Julie's Potato Wedges

Peter and I have been working like dogs this last month putting our second book to bed. We must be ready to turn in the manuscript to our indexer by July 20, else we’ll put the project off by another few months as our August and September are very busy with other projects. During these crazy few weeks Peter has been working in the office quite a bit and I’ve been working at home -- a bit of let’s just each work solo so we can put our heads down, work without distraction, and finish what for the last few months has felt more like an albatross than anything else. Given that I don’t see him until late into the night he has surprised me several times during the last few weeks by coming home while I’m at the gym, setting a table for one with a formal dinner setting, lighting candles and putting one of my favorite CDs on.

Tonight I returned from the gym to another one of his lovely settings. He even placed sliced lemons for me in my water and had a wonderful glass of red wine sitting next to it. The light was softly lit and my favorite Dave Matthews CD was playing. I don’t know what I did to deserve this sweet and thoughtful man. I am as lucky as they come.

With such a lovely place setting I had to make something as elegant, regardless if it was just dinner for one. Richard Wong and his family were staying with us recently and they loved our collection of colored Le Creuset pots on our stove. They were so taken by the beautiful green pot from Kaoru, the candy apply rissoto pot from Maya, and the deep blue pan we treated ourselves to last Christmas that they wanted to add a fourth color to the collection! So as a host and hostess gift Rich and Vivienne gave us a fun and summery Le Creuset ridged fry pan in their original orange. It was inaugurated tonight.

In the pan I seared a piece of pork tenderloin marinated in soy-ginger sauce that we picked up yesterday from Seaside (is there any other luxury than a high-grade market within a mile that does fabulous pre-marinated meats for the grill?). It went into the oven with Julie’s potatoes wedges in the same pan. I used one sweet potato as I thought the sweet potato would pair nicely with the soy-ginger pork. It took less than five minutes to put in the oven and was as delicious as meals come. Best yet, the tenderloin and sweet potato cost less than $6 and is plenty for two.

I think the first time I ever felt like a real adult was an evening spent very similar to this one – an elegant meal by myself with a lovely glass of red wine (that I actually enjoyed as opposed to thinking I should enjoy it) and Norah Jones crooning in the background (Pete is not as big a fan of hers as I am so I indulge when he’s not home). Tonight was one of those nights.