FrogPrincesse

Inspired by Jason Wilson's column in the Washington Post this week, I made a couple of cocktails with my Nolin "blanc" (aka white vermouth) tonight. For him, a Manhattan Bianco. For me, an Astoria Vecchio. Both wonderful.

I love pizza with a farm egg and some cured meat (guanciale comes to mind). I think of it as breakfast pizza. Did cassoulet just make an appearance on this thread? WONDERFUL. I need to make one soon. Sourcing the ingredients can be challenging and it does take a few days to prepare, but what an extraordinary dish. A few days ago we had lobster ravioli with a saffron white wine cream sauce.

I just sent you a message, it's the sweet Italian sausage recipe from Charcuterie with minor modifications. Beautiful pasta dish by the way! Everything on this thread always looks fantastic.

Japanese tomatoes, arugula, parmesan, and a micro green mix from my CSA. The micro greens were an intriguing mix of various things that I am not very familiar with, including amaranth, orach, bull's blood (beet greens?), and red shiso.

Cocchi Americano on the rocks.

Sure, I will be posting on this thread since I don't have a blog. Thanks for hosting!

I am in! I will be mixing a few tiki drinks between now and Monday, and also maybe preparing some pupus if time permits.

Last week I bought moro blood oranges. I really like this variety; they have a beautiful dark red color, almost black, and a great flavor. I use them a lot in cocktails. Blood Oranges, Dates, Parmesan and Almonds In this salad, arugula, dates, pinwheels of blood oranges, thin slices of parmesan, and toasted almonds are layered on a plate. The salad is dressed with a drizzle of almond oil, a little bit of juice from the blood oranges, fleur de sel and black pepper. The dates were a key element in the salad as they balanced the peppery taste from the arugula and the acidity of the oranges. This was very simple to make and absolutely delicious.

I made him his favorite meal - he likes simple Italian comfort food. Whole wheat penne with homemade sweet Italian sausage braised in a red wine and tomato sauce. We also had an arugula salad with raspberries, toasted almonds, almond oil, and saba.

Juliet & Romeo

Yes, it's tarragon. The sauce is shallots cooked in oil, a pinch of flour, a glass of white wine. Reduce. Add some cooking stock, Madeira and pouring cream reduce until nappant. Adjust seasoning. In the plate I added cornichons, capers and tarragon. Comes from Ripailles Thanks Franci, that sounds heavenly.

The steak plate looks nice but it's Franci's veal tongue that really appeals to me. Franci - what kind of herbs did you use? I want to say tarragon but the leaves look quite large in the picture.

Last night we did a little cocktail party at our house and we had White Negronis (Lillet and Cocchi Americano versions - we preferred the latter), Toby Maloney's Juliet & Romeo, and Trader Vic's Mai Tais (with La Favorite coeur de rhum, Appleton 12, Clement creole shrubb, and freshly made orgeat). Tonight, a Vesper Martini with the Cocchi Americano that our friends gave us.

A couple of sours tonight. For me, a Trinidad Sour. 1 oz Angostura, 1 oz homemade orgeat, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz rye. For him, the Eastern Sour from BeachBum Berry Remixed. 2.5 oz orange juice (I used Cara Cara and Moro oranges), 2 oz bourbon, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/4 oz orgeat, 1/4 oz simple.

It's nice to have a large pressure cooker, however I don't think that mine is more than 5 quarts and it's still a life saver (we are a family of 3). So if you can't afford a large one, it's still worth considering a smaller model.

Halibut with Fingerlings, Fava Beans, Meyer Lemons and Savory Crème Fraîche This is a dish from the spring menus. It's not yet the season for fava beans but I had gorgeous little Russian banana fingerling potatoes and a couple of Meyer lemons from my CSA so the recipe caught my eye. First I made the Meyer lemon salsa, using some of the juice and segments from the Meyer lemons combined with shallots and let to rest, then adding olive oil and plenty of herbs. I used mint and parsley and skipped the savory as I didn't have any. The savory crème fraîche was made by pounding more fresh herbs with a pestle and stirring in the crème fraîche. The recipe calls for savory again but I used dill from my weekly CSA. On a side note, I usually don't care much for dill, but this bunch had the most amazing and delicate fragrance. I cooked the potatoes for a short time in my pressure cooker (about 5 min). Then I smashed them slightly with a fork and cooked them on the stove in plenty of butter. Similar to the recipe in my previous post, the fish is marinated in herbs and lemon rind (I used fresh lemons this time), then seared in olive oil. The fish was a local white seabass. For plating, the potatoes are drizzled with the cream and salsa, then the fish is placed on top with more of the cream and salsa. The cream melted almost instantly into a very lucious sauce. I thought this was a clever way to serve a cream-based sauce with fish, much easier than the traditional beurre blanc. In the end the dish really came beautifully together. I really loved the flavors in this recipe.

I don't think I could survive without the pressure cooker I inherited from my grandmother (a small "SEB"). I use it to cook potatoes, make chicken stock, and also make risotto (which works best with a firmer rice such as carnaroli).

Franci and Kouign Aman, Thank you for the nice comments! My husband, the amateur photographer, did a pretty good job with what is not a terribly photogenic dish (brown on brown...). Franci, if you try beef poitrine I don't think you will be disappointed, especially if you already like plat-de-côtes (short ribs). I tried a couple of fish dishes recently. I get really good quality fish from Catalina Offshore in San Diego so I am always looking for new ways to prepare it. Sautéed Halibut with Arugula and Roasted Beets I used mixed baby beets from my CSA that I roasted in the oven. In the meantime, the fish marinated with the herbs (thyme and parsley). I substituted lemon confit for the fresh lemons in the recipe for a more intense flavor. The fish was local black gill rockcod (caught off La Jolla!). The fish was cooked on the stove in olive oil. It was served on top of arugula (also from my CSA) and the roasted beets. I wanted something light so I opted to omit the horseradish crème that can be drizzled on the beets and the fish. Instead, I just seasoned everything with a little bit of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I must say, I find this surprising. I don't know in what part of California you are, but I used to live in Southern California and my son and his family currently live in the Bay Area. Never had a bit of trouble finding Key/Mexican limes. They usually come in a mesh bag. I was just out there visiting a few months back and bought a bag at their local Safeway. Even the WalMart in San Jose had them. So I'd advise you not to give up. My experience is similar to Jaymes'. In San Diego, practically every store has them.

That must have been because it was served in a martini glass

I am very thirsty tonight for some reason. I decided to make a John Collins with Bols genever.

I went with a classic last night: The Aviation.

Wow how beautiful. My dinner will look very pedestrian after dcarch's artistic presentation and thanks to my cheapo blackberry lens, but here we go. Yesterday I bought a Delmonico steak at my favorite butcher shop after realizing that it looked awfully similar to the "côte de bœuf" I love so much in France. Here it is before, seasoned with grapeseed oil, rosemary & thyme from the garden, salt, and plenty of black pepper. After a few minutes on the grill (I like it very rare) We had grilled eggplants and a salad on the side. My favorite part is gnawing on the bone at the end (no picture here!).

A variation on Audrey Saunders' Earl Grey MarTEAni maybe?

Would you mind sharing what menu you ended up with? I would love to know. Thanks!