tammylc

Cohousing kitchen definitely helps. Not the cooking equipment per se, because plenty of home kitchens have 2 ovens and a six burner stove. It's the commercial dishwasher with the 2 minute cycle that really rocks. My husband was on baby duty early in the day, and we had a babysitter come and look after him and two children of another wine club couple while we were eating.

Great pics, u.e. Reading the few notes with your flikr pictures, it sounds like you and I are pretty much on the same page. But you must have gotten unlucky with the shad - mine didn't have any nasty gristle at all!

Yep - the Rosemary-Parm Coins are from the "Weekend Cooking" special of Fine Cooking magazine. The braised short ribs were based on a recipe from another recent Fine Cooking issue as well. They are definitely great for nibbles. And pretty easy to make.

Last night I attended the Seafood Dinner with Mike Monahan from Monahan's Seafood in Kerrytown. They did this meal last year and it was so popular that they scheduled it for two nights this time (last night and tonight). The menu: STARTERS Bacon and Eggs - Paper thin crispy Iowa ham and Mississippi paddlefish caviar Crab Match-Sticks - First of the season Florida soft shell legs, tempura-fried and dusted in alea red sea salt and seven peppers Liver & Onions - Seared monkfish liver and crispy shallot rings Fish & Chips - Fried smelt and blue potato chips A Hawaiian "Poke" - Grade "A" Hawaiian tuna marinated in soy, sesame, and kombu The starters were all served on one very pretty plate. The eggs in the bacon and eggs were pretty much totally overwhelmed by the ham, so if you ate it all in one bite, you missed them entirely. The soft shell crab was fabulous, and was served with a really great tartar sauce. I'd never had monkfish liver before, and I can see why it's often called "foie gras of the sea" - very similar in texture to foie gras, although with a much milder flavor. Fish & Chips was fine, not very exciting. The tuna "poke" was incredible - excellent balance between the marinade ingredients (which also included sesame oil, not listed on the menu). My husband, the sashimi purist, thought that the marinade overwhelmed the fish, but I think the entire meal made him realize that he likes his fish as unadulterated as possible. The starter was accompanied by three small tastes of Sake, all from the Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture. From cheapest to most expensive (althoug we were encouraged to taste them the other direction) the were Asamurasaki (red rice sake), Kurahibiki Daiginjo, and a rare vintage sake, the Gekkakow Vintage 2000 Daiginjo Junmai. I'm not a sake fan, but these were the best I've tasted. Although I have struck again, as I was the last time I tasted several sakes, that the sake is like the total opposite of wine - the better a sake is, the less it tastes like anything! Subtle is the word of the day. SOUP West Coast Oyster Bisque - Real bisque made from pearl bay oysters, topped with a bit of uni cream, Andrew Quady's sweet vermouth and a tarragon crostini This was fabulous. The uni cream just pushed it over the top. The wine that accompanied it was also wonderful: Emilio Lustau, Penninsula, Palo Cortado, Jerez de la Frontera SP, NV. Palo Cartado is a sherry that's halfway between the fino and oloroso styles. It was very full and rich and lovely with the soup. The more I taste sherries, the more I realize how much I like them! SALAD Lovage & Salmon - Our love affair with wild king salmon continues. Seared otoro of wild king salmon with local lovage and California pinot gris vinaigrette Although otoro usually refers to a tuna, in this case it was used to described the belly of the salmon. Good flavor, although it was easy to lose the salmon in the strong flavors of the lovage and vinaigrette. There were also some bits of crunchy salmon skin garnishing the salad, and I liked that addition a lot. I also really liked the wine that went with. We had to hold it up against white paper to realize that it was a rose, as the color was the lightest I've ever seen. It was a Rose de Pinot Gris, "Les Rouesses" Domaine des Rouesses, Reuilly, Loire FR, 2004. Ahh, a Loire - that explains why I liked it so much - it's rare for me to come across a Loire wine that I don't like. Nothing makes me happier than high acid mineraly wines. Well, except maybe sherry... ENTREE Oak Planked Shad & Shad Roe - Roasted and served on a real oak plank in the Ruritan (yep, it’s the right word) tradition, served with spinach and roasted potatoes The smell of the roasting oak planks drifted out from the kitchen long before this hit our tables, and nicely played off of the aromas of the Meursault that was served with the shad. (Meursault AOC, Domaine Arnaud Ente, Cote de Beaune, Bourgogne FR, 2000). Ric's note: "Sophisticated and sensual, with a nose of acacia flowers and candied citrus that expands on the palate in the classic French plume de paon, showing pears, peaches, and hazelnut cream." The shad was great, really nice flavor and texture, and perfectly cooked. The roe was... interesting. I understand shad roe has a number of enthusiasts, but it didn't do much for me. DESSERT A Day at the Beach - Vanilla caviar (tapioca pearls), sea foam and Scharffen Berger cocoa sand A richer and sweeter dessert than expected, this didn't quite go with the late harvest Riesling from Bel Lago Winery, Leelanau Penninsula MI 2003. Basically tapioca pudding with whip cream and some brown sugar for the sand - if there was cocoa in there anywhere, we couldn't find it. But both the dessert and the wine were good on their own, even if they didn't end up playing so well together. A fine meal, but I just wasn't as "Oh my god, that was fabulous" as I have been after the other two dinners that I've been to. While I'm more appreciative of elaborate flavors than my hubbie, I do agree with him that the preparations often overwhelmed the flavor of the fish and seafood, which should have been the stars of the show. Still, it's not enough to put me off of planning to attend next month's dinner with Bill Niman from Niman Ranch (and an all biodynamic wine pairing from some big names in the wine world). They are serving the same dinner again tonight and probably still have room (we were able to add 3 people to our table at the last minute yesterday), if anything I described sounds like something you'd love to eat! And many thanks to Jillian for taking the photos!

