#126 - Croissants at Home (Part II)

The morning after the night before (aka final proof, baking, tasting and judgement)

Last night we left it where I went home, dubious about the results of my croissant rolling and shaping.  The theory is that things went awry because the counter and the kitchen were so hot last night.  I'd like to say that is to blame for my croissants but I think it was user error after all.  LM's croissants came out well, she said, and they were very pretty.  I have forgotten how to roll the croissants and they came out big, fat and kind of misshapen.  It has become clear that a second attempt will be required to redeem myself.

What went wrong besides hot hands and hot kitchen?

Luckily for me, I had an appreciative group of family and friends who were gratifyingly happy to taste and say how delicious they thought the croissants were.  Which only makes me more unhappy with the problematic croissants - where to start after the shaping disaster of 2014?

1.  Hmmm...for the first batch, I failed to drop the temperature from 430F to 400F (ok, I can't be bothered to do an accurate conversion - if you want the formula, it's [X (degrees F) - 32]/5/8 = Y (degrees C).  Or you can use the internet.

2.  Too much egg wash which also sealed some of the layers (and part of the reason why they didn't puff up), as well as some of the dough sticking when I transferred it to a smaller baking sheet (essentially I cooked these in a large toaster oven instead of the single large oven - and I'm glad I did!).  I'm not sure how much of the butter on the parchment paper were from ripped croissant layers and how much just oozed out and leaked everywhere from the other cuts in the pastry.

3.  I forgot to check if it was proved enough to bake (I suspect not).

4.  Overworked the dough - possibly - which would explain why the top layer seemed to be particularly breadcrust-like.

Interlude (aka Saturday morning breakfast)

Since the croissant batches took about 20-ish minutes to bake, I made breakfast.  We've been trying to use up leftovers and I thought of a fun Saturday morning breakfast idea.  We don't do egg soldiers or whatever they're called (where you dip your toast in a soft boiled egg) but Lil Sis did have a cookie cutter so I did what anyone with bread, eggs and a cookie cutter would do - see photos above.  Apparently the cut out hearts (also fried in butter, along with the bread and egg thing) were a hit.

Back to Baking

Batch 1 (?)

Batch 1 - baked at 430F

Then it was time to take the first batch out of the oven.  A little doughy...

Batch 2

Batch 2 - baked at 400F

A little better - more flaky but undercooked because I didn't allow for the size of the croissants.  Must remember to stretch the base much more during rolling so that they end up longer, stretched out and able to be bent to a crescent shape which will cook evenly on the next try.  I tried a little bit with lilikoi (passionfruit) butter.  I found it a bit sweet and the extra richness unnecessary.  Did I mention there was probably close to half a pound of butter in this recipe?

Batches 1, 2 & 3

Batch 3 - baked at 400F, then up to 430F, then back down to 400F (I couldn't decide because the croissants were so fat...)

Anyway - we couldn't taste any more so I had to leave it up to my other taste testers.

Fridge Takeover

I was also able to put my sister's fridge back the way it was supposed to be - this is what it looked like after I moved things around and made people eat leftovers yesterday and the day before.  She has a thing where she always has lots of food in the fridge so this made her nervous until I put everything back.  Of course roasting two chickens for dinner tonight resulted in enough leftover chicken that the fridge is full once again and you have to hunt (a little) to find space to put things. Must remember not to buy any more groceries until we have executed the next planned snacks / meals.

No Hobbits (but Demons and Gargoyles and dogs, oh my!)

Then it was time to have a girlie date.  I had arranged to see the Hobbit with a friend ages ago and we finally got ourselves organized.  Kind of...we met at 3.15pm for a 3.30 movie - except the movie was actually at 4.20.  So we went to see I, Frankenstein instead.  We didn't know anything about the movie except that Aaron Eckhart and Bill Nighy (not the Science Guy) were in it.  Any ideas about it resembling Mary Shelley's book in its actual plot were dispelled within the first 5 minutes or so.  Even better, we didn't have to buy the enormous movie snacks.  We wanted snacks because what's a movie without them?  We just didn't want the ones that were bigger than our laps - so we got the kiddie packs.  Quite a fun time, actually and we found out afterwards that the people behind us had a little dog with them the whole time - apparently he loves movies and he had been so quiet we never knew he was there.

