Butter

If it seems like my life is becoming a "Fun With Dairy" series, that's because it is. I love finding out how these wonderful foods are made, and they seem to be much better when made at home (despite all my failures). Butter really is easy to make, and all you need is cream. Of course, salt is a great thing to throw in there too, and we tried adding honey, cocoa powder, pimenton, and herbs as well. My favorite was the butter that we added black, smokey salt to. This made it sort of grey in color and a little bit creepy looking, but absolutely delicious. You can see it there spread on toast.

Topher made Ghee, a sacred food to feed his spirit through the winter. He gave some to me perhaps to enhance my spiritual life, but I'm probably just going to spread it on waffles and call it a day.

The Hunt

The chanterelle hunt was one of my favorite activities so far.We drove out towards the coast and pulled off onto a secret road that I will never divulge. As we stood on the side of the road, looking down into a creek basin, I saw some orange spots dotting the forest floor. At first my friends and I were overwhelmed by the abundance of mushrooms. We hiked down the slope and then turned around so that we could look up into all the tiny caves and dales of the hillside where mushrooms tend to hide. They were everywhere- filling hollow logs, pushing up through leaves, nestled under rotting stumps. We picked and trimmed a pillowcase full in perhaps an hours time. Then the larger group came back together and we split into new groups. None of us had such luck again, but we tried another spot and found some perfectly formed beauties and also some weird creepy mushrooms that my mushroom dweeb friends were very excited about.

Then we went to dairy queen and I had a cherry dip, and then we went home to cook up a feast.

The Feast: Wild mushroom bread pudding (my favorite dish ever, in fact we almost ate the whole damn thing), pressure cooked lamb leg with chanterelles and celeriac, and braised greens from my garden. We surprised Nic with a pumpkin and gingersnap cheese cake for his birthday (made possible by me, not made by me- I'm still sick and nearly useless!) and we drank fantastic wine and talked trash the whole meal.

I really loved the experience of hunting and gathering. It was a sunny but cold day and the woods were wet and musty. We got worn out climbing around over fallen trees and up slippery rocks. And then we got to go home and cook one of the best meals I have had in a long time.

Salads For Kisses

Fresh out of the garden, my first lettuces. Like lambs ears, or Jacky's when they are clean- warm and soft. With black krim tomatoes and lettuce both warm from the sun, a perfect avacado and french sheep's milk feta; my favorite big salad yet.
Whenever Kevin asks me what I want for dinner, he usually answers with me, mockingly, "umm... a big salad?"
I was so thrilled with this one, the one that helped me make it through another double, that I left him one for when he got home from work with a love note in the fridge. He did not find it- he was still focused on the perfect potato salad from a few days ago- until morning. Guess what was for breakfast?

Eating greens right out of the garden makes me feel like I am injecting vitamins and health directly into my bloodstream. I also get this feeling when drinking Dewars Old Fashioned's. Just sayin.

I'll be "away from my desk*" for a few glorious days, camping and eating. Meal planning started today, with helpful suggestions/opinions from me like "there's always fruit roll-ups" and "no".

On the menu:
Thursday: Undecided, Something with meat on a stick
Friday: Snacks from Packets, Dinner Packets, After Dinner Snacks from Packets, Dessert in Packets
Saturday: Fancy Breakfast with hemp milk (sick) (no)

Liquor list: Bourbon. Tequila. Scotch. Campari.

Obviously we are totally unprepared and overly excited about making fires while drinking dirty cocktails. My new flair for scotch just can't be good! Housecoats and cigarette holders here I come. I always thought it would be vermouth to throw me in with that camp but now I wonder.
Photos, interviews, exclusive details to come!!!!

*I work exclusively from bed.

Cassoulet!

All the work was worth it. Even the part when I was trying to rip one of the duck's legs off and I grabbed its neck and a trapped air bubble qucked out. Even when I was pulling tendons out of the braised and very hot lamb shanks and they snapped like rubber bands.

Yes, it was worth it, because cassoulet is by far the most delicious dish ever.

The beans, velvety. The meats, tender and just gamey enough. The crumb layer, crisp and full of butter. Thank you Julia!

I did accidentally drink a whole bottle of champagne during dinner and so I don't remember dessert. But it looks good, doesn't it???

