My old roomie was the true hero of the party, encouraging me to keep cooking the night before so the day of we wouldn't be cooking, we'd just be heating up. I would have made a few things and then finished day of but because of her and with her help we finished everything but a few things. What a relief!
She pretty much made the quiche, the madelines, the nuts, the creme brulee, and the green beans all by herself. We were both working in the kitchen and I was supervising/basically nodding my head and cleaning/making that complicated vegan quiche but Ambre really took on a lot and works really fast. I gave her props at the dinner table and she told me she doesn't like it when I do that because it's supposed to be me that gets the credit. What a gal. If I was insecure about my abilities for shizzle I'd need to be built up but I was fairly certain I could have made the stuff she was making and had done some of it before so I was fine with her doing the work and rightfully getting the credit.
As the paragraph above indicates the menu was pretty phenomenal and ridiculous. Everything except the quiches came from hermajesty's book Barefoot in Paris. I was almost stupid enough to think I would make everything from Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking. HA! The food was more essence of French food than literal French food but they were easier so I am okay with that. Please excuse the lack of sparkly shoes in this picture, my feet were killing me.
Six courses. I didn't photograph them all.
1) H'ordeurves: cheese straws & rosemary cashews.
You can see the cheese straws in my hands in the first picture. They were homemade and not bought, pretty easy actually. And yes, we made a custom flavoring mix and specially roasted the cashews.
2) Soup Course: zucchini vichyssoise (potato leek soup). Next time, broth instead of stock. It was still good but you know, for the future.
3) Main Course: asparagus quiche, gluten-free/vegan brocolli quiche with green beans by Ambre and me & ratatouille courtesy of Mary. Which is tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant. Actually now that I think about it Mary's recipe came from Mastering. She's braver than me.
4) Salad Course: greens with champagne vinagrette and pomegranates for tradition. Everyone just got a little dish mainly to cleanse the palette.
5) Cheese Course: port salut, roquefort, chevre, brie, boule d'or mimolette (aged cheddar)
6) Dessert Course: creme brulee,
madelines. Madelines were great, thank goodness my honey bought me a Madeline form. The creme brulee was an adventure. First off I bought and now own a blowtorch. Matt's aunt J gave me the hot tip. Earlier in the day Am and I decided to test it before we tried to do it with everyone present. Thank heavens we did. In order to work a blow torch needs butane which we did not have. Aunt J came to the rescue again, suggesting Smart & Final. Whew! The test one I did in the morning came out perfect and we learned you have to caramelize them while the brulee is still cold. Hermajesty said it's not as scary as it sounds and she's totally right. The scariest part for me is the refilling part and the knowing I have four cans of flammable liquid in my house. We let everyone take a crack at blow torching their own brulee. The boys were really into the idea. My theory is that all boys are pyromaniacs and they just can't wait to play with fire. I observe this every Fourth of July. Of course there were a few ladies that braved the torch...
And of course there was a plenty of booze and beverages. Veuve Cliquot. French Soda. Le Jaja de Jau: red and white. Perrier. And the signature cocktail French 75: champagne, gin, lemon juice, simple syrup served in champagne coupes. The coupes I ordered online did not arrive on time so I bought backups at Pier 1. They are so pretty. It's nice to have them in the arsenal.
I like to rank the food as either a hit or miss and luckily this year, grand slam. Even Aaron, our pickiest of picky eaters enjoyed pretty much everything, especially when I assured him I wouldn't be insulted if he didn't finish everything. We got lucky 'cause with a menu that massive, it's a miracle it all was ready on time and tasted great.
Let me know if you want some of the recipes for the stuff and I'll scan and email the page.
Bon Apetit!
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