B Proud, B Courageous, B Happy-9/11/09

In a respectful nod to today's significant date, I will briefly explain my title. I lived in the New York City area eight years ago when the date 9/11 changed its meaning. I taught kids who lost their fathers in the World Trade Center collapse and saw the smoke on my drive to work for days. The thing I remember most at that time was the myriad of flags, banners, and statements of hope that covered every overpass on the freeway. The events of 9/11 were horrible but the response of Americans was amazing and I was proud of the courage displayed on that day and beyond. We have not forgotten but we have returned to life with a sense of joy that disappeared for a short time.

Today Eyrleigh and I changed the tune and celebrated the letter B. We made place mats for dinner with giant B's on them and made sure we used colors that began with B. Honestly, Eyrleigh is a bit young to identify letter shapes but it's never too early to start learning. This month's Gourmet magazine has a menu themed around the letter B that inspired us. Thankfully, this was not a haphazard jumble of ingredients that shared a common first letter but a well thought out menu that happened to alliterate very well. The first recipe began with a bang. (Sorry, lots of B adjectives will be used in the making of this post!) The Beefsteak Tomato, Butterhead Lettuce, and Bacon with Blue Cheese Dressing won the award for most B's in the name but it also was a great recipe. I'm a blue cheese fan and this was some great blue cheese dressing, very thick and nothing to interfere with the wonderful tang of the cheese. The Boston lettuce was a great match with the supple leaves holding lots of dressing. Basically, this was a rich flavorful salad that I could eat quite a bit of.

The meat, Black Pepper Spice-Rubbed Beef Tenderloin, was very simple and also very good. The rub was well spiced and adhered well to the meat. One of my common complaints with rubs is they are often too salty. This rub was perfect. I appreciated the fact that there was no additional sauce or gravy to accompany the meat. I often feel like these additions detract from the meat and are too much in a large menu. This meat was cooked perfectly as written but I will admit I dipped a few pieces in the extra blue cheese dressing from the salad. Mmmmmmm!

After two very rich components, this menu got a bit lighter with two healthy sides. The Bulgar with Herbs was a combination of bulgar wheat and fresh herbs with a light lemon and oil dressing. I actually liked the salad more the colder it got. It brought out the fresh lemon taste and made the herbs crunchier. I just went and got another bite out of the fridge and it tastes great cold too. The other side of a Bevy of Beans and Basil was the one dish I thought might have tried a bit hard to use the letter B. The long beans and green beans were so similar there wasn't really a need for both. The edamame stood out with a difference in texture and flavor. Maybe a bean of a different color like a red bean or a white bean would have added both a visual and flavor difference.
Our dessert tonight, the Berries and Buttermilk Puddings, looks pretty good in the picture but it was more of a buttermilk sauce then a pudding. The recipe called for only one teaspoon of gelatin, presumably to give the pudding a bit more give than a Jello-like firmness. Well, once you put a spoon in the buttermilk pudding, it collapsed into liquid. This watery consistency didn't affect the flavor though. This was a simple mix of pudding, strawberry sauce, and berries and made for a great late summer dessert. Eyrleigh was a big fan. Anything with berries is guaranteed to make her very, very happy. And you can B sure of that!

Beefsteak Tomato, Butterhead Lettuce, and Bacon with Blue Cheese Dressing-A

Black Pepper Spice Rubbed Beef Tenderloin-A

Bulgar with Herbs-B

Bevy of Beans and Basil-C

Berries and Buttermilk Puddings-B