Better Late Than Never

Setting: It may seem as though I fell off the face of the earth, but I am back! Unfortunately, it took me a ridiculously long time to post about my cooking on September 24, 2009. To make matters worse I was not able to cook a french meal at all the following week. This is my attempt to catch everyone up to date and to assure my readers that I have not backed out on my commitment. I am pleased to see that more people have found my blog. I hope that you will stick with me and find my entries to be entertaining and informative.

Task: Canapés (Sautéed Bread Rounds), Suprêmes de Volaille a Blanc (Breast of Chicken with Cream), Risotto (Braised Rice), Frozen Artichoke Hearts, and Pommes a la Sevillane (Apples Braised in Butter, Orange Sauce).

I will not bore you with all the cooking instructions. To do so would take a really long time and most likely you would quickly lose interest. Instead I will just let you know how it all went.

Verdict: First, let me say that I am proud of myself for making 5 recipes in one evening. That is a big accomplishment for me. It was a little chaotic, but I made it through successfully. Below I will list the things that I learned:

1. Canapés are really yummy. Essentially, they are triangles of bread sautéed in butter. I used them as a base for my dessert and found them to be excellent!

2. I do not have enough cookware. Up to this point, I have not really noticed the fact that Julia often calls for items that are not in our kitchen; however, this time I found myself stressed and looking for replacement items that would serve the same purpose as the actual items that the recipe called for. For example, "a covered baking dish to go in the oven" was translated into "a casserole dish with and upside down cookie sheet on top". Oh well. You do what you can, right?

3. Chicken hates me while cooking but loves me while tasting. I always have problems when I cook chicken. When Julia tells me that it will only take 6 minutes to cook the chicken breasts, for some reason it always takes me much longer. She says that the chicken is done when it is "springy to the touch". What does that even mean? Who says that? I touched the chicken and thought, "Hmm...this feels springy." To my surprise, when I cut into one of them with my knife, I found it to be raw in the middle. Ewwwww... Consequently, they went back in the oven. I had a bad feeling that they were going to be dry and overcooked, but i was pleased to find them to be extremely juicy and full of flavor. I guess taste is the most important thing!

4. Butter goes fast in Julia's world. I need to start checking on our butter supply more often, because I almost ran out this time. I remember thinking, "Do we need butter? Nah...I just bought a box." Well, when any given recipe has the potential to require 7 pounds of butter (exaggeration) the supply can run low quickly.

5. Pommes a la Sevillane is gender biased. Lori liked the dessert...I did not. My conclusion is that it is a guy/girl thing. Of course, I would have to carry out some more tests to prove it. Anyone want to come over and eat apples braised in butter, orange sauce?

That's it for now. I'll be blogging about my meal from this past Saturday very soon.