Roast dinner

Then home for a roast chicken dinner by Lil Sis - even better than last time.  Better gravy as well - this time she cooked the onions in the same pan as the chicken and it really added something to the flavor of the gravy - good enough that even she was happy with it.  The skin was nice and crispy, the meat tender, the squash soft and sweet and the carving getting better with each attempt.  All I can say is, I am a very spoiled girl and I like it!

So until next time, may your loved ones spoil you as much as mine have been spoiling me.

#125 - How NOT to make croissants

In which I remember why I don't make puff pastry or croissants at home
We had a couple of weeks when it was freezing here.  Mind you, it's all relative - it's not the same kind of freezing as it has been on the East Coast and other areas of the US, but I could have used a little bit of that tonight.

After thawing out my dough from yesterday, I rolled it out and shaped it tonight.  That is to say, I attempted to do so.  The kitchen was a bit on the warm side but who cares, I was in a long sleeved shirt.  Until it got warm trying to roll out the dough.  I had to let it rest several times during the rolling out and it kept sticking to the (I guess warm) marble and...my hands.  You can actually see all the tears in the pastry and in some places I could actually see the butter either through the pastry or oozing out through the tears (see photo above right).  All I can do now is hope and pray that it will come out ok tomorrow morning.

Hot hands are bad for pastry
I forgot about the fact that my hands tend to run warm which is why my pastries and breads tend to have problems when I have to handle them.  The only thing I didn't do was put them in an ice bath because I wanted to be able to feel the knife when I had to cut the croissants.  Blood is not a standard ingredient and I like to have my hands as intact as possible, given the abuse they have been taking.  (Yes, just boiled water and a metal pan that has been on the stove is a little warm.  Not as warm as melted sugar but still warm...)

User error?  Most likely!

Yes, that is flour - from leaning against the bench while rolling

This is a slightly smaller recipe than the one we did at school so there is a little less dough but I have a feeling I should have gotten 3 more croissants out of the batch (I have 9 ok ones and 1 weird one).  They are all shaped a bit funny and the end of the croissant got twisted on some of them so only the baking will show how they turn out.  Oh well, not all experiments can end successfully and in this case, I suspect it's user error since LM rolled and baked her croissants today - apparently they turned out well.

So until next time, if at first you don't succeed, try again.  (And if that fails, blame the materials!  Just kidding - try again until you get it right.  Now I will have to follow my own advice...)  Enjoy your repetitions!

#124 - Les croissants, les croissants, how I love les croissants!

In which LM and I test out / experiment with some butter (aka play in the kitchen)
LM had a slight issue with croissant dough lately and the only thing we could think of was that the butter didn't have enough fat content.  So we decided to give several brands a whirl.  Personally, I didn't feel the need to experiment with Lurpak (Danish butter, approximately 85% or so fat content) because it's what I use to bake in Australia.  The US doesn't label the fat content of their butter and unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the Italian one (83% fat content).  There's one called Plugra (US - I think it's about 83% fat content) but I accidentally bought the salted one because the red Plugra is the salted one whereas the red Lurpak is the unsalted butter.  So much for being detail oriented yesterday, when I was in a bit of a whirlwind mode at the grocery store (and a bit distracted by being unable to reach that pack of butter at the very back, thank you very much, Mr Tall Man who got me the last pack of unsalted Lurpak butter).

Planning ahead (photo above)
There's always some down time while the dough is resting and since we had arranged to meet up at just after lunch time, I took some lunch / snack supplies:  9 different cheeses, a fig and nut bar and family bread from St Germain bakery - soft, white bread (thin slices) which is full of refined flour and who knows what else but is absolutely delicious.

Interlude

I also took some supplies so that we could make a bechamel sauce.  For some reason, people seem to get a little intimidated by it, maybe because often it doesn't seem to turn out quite right.  The two main culprits I have identified (so far) appear to be that the flour hasn't been cooked out sufficiently in the roux so that it still tastes floury and/or the seasoning isn't quite right.  It seems the traditional cheese to use in the sauce is Gruyere - but since I love cheese and I'm me, I like to add taleggio, if it's available.  It tends to be on the salty side and it melts really well so you get a nice, punchy flavor.  LM wanted to make a Croque Madame (the Croque Monsieur was, as I understood it, a melted ham and cheese sandwich.  This one was ham, a fried egg and topped with the bechamel sauce) - so we split one after our Raclette grilled cheese sandwiches.

