First Grill-Out, Continued: Dessert at Hot Chocolate

Sorry, the quality of these photos is not up to par. The lighting was quite low at the restaurant. As soon as I get a chance, I will tweak things in Photoshop and hopefully you'll be able to see the dishes!

After eating such a great steak, we both agreed that such a fine meal was almost too good to not be followed by dessert. It was early enough that we decided to go out to one of Chicago's hottest dessert restaurants, Hot Chocolate.

We started off our dining experience with some wine and a cheese plate. Specifically, I had the Artizuri Garnacha (another Spanish red!), and the wife had Fritz's Riesling, a semi-dry Austrian riesling. Both paired well with the cheese plate, which had Manchego Grand Reserve, Dunbarton Bleu, and Grand Cru Gruyere, along with some candied nuts, plain crostini, shortbread cookies, and a baby green salad.

After our cheese course (because, after all, we were making this the continuation of our dinner!), we ordered our desserts. I had the Poppycock dessert, which is quite possibly the most delectable thing I have ever tasted. It is a pecan pie square with caramel corn ice cream on one side, and the other side is a piece of shortbread with caramel corn ice cream, topped with a drizzle of honey, tangerine, and vanilla bean cream. Oh, and there is some poppycock (think Cracker Jacks, but better) on top of both sides that just completes the dish. It was unbelievable.

The wife had a creme brulee that was nearly perfect: creamy, sweet, caramelized, and had a hint of citrus to it. I much preferred my dish, but hers could not be ignored either.

First Grill-Out of the Year

My parents-in-law, with some health issues and general concern for eating wholesome foods, are fond of purchasing grass-fed antibiotic-free beef from their local Amish butcher in Kentucky. It so happens that said butcher only sells entire sides of beef or whole butchered cows. And thankfully, my parents-in-law recognize they cannot eat a whole cow in a year, and are generous enough to send us home to Chicago with a cooler full of various roasts, steaks, and ground beef.

In celebration of the first truly sunny day we've had in a while, I decided to grill some of that beef. Specifically, four T-Bone Steaks that I've been itching to eat since we trucked them up to Chicago from Kentucky over Christmas. A simple garlic salt & pepper rub was all they needed for flavor before they went on the grill. A few minutes on each side, and we had perfect medium steaks.

Meanwhile, the wife was inside sauteing red, orange, and green bell pepper, sweet onion, and sugar snap peas along with some herbs. We opened a bottle of 2001 Sierra Cantabria Rioja, a spicy Spanish red wine that had mellowed a couple years in our wine rack. It was about the best first cook-out of the year that I can recall having.

The moral of this story is simple: When you get married, find a spouse with in-laws who buy too much grass-fed beef and will give it to you for free so you can enjoy it.

Or, put another way: when you get good ingredients, don't mess them up by trying to be overly fancy.