Fire Roasted Salsa

See Video Here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJy6SSpBaFg&feature=plcp

Ingredients 
Use whatever chili's look good. This batch included
6-7 Poblanos
8-9 Jalapenos
8-10 Anaheims
6-8 Seranos
6-8 Habaneros
2 White Onions
1 Red Onion
1 Head Garlic
6-8 Roma Tomatoes
2 16oz cans crushed tomatoes
2-4 TBS Taco Seasoning
2-3 TBS Sea Salt

Pre-Heat BBQ to high. Prep all your vegetables by de-seeding all of your chilis (This makes for a milder salsa, but I don't like the bitter taste of seeds in my finished product and I don't like the look of the seeds floating around in there. If you don't want the extra work, by all means, leave them in). 
Cut onions, tomatoes and garlic in half. Place everything on the grill (cut-side up for the chilis, cut-side down for everything else). Roast until everything is well charged then remove from BBQ.

In a Vita-Mix (or other powerful blender) add a couple of ladles of the crushed tomatoes and in batches, puree the grilled vegetables. Pour into an 8qt stock pot, season with the sea salt and taco seasoning and then set over medium heat and reduce for 20-30 minutes. 

Can in purified glass jars according to manufacturers instructions. This salsa should keep at room temperature for 4-6 months.

Summer Salad of Roasted Red & Golden Beets, Peaches, Whipped Chevre, Pisatachios and Micro Greens

Salad Ingredients

1 Cup Micro Greens

1 Large Yellow Peach

1 Medium Red Beet

1 Medium Golden Beet

1 oz Shelled Pistachios

4 oz Chevre (Goat's Milk Cheese)

4 oz Heavy Cream

Vinagrette

2 Tbs Mango Vinegar (or favorite vinegar)

5 TBS Olive Oil

Pinch of Sea Salt

Blackberry Sauce

4 TBS Blackberry Jam

2 TBS Vinegar

2 TBS Water

1 TBS Cold Butter

For the Beets

Trim the stem and root ends of the beets, lay on a 24" square sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, wrap tightly and roast in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Let cool, then peel and cut into wedges.

For the Chevre (Goat's Milk Cheese)

In a mixer combine the chevre and cream. Whip until light and airy.

For the Blackberry Sauce

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Stain through a fine mesh sieve and then place in sauce pan and reduce until syrup like in consistency. Whisk in cold butter and then let cool and place in a squeeze bottle.

For the Vinaigrette

Add salt and vinegar to a bowl. Whisk in olive oil in a slow drizzle to emulsify.

To Plate

Place a dollop of the chevre on a plate and then scrape with a spoon across plate. (see video). Add Peaches, beets, pistachios and then top with micro greens. Dress with the vinaigrette and then spoon the black berry sauce on the side.

Potato Pave

Another great Keller Recipe. I've made this a few times and my kids love it (I think that it's pretty tasty too...) Russet Potatoes, Butter, Cream, Chives.... what could be better? This is a fantastic side dish that goes well with any kind of meat...

What you'll need:
1 cup heavy cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 lbs russet potatoes (try to find the largest potatoes that you can get your hands on)
5 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon softened and 4 tablespoons cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Canola oil
2 thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves crushed, skin left on
Minced chives

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pour cream into large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Peel the potatoes. Using a mandoline, cut the potatoes length wise (about a 1/16" thick) and allow to fall into the bowl of cream. Toss the potatoes from time to time to make sure that they are well coated.

Brush a 10x6.5x3-inch pan with half of the softened butter. Line with parchment paper, leaving a 5-inch overhang on the two long sides. (You'll use these to lift the potatoes out of the pan). Brush with remaining softened butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Trim the potatoes so that they'll fit in a single layer and lay them in the direction that works best to fill the pan. Repeat with the second layer and add a few of the cubed butter pieces and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat adding butter and s&p every couple of layers until you have about 16-17 layers of potatoes.
Cover tightly with foil (so that the potatoes steam as they bake) and toss in the oven for about 1 hour 50 minutes until they are completely tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.