[SKIP TO SUNSET DRIVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE TECHNICAL CHEAT AND MISTAKE]

Cheat Stage 1:  Begin play (Dough, inclusion, first turn, rest)
Most of the recipes seem to call for an overnight stage.  LM and I didn't have that kind of time so we took a shortcut - we cheated and did it the school way - mix the dough, rest for an hour, butter inclusion and book turn, rest for 1/2 hour and second book turn.

Cheat Stage 2:  Continue play (Second turn and rest over night)
There were some small errors but I won't know until I cook the croissants whether the errors are tragic or not - my dough ripped and some of the butter leaked.  Normally in puff pastry that can be a big problem but I am hoping the croissants will be more forgiving.

I had to go home so we wrapped my dough up really well - and then I think I did something stupid.  My dough had expanded so much in the refrigerator that I stuck it in the freezer - I read somewhere that the freezer retards the yeast, but I'm afraid that might be wrong, in which case my dough will be flat and the croissants will not rise when I shape them tomorrow and bake them on Saturday morning.  Only time will tell but you may see a sad photo of croissants - in which case I will have to do another batch just to redeem myself sometime in the near-ish future.

Sunset drive

Sunset drive home

In any event, more photos to follow of the croissants shortly.  Making them at home is so different from having equipment you would find in a commercial kitchen.  If I had a dream kitchen, it would have a blast chiller, a commercial grade oven, a separate fridge....oh my, the list is endless.  But the whole point of dreams / fantasies is that they don't have to bear any resemblance to realism.

So until next time, dream away - and may your dreams come true.

#123 - Traditions, A rose by any other name and Family Fun

(But first - Sunday Brunch by the Sea)
It's tradition that on my last Sunday at home, we have brunch down by the ocean.  One of the big draws is the omelette station in which, as per my request, Chef S always squishes my omelette so that it isn't runny anywhere.  About a year ago he was promoted to a different service so I was very happy to see him.  Even better, he remembered both my omelette and me (it's so nice to be appreciated!).  Another member of the staff was kind enough to have refilled the fried rice tray because he saw I was getting ready to fill my plate.  How did I know?  Because he told me so when he saw that I had already started to fill my plate - so of course I had to add some of the fresh fried rice to my very full plate, so that his efforts were fully appreciated.  (It's so nice to be missed and even nicer to be spoiled - a girl could get used to this in a hurry!)  So although this was originally intended to be Round 1, unfortunately I was defeated by the enormous omelette topped with house salsa, fried rice, crispy bacon, sauteed mahimahi with tartare sauce (not one of my usual choices) and lots and lots of coffee.  Thanks Chef S & D!  By the way, that's a dinner plate, in case you can't tell by scale.

Porn is porn is porn (aka Is porn, porn?  In which some names sound much more exciting than the actuality)
Kind of like the Sex Party in Australia (apparently not the fun kind, but I couldn't tell you what they are - no one could tell me when I was at the voting place last year either).

The other day our dinner plans went a little awry.  How, you may ask, when all we needed was some chicken breast.  I'm not sure how it happened, but at Safeway, the chicken was still frozen - as in, I could see the ice crystals (really, how good will the meat taste?) so I went to the second store which didn't have anything free-range / organic / something which didn't sound like it was full of hormones.  So you think it's no worries, there's another one down the road.  No chicken breasts at all, frozen or otherwise!  1.5 hours after leaving home and buying everything except the chicken, we gave up on that idea and had to come up with a quick last minute dinner idea.  The result:  ginger, garlic and green onion (spring onion to my Aussie / UK friends), salt and a little oil.  On everything.  And it appears my niece has a good palate - she wanted a bit more salt on everything (my Mom said it was too salty)...oh dear.  You win some, you lose some.  A friend said that I am a "food porn producer.  Or culinary porn."  Another friend calls it "gastroporn"  - which makes me wonder a little at the whole "...I can't define what is pornography.]  "But I know it when I see it."  - Potter Stewart, opinion in Jacobellis v Ohio (1964) [NB:  I got this reference from Wikipedia - aka I don't really care what the answer is, but I cared that teeny bit enough to look it up.]

