From the fireplace

Eastside Road, September 21, 2013—

IF YOU'RE COOKING inside, as most of us do, what better place than the fireplace? It's one of the few regrets I have about the house we built for ourselves twelve or fifteen years ago: no fireplace in which to cook.

Well, not to worry: the neighbors down the driveway have one. Tonight we trooped down the driveway for dinner: nice thick pork chops, salted and treated to crushed garlic, grilled over oak wood in the fireplace. With them, Nancy's fine lima beans, and slice tomatoes, and green salad afterward, and then a perfect apple galette. You could do a lot worse.

Petite Syrah, Preston of Dry Creek, 2011