Hey Food Network — I’d totally watch this show.

Oh! I know — Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Walken and for some reason I want to throw Christopher Kimball into the mix. Now, that would be an awesome cooking show. Three’s Company…for Dinner.

Im Cooked is a really cool idea. I need to spend some time watching more of the clips there. Hello, sweet-sweet-week-off-between-jobs. I have plans for you!

A while ago (okay, like 1999), I remembered seeing a recipe in Sunset magazine for lavender-blueberry margaritas. I recently spent some time searching for it, found it, and then was like, huh. Coconut milk? In margaritas? Besides adding fat and making it kind of like a marga-colada, I wasn’t quite sure what the coconut milk did for the drink. So, anyway, I futzed around with the recipe a bit and came up with this one. jwa and I both thought they were really good. Plus, if you make extra lavender syrup, I’m sure there are many other lavender cocktails that you could make with it.

Lavender-Blueberry Margaritas
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried lavender
1/2 cup tequila
1/3 cup triple sec
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
ice

sugar for rimming glasses
lime wedge
sprigs of fresh lavender

Add the water, dried lavender and sugar to a small pan. Heat and bring to a boil until the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and let the lavender steep about 10 minutes, then strain, discarding the lavender and keeping the lavender flavored syrup.

In a blender, add the lavender syrup, tequila, triple sec, lime juice, frozen blueberries and ice. Blend. *whir* *whir* *whir* Taste to make sure the lime juice/tequila/triple sec ratios are good. Adjust if needed.

Meanwhile, go around each glass with a lime wedge to wet it, then press the rim down in a saucer of sugar. Pour the margaritas into the sugar rimmed glasses and enjoy. If you’re feeling hoitey toitey, pop a lavender sprig into the drink. We had the margaritas with some black bean salad and cheddar cheese and avocado quesadillas.

If that were not enough excitement, earlier in the day I received my custom cocktail napkin order from the Stationary Studio. So cute! I think the design really captures jwa’s hair and fondness for wine. The napkins are a sage green and the printing is espresso brown — the same colors that the invitations will be — I’ve been playing around at MyGatsby lately and I think I have the invitations designed.

As for the napkins, we’re having an hour or so of appetizers directly following the ceremony on the rooftop, so we got these to use during that part of the reception. Woo! Guests won’t have to wipe any caramelized onion and sweet red pepper tartlet crumbs on their pants!

I’m typically a pretty simple girl when it comes to tuna — a grill pan, some oil, salt & pepper and some soy sauce for dippin’ and I’m done. Okay, maybe a few more things but you know what I mean.

However, the other day, I had some cream left over from the basil ice cream, so I decided to go all out and make this cream sauce for our tuna. Damn! It was good.

Pan Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shitake Cream Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
2 6-ounce ahi tuna steaks, each about 1 inch thick
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp butter
4 thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Garnishes: Lime wedges & fresh cilantro sprigs

Sprinkle one side of tuna steaks with pepper and a little salt. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Place tuna steaks, pepper side down, in hot oil and sear 2 minutes. Sprinkle side facing up with a little salt and pepper.

Turn tuna over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 1-2 minutes for rare. Transfer tuna to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add butter, sliced green onions, cilantro, ginger and chopped garlic to same skillet and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in mushrooms and soy sauce and simmer 30 seconds.

Add whipping cream and simmer until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Taste and add the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce if desired.

Spoon sauce onto plates; arrange tuna atop sauce. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

On the side
We had some green tea brown basmati rice (throw a tea bag in the water right before it starts to boil, let it steep for a minute or two before you add the rice, then remove the tea bag and cook rice as usual). Rounding out the plate was some baby bok choy — Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger, that is.

Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger
Gourmet magazine
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled
3/4 lb Shanghai bok choy or other baby bok choy (about 6 heads)
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Chinese rice wine (preferably Shaoxing) or medium-dry Sherry
1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Cut half of ginger into very fine matchsticks (less than 1/8 inch thick; about 1 tablespoon) and reserve. Grate remaining ginger and squeeze pulp with your fingers to yield 1 teaspoon liquid, then discard pulp.

Remove any bruised or withered outer leaves from bok choy. Trim 1/8 inch from bottom of each bok choy, then cut each head into quarters. Wash bok choy in several changes of cold water and dry in a colander or salad spinner until dry to the touch.

Whisk together ginger juice, chicken broth, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.

Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Pour oil down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat sides. Add ginger matchsticks and stir-fry 5 seconds. Add bok choy and stir-fry until leaves are bright green and just limp, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir broth mixture, then pour into wok and stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil, then stir to coat.

***
In other news I start a new job soon — Internet Marketing Manager at Stash Tea. I am very, very excited and looking forward to this new position.

We made these a while ago and they were quite good. They’ll be a little messy if you eat them right away. Have a something to wipe your fingers on near by. Or, depending upon the company you keep, be prepared to lick you(r)* fingers.

If you stash (hee! — three people will get that) them in the fridge for an hour or two after they cool, the residual butter will solidify and they will be less messy.

Curried Macadamia Nuts
Adapted from a recipe found on Food Network
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 cups roasted, lightly salted macadamia nuts (Trader’s Joe’s brand is good for nuts, for they are lightly salted. If you use another brand, you may want to consider unsalted and add a pinch more salt to the curry butter)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a small skillet, then add the curry powder, brown sugar, salt, and cayenne and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, about 30 seconds.

Toss the nuts with the curry butter on a baking sheet, spread the nuts in a single layer. Bake until the nuts are hot and shiny, about 10 minutes. All ovens are different, so when you can smell them, give them a peek to make sure they are not burning or anything. Cool to room temperature.

Hmmm…now I want a snack…

* jwa, via email, upon pointing out my typo in the original post:

and so on

** I’d like to point out that in jwa’s email, “impertinence” is spelled wrong. Ha!

Well, one of the best, anyway. We were going to grill this outside but it was all cold and rainy so we opted for the grill pan. The marinade gives it such a good flavor. And I think one of my favorite elements of it was the accumulated juices after letting the pork rest — so excellent poured back over the sliced tenderloin.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Molasses and Mustard
From Bon Appétit magazine
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp coarse-grained mustard
1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin

Whisk molasses, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and both mustards in small bowl to blend. Place pork in heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over. Seal tightly and refrigerate 4 hours.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Drain marinade into heavy small saucepan. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Grill pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 145 degrees F, turning occasionally with tongs, about 20 minutes. Transfer pork to serving platter; let rest 5 - 10 minutes.

As mentioned in the intro, you can also very easily do this indoors on a grill pan. Just preheat the oven to 375 degrees, while you sear the pork on all sides, stovetop, in a grill pan (about 5-6 minutes).

Then, finish it off in the oven, roasting until the pork reaches 145 degrees — about 10-15 minutes. Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. Pour any accumulated juices onto the pork before drizzling with the reduced marinade sauce. It’ll make extra-extra moist and tasty!

Speaking of the sauce…
Meanwhile, (as in while you rest the pork), add tablespoon of remaining vinegar to pan with marinade and boil until thickened to sauce consistency, about 5 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise on slight diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange pork slices on platter; drizzle the thickened sauce over. We had this with some sautéed green beans & mushrooms and smashed goat cheese potatoes. Cool weather breaks in the Summer can be fun!

The nuts and tuna that the pork bumped, will be later in the week, I believe. Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars may also make an appearance.

Oh and belated happy birthday to Je Mange la Ville! My blog turned two years old on July 14th. Terrible Twos! Yeah.