Let cool for 15 minutes. Wrap a piece of cardboard that (is cut the same size as your pan) with foil and place on top of the potatoes. Place a couple of heavy cans on top to weigh the potatoes down. Allow to cool to room temperature and then place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or up to 2 days.
To server, run a pallet knife around the edge of the pan. Using the parchment paper, lift the potatoes out of the plan and place upside down on a cutting board. Trip the sides and the slice into 12 equal pieces and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Heat some canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes cut-side-down, add the thyme and garlic, and cook basting with the liquid in the pan until browned on the first side, then turn carefully and brown the opposite side. You can fit 3-4 of the pave in a pan. Remove the garlic when it begins to brown. Cook the remaining potatoes.

Arrange the potatoes on a serving platter, browned side up. Top with a small piece of butter and sprinkle with chives and sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and you are done. You'll end up wanting to make more because 2 of these servings is just not enough...

Sorry for the picture quality... I shot all these using my camera on my phone

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

What??? A Thomas Keller fried chicken recipe? My kids have been begging me to make them friend chicken so when I saw this recipe in Ad Hoc at Home, I knew that I had to try it... Takes some prep time, but it's definitely worth the effort. The chicken comes out really crunchy on the outside (I mean audibly crunchy... I could hear my kids chomping away in the dinning room while I was in the kitchen frying up another batch), but very moist and juicy on the inside... This is a must try recipe for anyone who loves chicken. What makes this recipe great is the fact that the chicken is brined for 12 hours before breading and frying...

Ingredients
Two 2 1/2 - 3 lbs chicken (not the costco type like I used. Those are 4-5 lbs birds... the trick to a golden crust and a cooked-through piece of chicken is the smaller pieces... Search them out and you'll be much happier with the results.

Cold Chicken Brine (recipe below)

Dreding and Frying
Canola Oil (or peanut oil) for deep-frying
1 quart buttermilk
Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Coating
6 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup onion powder
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp paprika
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp cayenne
1 Tbs plus 1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Fine sea salt
Rosemary and thyme sprigs

The brine makes all the difference with this chicken. It's worth the extra day to make, chill and soak the birds...

Brine Recipe
5 Lemons
24 Bay leaves
1 bunch (4 ounces) flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch (1 ounce) thyme
1/2 cup honey
1 head garlic, halved through the equator
1/4 cup black peppercorns
2 cups kosher salt
2 gallons of water.


Combine all ingredients in a large pot, cover and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring to dissolve the salt. (Your entire house will smell like Bay leaves). Remove from heat and cool completely, then chill before using.


Cut each chicken into 10 pieces: 4 breast quarters, 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings. Pour the brine into a large container (enough to hold all the chicken pieces) add chicken and refrigerate for 12 hours. (It will become too salty if it goes longer than this).

Remove chicken from brine (discard brine) and rinse under cold water to remove all the herbs or spices that may be sticking to the skin. Pat dry with paper towel and let rest at room temperature for 1. 5 hours, or until it comes to room temperature. (Cold chicken will take too long to cook and will turn dark before it's cooked all the way through).

Next make the coating... (My wife's grandparents got this cool spice box on a trip to France that I love pulling out when the occasion calls for it. Thanks again Peg & Jim).

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer half of the coating into a second bowl for dredging. In a third bowl add the buttermilk.

Fill at least 2" of oil to a large deep pot (at least 6" tall), but no matter what size pan you use, the oil should not come up higher than 1/3 of the pan. Heat oil to 320 degrees. Set a cooking rack over a sheet pan for the chicken to drain & cool once it comes out of the oil.

With your dredging station in place (bowl of 1/2 coating, bowl of buttermilk, bowl of 1/2 coating) and the oil at the correct temperature, you are ready to dredge and fry the legs and thighs. Dip the chicken into the first bowl of coating, shake off excess, then into the buttermilk, then into the 3rd bowl for a final coating. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment until you've breaded all the thighs and legs.

Carefully lower the chicken into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes. Then carefully move the chicken around in the oil and continue frying for another 11 to 12 minutes, until the chicken is a deep golden brown. (I found that with my larger pieces that the chicken turned golden before the meat was cooked through. Once I had the color that I wanted, I moved the chicken to a 400 degree oven and allowed to finish cooking all the way through.

Transfer the cooked thighs and legs to the cooling rack skin-side up and let rest while you fry the remaining pieces. Sprinkle with fine sea salt once they come out of the oil. Make sure the oil is the correct temperature before you add the next batch of chicken.

