Special Anniversary Dinners

Eleven years ago on a gorgeous September evening, in our friends’ backyard in Everett, Greg and I got married. Four days after that we moved to a tiny town on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains called Jasper, Georgia where we lived for about fourteen months.

We had a house on a couple of acres and my favorite parts of that house were the open kitchen-dining room and the back deck overlooking our huge sloping backyard, which was surrounded by tall white pine trees. Many of our best times there were wrapped around cooking and eating meals with each other and with the friends we made. Crab boils on the deck outside with some of Greg’s homebrew, Thanksgiving dinner around our nine-foot long table, homemade rich hot chocolate cozied by the fireplace.

For our first wedding anniversary, Greg surprised me by researching fun recipes, doing all the grocery shopping, and cooking a fabulous meal with wines to match. He let me help cook, which with him is so much fun, and the meal was amazing. The best spinach salad I’ve ever had, scallops in a champagne sauce and lobster tail. But my favorite item on his menu that night was dessert which is saying something because hello, lobster tail! 

He made a Honey and Lavender Glazed Fruit recipe from Andrea Immer’s book, Everyday Dining with Wine. I had never had grilled fruit before and was amazed at the caramelized flavor each one took on, the bananas, pineapples, and my favorite, the peaches. The honey-lavender butter was crazy and sublime, and along with the ice cream and fruit were a scrumptious, perfect combination of sweet with a touch of savory; oh those charred peaches! I could’ve sipped the honey-lavender butter straight through a straw it was so good, and when you drizzle extra on the ice cream it hardens like an old-time, ice cream caramel sauce, only lighter. 

I love cooking with Greg because we have a blast, but also because he and I are constantly trying new recipes, often things I never would have tried on my own or even ever heard about. If I were the one picking that menu eleven-years-ago, and I was researching fun desserts, I would have skipped right over the Honey and Lavender Glazed Fruit recipe. Thank goodness he picked on that special night. This anniversary I get to choose and I hope he’s excited when he hears the menu for tonight: grilled ribeyes with anchovy butter from Renee Erickson’s book, A Boat, A Whale & A Walrus, grilled baby yellow potatoes with my Chive Vinaigrette, roasted broccolini, and homemade vanilla ice cream with grilled peaches and of course the Honey Lavender glaze!

Happy Anniversary Babe! Love you!

Honey and Lavender Glazed Fruit

2015-09-03 13:34:27

Serves 4

Grilled fruit glazed with a honey-lavender butter

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Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2. 1/2 cup honey
3. 1 small bunch lavender
4. 1 large ripe pineapple, peeled, quartered, cored and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
5. 3 slightly under-ripe bananas, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
6. 3 ripe but firm peaches, peeled, halved, pitted and cut into 1-inch-think wedges, or just halved if your peaches are small
7. 1 pint vanilla ice cream, optional

Instructions

1. Combine the butter, honey and lavender in a small saucepan and heat, whisking occasionally, until the butter is melted and the mixture is just coming to a simmer. Remove from the heat and let sit in the pan for 30 minutes. Remove the lavender and discard. Pour the syrup through a fine strainer and into a bowl or measuring cup to remove any stray lavender leaves.
2. Preheat a gas grill to medium and lightly oil the grate. Put all the fruit on a rimmed baking sheet and brush them with the honey glaze. Grill, brushing once or twice with additional glaze, until the fruit is heated through, slightly tender, and caramelized, turning once, about 4 minutes total for the bananas, 6 minutes for the pineapple and peaches, depending on how hot your grill is. Serve immediately with a scoop or vanilla ice cream if desired.
3. Drizzle more honey glaze over your ice cream and fruit.

Notes

1. We have also served this with homemade ricotta and it is also delicious with the honey glaze drizzled over the top.

By Andrea Immer

Adapted from Everyday Dining with Wine

Adapted from Everyday Dining with Wine

Lemons & Roses https://www.lemonsandroses.com/