The Pu's in Adult Land

We had the distinct pleasure on Saturday to visit the discerning palates of noted blogger Pulisha of Pu's Corner fame and her husband Tim de Buffalo. Pu's Corner is noted for its brilliant but highly rare posts on the realities of raising three young children.

This is the first time that I have done cooking in earnest since the operation. And in spite of planning, restraint in the construction of the menu, I over did it. This was the first time the the Venerable Capitan Pu and Tim de have been to our house with out the hoard. At first Wife and I were a bit bewildered because we couldn't understand Captain Pu until we realized she was speaking in complete sentences without a single phrased interrupted by an exclamation toward a child. A great time was had by all.

Our Menu (inspired by reader suggestions)

• Crostini with Roasted Cheese or Proscutto
• Beef Jerky Risotto w/a mushroom ragout and salad
• Steak w/red wine butter and Spinach in olive oil and garlic
• Poached peaches with fresh rasberries and vanilla ice cream

Making a Stock

I sauteed beef ribs with onions, carrots and celery, broiled same to really get flavor development, then put in my fluids and final flavors

Reducing Red Wine with Shallots for the Butter

The Butter before Cooling

This looked a horrible pink color but ended up tasting great

Blury Picture of Risotto Cooking

Could it be the wine or was it just fatigue? Last winter I was playing around with making a meat sauce by reconstituting beef jerky. I ended out with a very intense flavoring agent. I had some in the freezer and used it as the base for my risotto

The Venerable Captain Pu and Tim de Buffalo with Cheese Crostini (looking remarkably like grilled cheese - ya but it's high class cheese!)

Captain Pu - The Happy Warrior

Venerable Pu was helping me out with the risotto when I was pooping out.

Risotto, Mushrooms and Salad

Steak and Spinach

Ready to Dig into the Main Course

Our Wines: A Chateauneuf du Pape and a Bordeau

Food Model de Buffalo Modeling Poached Pears

Two Bottles of Wine - Not Enought

So we broke out Durnstein, Austria's best grocery store apricot brandy