Plating

I haven't had much time to type anything up about the dinner. Just know that it was quite delicious, and as I've stated before Thomas Keller is a genius. Here's what we had:

Lobster broth:

Clearly we liked it,  and I forgot to take a picture. We sipped it right out of these coffee cups.

Foie Gras with Pickled Cherries:

Pate on brioche croutons.  I am once again amazed at how duck liver does not have a liver flavor. It's smooth and delicious and lovely.

Haricots Vert with Tomato Tartare and Chive Oil.

This is a repeat, and a favorite. So easy and delicious.

Five-spiced Lobster with Foie Gras and a Poached Fig sauce.

Y'all. The sauce on this one:  Coffee, chocolate, Port, figs. Need I say more?

Mahon with spiced carrots

Another repeat, but any excuse to eat Spanish cheese is welcome.

Finally,  the most stressful dish. Pineapple chops with fried pastry cream and caramel sauce. 

The pastry cream worked the second time. 

But there wasn't very much pineapple left on the chop, so I was honestly a little disappointed in this one. I also did something wrong when I made the caramel sauce so it wasn't really a sauce. It was like butter with a chunk of really hard caramel in it. So it tasted alright, actually it tasted really good, but the presentation wasn't exactly what it was supposed to be and I'm pretty sure Thomas Keller would not leave you with chunks of caramel sticking in your teeth. The good news is, that since the pastry cream worked the second time, and I only needed six little discs for the dessert,  I was able to fry up all of the scraps and serve them to the kids for breakfast on Monday morning.

The Leftovers are always a bonus.

Failures

Sometimes all the following of directions in the world cannot prevent failure.  I have learned this recently while trying to master hollandaise sauce. I think I've gotten it right exactly once.  Thinking,  "whew,  that's done" after the one time I got it right,  I proceeded to screw it up the next time.  Still not a master. Leave it to hollandaise sauce. At least 4 of the 5 kids like, or tolerate,  eggs Benedict. The 5th one, the one whose name most closely resembles the name of the egg dish,  cries when I make it.  That's always encouraging.

Thankfully I did not have that kind of cheerleading when I failed on the pastry cream for dessert.  The directions say "bring to a boil,  whisking constantly,  and then cook for 2-3 minutes more to cook all the flour." I guess you're just supposed to intuitively know that the flour is all cooked or something.  Or maybe just mess it up real good the first time. At any rate,  you're supposed to be able to cut this after it chills. Like a biscuit,  I'm assuming.  This is what I have.

This folks,  is custard.  You cannot cut custard like a biscuit.  Certainly not FRY it.  Fortunately I discovered this this morning. I whipped up another batch and cooked it longer.  Because honestly that's the only thing I can even think went wrong here. I guess we'll find out in a few hours.  I threw the mess up batch in the freezer so if the second one fails, too, I'll figure out how to fry the frozen stuff.  It won't be pretty. But maybe it'll still taste good.  

I forgot to take pictures of most everything else, except the pineapple.  Which is also for dessert.  I figured I should record that for posterity.  Here is one picture of my attempt to make a pineapple look like a rack of ribs.

The table is ready.  

  

Every.Dish.In.my.china.cabinet is on the counter. 

Let's do this.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's birthday time.  We've been doing this for a few years now,  so it's harder to find new, make ahead recipes.  I've made all the cheese courses at some point.  I've made all the canapes and first courses that don't have caviar, truffles, or foie gras. Mainly because I don't want to shell out $100 for one ounce of anything. What if I mess it up? All of the best desserts have been made. So the options are,  buy either truffles,  caviar, or foie gras, or repeat a dish.  Or maybe mix it up.  There are, after all, a great many main dishes that we haven't tried.  

So this year,  there will be 3 repeats and 3 new dishes.  It takes some pressure off, honestly.  There was less to make ahead though - which puts some of the pressure back on.  And then there's the issue of foie gras.  We'll worry about that later. 

Thus far, the prep has consisted of brioche. This bread is so delicious.  And easy to make.  I really wonder why I don't make it more.  I only needed part of one loaf,  so we have already consumed the second one.

I roasted some tomatoes yesterday... let them go a little too long and made tomato chips.  That's what I get for trying to do school with the kiddos and cook at the same time.  I think some of it is salvageable.  Oh well, there are some extra tomatoes. 

Fed Ex came. So that was exciting. 

D'artangnan was having a sale, the timing of which could have not been more perfect. However,  due to sale prices the one thing I wanted to order fell below the minimum order price, so I had to buy 2 items. While we're splurging let's just go big. 

We also went shopping yesterday.  I hate grocery shopping.  Truly.  I would rather clean out my chicken coop than go to the grocery store.  This particular shopping requires going to multiple stores, because who knew lobster was falling out of favor? Publix was the only store who carried them, but did not carry multiple other required items.  

The kids proceeded to name them.  

Maybe I'll relay my story of the first time I made lobster.  I didn't have TK quality instructions.  It goes much more smoothly these days. They do still try to escape, though.