I'm going to a symposium next weekend in Salem, MA and staying with friends. My friends are having a dinner party the night before the symposium and the list has grown into a cast of thousands. As of tonight the speakers for the symposium are all coming too, so its a gathering of colleagues. I volunteered to make dessert. Casting about for something different, I thought about making a trifle in the traditional 19th century manner, but then thought better of that...who has that much time. I did find a recipe for trifle that I am going to use, but to make a fruit crisp instead. The recipe calls for roasting pears and apples and then mixing together with a pumpkin-caramel sauce. I will then add a good traditional crisp topping to that and call it good, but probably will also make a bunch of lemon squares and cookies to suppliment.

Hey All: I'm a bit late with this post, but Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. has produced their first brew, Tug Pale Ale. Its available at 3Tides. Go check it out and report back. I liked it, and I don't even like beer.

Lotsa people have dropped food off in the last few weeks for us to try and we are very fat and appreciative. Kim, I LOVED the chicken stew and those lemon ricotta cookies didn't last very long. Brian at the Edge gave Greg and fantastic soup to bring home to me: cider turnip and bacon soup. It was so good, I had it for breakfast.

Haven't had much time to cook these days. We did order out from Seng Thai on our way home from the museum yesterday. It was our first time ordering out from there and the food is still just as good. We had a 4 star hot green curry, which I have been thinking about all week and a beef and broccoli with cashews. The curry rocked!

A reader emailed me a link to The Smitten Kitchen. Now I have blog envy. Her photos and tales of woe and wonder in the kitchen are great. Apparently, Martha thinks its a cute web site.
If I only had the patience to do the same, I might have a steady readership! I think I started out on the right foot, but I always forget to photograph the things I am making or to even photograph them in progress. Perhaps the key is to write my tales out in word and then post them, rather than writing them out directly to the template. Do you want my recipes? I suppose I should get back into posting those too. Sigh...my kingdom for a life assistant, or at least a secretary!

OK, so the hors d'oeurves musta been kind of good because all of them were gone by the end of the dinner party last night. I was just bummed that they all looked the same, but were different things. The pastry flour worked wonders on the crust for the leek tarts as they were melt in your mouth good. People seemed to like the shape and feel of the "potato cookies" which were essentially spoon dropped onto baking sheets and left to melt into a puddle shape. The gruyere really made the potato puffs excellent.

Ok, ok, so its been a while since I made fancy food. I spent all day cooking and came up with two hors d'oeuvres for this fancy party and they both look the same!!! Luckily, they do taste different, but both are essentially mini quiches. What was I thinking!! But, as we learned last weekend in Kansas City: "cheese rules the world" put enough smelly cheese in something and it will taste delicious.

So, I now have six dozen potato quiches and 3 dozen Tarte St Germaines (a fancy term for quiche with leeks!). After all that trouble, I learned that I need to start experimenting again.

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I had a bit of a kitchen tragedy this afternoon. I may have lost one of my AllClad pots :-( I was cooking potatos and decided to go have a bit of a toes up on the couch....I woke thinking...hmmm, whats in the oven??? Oh shit!! I ran into the kitchen to see that I had left the burner on HI and all the water had boiled off and the potatos were burning in the bottom of the pot. I thought all was lost for my planned potatos and gruyere in puff pastry! OH no, its time for another WWJD moment. Personally, I think Julia woulda been proud of me. I let the potatos cool and then I cut the burned bottoms off, carefully testing to see if the interior of the potato tasted faintly like carbon...No? it was a go! Then I made a big batch of garlic mashed potatos, ensuring that I used a hell of a lot of butter and cream. However, its going to take some muscle scrubbing to get the burned area on the bottom of the pot cleaned. Thank the gods for AllClad though, any other pot and it woulda melted on the stove.

So, I went to defrost my puff pastry and found that I'd grabbed puff pastry shells!!! DAMMMMNNNN. My hors d'oeuvres were not to be tonight, its karma......yet another episode of WWJD so soon?? Well thats what I'm trying to figure out right now. Do you think if I combined my recipe for cheese puffs with my mashed potatoes that I could possibly make something good that is passible? More from the "What Would Julia Do" test kitchen tomorrow.

I did make the best miniature Tarte St. Germains. I was able to find Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour at Odd Balls in Belfast. It really does make a nice flakey crust.

oops! My last post was meant for the other blog