The Great Bistro Feast of '07

For the past 4 years we have donated a "French bistro feast for 4" to the auction at The Child's old school. Except that by special arrangment, it is purchased every year by the same group of people and there are more than 4 of them. They bring the wine, we do the rest.

We have always had a superfantastic time at this event (and it looks like we'll do it again because this year Sandy procured it before the end of the first course) but this year seemed like the most fun yet. I don't even know what it was in particular but we just laughed all night long and it was beyond enjoyable.

Plus, and I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but dang! This year I surprised even myself with the general tastiness of the meal. Seriously, if I'd had this meal in a restaurant I would be telling everyone to get themselves post-haste to Chez Whatever. It was that good.

Apertif was, as always, green olives that have been sprinkled with orange zest and gently warmed. Goes great with champagne.

For the first course, I baked a little loaf of honey-wheat-walnut bread. This was toasted and served with a rough country pate (no, I didn't make it myself...Trader Joe's has an excellent one), a little smidge of Dijon mustard and cornichon.

The entree was a beef daube that was so superfantastic I want to make it every week. First came a mix of tomatoes, onions, garlic, capers, anchovy paste & cornichon that was then layered with thin slices of chuck roast. Add a bouquet garni and cook all afternoon and voila! a pot of sheer ambrosia.

We served it with a gratin of potatoes, parsley and cream plus a little dollop of a carrot-yellow pepper puree (mostly just for color but it was really tasty).

Here's the progress of the gratin: first a buttered dish and a bay leaf.

Then potatoes, each layer sprinkled with parsley and salt. Pour cream over it all, top with dollops of butter and another bay leaf and bake.

Couldn't be easier.

Sometimes I got so engrossed in hostessing that I forgot to take pictures of the food. Can you believe that? But after the entree we had a delicious salad of arugula, pancetta, Kalamata olives and large shavings of Parmesan, tossed in a lemon/olive oil dressing. Very refreshing and tasty. Then there was a cheese course with more of the walnut bread and table water crackers. 3 cheeses, manchengo, chevre with warm honey and a blissfully good Stilton with cranberries.

For dessert, I made crepes which were rolled around vanilla ice cream and frozen. They were served with raspberries and a hot fudge-rum sauce.

This leaning tower of ramekins gives you an idea of the state of the kitchen afterwards.

But we didn't care because this is what it looked like in the other room:

A Mess O' Random Things

Things I Bought at the Grocery Store Today

Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese. We always have a large thop of Tillamook medium cheddar around the house but ever since Legal Alien sent me his electoral debt I've been jonesing for some nice sharp cheddar with my evening apple. I'm sure it won't be as good as the stuff LA sent but it will make me happy.

Stuff for pizza. The Child has taken to making dinner on Friday night. Trader Joe's was out of pepperoni so we'll have proscuitto. Pizza and a movie. Is there much better than that? Well, yes...having a night off from cooking myself.

A "1" candle and a "3" candle. Someone in this house has a very important birthday next Friday. And may I just say, for the record, she is feeling every inch of that impending birthday, alternately embracing it and freaking out. Which is to say that she has been a wicked pain in the ass most of the time. When she's not pulling faces, yelling at us or pushing boundaries like she's getting paid for it, she is a cuddly booface. Last night, for example, after entirely too much stürm und dräng, she wanted me to sing her a lullaby. And that's why they invented boarding school.


A tin of cookies. But not just any tin. I'm a sucker for packaging. Sad but true. Trader Joe's had tins of French butter biscuits from Brittany. More to the point, they were in a charming faïence (also known as Quimper) tin. With a rooster on it, no less. And you now how I am about French stuff. And chickens. Hello? It was calling my name. See how cute?
















I don't know if the cookies are any good and I don't even care. They've already been transferred to the cookie jar and the tin is now on my desk holding unattractive but necessary desk items. And all for $2.




When we were in Nantes for Nicole's wedding I mentioned wanting to get a piece of Quimper before I left. One of her French friends was disgusted. "Oh, that crap!" he exclaimed, "Why would you want something so tacky?" He likened it to visiting Seattle and coming away with a Space Needle snowglobe. I politely begged to differ but I think from that moment on he assumed I must live in a trailer park.


Undeterred, I bought a sweet vase for something like 75 francs.




















It especially nice when filled with daffodils or tulips.


































Other stuff:


During the snow we put down cat litter on some icy spots and now whenever anyone comes into the house they track these ghosty white footprints through the living room. I really need to sweep that stuff up because this mopping every day thing is so not my style. Although my floors haven't been this clean since we moved in.


The Child has a speech tournament tomorrow. This is of no consequence to me as we established last time that she doesn't want me around. I'll drop her in the morning and pick her up in the evening. Thus there will be no interference with my VJ duties over at "Here's the 80s", which is all I care about on Saturdays. I'm excited about this weekend's theme, mostly because I'm going to get to play a bunch of artists that I really like. Plus it's going to be fun to see how long it takes anyone to figure out the theme, which must be stated in the correct phrase in order to win the big prize. "You should definitely come over and play", she said, jumping quickly onto the Shameless Self-promotion bandwagon.

