Ad Hoc at [my] Home

Not too much sewing going on 'round these parts, mostly because I've been living in my kitchen instead of the sewing room. Last weekend I hosted my first dinner cooked entirely from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook - I'm affectionately calling these dinners, which I hope to become a monthly or bi-monthly deal, Ad Hoc at [my] Home. For the inaugural feast, I invited over a few fellow Thomas Keller groupies and got to work planning the menu. For those of you who are not familiar with Ad Hoc, a single fixed 4 course menu is served nightly - salad, entree, cheese and dessert. This menu is posted on the website each morning, changes daily and is based on what is fresh locally. I did let my guests know most of the menu ahead of time as they were bringing over drinks to complement the food.

Since I was busy scurrying around the kitchen, WeezerMonkey was kind enough to grab my camera and document the food and prep. I'm so happy she took these pictures as they are way more artistic than what I could have done and are a great way to remember this first dinner.

First course: Green Bean and Potato Salad with Proscuitto

Second course: Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip, Creamed Spinach and Brioche

Third course: Camembert, honey, pecans and water crackers

Fourth course: Vanilla ice cream, Strawberry coulis and Bouchons

I think that everything turned out pretty well, with the glaring exception of the bread. I somehow completely forgot to add the salt to the dough. Did you know that bread without salt tastes like ass? No joke. All that work and it looked beautiful, but tasted so very icky. :/ Otherwise, I'd say the food was two thumbs up! I had a lot of fun prepping, cooking and then being able to sit down for a relaxed dinner filled with great conversation and tons of laughs.

The more I make from this cookbook, the more I fall in love with it. And I can't wait sharing more its wonderful dishes with friends and family throughout the year. :)

Perfect Weekend

They're rare, but sometimes the weekend shapes up to be the perfect blend of the necessary stuff and the fun stuff. This weekend definitely qualified as such.

Errands and such: We got the last few holiday returns completed and I made one large grocery run to get us through the weekend. I also caught up on all of the laundry and straigtened up the house a bit. Boring, but needed.

Reading: Finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson, thanks to Jessica who has organized an ARC Tour of the book amongst a group of us book nerds. I'll be doing a guest post on her blog about the book soon, but the short version is that it's awesome and I haven't laughed that hard while reading in a long time.

Cooking: OMG, we ate really well this weekend. And I'm not even including the impromtu breakfast I threw together Sunday morning. I'm really trying to get more mileage out of my fun cookbooks, so I'm making a point to make at least one "fancy" meal a weekend. This weekend, though, I eeked out two!

First up, T-Bone Fiorentina with Sauteed Spinach from Mario Batali Italian Grill. I couldn't find the huge 3" T-bone steak that is called for, but we made due with a smaller steak instead. I unfortunately over-salted the meat a bit (still edible, but not perfect), but the spinach was fabulous. We both agreed that we need to try it all again with the correct cut of beef.

For dessert, I tried out my new mini chocolate fondue pot and we had a little fondue spread. Simple, but yummy.
The second dinner was the Chicken Pot Pie from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. This was a much more labor-intensive meal than the roasted chicken I made earlier this month - the pie crust and bechamel sauce are both from scratch and each vegetable is cooked individually before being added to the pie - but it's so worth all the time and effort.

This was AH-MAZ-ING! And Jim whole-heartedly agrees. He had a whole bowl of it and then went back for seconds. We were thrilled that there were leftovers the next day.

If you have this cookbook, set aside a day and make this dish - you can thank me later. ;)

Working out: Took a circuit class and a step class - both taught by the owner of my gym, who I just love. The circuit class was a zoo, like folks actually had to be turned away, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm getting my exercise groove back and it feels really good.

Sewing: I finally used my new cutting table and it was like the angels came out singing. ;) It makes this whole sewing thing that much more enjoyable and I was thrilled to be able to spend a large part of my weekend in my sewing room*. I finished two skirts (one just needed a hem), cut out some sleep shorts and got about halfway through a cardi-wrap for a friend's mom. More detailed posts once I have pictures of stuff to share.

If only every weekend could be as fun and relaxing as this one....

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* Nanette had asked me for pictures of my sewing room and I will share them as soon as I finish getting myself organized. Right now I have no good place for my fabric stash - which has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months - so it's all just in piles on the floor. So ugly. I plan on getting it in check later this month and then I'll post pics. :)

A Thomas Keller Christmas

As I mentioned in a previous post, Santa was very good to me and my kitchen this year. A new non-stick saute pan, several cookbooks, a chinois, some prep bowls, etc. But, what was most exciting to me was a certain baking pan and cookbook, both of which have Thomas Keller all over them.

Jim knows my obsession with the chocolate "bouchons" that are sold at Bouchon Bakery. I buy at least a half-dozen every time we're in Vegas and have never let him have one - oops! So, when he saw the bouchon baking pan and the accompanying mix at Williams-Sonoma, he scooped it up for me. I'm not ususally one to seek out and buy specialty pans, but in this case, I've made an exception. I was thrilled with this gift and last weekend I used it for the first time. Super easy to make and they came out beautifully - pretty and shiny and darn close to the ones sold in the bakery.
The other gift that had me swooning was the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. Look, I freely admit that I love me some Thomas Keller. I like his philosophy about food and amazing dishes he creates. My French Laundry cookbook is lovingly kept in my kitchen, but while I love looking through it, I haven't made many recipes from it. This latest Keller cookbook, though, is so suited for me, that I almost don't know where to start first. The recipes are meant to serve 4-6 people, family style and are all dishes that are familiar, just kicked up a few notches. For example, there is a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, but everything is made from scratch - the pie crust, the bechamel sauce, etc. The book is laid out in that beautiful coffee table book style that he is known for, but the content is so much more accesible for the home cook.

I was giddy to receive this under the tree and wanted to make something from it immediately. I thought I'd start with a softball - Roasted Chicken with Root vegetables - a one pot meal that required little prep time and sounded perfect for a cold Sunday night. Between the bouchons and the roast chicken, our house smelled like a million bucks last Sunday.
After Jim's first bite, the moan that he uttered was one of pure delight. I mean, I know it's "just" chicken, but it's like the best chicken you've ever had. And the vegetables? Really damn good. I don't even like turnips, but I like them in this dish. Follow that dinner off with a chocolate bouchon for dessert and well, we were some very happy little campers.

I have some ideas for this book that have me really excited for the upcoming year, inspired in large part by this post. No, I won't be blogging the book or anything like that. Let's just say that if you're local and we're pals, you might be seeing an email from me in the near future, with an invitation to dinner. ;)