Comments on: Throwback

By: Anne Ritchings

Anne Ritchings — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:24:57 +0000

Sounds like a fabulous dinner. Congratulations on 20 years, David. I consider myself fortunate to have been your colleague for some of those years in Pennsylvania.
Best,
Anne

By: Sharon

Sharon — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:39:15 +0000

It was weird how old-school the meal was…by accident.

The way we eat, like everything about us, has changed over the years. It’s funny to think that we used to sit around and eat almost a whole baguette between the four of us–in addition to pasta and salad, and sometimes a bit of ice cream. We would never do that now…well, almost never. Maybe if we were on vacation.

Mom used to make chicken breasts with sides and pan sauces a lot, now whenever we eat that we can’t help but giggle at how mid-90′s that feels for us.

And back then, a dinner like the one we had the other night would have been the height of entertaining–shrimp-stuffed artichokes, gold china, kir royales. Nowadays it’s more like good wine, warm tapenade, and beef stew in rustic bowls or martinis, poor man’s sushi, and clam pasta.

Basically we’re waaaaay more fun and relaxed now…but it’s nice to throw it back sometimes. It’ll be interesting to read these posts in a few years and chuckle at ourselves then.

By: susan

susan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:24:16 +0000

Congrats to David and Pam! This meal sounds so good I know I would have licked the gold-rimmed china plates too!

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:31:48 +0000

You’re right, Maggy. I didn’t realize until we were almost through dinner how much this menu was inspired by Julia Child and More Company, one of the books I cut my culinary teeth on nearly 30 years ago.
The contrast between then and now is striking. Take the rack of lamb, for example. Back then you bought them untrimmed, complete with the chine bone (I haven’t said that word in ages!) which the butcher would kindly remove.
But there was more work to be done. If you smiled nicely, the butcher might remove the meat in between the bones, but if you wanted exquisite looking exposed ribs, it was your job to scrape them clean… and I always did.

That extra bit of meat and chine bone didn’t go to waste. You’d use the scraps to make stuffing for roasted tomatoes, and you’d simmer the chine bone to make a flavorful little sauce.
These days rack of lamb comes cryovac-packed with factory-Frenched bones. There is no chine bone for sauce making, no meat scraps for stuffing.
You could lament the past. Yes, the bones were nice, the scraps were great, and all that tedious preparation probably made me appreciate the experience more.
Now I sear the racks before roasting to produce enough drippings so that with a little chicken broth and balsamic vinegar, I’ve got a pretty flavorful sauce in just a few minutes. And compared with making a stuffing and seeding, salting, and draining tomato halves, my sauteed cherry tomatoes make a pretty tasty side dish.
Then? Now? I think I’m gonna go with now.