Dinner at The French Laundry

As part of a reunion vacation with Steph, Jenn, and Mel, we headed over to The French Laundry on Monday night for the meal of a lifetime...

Blog Note

Just wanted to post a quick note that the blog won't be regressing into a Bucs & Bunnies theme, even though that is not at all obvious from the last 3 posts... I was planning to cook something awesome from one of my favorite cookbooks last Saturday, but I was still recovering from food poisoning (from Oklahoma of all places... sigh...) when I did my grocery shopping and I was having a hard time finding anything remotely appetizing. I'm doing much better now, and will soon be hanging out with friends in California, which (knowing these friends) will include fun times in the kitchen, great food, and great wine... and on Monday it will also include dinner at The French Laundry. (Woot!)

Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Peas and Carrots

The NFL season (finally) starts next week, which means I will no longer have Sundays to putz around in the kitchen. I'll still try to do some crazy stuff on Saturdays, but these recipes that take two days aren't going to be happening. In honor of my last free weekend, I decided to turn to the French Laundry Cookbook and try Thomas Keller's spectacular recipe for a dish that he playfully refers to as "Peas and Carrots."

For those of you who don't have the book, the peas in "Peas and Carrots" are represented by a pea shoot salad that finishes the dish... The carrot appears in a ginger-carrot emulsion that is so delicious it almost makes you weep... Finally, the garnish to your peas and your carrots is a savory crepe stuffed with perfectly seasoned lobster. I don't have words for how amazing this dish was.

Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Faux Gras

One of the recipes that has very much intrigued me since I first looked through Happy in the Kitchen is the Faux Gras, which Michel Richard claims tastes ridiculously similar to foie gras. It definitely does have a very foie quality to it, and even if you don't believe that you should believe that it is the most elegant chicken liver pâté you will ever taste...