Dateline:Hot Springs, Virginia.
Eileen and Betsy are back… with their LABOR DAY FRENCH GRILL FANDANGO
“No one really cares that OUR objective is to cook our way through French Grill,” Eileen said. “Every day we got the question “Are we having the Camembert burger today?’ More about that later.
We grilled ourselves to…well I don’t want to say death, let’s just say we grilled a lot” Eileen continued. “And oops, we made some repeats, because they’ve become our favorites – The Grilled Bread with Smashed Tomatoes (pg. 41) the Romesco Sauce (pg. 74).
“Now for the Smokey Pork Shoulder à la Francaise (pg. 166) which we are renaming Smokey Pork Shoulder à la Dragon. The honey, beer, and grainy mustard (and it HAS to be the grainy stuff) marinade makes a gorgeous, tangy and sweet crust on the meat. We doubled the recipe so that we would have plenty of sauce and we are glad we did,” Eileen says.
à La Dragon
“So…à la Dragon. When you make something for the first time there is a hiccup, which is why you should never try out a new recipe for a dinner party, even though all of our friends know that their role is to be guinea pigs. This takes the pressure off. “ Betsy said. “Sort of.”
Eileen continued. “The pork is fool proof, we did discover…but not right away. We took it out of the glorious marinade, put it in the center of the heated grill and closed the lid for 15 minutes (when we were to turn it because we do not have a rotisserie). From the kitchen things looked a tad smokey. Then it went from a tad smokey to, well…….we ran out, opened the lid, and the dragon inside spit fire at us!!! We would have taken a photo, but between putting the grill mitts on, looking for the industrial strength tongs to remove the damn pork, and our singed eyebrows, the photo op was missed.”
“Now, you’d think that that was the end of the pork, wouldn’t you? Nope. We were the champs Susan has taught us to be (always a way to correct a mistake) so we turned down the heat, scraped off the more industrial strength charred bits, put it back on the grill and turned it every five minutes LIKE THE RECIPE SAID and we did not leave it once! It was delicious – moist, a ton of flavor as though the meat was infused.”
Grilled Vegetable Salad is so Easy
“We served Grilled Vegetable Salad (pg. 76), too, which is super easy because you grill the vegetables whole or halved so it is easy to move them around,” Betsy said.
“And we did the Bacon Wrapped Goat Cheese Salad (pg. 62) too, which was OUT OF THIS WORLD.”
“The Little Spice Cookies (pg. 244) were a snap, even without an electric mixer. We served them with store bought vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce…sorry Susan! Next time we’ll use your recipes, but it was (non) Labor Day.” Eileen said.
And now, the Camembert Burger
“We were down to a small group. Betsy’s husband, Rags, looked at us so plaintively we caved. Susan, when we drift from your suggestions we goof. We used apples that weren’t from your list and they were mealy and not sweet. Never again. Always follow the recipes…” Eileen said.
“As we were finishing off the cookies and the ice cream (and the wine) we asked Rags, who is a great taster because he’s been eating so well for so long, if there has been one recipe so far that we should not make again.”
“No, I could have every single dish again.” Nuff said…
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