Thanks! Yes, the veggie course was molded and turned out. I'd planned to use a ring mold but I didn't get around to getting the PVC pipe. Then I tried to use tuna cans, but the empty ones we had available had weird molded bottoms so we couldn't cut both ends. So we ended up just using some glass bowls, layering the ingredients, then turning it out on the plate. Which made this course waaay larger than it needed to be, because of the size of what we had available. Here's the link to the Port Glazed Walnuts. They were excellent.

But only slightly, right? To be sure I'm giving credit where credit is due, I should note here that I had at least 8 people helping at different stages of the cooking and plating. Now I could probably have pulled this off with fewer hands, but it would have meant spending a lot more time cooking. We were able to get a lot done in the 3 hours just before dinner because we had so many people chopping and prepping, etc. And then a bunch more people who did the dishes after so I could go home and fall over.

*blush* Thanks! I should note that I'm not exactly working in a home setting. I live in a cohousing community which has shared meals 5 nights a week. It would be exaggerating to say we have a semi-professional kitchen, but it's definitely souped up beyond your average home kitchen, and larger. *And* we have enough dishes to mean we didn't need to wash up in the middle!

Yeah, I definitely erred on the side of too much rather than too little. But it was my first time doing a tasting menu kinda thing and I'm still surprised by how far you can stretch things in the concept. We had 16 people and one pound of pasta, for example. For the duck dish, it was half of a small duck breast per person, and one bunch of chard across 14 people. And about 2 cups of lentils in pre-cooked volume. I wouldn't have thought it would be too much. (I also think that the pictures may be making things look a little more generous than the actually were.)

Thanks Ronnie - you're too sweet.