A Whole Duck

I got a whole duck from work on saturday night, beak, eyes, paws, flippers and all. It is soooo cute and now different parts of its body are allll over my kitchen. First, its head, spine, and ribcage were dismantled and roasted in the oven( I am a terrible butcher, by the way. It took 4 knives and a lot of ripping for me to get everything apart). Toasted bones make a great stock.
Meanwhile, the breasts have been wrapped and are now relaxing in the freezer until further notice with a pound of awesome ground beef that I changed my mind about for tonight's dinner. The legs and wangs are in the oven after being pan seared, and are nestled in around 4 pounds of lamb shanks, onions, garlic, herbs, tomato sauce and cabernet.
The skin is boiling on the stove in order to render of some fat that I can eat with a spoon during dark moments.

What ever am I up to?

Well... I saw Julie and Julia on Saturday morning with Kevin and Shane and we (I) cried through the whole movie. I loved it! And, just like everyone else who saw it, I remembered how amazing Julia Child was and rushed to get a copy of MtAoFC (and wished I went to a private cooking school in Paris). Naturally, every (every) book store in Portland is sold out! It was kind of embarrassing to ask for it today, as I knew all kinds of yahoos have been searching for it just because of the movie. I'm just sad that I didn't already have a copy.
You see, I already made plans and invited everyone over to have Pate de canard en croute tonight. But then I couldn't find the book this morning. I already had the duck, the beef and the pork for the filling, I just needed the recipe and a trussing needle!
So anyway. It was not meant to happen today. I did find a copy of Julia Child & More Company though, and decided to make a cassoulet. I tracked down four pounds of lamb shanks and some navy beans, and now everything is cooking.

I had never butchered a duck before today- it is much harder than they make it look at my job. I will post photos later of the process and the results. In the mean time, go see that movie!

Sweet and Salty Cake

The salty caramel:




The Ganache:


The Cake:









The recipe for this cake is from the Baked bakery in Brooklyn. They call it the Sweet and Salty Cake, and I'll call it The Cake That Dirties Every Dish, and also A Cake I Actually Like. Admittedly, I don't like cake very much. It's usually dry, usually has dreadful buttercream frosting, and often commits sins like putting chocolate with raspberry or lemon with raspberry or anything with raspberry. Give me a well made red velvet cake and you know I'll be happy. And every so often a really good chocolate cake is really good. Heck- I love angel food! But those are all exceptions to the rule.

Anyway, the sweet and salty cake is not like other cakes. It's dark and chocolaty, moist and somehow light (light only referring to texture of course- this little number includes a pound of butter and a pound of chocolate just in the frosting. Then there are the 3 layers of salted caramel and the cake itself... It's really intense and I recommend eating it for a breakfast of regret).

You can read the recipe here because I am not going to retype it. The S&S already took one (be it really fun) day of my life, but I'm not giving it another hour of my life by typing up it's memoirs. Ok- honestly I'm making it again today. I just don't want to copy the recipe when it's all over the internets already.

Make it on a day that you have literally all day. I so often make things that don't have recipes- or I just ignore the recipes and do it my way- that I really enjoyed such a complicated and specific task. The one ingredient that I changed up was exchanging vegetable shortening for lard. I can't help myself- vegetable shortening gives me the creeps! Plus, why not put a little pork in your cake? It only compliments the nature of this sweet and salty creation.

Small Potatoes

In my family, we call new potatoes Charlie Boys. I found some of the tiniest ones I have ever seen at the market today and bought them just for the hell of it. I have posed them next to a grape and a raspberry to provide context of how very small they are. I plan on adding them to a special recipe tonight- beef with herbs, white wine and mustard. I'm taking the goose pot out for a test spin and it only seemed right to making something french in it. It also seemed right to make such a feast tonight as we finally signed the papers and are real life homeowners (or as my friend Grey says, "homo-ners" the way only a gay person can).

As you can see in the photos, I have started a new hobby: terrarium-ing. These are my first two and I plan on making one million. Please note the blooming air plants and the fancy glass containers that both cost $1 (kind of like the goose pot). I don't know if the plants I selected all have the same requirements as far as light and water go (I actually do know and they are all different-SHEESH.) but I am crossing my fingers and trying to cater to their needs as best as I can.

And, finally, a gratuitous shot of Jacky Scrapple in front of a bowl of cherries from the tree. Don't worry, the season is almost over and then I will be forced to take photos of something else.