Thoughts so far

Cooking for 12 plus us is quite a challenge. I think we had just enough, without going too overboard. The timing of items was good, this is always the trickiest part. Though the roast was done a little earlier than I wanted, it allowed it to rest a good amount of time and the residual cooking made the meat a good consistent pink colour. I am always worried when I cook red meat that I'll make it too rare for Maiko. Any sign of blood and she gets scared off. The polenta cakes that I baked shaped like rabbits were a little dry and absorbed the red wine reduction a little too much. Perhaps next time I'll try warm and moist polenta and substitute confited duck for the duck breast. When I made the duck confit in montreal, it really rocked.

I'm afraid to ask Maiko when we'll do the next one.

Maybe we'll wait another couple of days.

I have duck confit in the fridge resting. Using the rest of the bird where the duck breast came from for the appetizer for this one.

I think I'll use the neck and wings for rillettes for the next dinner. Then I'll fry up the legs as confit for the one after. Maybe I'll even make cassoulet?

The first

First Four Forty Fast Approaching!

T minus 6 hours and counting... We have moved table and are getting the place set up...

Kevin is prepping green beans and the duck has emerged from the fridge. I had to redo my cake, because a note to those of you new to gluten free baking, TAPIOCA is not the same as TAPIOCA STARCH. Oops. Second attempt looks much more promising, but I'm not making any PROMISES...

Here's the chef cooking in his pajamas.

Menu for Sunday!

So we've finally landed on the menu for Sunday's dinner.

Because we have 12 people or so coming, we can't do courses in the traditional sense, we just don't have that many plates, to be able to bring out each course individually. So we'll be setting out the appetizers, then the amuse bouche, then the salad and then the main with sides and people will have to help themselves as we go.

So here's what we are thinking:

Cheese platter with fresh fig paste, Donna's famous award winning pickles and apricot-mustard from Germany.

Amuse bouche is a duck breast with red wine orange reduction.

Beet and fennel salad with simple vinaigrette.

Roast Beef with pommes parisienne and green beans and roasted hothouse tomatoes.

Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake.

Hope this helps for those of you bringing wine!!!

See you sunday.

going analog

it's here! on monday we welcomed our new record player... everything dates from around 1968 to 1972, including some sweet speakers... we have been enjoying playing records first thing in the morning, before coffee and bowls of cereal are even laid out.

i had a really great time at red cat buying some vinyl for kevin's birthday party. i can see how expensive this is going to be, but its making us happy for the moment. there's something really real about playing a record. the act of pulling it out of the sleeve, placing it on the turn table and carefully setting the needle down. and then the fact that you have to turn it over to the b side to hear the whole album...very enjoyable i must say...

here's what we got so far:

Practice makes perfect

I guess I'm warming up, practicing, or avoiding thinking about it by cooking but the whole time we have been in Montreal I have been cooking.

I've been working on what I call food cycles. So I buy a chicken whole and butcher it and then make stock from the carcass, brine the meat, make a salad with chicken breast the first night, casserole(like Tuscan braised chicken) with the legs and thighs and wings and a soup with the stock(like cream of cauliflower). Roast some vegetables, throw in some rice and a little pasta and that's dinners for a week.

There is freshly rendered duck fat in the fridge and some confit'd duck legs, duck rillettes as well as a quarter of a lobster and some lobster stock and right now I have some veal bones in the oven roasting up to make stock.

Last night was the first night that we didn't have a bottle of wine.

I don't think we can live like this forever but as the last hurrah of my 30's it is fun.

Four Forty is fast approaching

Right now we are thinking about guest lists, what to make, what will go with what to make, table moving and breaking out the good silver. And we wish we could transplant the JEAN TALON MARCHÉ to Vancouver...

BTW, we are experiencing the most amazing cheese here in Montreal. We will dream of this cheese for years to come I'm sure.

Here's Kevin shopping it up at the ATWATER MARCHÉ.