Thanks again for all the help. I've posted the whole rundown of the meal here, but someone asked for pics, so I thought I'd oblige. The final menu, with wines, and some pictures: <b>Rosemary Parmesan Coins</b> <i>NV Collabrigo Prosecco Spumante Brut</i> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v300/photos/2/246486/3420727/Parmesancrackers-vi.jpg"> <b>Mixed Greens with Zingerman’s Creamery Goat Cheese, Roasted Red and Gold Beets, and Toasted Walnuts</b> <i>2004 Jardin Sauvignon Blanc, Stellensboch, South Africa</i> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v294/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080336_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Vodka Sauce</b> <i>2004 Domaine Cordier Père& Fils “Terroir de Charnay” Macon</i> (Boring plate - I had planned on making a chive oil to drizzle on the plate to jazz things up a bit, but didn't have time.) <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v298/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080337_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Blood Orange - Rosemary Sorbet</b> Very good. The blood oranges were totally anemic though. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v277/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080341-vi.jpg"> <b>Seared Duck Breast with Dried Cherry Sauce, Lentils and Swiss Chard</b> or <b>Lentils, Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushrooms with Dried Cherry Sauce</b> <i>2004 Domain Robert Chevillon Bourgogne Passetoutgrain</i> Duck <img src="http://images9.fotki.com/v182/photos/2/246486/3420727/Duck2_edited-vi.jpg"> Veggie <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v293/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080344_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Five Spice Braised Short Ribs (or Portabellas), Parsnip-Turnip Puree, Snow Peas</b> <i>2000 J.L. Chave “Offerus” Saint-Joseph</i> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v296/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080345_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Tasting of blue cheeses</b> <i>NV Alvear Carlos VII Amontillado</i> The cheeses were Cashel Blue from Ireland, Stilton from England, Roquefort from France, and Gorgonzola from Italy. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v277/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080347_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Lemon Sabayon Tart with Pine Nut Crust and Honeyed Mascarpone Cream</b> <i>2002 Peller Estates Riesling Icewine</i> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080351_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Gianduja Gelato Filled Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce</b> <i>Warres Otima 10 year Tawny Porto</i> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v296/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080353_edited-vi.jpg"> And because there's no such thing as too many photos, here's a few more: <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/Platingsalad-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v300/photos/2/246486/3420727/ManySalads_edited-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v288/photos/2/246486/3420727/PlatingDuck-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v289/photos/2/246486/3420727/Table-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v297/photos/2/246486/3420727/PlatingBeef_edited-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/Cleanup-vi.jpg">

