Two Fires: A Tale of Two Seasons

We're a week from the equinox. It's that perfect time of year when we reap the benefits of summer without the heat. In the week just past we had temperatures in DC in the 90s, but they broke a few days ago and we're enjoying near perfect weather.

So, for a Saturday night at home, I put the game on the radio and headed out onto the patio for some grilling. Tonight's menu: steaks, salad, and a new corn dish I'm just testing.

Go light the fire and set it up for direct heat. Now, let's start with the corn. 

This is a really simple dish of sweet corn, onion, and bacon. First, dice the bacon into good sized pieces. I got some slab bacon at the butcher, so it is nice and thick. I cut off a piece about three inches long and then quartered it. Then I chopped the quarters into small pieces. Toss that into a pan over medium heat. Next dice up a small onion or about half of a big onion like the one in the picture. Once the bacon has started to render its fat, toss in the onion. Stir every little while until the bacon is getting crisp and the onions are translucent and quite soft. Shuck the corn and strip the kernels from the cob, then add them to the pan. At this point, I just turned off the heat and covered the pan while I worked on other parts of the meal.

Put a little salt and pepper on your steaks--we used New York strip steaks tonight. When the fire is ready, add the steaks. Turn them a few times, but not too often.

While the steaks are cooking, start on the salad. We use a vinaigrette we make at home--I like to experiment, but the basic recipe is from The Joy of Cooking. Sometimes I use a lemon base, sometimes red wine vinegar. Sometimes I add Dijon mustard, sometimes not. Anyway, tonight we wanted something nicer than Honeymoon Salad, so I made goat cheese croquettes. Scramble an egg in a small bowl. Slice a round of herbed goat cheese into quarter-inch disks. Dunk these one by one into the egg wash, coat them well with breadcrumbs or Panko, and fry them in a little olive oil until they are brown. Add these to the salad with some pistachios and dried cranberries. You can do the actual cooking of the croquettes just as you take the steaks off and they are resting.

By this time, the corn should be cooked through. Check it, if you need to warm it a bit, or if it's still toothsome, you can put it back over medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Serve with a big red wine--we had a California cabernet sauvignon.

So the best part about this meal and this time of year is that you're enjoying the freshest vegetables--particularly the sweetest corn, but it's still cool outside. So, after dinner I ran upstairs and pulled out this: 

L.L. Bean cotton sweatshirt. 

And then I built this: 

Yep, at 58F it was cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and to really enjoy the first fire of the season. Two fires, actually: the grill and the firepit. Two seasons: summer and fall. Shorts and a sweatshirt. Most excellent.