It’s just amazing how good a cheap round steak can taste with a béarnaise sauce on top!  Truly amazing.

Victor wanted to cook dinner last night.  It was his distraction from packing for a business trip to Dallas this morning.  I never have to be asked twice if someone else wants to cook.  I love cooking – but I love eating other people’s cooking, too!

He made pan-fried steaks with béarnaise sauce, and oven-roasted potatoes and carrots.  Classic simplicity.

He made a slight variation on a classic béarnaise.  The classic is  egg yolks, butter, white wine vinegar, tarragon, shallots, and chervil.  Many (many, many, many) years ago I worked in a  restaurant in San Francisco called The Red Chimney.  It was a classic 1950’s upscale Dinner House with great food.  Every night, the owner came into the kitchen to taste the béarnaise.  It had to be perfect.  It usually was – but there were times when it was thrown out and remade.    Sadly, the restaurant was torn down to make way for the Stonestown Galleria.  That kind of detail doesn’t always exist anymore.

But I digress..

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Victor’s Béarnaise

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp tarragon
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper

Place half the butter, egg yolks, and vinegar in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water.  Stir constatly until butter is melted.

Add remaining butter and stir until butter is melted and sauce thickens.  Add tarragon, S&P.  Serve immediately.

It was rich, creamy, and so not on our diets.  And we sopped it up with homemade bread.

Since it’s just me and the dog for the next three nights, the gastronomical choices are going to be pretty limited.  I have found over the years that I really don’t enjoy cooking just for myself.  I see a few hot dogs in my future…..