For Auld Lang Syne

I must say I am ready to bid adieu to 2012. Last New Year’s Eve we were hosts for the old neighborhood gang’s annual dinner and the ringing in of the new year. The previous year, 2011, had been a roller coaster of up and down PET scan reports that alternated from mediocre to scary to promising response to chemo. At the end of the year, Brandon was still in chemo and feeling its effects, yet he ended the year by helping me plan and prepare what had become the traditional main dish for our group’s New Year’s Eve - beef tenderloin.

After the several days process needed to create his infamous veal demiglace, which formed the basis for many delicious sauces, he took one-month-old Morgan with him to one of his favorite shopping spots, Restaurant Depot, to purchase the beef tenderloin. Then he brought her to our house, so I could enjoy her while he worked on dinner. 

Brandon soothes Morgan last New Year's Even as they head for the Restaurant Depot 

The final steps in the making of the sauce, which was to accompany the tenderloin, had to be done at the last minute – not long before serving. Being anything but an accomplished cook, I panicked! Brandon assured me that I could (and would) do it.

He wrote down the steps I should follow and then walked me through them. When I questioned my ability to and the need for reducing an entire bottle of cabernet to blend into his demiglace, he shook his head and sighed at my ignorance of what he considered cooking basics. He again assured me that I could (and would) be able to reduce an entire bottle of cabernet and that it was essential to the sauce’s final flavor.

The main dish with demiglace sauce on the side 

Host Joe displays the beef tenderloin with demiglace drizzle

I will say one thing about that sauce – it was sublime! Everyone in attendance wanted a repetition in every future New Year’s Eve celebration. But there will be no encore – ever. Like so many other of Brandon’s unique gifts, memory must serve. 

Happy 2013. May good things await you and yours…