Then later that night, my niece asked me in her little voice if I could "please cook for me".  I asked my sister if she had asked my niece to ask me to cook for them - as Lil Sis said, "I didn't, but it's something I would do."  Well yes, that's why I asked...

Comfort food / family fun in the kitchen
Today was cold and rainy - and since we had a couple of hours until dinner time and no one felt like doing anything elaborate, we settled on meatloaf.  I've been meaning to try the bacon wrapped meatloaf for over a year now so we tried it today.  Lil Sis likes meatloaf because it's a good way to hide lots of vegetables although I haven't noticed that her children need much encouragement to eat their veggies.

Even better, my niece and nephew each like to help in the kitchen and they love to wash - I heartily encourage it!  So they washed the vegetables and did the all important taste test once the mixture was done and a little bit cooked off (shades of LCB cuisine classes...)  I have a feeling that each of their first memory of me will be the sight of me standing by the stove - and all I can say is, there could be worse first memories so I have no objection to this one.

Superbowl is coming up and although we haven't managed to settle on a party plan yet (will there be one for commercials?  That has yet to be determined) the bacon experiment was also a trial run for any sort of party:  meatloaf cooked in a muffin tin lined with bacon.

One of my classmates from LCB will be leaving (has left?) Dome restaurant and of course I had presentation envy so we dolled up the meatloaf.  Previous failures at finding baby / micro-greens notwithstanding, I have seen them in several places the last couple of days so I of course they made it onto the plate.  You think that they would be a complete waste by my niece actually wanted some of the little plants for her plate (of course she didn't eat them - but she did eat her other veggies...)

The thing with presentation is that you already have to have an idea in your head.  Since I couldn't decide (and falling back on my "why choose if you don't have to" philosophy) I did a couple of different variations.

Of course the large meatloaf took a lot longer to cook - the bacon lattice didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned it but that may have something to do with the really large chunks of fat that I removed from the packet of bacon.  My recommendation if you like to trim off the excess fat from the bacon like I do:  buy two packs of bacon so that you have some back-ups for the lattice.  This one went into the fridge for tomorrow so we'll let you know how it turns out.  For the English / UK / Aussies, this will be burnt and unfit to eat.  For (most) Americans that I know, this is about right since we like our bacon crispy - maybe not this crispy?  Only a tasting will tell.

On the agenda for tomorrow - more fun in the kitchen involving lots of butter (testing different types, naturally, all in the name of research), cheese and all the things doctors, nutritionists and dieticians tell you are bad for you.

Until next time, may you have happy family hang-outs and fun bonding time!

#122 - Afternoon Tea (aka further research)

In which we go to afternoon tea and call it research
LM and I are continuing on our quest to have afternoon tea in as many places as we can.  We put it under the heading of "research" but this is the only kind of research which comes with snacks.
LM had been to a couple of the afternoon tea options available, so today we went to the one at Orchids at the Halekulani - gorgeous setting as always and a beautiful afternoon to match.


Tell me what seems a little off about this picture:  the self-professed owner of the sweet tooth (LM) had a blueberry rooibos tea sans sugar.  The self-proclaimed owner of no sweet tooth whatsoever (yours truly) had the Golden Assam with sugar.  Somehow in the excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the "Tea" portion of our Afternoon Tea.  Loved the scone and madeleine (the shape, for us, determines whether or not this is a madeleine, so as delicious and buttery as it was, this was a Not-Madeleine).

Tea Sandwiches with a twist
We started with the savory because...well, because we wanted to have the sweets as desserts.  I started from what sounded like the least strong to the strongest flavors.  There was the traditional cucumber sandwich with a twist, the twist being cream cheese, not butter.  Then the ham and watercress rolled sandwich - actually not bad.  The chicken and horseradish sandwich has the peanut crust (top of the photo) - there was some apricot (dried?) in the mixture as well - with the peanuts, almost a peanut buttery flavor - initially odd until LM said it was close to satay chicken.  And finally the smoked salmon with capers on...rye?  The sandwiches were interesting but couldn't top the scones which came with a lemon curd, a strawberry (?) jam and clotted cream.

