Duck rillette with horseradish-dill sour cream and pickles

Double rainbow

Nadine's cake stole the show. Made me start watching jimmy fallon doing neil young doing double rainbow on youtube again.

Wednesday

For Saori and Maiko's birthday the request has come for Short Ribs. I found a nice take on them on the Rouxbe site, so I think the menu will be:

Duck Rillette (It's been waiting, storing up flavour since Oct. 18th)

Caesar Salad(Mel)

Cream of Leek Soup

Braised Ancho Chili Beef Short Ribs with Mashed potatoes and roasted carrots

Cake(Nadine)

Queen for a day

Kiyo, on her first birthday. No plans yet on when the next dinner will be. I hope soon...

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.