little ms foodie

Tonight's Bouchon installment Raclette potatoes with Bayonne ham Saffron and mustard mussels These are exactly like the potatoes I get at my favorite french bistro!!! And we thought the mussels very good!

I'll be in Orlando next month for a trade show and my hotel is right near the Orange County Convention Center. I won't have a car but cabbing it isn't a problem. I'll be on my own and would really like to find some good food and stay away from Red Lobster or TGIFridays. Any advice?? You might ask, what kind of food do you like?? ANYTHING! Price range?? Well I'm not looking for The French Laundry but anything from $12 to $30 for an entree is fine by me. Suggestions are needed and appreciated! Thank you!!

baked beans on buttered toast, espresso with sugar cube.

welcome to eG iwish, have you eaten here a lot?? would love to hear more!

I am also willing to travel that far but since I don't have time I ordered from D'Artagnan! Got the saucisson l'ail, bayonne, pate, tarbais beans, duck bacon and pheasant terrine. And it all shipped overnight! love that place!!

That is it exactly. He uses the outside cut but our butcher only had the inside cut so we only had it back in the oven for maybe 3 mins. It was really delish! Searing them in good Plugra butter probably didn't hurt!

Bouchon dinner tonight made mostly by my husband- skirt steak with shallots and watercress salad. Wow the flavor was soooooo fantastic. We had to cheat and buy veal stock from the culinary school I go to sometime as we didn't have time on Sunday to make stock. The whole meal was fantstic!

On friday night we slathered Plugra butter onto roast chicken with dijon mustard.....Thomas Keller's suggestion in Bouchon. Brilliant man!!!

We had an o.k. meal at L'Atelier last July but it isn't a place we'll go back to. Here is what I wrote in a trip report: <<This was my 6th trip to Paris and my husbands 3rd. The first night we all went to dinner at L'Atelier Joel Robouchon. We were very excited as the press has been so good. We showed up early, around 7pm but the counter was full with a 1 1/2 hour wait so we took the small counter facing the window/backs to the counter. The restaurant is gorgeous but from the get go the service sucked! We all had champagne then wine and 2-3 small plates each. All of us thought the food was VERY good. Some of the things we had that really stood out were the gazpacho, sorel broth with asparagus, monkfish and the famous potatoes which came with the pork chops. Even though we raved about the ingrediants and presentation all thought the small plates were REALLY small. This was tapas size not tasting menu size. It was very overpriced for the servings and the bad service. Glad I got to go to see for myself but I won't be back.>>

fun!! happy b-day Chufi! I had really good luck doing a beef tenderloin for a party last year. It can be sliced up and served at room temp- on skewers or as a yummy filling for those muffins! various crostini are great make aheads too, just keep the toppings in the fridge for a few days and then assemble.

Duh!! I can't believe I didn't call deLaurenti. Thanks guys! No ham info, sorry Anita!

Bouchon cookbook day #2...... butter lettuce salad with quich lorraine Bouchon cooking last night we had friends over for dinner, no pictures but started with negroni's and antipasta plate. Then grilled tuscan bread salad, roast pork romano, twice baked butternut squash and tiramisu gelato.

Tonight's Bouchon menu! fois gras on baguette with fluer de sel and kir (not from Bouchon but dinner was taking a while and we were hungry, the foie came back in my luggage last year from Pays du Basque) Butter lettuce salad Quiche lorraine We tried using our springform pan but it was too big so our quiche isn't the big 2" pie that is in the book. We went out and bought a new pan for next time though so we are ready for next time! The pastry was fantastic, as was the flavor of the quiche! We will take it out about 5 mins earlier next time. The salad was great but it toppled over at the table!! We had such a good time againl, and really enjoyed talking about what we learned, liked etc. more tomorrow! (ps sorry about the random photo sizes, I haven't entirely learned the iPhoto on my new mac)

I'm making somethings out of Bouchon and would like to locate Bayonne ham (and garlic sausage if anyone knows..) Has anyone seen this ham locally?

Definately go to Lark!! Just go on a weeknight and you won't have any problem getting a table. We do that. It's really wonderful. Same with Palace- go on a weeknight! Let me add a few of my favorites: Le Pichet- fantastic French bistro Union- THE restaurant and chef to watch, gorgeous food Zoe- Monday is 1/2 price bottles of wine and the food is great! Salumi- lunch only Tues thru Fri. This is Mario Batali's dads place and is the place for Italian deli Lola- Greek across from Dahlia, also owned by Tom Douglas Flying Fish- small and regular plates of creative seafood Harvest Vine - amazing Basque food in Madison Valley Crow- great new place on lower Queen Anne I would only go to Brasa for the 1/2 price happy hour bar menu. I'm not a big fan of E&O but I know others who are... Why Sazerac? Not bad but not worth a trip IMO I haven't had the chance to go yet but Lampria gets excellent reviews as done Cascadia. You'll get many more suggestions!!

BRAVO!!! Not only did your meal look amazing but I really loved your summary. It is so fun to challenge yourself a bit and learn new things, thank you forsharing that with us!

Me too...... CHEER!!

I'll be interested in what you think of the Vero, from my memory (which is bad!) it is a new style done by the Joseph Drouhin family, for some reason I actually thought it was a north Willamette Pinot?? Anyway I hear very good things!

Dinner last night was the first night of our "cook from Bouchon book" week... Bouchon Cooking!

This week (Fri thru Fri) we are cooking from Bouchon! So excited!! Tonight's menu:Salmon tartare, 'My favorite simple roast chicken' & glazed root vegtables. We had so much fun making these and surprisingly it didn't take us that long. (no clue what the gold smear is in the photo, it wasn't on the plate???) slathered the chicken with butter and dijon and holy hell it was fantastic! Up next...... quiche lorraine with butter lettuce salad......skirt steak with shallots.....

Bill, this is wonderful!! Please let us know more about the things you find work well, need help, etc. as you did with the parm crisps!

Here's what I read on the Website

I'm definately going to be following along on this Bill, I have just broken out Bouchon and plan to cook from it next week. Depending on how that goes I may attempt FL. I'll be learning from you!!

Cool! A pastry blog!! I'm scared of baking and especially of pretty delicate buttery tastey things. I'd love to see some techniques. I'm also wondering what you think the most difficult thing is too make, what scares you??? kick ass name by the way!

Had fresh soft shell crabs on the tasting menu at davidburke & donatella last Friday night.....YUM!