Once the thighs and legs are done, heat the oil to 340 and then fry the breasts and wings. Cook the breasts for about 7 minutes and the wings for 6 minutes. Allow the chicken to cool for at least 10 minutes before you serve it. (Resist the urge to bite right into it... I didn't have the patience and almost burned my tongue off).

While the chicken is cooking, add some rosemary sprigs and thyme sprigs to the oil and fry for about a few seconds to crisp.


Arrange the chicken on a platter lined with brown paper, add the fried herbs and get ready for some good ol' American eating... We served this with mashed potatoes, gravy, glazed green beans, and corn bread.... Can't get more white trash than that, but it was awesome. My kids had fried chicken for lunch the next two days. They loved it!!!

Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

Another favorite side dish... Roasted new potatoes with fresh rosemary and garlic. Our rosemary hedge is huge now on the side of our house and it's in full bloom. I had Maddyn go pick off 100 purple rosemary flowers for this dish. I love it when the rosemary blooms, as the flowers add some great color to what ever dish we're doing.

Ingredients
2-3 lbs small new potatoes (halved)
2-3 Springs Fresh Rosemary, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper corns
Rosemary flowers (if available)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Parboil the new potatoes in salted water until they are slightly underdone (they'll continue cooking in the oven). Drain potatoes and return to pot over low heat and gently stir (without crushing the potatoes) to dry.

With a mortar and pestle add about 2-3 teaspoons of sea salt and the garlic. Smash until a paste forms. Add peppercorns and grind to the consistency you like. Add chopped rosemary and bash to release their oil. Slowly drizzle olive oil while stirring to emulsify the marinade. This marinade is best if made an hour before so that the the flavors to develop.

Pour the marinade over the potatoes and toss to coat well. Put potatoes on a foil lined sheet pan and roast in the oven for about an hour, until the outside of the potatoes are nice and crispy...

All to cool slightly and sprinkle with rosemary flowers.

Salad of Roasted Beets, Smoked Salmon and Fingerling Potatoes

This is a fantastic salad if you like smoked salmon, roasted beets and soft cooked eggs. If you don't like these things (like most of my family), then dinner is going to be a bit rough...

Ingredients
20 fingerling potatoes
2-4 medium beets
12 oz. smoked salmon
5 soft cooked eggs
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons chipped chives
mixed baby field greens
mustard vinaigrette
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 375. Trim stems and root ends off of the beets. Place on a large sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper, wrap in the foil and roast until tender (about an hour). Meanwhile, cut the fingerling potatoes in half and simmer in salted water until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and let cook on a tray.

When beets are done, remove from oven and let cool. When cool enough to handle peel and cut into wedges. Place in a bowl and allow too cool.

Soft-boil the eggs and cut into half and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.

Make the mustard vinaigrette by placing 1 tablespoon dijon mustard in a bowl. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of champagne vinegar. Slowly drizzle in 1 cup of olive oil while whisking constantly to emulsify. Whisk in 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard.

Add minced shallots to a large bowl. Add potatoes and 2 tablespoons dressing. Sprinkle with sea salt and and ground black pepper. Drizzle beets with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Plate salad by arranging potatoes on large plates, add beets, baby greens, sliced smoked salmon and soft boiled eggs. Sprinkle with chopped chives, salt and pepper and drizzle with remaining dressing.

Love this salad!

Ratatouille - Vegetable Gratin

One of my favorite Pixar movies (behind The Incredibles) is Ratatouille. You can really see Thomas Keller's influence in the amount of detail that the animators put into the inner workings of a professional kitchen. I've wanted to make a ratatouille since I saw the film and was glad to see a summer vegetable gratin recipe in Keller's new book "Ad Hoc". This is a great side dish and even though it's early spring, there was some great looking zucchini, yellow squash and egg plant at Henry's this week. So I thought I'd give this one a try. It's really easy to make and very tasty with some great grilled tri tip.

Ingredients
2-3 roma tomatoes
1 medium yellow squash
1 medium zucchini
1 japanese eggplant (or other small narrow eggplant)
canola oil
2 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, finely grated with a microplane grater
kosher salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp of chopped thyme
1/2 cup olive oil plus more for drizzling
freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice vegetables with a mandoline as close in size as possible and toss with olive oil and a lite sprinkling of sea salt.

