What can I say? I’m sitting outside, sipping a rum swizzle, listening to the melodious harmonies of tree frogs, blowing smoke rings, and watching the moonlight sparkle off the clear Bermudan waters. Maybe I’ve had one too many swizzles, but I am also watching a boat with four shadowy figures on board coast through the inlet with its lights off…Images of “The Beach” come to mind, but unfortunately Leonardo DiCaprio is nowhere to be found….

Medallions of Veal With Gran Marnier ReductionAnyway, a lot of my friends ask me how I come up with recipes. It is a process based off of my own experiments and shamelessly “borrowing” the work of others. I love to read cookbooks, but I hate to follow recipes. I use them for ideas, however I hardly ever follow a recipe word for word. I often cook what I crave (good thing for my regular dining companions, my husband and my brother, I’m not pregnant) or what I have readily available. For example, on Tuesday, I wanted to cook something high in protein, i.e. meat, but something I had in my freezer so I didn’t have to make a separate trip to the grocery store. I defrosted some lovely veal medallions. I was contemplating making a lemon caper sauce, but I ran out of regular olive oil to sear the meat, and I only had blood orange infused olive oil. Orange made me think of Gran Marnier. Because it has a high sugar content and of course lots of flavor, Gran Marnier reduces into a perfect syrupy consistency, and was a lovely pairing with the veal. I had some Swiss chard in the fridge. I quickly sautéed the greens with garlic and the remainder of the unflavored olive oil, added a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes, a can of kidney beans, and a teaspoon of sugar and cooked until almost all the liquid was gone.

Yes. Life is good.