It's All In The Sauce

One of the best techniques you can learn is how to sear roast and make a pan sauce. This is a simple method and will dramatically improve the quality of your home cooked meals.

Any meat can be seared and then roasted including fish. This is best done in a heavy cast iron pan that is oven safe.

Preheat your oven to it's highest temperature which is probably 500 degrees. Be warned that this technique can create quite a bit of smoke. A hood vent should be used or you'll need to open some windows!

Season your meat with salt and pepper. Heat your skillet on the stove top until hot. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.

Place meat in the pan and leave untouched until well browned. Flip and repeat on the second side. Approximately 2 minutes per side. Carefully move the pan to the preheated oven and roast until desired doneness. Transfer the meat to a heated platter and tent with foil.

Place the hot pan back on the burner and begin your pan sauce by deglazing the pan with 1/2 cup of white wine, add 2 tablespoons minced shallots and cook until the alcohol burns off. Add 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard and 1/2 cup of stock. Season with salt and pepper and lightly thicken with either 2 tablespoons of butter or heavy cream.






Last night I used this technique to make pork chops. Total cooking time was only 15 minutes and the sauce was delicious! Mastering this simple technique will turn your family meals into restaurant quality.


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Location:Whidbey Island

White Thanksgiving

We are stuck inside the house for a few days after getting a bunch of snow! Highly unusual when the normal temperature is 49 degrees in November. The power is on and we have plenty of food, wine and cleaning projects to keep us occupied!



It looks like we will be smoking a turkey breast on The Big Green Egg this year. We will have mashed potatoes, squash, and green beans. Will brine the turkey and then make a spicy chili rub and use Alder Wood for the smoke.

With temperatures dipping below 20 degrees today, we are worried about some of the plants in our garden. Rosemary certainly doesn't like the cold snap and my precious Agave are only hardy to 25 degrees.

The sun came out today, eagles are soaring and the mountains are beautiful. A far contrast to the storm yesterday.






We drove to Langley against my better judgement stopping to help stranded motorists along the way. I went to see Madhu and spent a blissful 90 minutes getting one of her famous massages.

Today I learned of the passing of our neighbors Jack Russell Terrier, Rowan. He was always at our house begging for Dan to throw the ball. He had so much energy even as he got older and one must wonder if his little heart didn't wear out. He will be missed for sure.






May he rest here in peace on top of the bluff where he patrolled the rabbits, snakes, squirrels and mice for so many years. A trip up to Lyle's garden won't be the same without him showing us around.

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