Heat some canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, reduce to low, add onions and garlic and season with salt. Cook without browning stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 20 minutes. Stir in 1 tbs of the thyme.

Combine parmesan and bread crumbs and remaining thyme in a small bowl.

Spread onion mixture in the bottom of a 13.5x9.5 gratin dish or 13 inch round shallow baking dish. Arrange a layer of overlapping slices of 1/3 of the squash around the outside edge of the dish. Sprinkle 2-3 tbs of the breadcrumb mixture over the top. Add a row of tomatoes, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini until you the pan is filled adding a layer of breadcrumbs ontop of each layer. Sprinkle the top with any of the remaining breadcrumb/cheese mixture and a light sprinkling of salt.

Bake for 60-90 minutes until the vegetables are completely tender when pierced with a knife. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Server with a light drizzle of EV Olive Oil.

Serves 6-8

Grilled Peach and Arugula Salad with Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Toasted Pinenuts

This is a perfect salad for summer. I love the contrasts in this salad... Sweet peaches, salty prosciutto, slightly bitter arugula with creamy fresh mozzarella. Peppery olive oil with sweet balsamic vinegar. It's one of my new favorites.

Ingredients
2 large peaches (not too ripe or they'll fall apart on the grill)
2 cups arugula
1 oz prosciutto
2 table spoons pine nuts
1 oz fresh mozzarella cheese (don't use the plasticy stuff... it should come in liquid)
1-2 oz. good olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt & fresh black pepper

Heat BBQ to medium-high. Brush peach halves with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Place on Grill cut side down for about a minute to burn grill marks into the flesh. Turn peach 1/4 turn to get the diamond pattern of the grill marks. Grill for another minute before removing them from the BBQ. Plate the salad by laying down a layer of prosciutto. Toss the arugula with the peaches, mozzarella and pine nuts and pile on top of the prosciutto. Drizzle with olive oil and some good quality balsamic vinegar. Add a pinch of sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper and you're done... It's one of my favorites.

Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Red Lentils

Things have been a bit crazy at the Konold household I we haven't had a lot of time to do keep up on the blog. With our kids getting busier and busier with sports, school and friends we find that if we want to have dinner together as a family, we have a short 30-45 minute window from when I get home from work to the time we have to leave for the first round of swim practice. So our dinners tend to be quick and easy, but still very tasty. We love steaming fish serving it with a sprinkling of sea salt and a drizzle of good olive oil along side steamed veggies and a quick salad. We can knock that dinner out in about 15 minutes and we then have 30 minutes to enjoy dinner together.

This Sunday after conference sessions we decided on rosemary pork tenderloin with red lentils. This was due to a lack of planning on my part Saturday night. These small tenderloins thaw quickly so it was an easy choice after two conference sessions. We have a ton of rosemary growing in our garden and the kids love going out and bringing me back a handful. With a mortar and pestle, you can make a quick marinade that is perfect with pork. The lentils cook quickly, so this is another easy quick meal that is a great stand in for Sunday dinner.

Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin 2-3 lbs
3 cloves garlic (sliced)
handful of fresh rosemary (roughly chopped)
sea salt black pepper corns
1/3 cup oil oil

Lentils
1 1/2 cups dry red lentils
2 carrots (1/8" dice)
1 clove garlic (pressed)
medium white onion (1/8" dice)
chicken stock 2-3 cups
2 sprigs thyme
salt to taste

For the Pork
in a mortar combine the garlic and a few pinches of sea salt. (You can do this in a food processor, but the mortar and pestle work best to bash out the oils in the rosemary). Bash the garlic until in forms a paste with the salt. Add the peppercorns (10-15). The garlic paste will keep the pepper from flying all over the kitchen when you bash it up. Pound the pepper corns until all have been crushed. Add the chopped rosemary and really bang it up to release the wonderful oils. Drizzle the oil oil until you have a nice thick rosemary garlic paste. Rub this all over the pork and allow to sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place an oven proof pan on the stove over medium-high heat. Add a drizzle of oil oil and when shimmering add the pork and sear all sides. Transfer to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until a thermometer reads 145-150. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

For the Lentils
Saute the garlic, onion and carrots in a little olive oil and salt until the onions are translucent. Add the lentils and saute until the lentils have been coated with sauteed veggies. Cover with chicken stock and reduce heat to medium low. Allow to simmer for about 6-8 minutes. Just watch and keep tasting. (if you need to add more stock, do so in 1/2 cup increments). Once the lentils are soft, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Keep warm until ready to plate. In the center of a large place, place about 1/2 cup of the lentils. Top with 1-2 1/2" slices of the pork tenderloin. Drizzle with some of the pork pan juices and season with black pepper. Add a sprig of thyme and you are done...

