FrogPrincesse

Yesterday was La Chandeleur so I made crêpes. For savory crêpes, I use a batter that is half buckwheat half wheat. For sweet crêpes, I use a much lighter batter that is 100% wheat. I like to add a touch of orange blossom water to the sweet batter. Other than this minor modification, I use the recipes from The Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan (which are very traditional - see the end of this post for a link). The batters. The buckwheat batter (on the left) rests before it is further diluted. Breton buckwheat galettes (Galettes bretonnes au sarrasin) For the filling, we went traditional with a backyard egg from our friends, ham, and cheese. Crêpe with chocolate ganache. I also had one with plain crystallized sugar, which is actually my favorite. There is something about the light crunch of sugar that is irresistible. Galette recipe Crêpe recipe

Tonight I decided to try Janet's After School Special since I got a couple of Meyer lemons in my CSA. It's refreshing, but to be honest I am having a hard time with the Meyer lemons. To me they have a very pronounced bitter/resin taste and I don't get any of the acidity that I normally associate with lemons.

Did you check your grocery store? Mine carries demi-glace that I use in small quantities whenever a recipe calls for stock. Works great for sauces.

I've had the same bottle for a while now. I do keep it in the fridge. It's still very good although I don't have a new bottle to compare against.

325F (covered), and 400F for the last 15 min (uncovered)

I got a head of cabbage in my CSA so I decided to try the Braised Green Cabbage with Balsamic Vinegar. Prep time = less than 5 minutes (cut cabbage, chop onion, slice carrot, add stock & olive oil, s&p). Before: After 2 hours (with a drizzle of balsamic, and fleur de sel): I am not especially a fan of cabbage but this was really excellent and so easy to make.

A non-exhaustive list of San Diego chefs who tweet: @ChefBoBeau from BO-Beau Kitchen @chefchrispowell from Bali Hai @chefmccabe from Delicias @TreyFoshee from George's @urbansolace Matt Gordon @chefgschmidt formerly of Blanca

Bonal & Rye Recipe here.

Sure. So basically you sweat shallots in some butter and then add in the legs along with some Riesling and let simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or so. Drain and reduce the cooking liquid by half. Then, butter some ramekins and pipe in a mousse made of perch fish and place the frog meat inside, and cover with the mousse. Bake the mousselines in a bain marie at 400ºF for 15 minutes. Add some cream and butter to the reduced cooking liquid, and season to taste. Unmold the mousseline onto plates, surround with spinach cooked in butter, and pour the sauce on top and around. Top with some diced tomato and a sprig of chervil. It is a dish by Marc Haeberlin of L'Auberge de l'Ill. Thanks. That sounds and looks delightful.

How did you guess? Would love to have more details on this dish, please!

Are these frog legs? Edited to add: Nevermind. Just saw your description which was included between your pictures.

A few years ago, I had a chance to visit a great exhibit at the Mingei museum in San Diego, Eva Zeisel: Extraordinary Designer at 100. We have a few of her designs from the Classic Century line at home. Really beautiful pieces.

I just found a picture that my husband took of the soup I served for the Christmas dinner: Root Vegetable Soup with Apples and Duck Ham from Think Like a Chef (Tom Colicchio). It's a very harmonious blend of butternut squash, parsnip, carrot, leek, fennel, and Granny Smith apple. My favorite part is the green apple and duck prosciutto garnish.

Beautiful cocktail, mukki. I never had much chance with egg cocktails - I probably need to work on my shaking technique to achieve such a nice result. Tonight I tried the Rio Bravo: Cachaça, lime, orgeat, and muddled ginger. Really fresh and an excellent vehicle to showcase homemade orgeat!

Jose Andres' restaurant Zaytinya may be another source of inspiration. It features modern twists on the cuisines of Greece, Turkey and Lebanon, with an extensive selection of mezze (small plates).

Baklava and kataifi are the first desserts that come to mind. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Tonight's soup is a Cream of Parsnip Soup from How to Pick a Peach (Russ Parsons). It is said to be a simplified version of a Jeremiah Tower recipe which is finished with shaved white truffles. Unfortunately white truffles were nowhere to be found in the house.

I tried a few variations on the Old Fashioned tonight. The American Trilogy: equal parts bonded Applejack and rye (I used Rittenhouse), orange bitters. This cocktail was introduced to me by a friend. I read that it was created by Richard Boccato and Michael McIlroy from Little Branch in 2007. Then I tried the same cocktail with Calvados instead of the applejack. It was not quite as good but I suspect that my Calvados is not quite up to par. Then this cocktail on the Bittermens website caught my eye: The Conference (attributed to Brian Miller at Death and Company, 2007) with 1/2 oz each rye, bourbon, Calvados, Cognac, 1/4 oz demerara, Angostura and mole bitters, lemon and orange twists. It's a fun cocktail with a little bit of everything!

Here is a recent interview with Anthony Schmidt where he talks about being mentored by Sam Ross from Milk and Honey, and how he approaches his job.

How was it? I haven't tried any of the cocktails with grenadine as I don't have a good one and have ruined several cocktails with the one I have...

For the sake of completeness, I would like to note that Blanca unfortunately closed last year. Chef Gavin Schmidt said he would be moving to the Bay area later this year.

You could add lemon juice and Angostura for the Intro to Aperol.

One of my favorite twists on the Manhattan: The Red Hook. Rye, Punt e Mes, maraschino, brandied cherry.

Risotto with egg... That sounds really decadent. Last night we had local white seabass with a dill beurre blanc, and sugar snap peas.

We had a few days of cold weather in San Diego last week, so I made a soup with beet greens that I usually throw away. I used a mirepoix base, and a few potatoes. The beet greens had a pleasant sour taste which was reminiscent of sorrel.