February 24, 2011 new recipe

This is Anne's last day before she goes home to France. We will miss her! We had Roasted Tomatillo Shrimp Tacos, which I found on the Cookincanuck's blog. They are very tasty indeed! We decided to have these with Margaritas, instead of wine. It was accompanied by a variant on Spanish rice, with carrots. We learned the technique at La Villa Bonita, from Chef Ana Garcia.

We did toast to a wonderful visit with some New Mexico Gruet Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, along with a Dulce de Leche and Caramel Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

Au revoir, Anne!

February 21, 2011 new recipe

This evening's new recipe was Goat Cheese and Scallion Ravioli with Black Olive Butter, from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano. If you use the linked recipe, we did not use the sun dried tomato in the sauce, thought I think it would be a very nice addition. We had it with a celery, tomato, grapefruit and cucumber salad that Dwight and Anne made from scratch.

Here is Carl making the pasta. And the finished product!

The wine, which was a very nice match, was the Santa Alicia Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2008, from the Maipo Valley in Chile.

Several kind people have told us that they can't believe we are doing a new dish every day. This is not so hard for us, as we cook almost every day anyway--for us, it is just a matter of deciding to try something new instead of fixing something familiar. Now that we are in the swing of it (and planning ahead for new things), it is pretty easy. But it flows from the fact that we cook every day anyway. If you don't cook every day, try something new every week. We are having a lot of fun!

Though we've made fresh noodles before, this is our first foray into ravioli. It is not as hard as we expected. Carl had made the pasta before I got home, and started the filling. I finished the filling, and then put a little dollop on each little piece of dough, while he and Anne came behind and folded and sealed them. This would have been a big deal for one person to finish, but with a little assistance it was quick and easy!

February 20, 2011 new recipe

What is that, you are wondering? These are fabulous Galette de Sarrasin, made by Anne Tregloze. We watched, we learned, and I cooked a couple galettes. We tend to call these crepes, but the savory version made in Brittany and Normandy are larger than crepes, they are made for savory ingredients, and they are made with buckwheat flour. Every recipe I've seen online include at least a little wheat flour, but these were all buckwheat (sarrasin). We had three fillings--a soubise (pictured) , a fondue de poireau (leeks), and smoked salmon with crème fraiche (also pictured).

I was pleased to learn that our home made version of crème fraiche met with Anne's approval. I no longer remember where I got the recipe, but you take 1 cup of cream, warm it gently (80's, not hot), and add 2 tablespoons of buttermilk. Let is sit out on the counter for a say or two until it has set. The flavor should be creamy, with maybe just a hint of tartness, but it is not as sour as sour cream.

Galettes are traditionally drunk with cider or fermented milk. We opted for cider! No finding any French ciders, we has Aspall's English Dry Cider. It was very good, and worked nicely with the galettes.

February 11, 2011 new recipe

Dinner on February 11 was simple but delicious. Carl made a green salad and the Portobello Mushroom Ravioli from Costco with the (new recipe) Mushroom Cheese Sauce from The Complete Book of Sauces by Sallie Y. Williams. We were on our way to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, so we went for something simple and still new. The play was exceptionally well done, having seen it a number of times before. It is also why we did not have wine with this dinner, but it was still very tasty!

We also celebrated with our friend Anne Trégloze the completion of the largest sculpture she has done in the US, "Le Grand Bateau."

January 10, 2011 new recipe

Dinner on 1/10/2011. Anne prepared a wonderful Leek Tart for us. So I supposed technically we fell down on this one, since we didn't do the actual preparation. Ah well. It is fabulous--resembles a quiche in some ways, but much less egg and much more vegetables and cheese.

Don't remember the wine, other than to say it was a white.

January 7, 2011 new recipe

Here is dinner on 1/7/2011, and our friend Anne Trégloze, who arrived from France, a day after she was supposed to be here!

We had some more of the wonderful Polish Barley Soup, accompanied by our new dish for the day. Carl adapted the Frisée and Wild Mushroom Salad with Poached Egg from Epicurious.com--he used arugula instead of the frisée, but it was wonderful nonetheless.

We had a sauvignon blanc with this, though I can't remember which wine.