Saturday evening some friends cooked a great meal and invited me to eat it—definitely worth writing home about.  The main course was perfectly-roasted pork loin back ribs (a.k.a. "baby back" ribs) with a semi-dry rub of salt, pepper, sage, red pepper flakes, mustard seed, spicy mustard and some olive oil.  The ribs were served with a delicious dipping sauce made from the pork drippings, chicken stock, spicy mustard, white wine, a bit of flour to thicken it and finished with salt and pepper to taste.

The ribs were served alongside roasted potatoes and a warm salad of green beans, red and yellow bell peppers, onions and goat cheese.

The potatoes were parboiled and then roasted with salt, pepper, oregano and some olive oil until slightly crispy on the outside.


And for the green bean dish, the peppers and onions were oven-roasted while the green beens were blanched and then shocked in ice-water . . . to preserve that beautiful vibrant green color.  These parts were then combined in a skillet on the stove top to heat them through and the goat cheese was added last.

We also drank a few bottles of wine, some decent and some not-so-good.  I'll start with my least favorite of the bunch, which I had brought to the party, the French 2006 Bourgogne Pinot Noir ($10).  I'd describe it as a VERY light-bodied pinot noir with faint berry flavors.  I won't be buying it again, but devoted white wine drinkers at the dinner (I'm not devoted to any particular style of wine . . . I like them all) thought it was pleasant.  We also drank the French 2005 Heron Pinot Noir ($11).  This one was much, much better in my view, with a fuller body and more pronounced smokey, spicy notes.  I would buy the Heron pinot noir again.  The surprise of the evening was a $7 bottle of 2005 Hearding Cats Merlot/Pinotage.  Although it has an initial Welchs grape juice flavor and nose that was a bit off-putting, this quickly gave way to the more typical pinotage tobacco, tar and spicy flavors.  The bottle had not been decanted and I bet it would improve with some air.  All-in-all, it was a much better and more complex wine than I'd expect to get for the $7 price of admission.  Three cheers for my friend who found this bargain in a liquor store near the Safeway on 17th St. NW!  I might just go pick up a bottle or three while they last.