Ling

Thanks so much for sharing your week with us! I especially enjoyed the pictures from your latke party, and--of course--the shots of the Jewish pastries from the bakery. I made rugelach once but they didn't turn out that pretty.

^Haha...yes, it does make a difference, believe it or not! I'm quite particular when it comes to chocolate...I don't eat the cheap stuff, and I don't eat white chocolate or milk chocolate. Your friend sounds really talented...I wish I could reach through my computer and grab a few from you! The creme brulee ended up being pots de creme because my mom dug into one while it was still cooling, so I just decided to eat them as is, too.

^I'm under the impression that the mother wanted something more adventurous than tomato sauce or alfredo for the little one.

Yes, I was looking at the menus last night through a link they send you when you give them your email address.

^Ohh...gladly! What sort of chocolates did your friend make? Right now, I have four ramekins of creme brulee in the oven. Mmm...can't wait to dig in! Yesterday, I didn't have much dessert as I was out of the house all day. I had some dark Valrhona and kumquats (not together) when I got home.

I make Oreo cheesecakes and strawberry cheesecakes because my sister loves them, but I don't really like Oreo cheesecakes. They are so sweet, even though I decrease the amount of sugar in the cheesecake batter. Strawberry cheesecake is OK, but not really one of my favourite cheesecake flavours. I make various types of biscotti for my mom, even though I don't eat them very often. I'm just a homebaker, so I'm afforded the luxury of making things I enjoy eating 90% of the time.

The menus look even better this year! I was browsing the site last night, and I had such a difficult time choosing where I wanted to eat!! I've made reservations for Diva and Parkside so far. (BTW--Parkside's Dine Out menu is in effect from Jan. 16th-Feb. 5th). I'll probably choose another one or two places. (I see that Aurora and Feenie's have some of my favourite dishes as part of their Dine Out menu--the bison carpaccio and the mission trout, respectively. )

Last week, I had dinner with some friends at Felico's in Richmond. We had a bottle of red wine and started with the calamari and fried oysters. For my main, I ordered the lamb souvlaki, rare, and that's how it arrived. However, my friends ordered steaks and souvlaki dishes--all rare or medium rare--and every plate came well-done to the point where the meat was kind of tough. (We weren't a large party...only six of us that night.) Also, we had to ask for the bill three times over the span of 35 minutes before we received it. The server was nice enough to do separate checks for us, though. The restaurant wasn't too busy...maybe half full, but there only seemed to be two servers working and they seemed to have too many tables to wait on! I also made dinner for the guy I've been dating last week. I'll post the pictures soon in the "Meals from Granville Island" thread soon. Appetizers were pate choux filled with goat cheese and Parm Reg mousse, salmon tartare (from the Bouchon cookbook), pan-seared pheasant, swiss chard, fig, and foie gras (from The French Laundry, though I subbed pheasant for squab), and I made a caramel apple pie, and served it with Haagen Daaz ice-cream. (And we had green tea ice-cream after that.) We drank a bottle of red, which I didn't care for very much. I also drank a bottle of Sauternes all by myself. Sunday was a big birthday luncheon at his house. His family's cooks made the food and served it buffet style (all Chinese stuff...the best thing was this marinated crunchy cartilege). I made a three-layer pecan butter cake with pecan dacquoise, Valrhona Amaretto mousse, and it was covered with Amaretto cream cheese frosting, and topped with more crumbled dacquoise on top. Also brought over a tray of cream puffs I made the morning of...those were filled with coconut cream. Today we watched King Kong and ate lunch at the Silvercity food court. I had the BLT chicken salad with honey mustard dressing at Burger King. This was my first-ever fast food salad...and it will most likely be my last. Lots of shredded iceberg lettuce, orange cheese, limp bacon bits, some grilled chicken. I washed it down with 7-11. He had a Junior Whopper and then two beef tacos and a beef burrito at Taco Bell. At night, we went to Pacific Crab & Co. with our friend and our friend's girlfriend. I had eaten dinner already at home, so I just had oysters (Kumamotos, Mary Point, Royal Miyagi, and Malpeques.) Malpeques are my favourite! The others had yam fries, seafood chowder, and over 70 oysters. They stuck to the Mary Point and Royal Miyagi b/c they were on special for a buck each. And then we said good-bye...he's out of the country for the next 6 weeks. Oh well.

