jonbaker wanted red meat. He doesn't usually make requests, so when he does, I try to fulfill them.



The menu:
Shoulder steak
Zucchini and mushrooms*
Baked red skin potato

He came home early - he left for work early and came home early. I'd just finished the vegetable dish. The steaks were cut thin, so they would cook up quickly, and the potatoes were in the oven already. Ten minutes later, we were sitting at the table with plates of food and something different - glasses of red wine. To be precise, a lovely cabernet sauvignon. Some one suggested we have wine with dinner a couple nights a week for blood pressure reasons, but in fact, it enhanced the meal.

We don't always eat together, since I have to keep more or less to a schedule and he tends to go to work late and come home late. Or I hurry to reheat and cook dinner, and I'm frazzled. Or...

None of this. Just good food and wine and we talked, and he told me the sermon he's going to give this Shabbat (our rabbi is on vacation, so members of the synagogue are taking it in turn to give the talks.) And so we had Torah as well as food. We were still glowing about it when we went to sleep later.

*One zucchini
One white onion (about baseball sized)
1/4 pound mushrooms (1/2 box)
Salt/pepper/olive oil

Slice the zuke and the mushrooms thinly. Cut the onion in half stem to root, and then, laying the cut side down on the board. cut in half again, leaving the two quarters attached at the root. Slice across thinly. This will give you thin quarter onion slices. Heat a saute pan, add olive oil and then the onions. Cook until the onions are soft but not brown. Add the mushrooms and zucchini, plus salt and pepper. When the zucchini turns translucent, it's done.

Serves two generously as a side dish.