We have been blessed (or is it cursed?) with standards which aim for perfection - standards which even the Chefs who taught us occasionally do not meet to their satisfaction.

Pretty is as pretty does
I have a feeling our very kind waiters thought we were crazy.  We looked, we oohed, we ahhed, and then we took the food apart.  We did the tasting by individual elements, then as a whole.  Of course top marks for presentation - the desserts were so pretty that I have vowed I will probably try some of these presentations.

However - yes, there is always a "however".  There seemed to be an awful lot of gelatine in the desserts - both in the lemon curd of the layered blueberry thing (left) and the lavender cream of the violet topped dessert (right).  Whether it's a matter of making sure the desserts set correctly so that they didn't run all over or not, the consistency of somewhere between a custard/curd and a jelly was just slightly off-putting.  Or perhaps there has been a new trend in texture of which neither of us was aware.

In any case, discussion about the technical elements led to stories about the things that went wrong in class (yes, we are still haunted by Ghosts of Classes and Bad Exams Past).  Also discussions of LM's forays into more stable creams or what we want to try again or our nightmare desserts which we will never attempt again.  (For instance, I will never attempt a sugar sculpture again, for obvious reasons.)  We sorely missed some members of our little posse.

The good thing about doing a tasting with a friend is that I felt no shame in not finishing my desserts.  Or the sandwiches.  Or picking out all the raisins (currants?) in my scones with my fingers.  But we do have more ideas of things for each of us to try and a cooking date since today we ate - the change in schedule dictated by the days on which afternoon tea was available.  It also made us feel like we didn't do such a bad job with our student tea (or at least, speaking for myself, I felt like we did ok despite my large screw up with a huge batch of chocolate mousse for the raspberry and chocolate Galaxie).

So until next time, may you find that your best is good enough and hopefully, better than good!

#121 - And the partying continues - well, the eating anyway...

And a party is...
One of the really nice things about being home with family is that we have lots of cooking parties.  That is to say, since we cook together, I consider it a party.  Perhaps the definition needs to be revisited at some point but for now it's a delicious argument to have.

In which we argue through food
My Dad has been wanting to cut down our kaffir lime tree.  My Mom disagrees.  I happen to like being able to pick my own leaves and the fruit (you don't use the juice, just the zest).  Lil Sis had bought some lemongrass earlier this week, in the hopes I might be inspired to make something with lemongrass and kaffir lime.  She was hoping for shrimp but since I found out my Mom doesn't like shrimp (only last year - how have we not known this until now???) and BS was already planning to make misoyaki butterfish (which he doesn't eat, by the by), I thought I should make some chicken.  Chicken seems to be a relatively inoffensive meat and it takes on the flavors of the kaffir lime and lemongrass really well.  Not to mention, I wanted to try a spicy version with Red Hot (same sauce as for buffalo wings, which I love).

The resulting dinner was spinach and artichoke dip by AA (see left) - vegetarian, right down to the bacon bits in it; BS's misoyaki butterfish - yum, more for those of us who eat it; kaffir lime and lemongrass chicken (with and without spicy sauce); and broccoli with garlic and olive oil.

Dad hasn't suggested cutting down the kaffir lime tree again but now I have to wonder if he will suggest it on every trip if the answer comes back via family dinner...

Then a night of take out (Cheesecake Factory which I still find uninspiring) before a dinner by Lil Sis.  She doesn't seem to enjoy cooking much, which I just don't understand.  I do understand how something can taste better when someone else cooks it.  There are several things which I can never do as well as the originals which I found - a girlfriend's tuna sandwich (I did it exactly as she did it and I've yet to be satisfied with the result); a classmate's Malaysian chicken rice (he said it's not as good as his Mom's and mine is so not as good as his!) and whether this is a matter of technique or the fact that someone else cooked, it's a little hard to say.

Dinner #2 - Lil Sis's beef stew with red wine and kale (aka how to make vegetables palatable to your children.  And your friends.  And your older sister.)
Tonight I didn't get around to taking photos the first time around or when everything was laid out and looking pretty.  However, I did get them the second time around.  I've always had a theory that when someone doesn't like something (and it's not attributable to an allergy or a really bad experience with said food) it's usually because it hasn't been cooked well.  I don't have many dislikes (okra - ew! and super bitter veggies) but kale was on the list of non-favorites for a long while.  So of course the first time I heard "kale" as an ingredient in beef stew, I was a little dubious.  Evidently this dislike was shared by my niece and nephew (4.5 and 2, respectively) - but they will eat it in this form.  Of course the competitive nature took over...er, that is to say, I wanted to encourage Lil Sis so I tried her stew.  All I can say is, she can add kale to my stew any time!  She didn't even have to hide the kale - it just needed to taste good.