Now, for something completely different... I host a wine club for my cohousing community. April marked the one year anniversary of our monthly gatherings, so we decided to celebrate with a big dinner. I had originally expected that I'd spearhead the general planning, then pass off entire courses to other people to be in charge of, but then my control freak tendencies kicked in, and I ended up being much more "in charge" than I'd originally thought I would. Which had me a little stressed in the days leading up to it. Fortunately I had a ton of help yesterday. T did most of the shopping on Friday. I did some advance prep on Friday night, as did K, our "pastry chef." Then at 3 pm yesterday a whole horde of people descended on the common house to get everything ready for our 6 pm dinner. The menu was such that about 85% of the components could be prepared in advance and just reheated for service, which made things go pretty smoothly and with only minimal delays between courses. We had 16 diners. 2 were vegetarians. I thought it was important, given the celebratory nature of the event, for the vegetarians to get to have a similar pairing experience as the rest of us. Which meant modifying some courses, and making one entirely different, since all of the components had meat products in them. The other wrinkle was when one of our members had to start a no-gluten diet on the Tuesday before the dinner. We made modifications where we could - he brought some precooked gluten-free pasta to use for the pasta course, I used tamari instead of soy sauce in the ribs, we pulled out some of the lemon sabayon for him before putting it into the tart crust, and he ate the gelato straight up. But who knew that blue cheese contains gluten! That was a bummer. I was really pleased with all the wine pairings. This crowd has been fairly skeptical of old world wines, but I felt like the dinner setting really gave them a chance to shine. The final menu, with wines, and some pictures: <b>Rosemary Parmesan Coins</b> <i>NV Collabrigo Prosecco Spumante Brut</i> Really great hors d'ouevres. Easy and very tasty. Sort of like a savory cookie. We had these and the sparkling wine out for people to have as they were arriving and before they sat down. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v300/photos/2/246486/3420727/Parmesancrackers-vi.jpg"> <b>Mixed Greens with Zingerman’s Creamery Goat Cheese, Roasted Red and Gold Beets, and Toasted Walnuts</b> <i>2004 Jardin Sauvignon Blanc, Stellensboch, South Africa</i> The goat cheese was more aged than I remembered. E, who works at Zingerman's did the actual buying, so I wasn't there to assess. I might have used something else. But it was a very good salad. The planned sherry vinaigrette fell victim to my not actually having the bottle of sherry vinager that I was sure I had, so we used a balsalmic vinaigrette instead, which was fine. <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v294/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080336_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Vodka Sauce</b> <i>2004 Domaine Cordier Père& Fils “Terroir de Charnay” Macon</i> The only "eh" course, I thought. Although it probably would have been better when it was warm, but I was doing some things to get started on the next course. Boring plate - I had planned on making a chive oil to drizzle on the plate to jazz things up a bit, but didn't have time. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v298/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080337_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Blood Orange - Rosemary Sorbet</b> Very good. The blood oranges were totally anemic though. The duck course that followed was the course that required the most last minute preparation, so I added the sorbet to fill in the long gap. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v277/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080341-vi.jpg"> <b>Seared Duck Breast with Dried Cherry Sauce, Lentils and Swiss Chard</b> or <b>Lentils, Butternut Squash and Shiitake Mushrooms with Dried Cherry Sauce</b> <i>2004 Domain Robert Chevillon Bourgogne Passetoutgrain</i> I'd written down a great to-do list, but the one thing I'd forgotten to write down was "score skin on duck breasts" so I forgot. Luckily, I'd put them into cold pans, so I realized it right away and was able to pull them out. Then none of the knives I had handy were sharp enough to cut the skin... ugh. This was definitely the most hectic course. Sear the duck, rest the duck, carve the duck, saute the chard, heat up the sauce, get everything plated. The vegetarian offering was totally different too, so that was a whole other set of things to do at the same time (although I delegated that to someone else). Duck <img src="http://images9.fotki.com/v182/photos/2/246486/3420727/Duck2_edited-vi.jpg"> Veggie <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v293/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080344_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Five Spice Braised Short Ribs (or Portabellas), Parsnip-Turnip Puree, Snow Peas</b> <i>2000 J.L. Chave “Offerus” Saint-Joseph</i> I put a dry rub on the ribs Friday night, then seared and braised them Saturday morning, then strained and reduced the braising liquid into an intense sauce Saturday afternoon. The portion size was waaay to big on this one - based on my test recipe I was expecting the short ribs to cook down more, and these ones didn't. Everything got eaten, but people were definitely feeling full, so I sent them all out for a walk while we prepped the cheese course. <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v296/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080345_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Tasting of blue cheeses</b> <i>NV Alvear Carlos VII Amontillado</i> The cheeses were Cashel Blue from Ireland, Stilton from England, Roquefort from France, and Gorgonzola from Italy. We served a variety of sides along with - some pears, some port glazed walnuts, a hearty nut and seed bread, and a little dollop of port reduction. The port glazed walnuts are amazing! And they played especially well with the excellent wine. <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v277/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080347_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Lemon Sabayon Tart with Pine Nut Crust and Honeyed Mascarpone Cream</b> <i>2002 Peller Estates Riesling Icewine</i> A yummy and easy recipe from the French Laundry Cookbook. And a *great* wine pairing. <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080351_edited-vi.jpg"> <b>Gianduja Gelato Filled Profiteroles with Chocolate Sauce</b> <i>Warres Otima 10 year Tawny Porto</i> Wow, this was the ever evolving course. We'd originally planned dark chocolate filled profiteroles, caramel sauce and Banyuls as the wine. But I couldn't get any Banyuls. So at the last minute I changed the gelato to Gianduja, as I thought I'd serve a Vin Santo instead. But then I couldn't get that! So we ended up with a tawny port. The caramel sauce didn't turn out - I think the recipe was messed up. So Katie brought over a jar of Sanders bittersweet chocolate sauce and we used that instead. And in the end, I think it turned out for the best - it was a really nice match for the wine. <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v296/photos/2/246486/3420727/P4080353_edited-vi.jpg"> Lessons learned - I was overambitious and took too much on myself instead of delegating. With a few exceptions (pasta, salad dressing, cheese, most of dessert) I basically planned and executed the whole meal. If I were to do it again (next year?) I'd need to pick a couple of things to concentrate on and give away the rest, even if it compromised my "vision." Too much food. Primarily the short rib course - one bone each would have been plenty, instead of the two we had. Money. When we were planning the dinner, I told people it would be $20. But as things evolved, the price kept rising, and it ended up at about$25/person. Not a huge deal, but it stressed me out because I know that some of our people are really price-sensitive. I know being worried about $5 will sound silly to some of you, but I just know other people's realities, and since I was the one planning the menu, I felt responsible for going over the budget I'd set myself. Even at $25 it was an incredible bargain for an 8 course dinner with 7 wines. And because there's no such thing as too many photos, here's a few more: <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/Platingsalad-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v300/photos/2/246486/3420727/ManySalads_edited-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v288/photos/2/246486/3420727/PlatingDuck-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images16.fotki.com/v289/photos/2/246486/3420727/Table-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v297/photos/2/246486/3420727/PlatingBeef_edited-vi.jpg"> <img src="http://images17.fotki.com/v295/photos/2/246486/3420727/Cleanup-vi.jpg">

Le Dog is pretty forward thinking for a hot dog stand. (And damn, their lobster bisque is good.)