I had the pecan cake I made, with the pecan dacquoise and the chocolate Amaretto mousse, and almond cream cheese icing. Also had my cream puffs filled with coconut cream. A slice of Dairy Queen ice-cream cake, and a slice of a huge chocolate cake with chocolate "buttercream" from Costco. (Yes, there were three birthday cakes at this party--there were a lot of people.)

Love the pictures. Thanks!

That St. Honore is at the top of my list, along with the Nutella tart. Looks beautiful as always, Patrick! Do you like PH's choux recipe more, or the Pichet Ong one?

I had a few pate choux with a coconut cream filling. (I'm making them for a luncheon tomorrow). Also had the pecan cake scraps, pecan dacquoise, chocolate mousse, and pecan cream cheese frosting (the components of a birthday cake I'm making for the guy I'm dating.)

^Oops, forgot the green tea ice-cream too!!

Today--caramel apple pie and Haagen Daaz ice-cream (vanilla). And a whole bottle of Sauternes!

^I'm flattered. And I'm glad I could be of service. I learned how different cocoa brands yield such different tasting cakes through my chocolate cake experiment. I learned that adding a bit of sour cream to pie dough yields a softer dough that's easier to work with. I've learned to be a better restaurant patron--to arrive on time, be more appreciative of the hard work that goes on in the front and back of the house, and to give second chances. I've learned a bit about different grape varietals, different regions, and wine pairings. I've learned a lot about chocolate. Michel Cluizel makes my favourite eating chocolate, and I've just discovered this brand recently. (They've just started importing to Vancouver.) I had the opportunity to work in a busy professional kitchen, and I learned how swamped it can get back there. (And I was only there during a Thursday lunch service! ) I learned about food all around the world, particularly through the food blogs. I learned more about being a responsible consumer, and about sustainability. I found percyn's delicious breakfasts, Megan's colorful (and often quite healthful) lunches, Alinka's food and photography, Patrick's macaroons, Yetty's yummy snacks, racheld and Pontormo's writing, Susan's gorgeous dinners in Florida, Daniel's pork fest, and Chufi's Dutch cooking thread, to name a few. There is much, much more that I've gleaned from posters this year!

No worries--do what I would do; make another batch of dough immediately, grab a spoon, and eat!

Hey, I never knew that rule! Every person in my family prefers the crust to the fillings. I've seen sad-looking crustless pies in my days. ← I encourage you to enforce the rule immediately! And remember to include all the "extra" goodies--extra caramel, extra ganache, extra buttery graham crumbs from cheesecakes--they're all yours, baby!

I made a pecan pie tonight. I was going to take a picture, but I had already eaten the entire edge of the pie crust before I remembered. (Yes, the baker gets ALL the extra crust! )

They have them at La Baguette on GI.

Desserts tonight were Chinese egg tarts (from dim sum), chocolate cake scraps, tastes of coconut cream filling, and ganache. (I'm making a cake for a friend, and she requested chocolate coconut.)

It's been a few years since I've had the veal cheeks and garganelli at CinCin's, but I do remember it to be very tasty! So I second the recommendation. I had some really good lobster agnoletti at Villa del Lupo the other day--it was an appetizer, though. But if the dish is an indication of the quality of pastas to be had there, I would heartily recommend Villa del Lupo as well!

devlin: I'm drinking tea out of the exact same mug you have pictured! It's my favourite.... I had Chinese sticky rice (with Chinese sausage, ham, dried shrimp, shiitake, and a bunch of other goodies), some sourdough with butter, Christmas cookies, and some coconut cream filling (for my friend's cake.)

shortbread Here's a simple, basic shortbread recipe that I use. 1 c unsalted butter, softened 1/2 tsp salt 1 T vanilla extract 3/4 c confectioner's sugar 1 c AP flour 1/4 c cornstarch Beat the the first four ingredients together on low speed until combined. Add in 1 3/4 cup AP flour, and 1/4 cup cornstarch. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. (I use cornstarch instead of bench flour, and coat my rolling pin with cornstarch too.) Cut out cookies with a cutter, place on parchment lined baking sheets (or a Silpat). Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven until the edges are just barely browned (or you can take them out when they're still pale, whichever you prefer). They're ready in about 12 minutes. I coat half the cookie with ganache. Just melt a few ounces of bittersweet chocolate with some cream and a bit of butter. Give it a stir, and then drizzle your cookie with the ganache. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Cookie ( RG1547 )

That's beautiful, Kathy! The glaze is so shiny. I had shortbread today. I baked off four racks, and covered them with Cacao Berry orange dark chocolate.

I filled a few racks of Pichet Ong's pate choux with salmon mousse for the holidays. Here's a tray: