I had one of those rare bad cooking nights tonight. However, the most important part turned out well – the dessert. I had it in my mind that I wanted to do fish tonight. Larry and I picked up The Turtle Bay Cookbook last year in Monterey – the authors were doing a cooking demo and a book signing at at cookware store. We had eaten at the Turtle Bay Taqueria a couple of times during our trip.

– My fishmonger didn’t take the skin off of the mahi mahi. Instead of trying to cut the skin off (I really, really don’t like cooking fish with the skin), I decided to use Amy’s trick of broiling it on aluminum foil, so the skin sticks to the foil and the fish comes right up. I had all sorts of issues with this fish. The crust started to burn before the fish was thoroughly cooked. The skin didn’t stick to the foil. This dish might have been better with halibut. – The peach butter was odd. It didn’t help that I completely forgot about it and we didn’t have it with the fish at all. But when I made it, the texture was odd. Too much juice in the peaches, I think. It’s been in the refrigerator all day and still is a bit goopy. – The beans. Oh, where can I start. I usually have good luck with Bobby Flay recipes. These had a nice smoky flavor. The recipe says to cook them for an hour at 300 degrees. They have a cup of rum in them – how is all that alcohol supposed to cook off at 300 degrees? It didn’t. After a half hour I finally paid attention and looked at the beans – still very saucy and smelling like rum. I bumped up the temperature to 425 so I could cook my crostata at the same time. – The crostata was delicious and gorgeous. The puff pastry is so buttery. Larry thought it would be better with apples – in time, I will make another one. I just wanted to have one last dessert with summer fruit before I move on to apples.

• Carribean Spiced Mahi Mahi with Habanero-Peach Butter (The Turtle Bay Cookbook, p. 195)
• Honey-Rum Baked Black Beans (Bobby Flay’s From My Kitchen To Your Table, p. 76)
• Peach Crostata (The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, p. 498)

Wine: Rodney Strong 2001 Chalk Hill Chardonnay (Sonoma County, California). Wow – surprisingly good. We don’t usually like California Chardonnays, but this one is excellent, well balanced and not over-oaked.