Masked Meat Loaf

Wine: Chateau Margaux Premier Grand Cru Classe 1989 – John had given us this wine years ago, and seemed appropriate to serve it back to him.

John Carpenter finally arrived from San Francisco. He was supposed to come last week but got sick. We had a Provencal dinner for a cold night. We cooked two recipes from Paula Wolfert Cookbook: Mediterranean Grains and Greens.

The previous weekend Lynn Friedman and Beth Rimby from San Francisco stayed with us. They work for KGO-TV in San Francisco. Beth is a producer and Lynn an edior for the I-Team that does investigative reports. They had produced a series that won an award about the Egg Industry and the conditions that non-free range chickens live under. They came to Los Angeles to receive their award at the Beverly Hilton. They brought to us from San Francisco some truffle products (truffle oil,truffles sliced in oil and truffle salt. They also brought Dessert Sauces (Carmel and Chocolate). We decided to work both the truffles and the chocolate into this dinner.

Farro and Chick Pea Soup a very thick soup. It was a little bland but with the additional of sliced truffles the soup became a declicious first course.

Potato with truffle Salt, Olive Oil, Cathy created this dish and it was great, lots of small fingerlings roasted and crisp with the truffle flavor from the salt.

Provencal Meat Loaf this is really more vegetable then meat, with Chard, Spinich, Artichoke bottoms (that are a pain to cook) and prosciutto, sausage, ground pork, etc. The entire mixture is made the day before so the flavors meld and then wrapped in cabbage and cooked as a single giant stuffed cabbage. It is very rich.

The second day we made a tomato sauce from scratch and served it over the room temperature meat loaf.

The meat loaf has a very complex flavor due to all the ingredients and went well with the tomato sauce.

There is a gourmet ice cream we have been buying: Sheer Bliss, we had the vanilla flavor with the Extra Bitter Chocolate Sauce from Recchiuti Confections. The chocolate sauce is like fudge, it is fantastically good and only available in San Francisco at the Ferry Building or via the internet. We served Chocolate Covered Dipped Tozzetti from Buona Forchetta with the ice cream.

Great Dinner!