Dah-um! How'd I miss that dinner invitation??!!

MBK,
The Pommes Bryon look so delcious. Do you pipe the mashed potatoes onto a silpat or the like? Then transfer to a plate?

Oh, the French traditionalists don't use silpats! We piped them onto a baking tray covered w/ parchment paper. Made a well in each one, filled with a bechamel/gruyere mixture, topped with a little shredded gruyere, and into the oven to brown.

Funny that you are all focusing on that dish -- honestly, while they were good, I didn't love them as much as straight up pommes purees. Now those, I could eat for weeks...

Tomorrow's class? Day one of forcemeats. The fun begins

Possibly veering off topic for the dinner thread but . . . what are forcemeats?

Wikipedia says this. If any of the better cooks on the board wants to chime in, please do. I'll note that we're learning not to grind it many times to make a smooth consistency, as wiki says ... we do one coarse grind and maintain some texture.

We'll be learning a duck/pork terrine, stuffed veal, and stuffed chicken breasts.

Yours looked really gorgeous in the photo. Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home has a recipe for them calling for potato cakes to be topped with either sour cream, creme fraiche, or whipping cream and gruyere. I think I like the idea of the bechamel/gruyere mixture in the well better. This is on my list of dishes to try now. Thanks .

Last night: bruschetta, I guess you'd call it. Toasted slices of sourdough bread on one side, flipped them over, rubbed with garlic, topped with squash blossoms and this weird Wisconsin Parmesan-like cheese (very good and interesting in its own right, but not that much like Parm), broiled until cheese melted. Topped each with a mixture of roasted and finely chopped red bell pepper, zucchini, and eggplant that had been tossed with almost-pesto (basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, but no cheese).
Squash blossoms and basil came from my garden.

Tonight (recent trip to Penzey's has re-ignited my interest in Indian cooking):
lamb with whole spices
black dal
saffron rice
spinach cooked with spices.
Gin and tonic to start
experimental cinnamon-chocolate swirl ice cream to finish.

The lamb is from Madhur Jaffery's An Invitation to Indian Cooking; it's an interesting dish, simply cubes of lamb browned in oil with cinnamon, cardamom, clove, bay leaf, and peppercorns, then covered and allowed to cook dry, so to speak. It comes out very well browned and aromatic. The dal was from Neelan Batra's 1000 Indian Recipes. For the spinach I tossed whole cumin, fenugreek, and coriander in hot oil, then added the spinach and tossed until just wilted. Not exactly an Indian technique but it worked well with the other dishes.

New favorite spice: black cardamom. Although not called for in the dal recipe, it made the dish fantastic by imparting a subtle smokiness. I've been using this stuff in a lot of dishes, including my afternoon tea. Not from Penzey's btw - I picked it up in Montreal last summer. Would love to find a local source.

I've seen it at Penzey's on Rockville Pike.

Thanks.

We've bought them at Indian Spices and Appliances, 3000 North 10th Street in Arlington, but that was a few years ago. You might also check the Bethesda Co-op, where they carry the green cardomom pods in bulk-- 301-320-2530. That's an easy drive.

Uhm... I'm confused: meatloaf? sausage? scrapple? charcuterie? See here.

My favorite summer spinach salad. Crisp some pancetta and then carmelize shallots in the grease. Whisk in a little white wine and wilt the spinach. Toss in some toasted pines nuts and sliced peaches.

Center cut pork chop with a sour cherry and port reduction.
Mushroom risotto
beans from the market

4:1 Bombay Sapphire martinis

Salt-grilled whole blue mackerel
String beans dressed with a toasted black sesame seed, sake, sugar, and soy sauce mixture
Steamed white rice

My very first gravlax made with wild Sockeye and flavored with fennel fronds from Heinz's plants and crushed Juniper berries.

Mustard sauce courtesy of the "Search Inside" feature on Amazon.com. Cf. Marcus Samuelsson's Aquavit. I made a variation on his recipe, but kept the "secret" ingredient which is strong coffee. Excellent.

Also baked black bread to serve with it along with a chilled cucumber & red onion salad with (light) sour cream. The last of the cherries in the fridge were dessert.

We made okonomiyaki (sort of a cross between a pancake and a frittata) again, this time with thinly sliced pork cooked on top. Washed it down with Kirin Original beer.

Dry Old Overholt Manhattans

Broiled salmon
Kabocha squash simmered in dashi, soy sauce, and ginger
Sauteed snow peas tossed with toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds

I have been awaiting this day for months. Leave home for work 0540, return at 1900, walk dog, stop in garden, collect the following: four tiny new zucchini with blossoms still on, 4 Black Cherry tomatoes, 2 Carmello tomatoes, 1 Sunny Goliath tomato, a few leaves of basil. Cook fusilli in boiling salted water while zukes simmer in good olive oil; add blossoms and chopped tomatoes and basil; toss with cooked pasta and a glob of ricotta.

Summer has arrived. Heaven.

Akita sake
Sukiyaki including beef from Aomori Prefecture (our neighbor to the north), green onions, grilled tofu, kuruma fu (wheat gluten formed into the shape of a tire), and shirataki (noodles made from konnyaku, a starchy Japanese yamlike plant)
Vinegar-pickled Japanese cucumber and carrot
Lovely, tasty chocolate/coffee cream filled cake from the really good local patisserie

Last night:

Ratatouille (cold, made on Tuesday and rested overnight in the fridge)
Mozzarella di bufala

Sliced peaches

2006 Mulderbosch Rose´

About as summery as a supper gets

Sugar crash on the way home from a long day at work required a roast beef sandwich, fries, and diet Coke from Roy Rogers.

I feel dirty.