Is it September already?

Almost October? Are you serious? Here I was feeling so very virtuous - did the August's Bon Appetit cover recipe last day of August. Post the photos on September 1. All set to blog on September 2nd ... and 3rd ... and well - you get the idea. I think it was the late Labor Day that threw me off. Or the three weeks of eighty-degree days in Minnesota - in September! All the pools closed and it finally got warm enough to swim. But the dinner - was pretty tasty. The cover recipe was a turkey burger stuffed with smoky aioli and topped with grilled peppers, grilled onions and cheese. I paired it with purple potatoes (just because...) and some fresh corn ... wanting to keep the summer grill thing going as long as Minnesota lets me!

I received a box of 2008 Black Box New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and used it for quite a few dinners. It's crisp and just a wee bit fruity and paired just swimmingly with the grilled meals. It received approval from all at the table (who were of drinking age). At $24.99/box ($22.99 in Minnesota), it's a bargain to be sure - it averages to be about $6.25 per 750 ml bottle. We poured it with our appetizer - caprese salad. As long as the tomatoes are fresh and my basil holds up - I make this salad ad nauseum. I want my fill of it because when the tomatoes are gone - I don't make it until they return! No hothouse tomatoes for this dish!

The Moroccan-spiced aioli was put into the burger and then also served over it. I found this very tasty.... and could have been found guilty of eating spoonfuls of it if I didn't have guests...

The grilled peppers and grilled onions topped the burger. They had me there....

... but alas and alack I found the burger not very flavorful. They are turkey burgers and it seemed the aioli should have brought this quiet meat to new heights... but it seemed rather bland. I couldn't taste the aioli in the burger (note to self: stuff a lot more into it?). Try it and see what you think: the recipe is here.

The roasted purple potatoes with creme fraiche were a hit. The potatoes were sort of eyed and there were some comments made about their color ("they're purple, get over it!") but in the end they were all amazed that - they - tasted - like white potatoes! I tossed them with rosemary, garlic and thyme and threw them in a 400 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Easiest part of the meal. (All right, maybe boiling the corn for three minutes was easier.)
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The ginger-peach pavlovas brought smiles and busy dessert forks.

I made the meringues and peach part earlier so after dinner - all I needed to do was assemble. All in all - it was a fine summer meal! It utilized all that was still fresh in Minnesota (well, the peaches came from Michigan - so not too far). The syrup that the peaches were in were not too sweet (I'm not good with cloying fruit syrup - I want the fruit to be the star). The late summer raspberries were sweet and tart - and I tend to jam them in my mouth like candy. It was all I could do to save some for the dessert. And I happened to have some extra meringues. Which disappeared later that evening. When there are no leftovers, I am thinking it was a successful meal. Of course when one of the participants is my starving-graduate-student-son - I need to put all in perspective. For he gratefully eats whatever I put on the table.

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But the biggest success of the cover girl meals so far is bringing family and friends together at least once a month - knowing full well I probably have never made most of the meal before. That's living dangerously.