Foil Dinners Cooked on an Open Fire

We're taking the scouts camping tomorrow night and each of the boys is required to prepare his own foil dinner. Nothing beats opening up that foil pouch after it's been sitting on smoldering coals for about 15 minutes. I love the steam and the aromas as you rip into that package. Doing it at home wouldn't taste as good. There's something great about eating outside something that you've just pulled from the fire.

I've seen some scary foil dinners on some camp outs. Foil dinners do not HAVE to be ground beef and canned corn. Jon Billings likes Italian sausage with new potatoes and apples. Brennan loves tilapia with shaved fennel, golden yukons and onions. Fin loves tri tip with rosemary and garlic with sliced potatoes. I decided to go with salmon for tomorrows dinner. I can't wait... You should try this one.

Ingredients
6oz salmon filet
1 russet potato sliced into 1/4" thick rounds
1 carrot Julienned
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic,pressed
12 shrimp
6 asparagus spears
1/2 white onion (thinly sliced)
olive oil
sea salt/fresh pepper

Lay out an 18" piece of foil. Top with a wet paper towel and then another piece of foil. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, garlic and rosemary Layout your potatoes and sliced carrots. Drizzle with more olive oil. Top with the asparagus and sliced onions. Add the shrimp and salmon and top with a lemon slice and a sprig of rosemary. Wrap it all tightly in the foil and cook over coals for about 15 minutes. You'll love this one.

Chessa and I were invited to do a cooking class for some friends (Dana Fallentine and Britney Gharring) down in San Diego focusing on brunch items. I love smoked salmon and we had just done these Thomas Keller Yukon Gold Blinis and I thought that they would go perfect together. I wanted a little action on the plate so we placed the blini over a sprinkling of chopped egg white, egg yolk, capers and shallots. I also ran a line of parsley oil across the plate for a little bright green color on the plate. (Ideally this would have been dill oil, but I had parsley oil on hand and decided that it would work just fine). Most women that I know (including Chessa) aren't big fans of smoked salmon, but I love it. I think that this would make a perfect breakfast on Sunday morning.

Yukon Gold Blini (Thomas Keller Recipe)
1 pound Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
2-3 tablespoons crème fraiche, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Kosher salt

Place potatoes in a saucepan with cold water to cover by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked and tender.

Peel the warm potatoes and then press through a potato ricer. Pass them through a fine mesh sieve. Immediately weight out 9 ozs of the pureed potatoes and place them in a medium metal bowl. Working quickly, whisk the flour into the warm potatoes, then whisk in the 2 tablespoons crème fraiche. Add 1 egg, whisking until the batter is smooth, add the second egg, and then add the yolk.

Hold the whisk with some of the batter over the bowl. The batter should fall in a thick stream but hold its shape when it hits the batter in the bowl. If it is too thick, add a little more crème fraiche. Season to taste with salt.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Spoon between 1 and ½ teaspoons of batter onto the griddle and cook until the bottoms are browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Then flip them can cook the second side for about a minute. The blini should be evenly browned with a small ring of white around the edges. Transfer the blini to a small banking sheet and keep warm while you make the remaining blini, wiping the griddle with a paper towel between batches.

To Complete
Hard boil two fresh eggs by placing eggs in medium sauce pan covered by 2 inches of cold water over medium-high heat. As soon as the water is at a simmer, turn the burners off and let the eggs sit for 10 minutes. This will gently cook the eggs and make for perfect yellow yolks. When done, place eggs under cool running water to peel. cut the eggs in half and separate the egg whites from the yolks. Chop each separately.

Sprinkle a line of chopped egg whites in the center of a large plate. Top with a sprinkling of egg yolks, then chopped capers and finely diced shallots. Top with two warm blini and 2-3 ozs of sliced Alaskan Smoked Salmon. Mix a few table spoons of creme fraiche with about two table spoons of finely chopped dill. Place 1/2 tsp of the dill creme fraiche on the smoked salmon and top with a sprig of dill and you're done.... These potato pancakes go great with the salmon. They're very good on their own as well...