Good News/Potentially Bad News
In talking with our principal yesterday it turns out that we probably won't have to make up any snow days, partly because we have a longer school day than many of the other Catholic schools plus have the equivalent of 2 emergency days built into the schedule. So we haven't cut that much into our required hours for the year. She has proposed to the archdiocese that we have full sessions on the first Friday of the remaining months of the school year (usually the kids get out at noon on First Friday) and if they approve then we won't have to change the last day of school. The bad news? The Farmer's Almanac predicted that this would be a hard winter here. It correctly predicted all the rain and snow in November, the Big Blow in December and the snow we just had. Guess what it has to say about February? And I quote, "The heaviest snow will fall in mid- to late February". Out of the woods yet, not so much.

We'll Always Have Paris.

I am so upset I can't see straight.

(Stop reading now if you watch "Gilmore girls" and haven't seen last night's episode).



Like I said, I'm fuming. Lorelie and Chris got married. In Paris. Without Rory. And more to the point, Lorelie got married and it wasn't to Luke. Oh, sure. It sets up some interesting tensions for subsequent episodes but geez. Me no likey.

The good news? Watching the dinner scene, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, The Spouse confirmed officially that he wants us to go to Paris, by ourselves. It'll be the honeymoon we never had. So when we take The Child to Laval in the summer of '08 to spend time with Nicole et famille, we are going to go to the City of Lights. And other places if we have time.

And that's all I have to say. I have to start planning a menu for dinner Monday night with Alan and I'm feeling a little pressure to perform. I know he'll be delighted with whatever I serve him but there's a reputation to uphold.

La Vie En Rose

This Edith Piaf classic is one of the hits in the soundtrack of my life. I love it and one of these days I'm going to learn to sing it. It was one of the many French tunes that played during our Bistro Dinner Saturday night.

I know you're just dying to know what we ate. 'K. First course was apertif. When we were in France every apertif was composed of peanuts, olives and champagne, so that's what we served. This was followed by an amuse bouche of parmesan baskets filled with herbed chevre. Salade was a Pat Wells recipe, Cheesemaker's Salad, which is freakishly simple and delicious. You steep thin sliced shallot in red wine vinegar for a few hours. When it's time to serve you toss the vinegar and shallots with mixed greens, then toss the salad with a few tablespoons of heavy cream. Sounds kooky but it is lay-down-your-fork-and-make-yummy-noises-good.

Soupe was a bisque of roasted tomatoes, garlic & shallot.

The entree was bourride, poached white fish (in this case rock snapper) with a light sauce of aioli and shrimp. That was served with salt roasted potatoes.

Then it was time for fromage: Basque Shepherd's cheese, Stilton, brie champignon and some chevre that I had marinated in oil with garlic, red chilies, basil and pepper. Then and only then did we have tarte tatin with whipped cream.

Oui, it was yummy. Oui, the company was tres manifique and mais oui, the kitchen was piled to the ceiling with dishes afterwards. It was all bon, tres bon.

(What is pas bon are these riots in France. I have an email in to my friend Nicole who lives in Laval. I know from her that tensions between the French and their immigrant population are nothing new. I just want to know what's really going on. I'm a little skeptical of the US press casting this as a Muslim thing when it seems to be more related to poverty and discrimination. Whatever is going on, I don't like it and it is very upsetting to my little Francophile heart).

Returning to a lighter, rose-colored note. Last night, though still significantly fried from Saturday's fete, I made plate cooked salmon for the Family and The Neighbor and then we watched the West Wing live debate. I am getting a real kick out of West Wing this year...it's a giant exercise in "what if". What if a Christian Democrat ran against a pro-choice, atheist Republican? (What? You can be a Christian and a Democrat? Mon dieu!) What if we turned conventional issues on their head? What if candidates had a "real" debate? Seems to me that we need to have a different conversation about a lot of issues in this country, using different language than we've been accustomed to and this show, entertainment though it be, is showing us what that might look like.

Plus I just about plotzed when Jimmy Smits' character owned the name of "liberal". He cited "liberal" contributions to American life, like ending segregation, getting the vote for women and African-Americans, creating Social Security and Medicare, to name a few. Then he said, "What did conservatives do? They opposed every single one of those things. So if you are going to throw that label of 'liberal' at my feet, Senator, I'll pick it up and wear it as a badge of honor". 'Bout freakin' time. Oh, wait. I just remembered he's not a real candidate.

To top off this madcap weekend we watched "Iron Chef America", with Morimoto facing off against Seattle's own Tom Douglas. The secret ingredient was wild salmon and Tom kicked the Iron Chef. I think it would be fun to judge an Iron Chef competition. Unless the secret ingredient was offal and I had to eat sweetbread ice cream. Eeeww.