Carsten came over for dinner tonight. I’ve been dying to make the Cottage Pie ever since this issue of Fine Cooking hit the mailbox. It’s such a homey, hearty dish – exactly the type of food I love to make. The beef stew portion is excellent on its own. We all really liked it. Larry loved the salad. The banana cream pie recipe came from my recipe box. It’s got a great vanilla custard, with sliced bananas in the middle.

• Goat Cheese, Lemon & Chive Turnovers (Fine Cooking #80, September 2006, p. 86c)
• Cottage Pie with Beef & Carrots (Fine Cooking #81, November 2006, p. 62)
• Roasted Butternut Squash & Pear Salad with Spiced-Pecan Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking #81, November 2006, p. 58)
• Banana Cream Pie

Wine:
– Domaine Zind Heimbourg 1998 Pinot Gris (Alcase, Germany). Carsten brought this wine – it was good with the turnovers. It’s an off-dry wine.
– Ridge 1999 Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah (York Creek Vineyard, California). Delicious.
РOremus 2000 Tokaji Azs̼ 3 Puttonyos (Hungary). We picked up several bottles of Tokaji in Budapest on our vacation this month, and since Carsten was the one that suggested we check them out, we opened one for dessert. This one was a bit too sweet for the banana cream pie, but it was really good. The designation 3 Puttonyos is the least sweet of the Azs̼ style Tokaji wines.