I am waiting for our dinner guests to arrive, my in-law and my brother-in-law. The smells from the kitchen (from which I am banished) smell delicious. Here’s what we are serving:
WINTER SOLSTICE FEAST
December 22, 2007
APPETIZER
Baked mushrooms stuffed with herbed fennel duxelles
MAIN COURSE
Salad with balsamic mustard vinaigrette
Gruyère Cheese Gougères
Beef Wellington ala Ramsey
Herbed potato galettes
DESSERT
Chocolate mousse and assorted sweets
Yes, I am a lucky, lucky, woman to be married to someone who loves to cook as much as my husband does.
The menu itself is a feast for the eyes, and the food sounds scrumptuous.
Bon appetit!
At least he let me make the menu. I’m not allowed to do anything around the food except the plating. LOL.
I have more pictures for you later tonight, with stories.
Wow. Magnificent!
*I* on the other home got home from work at 6 pm. to find nothing even defrosted, lol.
Do you have an appetite after a day at your new job? 🙂
Yes, unfortunately. 😛
I believe there was talk, at the Tri-Valley meeting, of you loaning out your husband? This is just going to make the demand go up!
LOL. By the way, I just found your email and will respond. For some reason it went to my junk folder. You are now on my white list. 🙂
Ooooh! Sounds schmancy and delicious — enjoy!
Thanks, it was and we did.
Your icon always makes me smile.
What’s your address? I’m coming over.
This has been good for my husband’s ego, reading these comments.
We did have a few hiccoups. The Gougères didn’t puff (and we have no idea why) but they still tasted great. And something went wonky on the galettes but they still tasted great. They just wouldn’t fry up.
We were stuffed.
Regarding the mysteriously non-puffing gougères, if you pipe them onto the baking sheet incorrectly, they can fail to puff. This has happened to me once or twice. Make sure there is no “hollow” in piping the puff. BTW, the nit-picky English major in me is balking at the phrase “gruyère cheese gougères” since gruyère is a kind of cheese, and a gougères by definition is a cheese puff. It’s like saying cheese cheese cheese puff. 🙂
Piping? Surely you jest. We plop not pipe. LOL. That probably explains a lot. I don’t think the recipe E uses mentioned piping but I could be wrong. I don’t look at the cookbooks because I’m mostly not allowed to cook.
Whatever on the cheese cheese. I did a cut and paste and meant to explain the cheese so people who didn’t know that gruyère was cheese would know what I meant but in the giant scheme of things – whatever. I am sure I will continue to offend your English major sensibilities on a regular basis. 🙂
In fact, I hadn’t thought about that when I mentioned LJ to you. You might not like a lot of things here because it is a casual water cooler style and people are less likely to worry about everything being perfect. 🙂 Like I had to come back and edit this post because I left a word out and made no sense. LOL
*drools*
Wipe your chin, please. 🙂
Ohhhh myyyyyy.
I hope you had a wonderful time!
We did. We did. Thank you.
Mmm! I approve!
Yum….I wish my husband liked to cook. He made me a cuppa tea once. 🙂
hahaha.
That’s about all I’m allowed to make for my husband. I don’t have the cooking gene but I am a good taster.
Yum.
I can smell it from here – AND it’s a day later!
the leftovers were great too!
Yum! Gougere is one our traditional Christmas foods. I didn’t make it this year because nobody’s coming over and we’re eating Christmas dinner out (in just a couple of hours!). But I might have to make it for New Year’s Day. Ours is cheddar and Swiss (might have to sub gruyere, specifically…I’m sure it’s incredible) with a bit of jalapeno and cayenne. It’s to die for.
Oh you make Gougères? Maybe you can help us. Ours never puff up like they are supposed to. Every time we make them it is the same thing. They’re still yummy but they come out more like biscuits than puffs.
OK, this is weird. I have only seen gougere in one cookbook, and I’ve always made it from that recipe. It’s a dense, cheesy, heavenly, heavy, skillet bread. It is not at all a light puff kind of thing. I tried to find online a version to show you, but it looks like they’re all supposed to be puffy!
Mine come out exactly like the picture in the cookbook, and they’re delish. But perhaps they aren’t traditional gougere at all. I’d never heard of them before making this recipe 10 years or so ago.
Sorry I’m no help:>/
I did notice this sentence in one recipe, and it was echoed in a couple of others:
“3. Allow mixture to cool for 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with a wood spoon after each addition. (This beating is important as the gougere will not puff otherwise.) Stir in the diced cheese.”
Are you already doing that?