Dinner with Sheri

There is nothing I like more than cooking with my friend Sheri. Today we wandered through Central Market, picking up ingredients for our party on Sunday, and also for the Saturday dinner we are making. They had the most gorgeous heads of cauliflower! Huge and completely unblemished with outer leaves attached. We had to get one.

We still hadn't decided what to make for tonight's dinner, so we used the old fall-back plan, Fine Cooking. Several things in the most recent issue sounded good, but we didn't have it with us. So we thumbed through theirs.

I knew Sheri must be exhausted from her early a.m. flight, so I instructed her to go upstairs and rest. I unloaded the groceries and began prep. I'm her sous-chef! Boy was she hot when she got up. "You started cooking without me!!" "No, no, I was just getting it ready for you!"

We opened the Rosenblum to have a glass while we were cooking. It was a happy memory from my trip last February to visit her. After dinner, Gary opened the Rafanelli.

• Seared Flank Steak with Shallot-Mustard Sauce (Fine Cooking #70, p. 82c)
• Oven-Roasted Cauliflower
• Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle
• Rosenblum 2000 Rustridge Zinfandel
• A Rafanelli 2001 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley)