Friends and dinner

This afternoon, we had a really special treat. A dear friend and her new husband came over, and a TBD visit turned into an hours-long, wonderful hang-out session. It was so much fun and truly quite dear: they're expecting, and being with them brought me back to being a newlywed and to-be-mom myself. After they left, I started in on dinner. Craving a steak, I thawed two of the Piedmontese filets I'd trimmed from that enormous cut a few months ago. In the meantime, I reduced some balsamic vinegar with about a tablespoon of sugar and at the very last minute -off-heat- I threw in some slivered, fresh figs. Once the steaks were done -in my Lodge, natch- I spread some Gorgonzola on top and then drizzled with the hot fig-balsamic reduction. Insanely good!

While I did all this, I sent T to the grill to man the baby okra I'd bought at the farmers market on Sunday. I dressed it with olive oil, minced garlic, crushed red pepper, lemon and salt; also, I tossed in the rest of a head of radicchio I had and the remaining squash blossoms. After it was decently charred, we redressed it (critical) with more lemon and salt. Grilled okra is the bomb; after T had his serving, I ate all the rest.