New Year's Day

New Year's Day is all about football, eating and tradition. We started off the year with a pork roast because my father-in-law always would eat pork on New Year's Day - his family believed it was good luck to do so, although I really could not tell you why.

So in keeping with that tradition, Bobby Flay Everyday began with Bobby's Maple-Peach Glazed Pork Tenderloin. You can find the recipe on page 165 of Grill It! We coupled that with Warm Potato and Sweet Onion Salad with Bacon Dressing. That can be found on page 224 of Boy Meets Grill. Finally, we had Caramelized Onion rings (page 38 of Grill It!). We don't like Black Eyed Peas and Bobby didn't have a recipe for them anyway, so we skipped that New Year's Day tradition. Many people believe that you should eat food in the shape of a ring on New Year's Day to symbolize the year coming full circle. We did that two ways. I cut the Caramelized Onions into rings and earlier in that day we had Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

I cooked the onion rings and then the sweet onion and bacon dressing in a cast iron skillet placed right on the grill. I departed from Bobby's recipe a bit when I added Prosciutto to the traditional bacon. You can't name any food that is not better with bacon. The Pork Tenderloin was placed right on the grill will Canola Oil following Bobby's recipe as close as possible. The results were pretty amazing. I don't really ever measure anything. Whenever a recipe says two tablespoons or one teaspoon or half a cup, I just guess at it. But I do use a fork thermometer to get the temperature just right. In this case I had the tenderloin on direct heat at first to get a good outside crust going, then moved it to indirect heat to roast the inside. My target was 155 degrees. When it got to 140, I started adding the Peach-Maple glaze, that way the sugar in the glaze would not burn by adding it too early. Meat continues to cook for a while after you take it off the grill so I removed the tenderloin at 155 so that when I was ready to slice it would actually have reached about 160.

What was on? The end of the Rose Bowl and the beginning of the Sugar Bowl. I cook outside in a courtyard that has a gazebo. I have a wide, flat-screen TV mounted up inside the gazebo - you must watch ball games (if any are on) while grilling - It is just one of the rules. Of course, the only traditional bowls that should be played on New Year's Day are the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl. All other lesser bowls (Gator, Liberty, Citrus, Alamo, Music City, Weed-eater and Astro-bluebonnet) should be played between Christmas and New Year. We also lost something when bowls started being named after brands instead of products for cultural regions. What regions are Capitol One, Papajohns, Outback, GMAC and Chick-fil-a indigenous to? If we are going to play bowl games continuously from Thanksgiving to Martin Luther King Day anyway - then there should be a playoff.

Weather? The temperature outside was 24 degrees when I first lit the grill and the sky was clear. It dropped into the teens before I was done and there was a light dusting of snow overnight.

What to drink? My wife Dorothy selected the wine. She asked me about the tenderloin glaze first so she would choose a great pairing. We don't care much about matching white meat with white wine and red wine with read meat. We just pull out whatever seems right, but in general we are red wine fans in the winter. She choose a Cabernet from Blackstone. I think her choice of Cabernet, which is not too spicy, was because the glaze was tangy. I think her choice of Blackstone was because when we visited the Blackstone winery in California two years ago the guy at the tasting table was all over her. I must have become completely invisible. He gave her extra wine and wanted to know where she was from and showed her wine accessories that were not even on display. Whenever we go wine shopping she always picks up a Blackstone. With the Pork Tenderloin the Cabernet was perfect. The fruit in the glaze and the fruit flavors in the wine matched up very well.

How did the meal measure up? I think the first Bobby Flay Everyday meal went great. The tenderloin was moist and tender - the warm potato and onion salad was perfect for a cold night. Bobby said to try this "when there is a hint of a chill in the air and it's starting to get dark a little early" (Boy Meets Grill page 224). I will recommend this meal to anyone and I hope the ones to come will turn out as good as this one did!

Paul