Mountain Weekend with the Nelsons

Our friends Tripp and Luci invited us to the family mountain house in Linville, North Carolina for a getaway and holy GORGEOUS, what a beautiful spot! An hour and a half Northeast of Ashville on one of the oldest and most amazing golf courses around (1892), it is a quite literally a little slice of heaven on Earth. We had a fantastic time soaking up the cool mountain weather, doing a little hiking, golfing and a lot of sipping cocktails on the back porch. Friday night Tripp's mom made some delicious Shrimp Gumbo (Paula Dean's recipe) and then Saturday night we took over the kitchen. Tripp was in charge of grilling ENORMOUS ribeye steaks for the boys and some proportionately large filets for the girls- which he seasoned with a yummy steak seasoning late afternoon and then cooked absolutely perfectly on the Big Green Egg. (please note the professional looking hash marks).

Alongside the steaks we had Ina Garten's roasted vegetables and a fresh heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad out of a friend of Mrs. Nelson's garden. The roasted vegetable recipe is a recent favorite of mine from Ina's newest Back to Basics cookbook. The combination of vegetables is unique (my personal favorite is the fennel) and it is really simple to prepare. It calls for: 1 lb of fingerling potatoes (we used yukon gold creamers which worked great) 2 small medium fennel bulbs (tops removed) 1 lb french string beans (we used regular green beans) 1 bunch thin asparagus (trimmed and cut into 3 inch pieces) 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese salt and pepper Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the fennel bulbs into 6 wedges each, cutting through the core to keep the wedges intact. Place on a sheet pan. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and place them on the pan with the fennel. Drizzle the olive oil on the vegetables, then sprinkle with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Toss with your hands. Roast the vegetables for 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, tossing once while cooking. Toss the string beans and asparagus with the roasted vegetables and roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the green vegetables are tender. Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese and roast for another minute or two until the cheese melts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Again, the combination of veggies is really great and the key is to use a larger sheet pan so that the vegetables brown nicely. If the pan is crowded they'll steam and just get soft versus toasty. You could serve this alongside just about anything and it has your starch and veggies all in one. I highly recommend it. Next up, the caprese salad. Tripp's mom had a mixtue of beautiful red, yellow and even a small green variety heirloom tomatoes that we sliced about 1/4 inch thick and layered on a plate with fresh mozzarella sliced at the same thickness. We then topped it with some freshly sliced basil and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and seasoned with salt and pepper. I could eat a big plate of this with a big slice of toasted bread as a meal any day but in this case it was the perfect salad with this meal. Considering we already had our green going on with the green beans and asparagus, the tomatoes added even more color to the plate.

All in all everything came together without much fuss but the meal was still elegant -largely thanks to the beautiful back drop that was Linville and the Nelson's gorgeous home! I told Tripp's mom that I'd cut out of Charleston and move in as her personal cook in a heartbeat- still waiting on the call though. ;) Of course my husband was the only person at the table to finish all .75 lbs of his steak however the pups were happy that the rest of us had scraps. I shamelessly volunteered to hand feed the three of them which of course made me best friend for a day.

For dessert Mrs. Nelson made the most delicious peach pie. I've never had anything like it and I will definitely attempt to recreate it. She blind baked a pie shell and then she told me that the filling was simply fresh sliced peaches, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. I'll have to ask her for the exact recipe because it was absolutely YUMMY.

Another pic of the pups considering Stuart looks like an alien dog with the green eyes in the other one.. The best dogs EVER! The chefs.