bloviatrix

I make the ginger cake last night. Instead of making baby cakes, I made a 10-inch cake. I haven't cut into yet, as the plan was to serve it to guests this evening, but it didn't seem to come out well so I made another cake (from Alice Medrich) as a replacement. Now, I will admit to one screw up (despite doing my mise). The cake calls for 4 eggs, adding one at a time until fully blended. I added numbers 1 -3. And I had egg #4 ready to go, but for some reason I forgot to add it to the batter. Once the eggs are in, the directions call for adding the molasses (check) and minced ginger (check) and lastly, the dry ingredients -- I was in the midst of adding them when I noticed the egg sitting in its little bowl. So, I threw the egg in mixed the batter until it was absorbed and continued with the dry ingredients. The other thing I think may have been a problem is the oven rack should have been one rung lower (the rack got shifted earlier in the day). So, the cake puffed up. And it got kind too browned around the edges. Once the cake cooled it sunk -- so there's a big depression in the middle. And it doesn't look very pretty. I know an ugly cake can taste good, but I don't think I'm going to serve it to my friends.

We've decided to celebrate Open That Bottle Night* a day early. We invited one other couple over, who enjoy and appreciate good wine and my whole meal has been designed to celebrate the wine. Mushroom Soup (blovie liked last week's batch so much, he requested it again) Baby Greens dressed with Balsamic Vinaigrette and shredded duck confit Rack of Lamb with a rosemary/thyme/shallot crust Roasted Green beans Wild Rice salad Ginger Cake Chocolate Cake Strawberries We're opening a 1995 Chateau Giscours (Bordeaux). Plus, we might get into a couple of other bottles -- maybe a '96 Sauternes with dessert. *OTBN was created by the wine writers at the Wall Street Journal. The idea being we all have special wines that we keep saving for the right time but never find that time so why not make the wine the event. Kind of like Maya's comment in Sideways "Any time you open a '61 Cheval Blanc, that's a special occasion."

This is dish of roasted vegetables I made for dinner party: Carrots, parsnips, baby turnips, and two types of beets tossed with olive oil and a bit of fresh thyme. I actually roasted the beets seperately to prevent the color from running on the other vegetables and added them to the dish later. In the summer I really like roasting cherry tomatoes with olive oil, lots of chopped garlic, thyme and oregano.

If you're willing to pay the steep prices, Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan is carrying the Keller line.

Eating the last piece of food will leave you an old maid.

Let me do a happy dance!! I don't have to worry about Pesach this year. We're going away for the whole thing. The reservations have been made. Whoo-hoo!!!!

asilverfish -- how did the birthday dinner work out? What did you serve for dessert?

I make a brisket with Coke that's fabulous.

I remember being told that when you swallowed gum it would take 7 years to dissolve. My mil tells us that eating dairy products with fish will give one an upset stomach.

Shmolka Bernsteins? (No idea on spelling here). Was taken there a good long while ago...while on a high school trip. Assume it's no longer in business. ← Bernstein's has been gone since the late 80s.

Yoshka -- where is the bakery?

I tried that pie crust (I had some shortening that I wanted to get rid of) and it was an absolute disaster -- I found it very hard to work with. And then, when I blind baked it, the entire thing melted into one big fatty mess. Yuck!

I made the mushroom soup from The Les Halles Cookbook. Now, I made a few changes -- evoo instead of butter (I was making it for a meat meal, hence no dairy). Mushroom stock instead of chicken. And a combination of button and creminis. The soup was fantastic!! Great flavor and body. And indecently easy to make. Blovie was a very happy man.

I made Bourdain's Mushroom Soup from the Les Halles Cookbook. Granted, I used evoo instead of butter and mushroom stock because I'm running low on chicken, but it was fabulous!! Blovie said it was just as good as the mushroom veloute at Solo (one of the fancy kosher restaurants). We also had veal schnitzel and potato kugel (I know, how traditional). The soup acted as the vegetable Israeli clementines for dessert.

I've served duck confit on a bed of bitter greens tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette. Even better than that was a salad I had out one night -- shredded red cabbage with a sharp vinagrette and caraway seeds with shredded duck confit on top. Great combination.

During the summer months Blovie and I frequently take an evening walk to the Haagen-Dazs shop up near Columbia U. We figure the 1.5 mile walk is permission enough for eating ice cream. I've been a fan of their Cookies 'n Cream for about 20 years now. But when I'm feeling a little crazy I go with the Mocha Almond Chip. The Chocolate Peanut Butter is pretty good as well - but I always need to drink water with it.

So when a run on cauliflower starts in the Israeli markets because the nation has become roasted cauliflower mad we know to blame you -- right?

I have long adored quiche, and reading the Bouchon thread (plus getting the book) has me excited to try Keller's method. The best quiche I've eaten was at Green's in San Francisco. I had an artichoke quiche in a yeast-based crust that was out of this world.

Let me suggest getting extra lids. They start to crack after awhile -- it's the trips through the dishwasher and time in the freezer that does it to them.

I'm planning on making the mushroom soup from the Les Halles book after reading Maggie's raves. Mmmm, mushrooms.

On the rare chance we use commercial mayo it's Hellman's. But it's just so easy to make it homemade that I rarely buy it. Right now we're on a chipotle mayo kick. It's great with smoked meats.

Pam -- what's this potato milk you speak of? I'm not familiar with it.

Congratulations!! And I'm consistently amazed at how they get ignored by most of the wine press. Israeli winemakers are lucky to have you in their corner.

I'm of the school that chocolate is always the best dessert, especially for birthdays. I recently made Alice Medrich's Bittersweet Deception. It's the perfect dessert for a meat meal because there's very little fat and you don't need to do any substitutions. Just good chocolate, cocoa powder, a hint of flour, sugar, eggs and alcohol. It's a light, moussey cake. If you're interested PM me your email address and I'll scan it and email it to you. I also like serving two dessert courses, so I would probably do a sorbet as my second course. Maybe a citrus flavor since the chocolate is so rich. Some biscotti are also nice for dipping with the required cup of tea.

Aidan, you should take a look at Maggie Glaser's A Blessing of Bread. The book contains all sorts of challah recipes as well as other traditional jewish breads. I haven't baked challah since I was in High School Home Ec, but I'm jonesing to try some of her recipes.