I think you're making some sweeping generalizations about what American kids eat. Recommendations about how to introduce food are due to concerns about allergies, and usually by 9 months or a year, parents are told they can start feeding their kid anything they want, so long as no allergies are present. And lots of parents who don't have a history of allergies ignore those guidelines anyway - hummus was one of my son's first foods. Certainly there are lots of kids who eat the way you describe - but their parents probably eat nothing but crap either. Kids of parents who eat a healthy and balanced diet will get those foods. Living in a cohousing community, I see a lot of kids eat dinner every night. Some eat what the rest of us are eating, others opt for plainer options. They all love baby carrots and steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. My two-year old son really enjoyed the pad thai he had for dinner on Saturday, and loves raspberries with an unholy passion! Most kids do go through picky eater stages, but I think the vast majority are eating regular dinner food well before their teens.

Sorry your experience wasn't better. I've had one great meal at Emily's and one so-so meal (my food was good, my husband's not so much).

There was half a mushroom left after dinner last night, so I brought it home and had it tonight. Wow, it was tasty. Definitely going into the rotation. Hope you enjoyed it!

Here's the link to the atual recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_29954,00.html

A recent Fine Cooking special issue has an amazing Brown Butter Almond Cake. Toasted almonds ground with sugar, mixed with flour, baking powder and salt. Browned butter mixed with rum, vanilla and sour cream. Egg whites whipped with sugar. Fold it all together, bake. Really great flavor and texture.

