Sea Cruise

One of my best friends in Santa Cruz is about to take a gig aboard a cruise ship (the Grand Princess) as part of the orchestra. As I hadn't seen Rob for a long time I wanted to be sure we got together before he shipped out, so I invited him and his boyfriend Stuart over for dinner. Plus, I've been eager to make some real food in my new kitchen.

We had quite the feast: Caesar Salad with Baked Tofu, Whole-Wheat Penne and Roasted Asparagus with Blood Orange Gremolata, and Rosemary Foccacia. All of it organic, of course, and the asparagus was from a nearby farm in Hollister.

For dessert I made a Strawberry-Red Pear Tart with Coconut-Lavender Anglaise Sauce, based on recipes from my all-time favorite restaurant, Millennium.

The tart recipe calls for rhubarb, but I couldn't find any locally since it's early in the season. So I substituted some large red anjou pears and they worked beautifully. The crust is a fantastic pastry dough with toasted walnuts; it's very forgiving and thus easy to work with, and it's so flavorful versus a plain crust. I filled a 10" tart pan so there was plenty left over after we each had a generous slice.

For parings, we started with Bonny Doon's 2005 "Il Giocoliere" Moscato d'Asti as an apertif then moved to their 2005 Vin Gris de Cigare with the salad. With the pasta we had a La Loggia 2002 Barolo.

Everyone enjoyed dinner, and it was good to catch up with Rob and Stuart.

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Sea Cruise	Song by Rico