Heading down to California for a conference at the beginning of December, I tacked on a weekend beforehand to swing through to Santa Monica to meet up with my cousin Aaron, his wife Julie, their son Clark (soon to be 3 years old), and their new born twins Laila and Vaughn (3 months).
Due to the young brood, we weren't very mobile, so we decided to cook up a Saturday night feast. Cooking a meal together was an ideal way to spend the evening, and the kitchen feels like a natural place to spend time with Aaron and Julie. Many of our conversations tend to revolve around food, and over the years I've introduced them to some of unique tastes from Alaska-- birch syrup, wild Alaskan blueberry jam, and wine and mead produced in Alaska. The first time I met Julie in person and was then able to hang out exclusively with her was about 4 years ago when they were living in San Francisco. It was a Elliott cousins reunion where those cousins that could met up tin SF for a few days. I stayed a day longer than the others and was crashing on Aaron & Julie's couch. The moment that really bonded as family was while Julie & I made tin foil liners for the burners on their stove.
Reaching back to our Midwest heritage and keeping in mind my gluten-free dietary requirements, we planned a meal of steaks, mashed potatoes, grilled zucchini, and Aaron's special garlic broccoli. I also made a batch of fudgie wudies for dessert.
Aaron picked up some lovely NY strip steaks at the local market. He coated them with coarse rock salt so they sparkled like diamonds plus added a bit of fresh ground pepper... and then onto the grill they went!
Also on the grill were the zucchini-- sliced into medallions and tossed in olive oil. It had already gotten dark out by the time we were ready to grill, but I always pack a headlamp in my suitcase when traveling because it inevitably becomes useful-- for such occasions as grilling in the dark.
Once the steaks were done and resting, the potatoes needed mashing... just a little bit of milk, butter, and fresh ground pepper.
The last component of the meal to create was:
Aaron's special garlic broccoli
Ingredients:
chopped broccoli
lots of garlic
olive oil
pinch of salt
Mince the garlic. Aaron demonstrated his garlic peeling technique which involves shaking loose cloves of garlic in two bowls of the same size (with one bowl inverted and place as a lid over the other bowl).
And... Voilà!
Heat the olive oil until it's quite hot and add a bit of salt and the minced garlic. Let cook for a minute or so and then add chopped broccoli.
Continue cooking until the garlic is crunchy.
Aaron, a sommelier who has served as the Wine Director at a number of top notch restaurants, selected a special bottle of wine from one of the wineries he now represents to pair with the meal. I don't know a whole lot about wine, but I do know that this was fantastic bottle of wine...
With three small children amongst us needing attention, dinner was eaten in shifts and at the kiddie table...
One of the first questions I was welcomed with when Aaron picked me up from LAX was "Did you bring us fudgie wudgies?" To his credit, Aaron did not leave me at the airport when I informed him that I had no fudgie wudgies with me, so I did feel compelled to whip up a batch for dessert.
Fudgie Wudgies
Ingredients:
2/3 part wudge
1/3 part fudge
love
Vanilla Hagen Daz (to garnish)
***Always use only top quality wudge and fudge. When possible, have an external quality control agent.***
Spread half of the wudge in the bottom of a baking pan. Layer the fudge over it, and then top with the remaining wudge.
Bake in the oven until done. When cool enough to cut into bars, serve to loved ones with a little Vanilla Hagen Daz.
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