<b>Rotisserie Chicken Dinner</b> Well, it was tasty, but not as easy as I thought it might be. I ended up working my tail off. In part because I made an overambitious dessert. Tuesday night's cook had made a dessert that used 5 dozen egg yolks, so I figured I'd do something to use up the whites. I made a fabulous Brown Butter Almond Cake. It's really good, but too much work for common meal, especially when there are 64 people signed up, requiring me to make 4 cakes. So by the time the actual cooking started at 4, I'd already put in a couple hours work making cakes, plus shopping time this morning. It was fun, but my feet are killing me now! Notes for the future: 25 lbs of mashed potatoes was too much. Lots of leftovers. But, on the other hand, the meal still came in under $4, so maybe bounty is okay - all the leftovers went home with people, so it's not like things were wasted. ITotal of 64 people: 27 meat eaters, 15 vegetarians, 1 teen meat, 5 big kids, and 16 little kids. Total cost: $178.60 (plus another $7.58 for staple items that come out of the pantry fund and aren't charged directly to my meal). So $4.42 per adult, including the pantry fee. The menu: 8 <b>Rotisserie Chickens</b> - fully cooked, purchased from Meijer. I called a couple hours in advance so they'd have 8 ready for us. Even though the store is very close, we underestimated the time it would take for Nancy to get up there, get the chickens, pay and get back. She left at 5:25 and didn't get back until nearly 6. Which did not give us enough time to calmly carve 8 chickens, and we were still doing it at 6:30. For the vegetarians: <b>Stuffed Portabellas</b> 16 portabella mushroom caps 2 logs goat cheese 1 jar roasted red pepper 2 onions I sprinkled the mushrooms with olive oil, salt and pepper, and baked them for 10 minutes, then set aside. I caramelized the onions and once they were cool I added the goat cheese and chopped up roasted peppers, and distributed that mixture across the mushroom caps. Then I just had to throw them in the oven for another 10-15 minutes to heat them back up and finish them off. <b>Mashed Potatoes</b> 25 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes (20 lbs probably would have been fine) 2 sticks of butter 1/2 gallon of whole milk (non-homogenized organic pasture fed milk from a local farmer, to be precise. It's great stuff) Fortunately we found the industrial size potato masher I had picked up at the restaurant supply store a while back - I looked forever, and eventually found it in the back of a cupboard I'd already looked in several times. But it made short work of all those potatoes. <b>Ginger Glazed Carrots</b> 10 lbs carrots 2 sticks butter 4 bottles Reed's Extra Ginger Brew 1 bunch parsley chili powder and salt from the pantry This is a great recipe from Alton Brown, where you use ginger ale to make the glaze for the carrots. It's super easy. Doing the recipe for a crowd does require managing the liquid correctly. You need to do it in batches, so the liquid can reduce down to a glaze before the carrots overcook. While the original recipe calls for 8 oz gingerale to 1 lb of carrots, if you are trying to do a multiple batch in one pan, you can't multiply the gingerale straight out, or you get the same overcooking problem. For bulk cooking, 2.5 lbs of carrots to 12 oz gingerale, 4 tbsp butter, 1 tsp chili powder and a generous sprinkling of salt worked out very well. I cooked two pans at once so it didn't take so long to do all four batches. <b>Roasted Brussels Sprouts</b> 7 lbs brussels sprouts olive oil, salt, pepper from the pantry I'd planned to buy 8 lbs, and changed my mind to 7 at the last minute. Could have stuck with 8 - they went fast. <b>Green Salad</b> 4 5-oz pkgs mixed greens Not a lot of salad, because they didn't have the 1 lb pkgs I usually buy, and there was plenty of other food. <b>Brown Butter Almond Cake</b> 5 sticks butter 2 lbs almonds (only used a little over a lb, but I had to buy them in 1 lb pkgs) 1 c almond slices 36 egg whites (frozen and thawed, leftover from Tuesday's dessert) sour cream (leftover from some previous meal) spiced rum (from my house) cake flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla Excellent recipe, if a little too multi-stepped for common meal. Brown the butter, set aside. Grind the almonds and sugar together until fine, mix with flour, baking powder and salt. Add rum, vanilla and sour cream to the butter. Beat egg whites and sugar to soft peaks. Fold it all into each other, pour into buttered, parchment lined springform pan. Sprinkle with almond slices, bake. Because of the nature of the recipe and our equipment, I needed to make 4 separate batches, so this was extremely time consuming, and not something I'll make for common meal again. It sure was good, though. I'd made it at home about a week ago, so I knew that I needed to increase the salt (from a pinch to about 1/2 - 3/4 tsp). Much more balanced with the extra salt. And at home I'd substituted AP flour because I didn't have any cake flour - the texture is definitely better with cake flour. If I hadn't made the overambitious dessert and had picked up the chickens a little earlier, it would have been much easier, so I'll have to keep it in mind for the future. People didn't seem to mind my little chicken cheat at all...

And I didn't even know I had a desire to visit SA until I read this blog!

Don't know if I've written about this here before, but we have a nightly ritual at common meal. One of the children clangs on a glass and shouts out an (often unintelligible) "Thanks to the cooks!" and everyone claps. A minute later, another child will clang on a glass and shout "Thanks to the cleaners!" and everyone claps. Tonight was a little different. I made chocolate cake for dessert. It's a super easy chocolate cake recipe, but it looks *really* impressive, thanks to a chocolate ganache poured over the top that gives it that shiny smooth finish. As soon as I put it out, a line queued up. And once most people had served themselves, somebody clanged on a glass and shouted "Thanks for dessert!" First time I've ever heard or had *that* happen. Nice! Dinner was tasty. I made the same jambalaya I've made a bunch of times before, and it's always a hit. Tonight's was especially good, because the store I shopped at had some really nice andouille sausage. I really like this meal because not only is it tasty, it's fast, easy and cheap to boot! I just wish there was some way to make the vegetarian version taste anywhere near as good as the meat eater version (well, adding chicken and sausage fat would work, but then it wouldn't be vegetarian anymore...) But I guess the veggies don't know what they're missing. Oh, and note to self - given that this is a cheap meal, I should probably make extra - we never have leftovers, and people are usually scrounging around for seconds. When calculating how much to make, I should think of the base recipe as serving 4-5, not 6. I'm too tired tonight, but at some point I need to write up the recipe/ technique. I've made a number of adaptations from the Cook's Illustrated version that I started with, so it would be good to document those so I don't forget the steps. Since there are 5 Thursdays in March, I get to (have to?) cook next Thursday too. I'm doing the rotisserie chicken dinner I talked about above - buying cooked rotisserie chickens, and making the side dishes and vegetarian main course. Should be tasty. And easy.

