The orange colored walls in the living room, that is. In the bright light of day, the warmth of the burnt orange/terra cotta really does complement the paneling, kitchen cupboards, and wallpaper, so MAYBE this will work after all. At least for a while. Fortunately, paint is not as hard to change as wallpaper, should one get tired of the color.
Today was a day of errands, mostly of the grocery shopping variety, and I tried a new tenderloin recipe tonight. It's an Epicurious.com recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Tenderloin-with-Port-Balsamic-Sauce-5808, and it was pretty easy and quite good.
Of course, my cooking was not without a little drama, in this case my discovery that the bottle of port in my liquor cabinet was not ruby port, but tawny port.
According to Wikipedia, "Tawny ports are wines made from red grapes that are aged in wooden barrels using the Solera process, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation. As a result, they gradually mellow to a golden-brown colour. The exposure to wood imparts 'nutty' flavours to the wine, which is blended to match the house style.
"Tawny ports are sweet or medium dry and typically consumed as a dessert wine.
"When a Port is described as Tawny, without an indication of age, it is a basic blend of wood aged port that has spent at least seven years in barrels. Above this are Tawny with an indication of age which represent a blend of several vintages, with the average years 'in wood' stated on the label. The official categories are 10, 20, 30 and over 40 years. The categories indicate a target age profile for the Ports, not their actual ages, though many people mistakenly believe that the categories indicate the minimum average ages of the blends. It is also possible to produce an aged white port in the manner of a tawny, with a number of shippers now marketing 10 year old White Ports."
A ruby port, on the other hand, is simply "the cheapest and most extensively produced type of port. After fermentation, it is stored in tanks made of concrete or stainless steel to prevent oxidative aging and preserve its rich claret color. The wine is usually blended to match the style of the brand to which it is to be sold. The wine is fined and cold filtered before bottling and does not generally improve with age."
Since I live in Texas, I am under the constraints of the remnants of the old Blue Laws, which means that I can't buy hard liquor on a Sunday. Anywhere. It's seriously stupid when in OTHER states you can go into a grocery store and buy whatever you want, as long as the grocery store is open. Alright, no politics, but I've found it damned inconvenient since I moved here in 1973, and the feeling isn't abating with time.
So I was stuck with tawny port but it didn't seem to matter. The sauce came out quite good, if a trifle sweet -- I think it might have to do with a touch too much balsamic vinegar, which I will adjust next time, but I will definitely try it again. I served the tenderloin with oven fried potatoes (cut potatoes in thin strips, dry with paper towels, toss with a tablespoon of oil and some salt -- I used kosher salt -- and bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, turning over halfway through) and Green Beans Almondine (steam green beans slightly, leaving them crispy, then saute in butter with chopped garlic, salt & pepper, and sliced almonds).
The wine of the evening was that excellent $20 cabernet that I bought at Parker Wine Cellars on Thursday night.
I also made Jambalaya (because I didn't think that Jennie was going to eat the tenderloin but she surprised me), an excellent and easy recipe from my friend Karen, who lives in Louisiana so knows what she's talking about, and I will share that recipe tomorrow. Fortunately, Jambalaya tastes even better the second day, and it will be happily eaten then.
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