For Jay’s birthday, I made him halbut on the grill pan (yum), and he requested something chocolate-y for dessert. No problem there. The Chocolate Pot Pies are always a hit. He also mentioned that he had a good hot bacon vinaigrette on a spinach salad at a restaurant recently, so I thought I’d try this recipe – it also has roasted sweet potatoes in the salad, and it’s really good. I’m on a salad kick lately.

• Pan-Grilled Halibut
• Spinach Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Hot Cider-Bacon Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking #13, February/March 1996, p. 36)
• Summer Wheatberry Salad (Fine Cooking #28, September 1998, p. 39)
• Chocolate-RaspberryPot Pies (Just a Bite, Gale Gand, p. 228)

Wine: Pisoni Estate 1999 Pinot Noir (Santa Lucia Highlands, California). We picked this up a few years ago at a liquor store in Monterey. It wasn’t a wine that was easy to get, nor was it inexpensive. However, it was a little dissappointing. Not that it was a bad wine. But a Pisoni-made Pinot from Santa Lucia Highlands? I expected fabulous.