varying degrees of light

Paul and Mark came home from work at the Wesselius farm with radishes, carrots, rainbow kale and - as seen - arugula and dandelion greens. I was driving home from a great show, evening and morning in Omaha (Yo La Tengo concert) after a rough week of school, trying to enjoy the reddening landscape. This wasn't difficult, but strange after a morning with three inches of the best packing snow in a long, long time. Sarah with her arms crossed, scowling at the thought of our return through the most jaded sunglasses I've ever seen. (Exaggeration.)

We came home to rooms full of our friends and I put on the apron and got to work with Paul and Christina, who was in town for the weekend - a much needed gift. The community grill was gassed and turned up high to kill anything cooked before and to get the grill as volcanic as possible. The roast was quickly cut into steaks, salted, peppered, balsamic oiled and brown sugared with Bailey telling me about her weekend, and lending a free/clean hand when I needed. The meat sat for a few minutes as I put a makeshift mustard vinaigrette together - one like what I learned from Carol in Colorado Springs this summer, but without some key ingredients (white wine vinegar, lemon juice) but with some of the last chives of the season. Then we made hummus and Paul approved, which is a good thing. The steaks got high heat on both sides, made that lovely, animalistic sizzling that roared through the cold, dark evening. A few minutes on both sides and then held in the oven, still warm from Christina's bruschetta. Half an onion had been sliced and broken apart in butter/olive oil/salt on the stove-top. Not red, but only because we didn't have it. I mention the red onion for visual purposes as well as flavor, and not just because Bailey was cooking with me - some bold purple skin would have been nice.

Anyway, the beef was sweet, then rich and the greens were peppery and crisp. The feta cheese was tangy and creamy. The dressing complemented all these flavors, I think. The onion was there - not really necessary, but I like onion. Bailey's hands.

-Click the image to enlarge it-