Friends Christmas Dinner - 2008

Every Christmas season, Chessa and I like to have one big dinner party. We normally don't go any higher than 14 total people because that's all the pot de creme pots that I have and all of our dinners finish with pot de creme (a favorite dessert of ours). This year, we got a bit aggressive and had 20 people for dinner. We had to sit everyone in three rooms and we hired Finley to stand at the sink and wash dishes all night so that we could quickly turn out each course. It was fun. We really enjoyed trying to painfully stuff everyone.

I normally like to try to get people to try something that they haven't had before. One year, we did truffle infused custards with shaved black truffles and chive chips. Another year, we had sauted baby octopus... But we kept it fairly calm this time around. The menu went as follows:

Black sesame cornets filled with smoked salmon tartare and whipped dill cream cheese or tomato tartare with shallots, basil and creme fraiche

Yukon gold blinis with eggplant caviar and sweet roasted red and yellow peppers

Spicy Artichoke Soup with handmade artichoke ravioli and Croatian cold pressed olive oil (I bought this oil from an old lady selling it from her cart in the heart of Dubrovnik. She pressed the oil herself at her family's mill). It was dang good.

Kalmata Olive and Rosemary Bread

Roasted Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) Ravioli with butter glazed brussels sprouts with brown butter, sage and amaretti crumbs.

Cara Cara Orange Rolls (Chessa made these dessert-like rolls... They are awesome!)

Tilapia cakes (supposed to be cod cakes... but no one can tell) with sauteed tilapia, clam chowder vegetables and parsely oil

Pomegranate Sorbet with a Kiwi Jus (Brittney Gharring made this... went great with the sorbet)

Beef Tenderloin with Caramelized French Shallots on Crimini Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Fresh Micro Greens (my new favorite find at Trader Joes)

Triple-Cream French Cows Milk Cheese "Le Delice de Bourgogne" with fresh Orange Blossom Honeycomb, Turkish Figs, Blackberries and Red D'Anjou Pears

Passion Fruit Pot de Creme

Petite Meyer Lemon Chesse Cakes with Fresh Blueberries

It was fun plating up all these dishes. Chessa and Brittney Gharring were a big help in the kitchen (We acutally like to involve everyone platting these courses up). Brittney took these amazing pictures. It was fun, we only wish we could have invited more people. Our house isn't big enough and I need to buy more dishes....

I'll post the recipes as soon as I figure out how to post them on a different page.

Here are some of the pictutres. The rest of the images can be viewed here.

Chelsea Gharring preparing the sesame cornets with salmon tartare and tomatoe tartare

The "cones" ready to go in a jalapeno roaster (I bought this piece just for these cornets)....

Weighing out the potato puree for the blinis

Blini batter (these are the smoothest potato pancakes that you've ever tasted)

Yukon Gold Blini with Eggplant Caviar and Sweet Roasted Peppers

Spicy Artichoke Soup with Artichoke Ravioli

Finley and Maddyn helping make the pasta dough

Maddyn "painting" the pasta dough with water to seal the ravioli


Brussels Sprouts poaching in water and butter

My daughter Maddyn loves helping me make these Pumpkin Ravioli. The sweetness of the pumpkin goes perfectly with the slightly bitter taste of the brussels sprouts

Cara Cara Orange Glaze

Chessa's Cara Cara Orange Rolls. (our favorite orange)

Parsley Oil filtering through cheese cloth
Jon Billings being a bit "creative" with the parsely oil...

It's tough with only four burners... We need a bigger stove.

Sauteed Tilapia with Tilapia Cakes, Chowder Vegetables and Parsley Oil

Pomegranate Sorbet with Kiwi Jus


Sauteing the Shallots

Beef Tenderloin with caramelized shallots and roasted garlic mashed potatoes

The "fromage" course... I was excited to find the honey comb from the farmers market. The figs were cool too.

Passion Fruit Pot de Creme. We need to find more of these lidded pots.

Chessa's petite Meyer Lemon Cheese Cake. Perfect bite size dessert.

My cheat sheet... I love getting to the end of the menu!

Look at all of the beautiful women that I got to cook for....