Tammy, I make this dish of roasted butternut squash, lentils, and walnuts quite often, and have also paired with greens (kale and spinach, I think, but chard would work). I think you could exchange your seasonings for the curry powder, throw in some cherry sauce and/or dried cherries and be good to go. I've also used sweet potatoes instead of the squash, which will cook a bit faster if that helps you out. Post pics later, please. Sounds delish. ← I think you're onto something with lentils and butternut squash and dried cherries. I'm thinking maybe some shiitake mushrooms too. Thyme and sage and onion for seasonings instead of curry powder. Okay, now I'm thinking about plating. I'm thinking of doing a whole layered thing in a little round - lentils braised in (veggie) stock as the base, then a layer of roasted butternut squash, then some sauteed shiitakes on top. With the dried cherry sauce on the plate around it. But I'm worried that the lentils won't have the structural integrity to hold up the rest. Thoughts?

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. Here's my next challenge for Course #3. We have two vegetarians coming for this dinner. So I need to figure out alternate dishes that will still match the wines we're serving for each course. Course #2 I've picked out a ricotta-almond tortellini with truffle oil. Course #4 I'm just going to subsititute similarly-seasoned portabella mushroom for the short ribs. But I'm totally stuck on Course #3. I'd be really happy if I could come up with something thematically similar (lentils and dried cherries?) but at this point I'll take any suggestions!

It was in the eGullet duck breast thread that I was hearing all these people saying 15 minutes, and while I usually trust my eGullet sources, it did seem too long to me as well. Other recipes that I can find online are all over the map as far as times are concerned. I think one of the big differences is people's expectations for how much fat should render off versus remain on each piece. I think the 15 minute method aims to render as much fat as possible. Also, it occurs to me that there is considerable variability in the size of duck breasts, and the ones I'm getting are on the smallish side (about 6 oz each, I'd guess), so will probably take less time. Thanks for the advice and timing suggestions. My reason for saving the chard for the last minute was so I could cook it in the duck fat. But I think I'll definitely plan to do the sauce in advance instead.

Well, I actually only have to cook 8 duck breasts perfectly, since we're only planning 1/2 breast per person. I'm not too worried about that part of it - two pans of four ought to be easy to handle, and I can ask someone else to watch the second pan if need be. I think we're planning some sort of meyer lemon or passionfruit tart or something for the first dessert. I've passed primary dessert planning responsibility off to someone else. But I am thinking that I could add a sorbet course/intermezzo to fill in some of the time while I'm messing with the duck.

Resurrecting this old thread for some advice... I'm putting together my first at-home tasting menu, an anniversary dinner for my wine club. It's going to be a big challenge, because it looks like we're going to have around 16 people, but we all live in a cohousing community and are used to cooking for a crowd. I'll have plenty of help in the prepping, cooking and plating. Here's the menu: Hors D'ouevres: Rosemary Parmesan Coins Prosecco Beet, Goat Cheese and Walnut Salad Sauvignon Blanc Farfalle with Smoked Salmon and Creamy Vodka Sauce White Burgundy Seared Duck Breast with Dried Cherry Sauce, French Lentils, Swiss Chard Burgundy Braised Short Ribs with Five Spice Powder, Parsnip-Turnip Puree, Snow Peas Australian Shiraz Tasting of Blue Cheeses Alvear Carlos VII Amontillado A little citrusy dessert Ice Wine A little chocolate dessert Banyuls or Port I'm trying to puzzle out timing issues. The salad is easy, since it's cold. The sauce for the pasta comes together while the pasta is cooking, so that's just a quick break between #1 and #2. It's the duck breast I'm worried about. All the recipes/cooking methods I'm seeing call for cooking the breast skin side down for 15 minutes to crisp the skin and render the fat. I can make a pan sauce and saute chard while the duck is resting, but add plating time and we're looking at at least 25 minutes between #2 and #3, and that seems way too long! Can I partially cook the duck in advance, and then keep it warm or finish it off without overcooking it? Any ideas? #4 is fine, since the short ribs are braised, so there's no time crunch there. I'm thinking I'll actually finish them early, degrease and reduce the sauce, and then just reheat for service. Same thing with the veggie puree, so it's just stir-frying the snow peas and plating that has to happen between #3 and #4.