Fish and gyoza

Chinese style


Gyoza

Gorgonzola pear tart w prosciutto

et Voila !

Finally prepared my cans of Confit De Canard!!!

... that me and Raf got from his family in France.

Lightly salted the skin, baked it...


Then sauteed it skin side down to make it crispy


I made poached pear in a red wine reduction infused with both chicken stock and duck fat, as well as garlic, salt, and sugar. Turned out pretty good!

Potato gratin


Look at all that delicious duckfat left


Carlo's first traditional French meal

Baked chicken and cheesecake

Ummmmm juicy and tender


My ex-roomie, Carlo, went cherry picking and got me a shitload of cherries. I made a cherry compote with fresh grapefruit juice, sugar, and Triple Sec. Turned out pretty good. I typically don't like the syrupy sweet types of cherry compote so I made mine a bit runny and tart.

Baked cheesecake with Cherry compote

The Last Supper

For the "Last Supper" as a farewell to my first-home, I cooked a "Comfort Food" themed dinner for some friends.

Menu:

Mac N Cheese
Corn and Green beans
Fried chicken
Mango/apple sausages
Bread pudding
Tiramisu

I love my Mac N Cheese and it seems to be one of my most popular dishes amongst my friends. I also LOVEE corn and green beans - so simple and so good! I was very proud of my fried chicken this time around. It was the 2nd time that I prepared it - I didn't marinate it in buttermilk or any of that. I just marinated it in paprika, chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and S&P, and let it sit over night. Then I lightly coated it with flour that was seasoned with S&P, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and chili + paprika. No eggs, no extra wash, no measuring, just simple ingredients. I fried then baked it. Turned out to be really juicy with lotsa flavor. I would have liked it spicier but some people probably wouldn't like to eat it that way. Yum Yum!

Mac N Cheese


I ran out of propane so here's Raf e-grilling the sausages


Fried chicken




Bread pudding




Tiramisu


The bread pudding was a tad bit too sweet for me although my (ex)roomie loved it. Then again, he's a sugar phene. =)

Overall the tiramisu and bread pudding tasted better on the 3rd day. We spent the rest of the weekend eating up the large amount of leftovers (that included people stopping by sporadically). I received one of the best compliments from one of my friends about my tiramisu - that it was "fucking good." You know someone likes it when they say fucking!

"Catered" a BBQ

I catered a small BBQ today for fun.

The menu consisted of:

Sangria
Bruschetta
Cheese plate
Apple/Mango sausages
Mac N Cheese
Grill asparagus
Red wine Marinated flank steak stuffed with Fontina cheese
Fruit tarte (from Costco - not very good)

Didn't get a whole lot of pix but here are a few:

It's been awhile...

I'm still alive!!!

It's been awhile but I have been cooking just a little bit. Until then, you can checkup on my French culinary adventures starting here: