Ingredients
Heat the oven to 450ºF.
Ingredients
Our wine-making pal, Nan Bailey, is the local Tom Sawyer. At harvest time at her Alexis Bailey Vineyard we are all invited to lunch, but first we have to pick. Kids and bees are everywhere, and appetites build to farmhand stature by noon.
The pineapple is a symbol for hospitality and friendship and serves as an image of welcome . . . not unlike the appetizer. Nothing will welcome friends better than a pineapple-flavored, pineapple-shaped appetizer.
I love to come home, blast some music, pour myself a beverage, and make a meatloaf sandwich on a baguette with a pile of these fries. Since they aren’t fried, it’s not a super gross late-night snack. The thinness makes them crispy, so it’s really like half potato chip, half fry. As my best friend says, it’s all about the dipping sauces: BBQ, ketchup, honey mustard, ranch, and sriracha mayo.
Spoon this jam onto Belgian endive leaves for near-instant antipasto. If we were in India, this jam would be called a chutney. It's done with an old formula that never lets you down. Brown onion; add vinegar, sugar and wine. Boil them down to a sweet-sour caramel, and blend in fruit.
Who would imagine browning deviled eggs to caramelize their edges and crisp their fillings? What a sensual turn with a hard-cooked egg. We owe the idea to Jacques Pépin and his memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen.
Roasting blanched almonds very slowly insures that they remain crisp for several weeks. In addition to bundling them with bottles of bone-dry Manzanilla sherry as gifts, I often serve the combination when friends drop by for cocktails.