushing the garlic in a press, which I think I'd try next time.

Still, it came out very nice, flavorful and tender. The "10 to 20 minutes" cooking time ended up being more like half an hour to get to medium rare, but nothing was time-critical (and, in fact, it wouldn't have hurt to cook the Brussels sprouts a little longer).

The wine complemented the meat nicely.

The tea was from an assortment that I gave jwg of herbal teas from a brand called Tea Forte; this collection is called "Bleu", and the tea was in fact bluish -- I'm guessing they all are.

To keep my record up-to-date:

Auguste Lepetit Brie
Smoked Oysters in Red Chile Pepper
Assorted crackers

Roast rack of lamb with garlic, rosemary, and thyme
Oven-roasted potatoes
Sautéed délicata squash and onions
Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette
Nashoba Brook Sourdough Boule

Gil's Maréchal Foch 2012

Denver Chocolate Pudding
Tealuxe "Orange Zephyr" tea

Another home-made wine from our friend Gil -- we don't have many left, and he's moved to California, so we probably won't be getting any more.

A very nice meal all around. A few notes for future reference:

I didn't notice until I was putting them out that the oysters were in red chile; they were pretty spicy, but not more so than jwg could tolerate. Quite good, actually.

After my previous experience with rack of lamb (see 2012 and 2015), I figured I'd do it longer than the recipe referenced there said, but also decided to check with a meat thermometer after 15 minutes of lower temperature, and the thermometer claimed 145F, so I took it out. Turned out it was quite a bit rarer than intended, and I'm kind of annoyed at myself for not reporting the actual cooking time from the most successful one (2015). I think next time I'll just cut into the meat and see what it looks like before taking it out.

I don't know why all the recipes I looked at for sautéed delicata squash suggested cooking times of under 10 minutes, when it actually takes 15-20 to get it tender.

It's that time of year again.

Brie de Paris
Sauteed duck liver
Sardines on crackers

Roast duck
Cranberry-orange-rice stuffing
Oven-roasted potatoes
Steamed asparagus with lemon butter

Iggy's whole-wheat rolls
Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Paul Dolan Zinfandel, 2010

Denver chocolate pudding
Ginger-lemon tea


OK, I think I've got this duck thing more or less down, although it would have been all right to take it out about 10 minutes earlier. (This was 1:45 at 400.) This time I followed a recipe that recommended pouring boiling water over it and then letting it dry for an hour in order to get a crispy skin, which might have worked if I had paid attention and not poured the water over the back rather than the breast.

The brie was not as runny as we had expected, after being out of the refrigerator for over four hours. The wine was good but not truly memorable. I'll remember the next time I make Denver pudding to cut back a little more on the liquids, and I think I'll use less sugar too (the recipe calls for a lot of it).

It was a lovely repast.

Another in the continuing series.

Camembert ("selected by Hervé Mons for Whole Foods")
Marinated artichokes
Sardines in mustard sauce
Assorted crackers

Rack of lamb with rosemary, thyme & garlic
Sauteed potatoes and onions
Steamed asparagus with lemon butter
Trader Joe's multi-grain rolls

Green salad with mustard vinaigrette

Sonoma County Old Vine Red (Lot 55)

Denver chocolate pudding
Bengal Spice tea


We'd never done rack of lamb at home before, but we figured it wouldn't be terribly difficult, and it wasn't. It came out very nice, even though it took longer than this recipe indicated, and even so was slightly rarer than I was aiming for. It's possible that our oven runs cooler than the marked temperature, or maybe the recipe is just wrong.

In keeping with recent tradition, for the record:

Goat Brie
Sardine paté
Crackers

Cornish game hen with orange-rice stuffing
Oven-roasted potatoes
Steamed asparagus with lemon butter
Iggy's French rolls
Tossed salad with mustard vinaigrette

Château Greysac Médoc 2005

Denver chocolate pudding¹
Bengal Spice tea

¹This came out the way it was supposed to, unlike the last time. I cut down on the liquid ingredients a bit.

(For future reference)

Cheese & crackers, smoked oysters

Roast duck with cornbread-giblet-mushroom-cranberry-pine-nut stuffing
Yam and apple casserole
Steamed asparagus with lemon butter
Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Denver chocolate pudding ¹
Acaí mango zinger tea

2001 Blackstone Merlot

¹ This is an old Fannie Farmer recipe that my mother used to make now and then when I was a kid; we've made it before, and it usually comes out as a moist cakey thing permeated with a thick chocolate sauce. For some reason it came out kind of soupy this year.