Stuffed Mushrooms

Made Julia's stuffed mushrooms tonight. Was very good. Would have been better if my mushrooms had been fresher.

Will definitely make them again.

Oh, and had the hamburgers again. Delicious.

Dover Sole, etc.

Got back home safe and sound on Tuesday and that night...

I poached some Dover Sole Filets in white wine and water tonight, per Julia of course and then used the poaching liquid to make a veloute sauce.

Lovely.

Wednesday night I made the potato and onion dish again but this time with less butter and 1% milk. Guess what? Not nearly as tasty. I'll stick to the cream for this one.

Ordered my fresh turkey for Thanksgiving today too.

Can't wait to eat all day on Turkey day.

Success!

I did it. I made the famous Beef Bourginon dish yesterday. It was delicious. Very tasty. Well worth the effort.

I'm headed back home to my kitchen after spending 3 plus weeks in Sacramento with my daughter and her family, which includes my adorable 2 yr old granddaughter Calla and baby Kinsey who is a month old.

What to make next???

Hamburgers

Oh my gosh! I made the hamburger recipe and it was the BEST HAMBURGER EVER!

I know what you're thinking...a hamburger...come on...you've lost it. But I'm telling you, its truly a gourmet hamburger and so very easy to make.

I'll never make hamburgers the old way again.

And, we had the potato dish again...it's to die for. My new favorite way to make potatoes.

And, dinner tonight was on the table in 45 minutes, from start to finish. Very easy.

I shopped at Corti Brothers today and bought all the ingredients for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's dinner.

Tomorrow? It's Beef Bourginon. One of her famous dishes. Cannot wait!!!!

Great potato dish

Okay, so I recreated the potato and onion dish that I saw Julia Child prepare on the video. It turned out delicious. I sliced a large potato on the grater/slicer and spread it in a pie plate. Then, topped it with 1/2 grated onion. Dotted it with 4 tbls of butter and poured cream and milk halfway up the dish. Baked it at 375 for 30 minutes and it was delicious!

And the whole dish served 4 people which for one potato and half an onion was fantastic.

SWEET.

No chicken tonight

I had great intentions of roasting the chicken tonight but, alas, when I pulled it out of the fridge at the appointed time, I realized I had used all the butter in the house to make the pumpkin halloween cookies with Callamazoo. And there was no time to run to the store.

So, I cut the chicken up and fried it instead. Darn it.

Then, I thought, well I'll make one of Julia Child's potato dishes that I saw on the video. Then I realized it calls for butter too.

So, I opted for mashed potatoes.

What's in store for tomorrow? I don't know, I have to go read the cookbook and find out.

Stay tuned.

Roasting Chicken

I read about chickens today. Interestingly, Julia Child does not have very many recipes for chicken in this particular cookbook. She does talk about how important it is to find chickens that taste good at your local meat market. this does not mean buying mass produced chickens at a regular grocery store. Look for organic and/or free range chickens. 3 pound range is best.

To roast a chicken the french way, you actually turn it from side to side and baste and salt it along the way. The french actually cook it to between 175 and 180 whereas americans usually roast their chickens to 190.

I bought a free range local chicken from Corti Brothers (the local meat market near Katie's) and will be roasting it tomorrow.

Yesterday I made homemade chicken stock for Katie and froze 9 pints of it. I love homemade chicken stock and find that store bought stock now pales in comparison. But you can doctor the store bought stock up if you'd like and she covers that in the cookbook as well.

So, I'm excited to report how the roasting chicken will go (and I will attempt to make one of her potato recipes with it) sometime in the next few days.

Bon Appetit!