And to top off her Domestic Goddess persona, chocolate chip cookies!  I don't make chocolate chip cookies so I am very impressed.  Not to mention, they are delicious (you have to taste it!) and there are quite a few of them.  Speaking of which, it's a good thing they stayed at her place instead of coming home with me or else there might have been a milk and cookies time before bed.  As it is, they are on the list as a treat for tomorrow when we need to have Elevensies / morning tea / afternoon snack / dessert / no excuse needed.  By the by, Lil Sis says she can't cook.  So if this is her not cooking, I'm happy for her not to cook for me any time!

Until next time, may your arguments and "not" endeavors be as successful as ours!

#120 - Fun date!

One of the really nice things about catching up with friends from different areas of your life is that you don't have the same old conversations.  Tonight was food, food, more food and some technical conversation about food - specifically, fat content in butter and the various brands, prices in different places and...never mind, on to the evening.

In which dinner plans go awry and confusion ensues
I caught up with a girlfriend from LCB.  We both thought that things would be relatively calm and quiet as we had planned to meet for dinner early on a Friday night.  6.30pm saw us a little bit perplexed as Plan B was completely packed.  Our chefs would not have been impressed by our preparation.  Or rather, the lack of it.

Plan C required a 30 minute wait so on to Plan D we went.  It was actually quite fun, a new Chinese restaurant we had both passed a few times but hadn't tried yet.  There was a little bit of confusion initially because the sign for the parking lot informed you that the entrance was behind you, so around the block we went.  Then a little more confusion because upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted in Japanese.  We asked the friendly waitress if the restaurant was Chinese or Japanese (note:  the name of the restaurant was something something Dragon).  She said it was both so in the spirit of the place, we ordered Japanese and Chinese food.  They came as little sharing plates (a Chinese/Japanese fusion-y pork bun for which I broke my no pork rule because it tasted like sticky, sweet, kind of teriyaki deliciousness instead of pork; Japanese fried chicken which was crispy, hot and everything fried chicken should be; cucumber with a sesame and chili dressing reminiscent of the cucumber dish at Ippudo in New York / Sydney; fried rice with Japanese curry; and crispy stir fried ong choi which was just wilted enough to be cooked but crunchy enough to feel healthy).

In which we carry out some research (aka dessert)
As you know, I'm not a big fan of the "or" option if there is an "and" option.  We went to dessert at this little place around the restaurant - I think it was called Little Oven.  My girlfriend saw a couple of things on the board which interested her and I saw a few more.  Since we were carrying out research and having talked patisserie tech speak over dinner, we were ready to dig in and try the interesting sounding things on the menu and here are the photos.  Of course we couldn't choose just one - that's like asking a parent who their favorite child is.  LM chose the more interesting sounding ones.  I have to admit I stuck to the more standard ones but how else can you establish a baseline?  You can't fake it on a standard...

PB&J cake

Verdict:  PB&J cake - white sponge was dry but the PB&J part of it was very nice as was the frosting.

S'More Brownie / Fluff Brownie (?)

S'More Brownie - both LM and I prefer our brownies a bit denser.  This is a light, fluffy brownie - almost like a cake.  So if you want something slightly lighter, it's actually a very good option.  And the scorched marshmallow was just burnt enough to get a nice little crunch on it, almost like a creme brulee.  I didn't see if they actually put some sugar on it to get the caramelization but at that point we kind of didn't care, it tasted good.

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake - moist, not-too-sweet with a nice, thick crunch on the top.  Perfect with my tea despite its moniker.

Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae

Vanilla sundae- rather a disappointment.  The ice cream was too light and fluffy - more air, not enough fat content.  But then, I like my ice creams nice and dense - you know, like Haagen Daas (oh geez, how do you spell that?) or Ben & Jerry's.

Pretty fruit decoration - I'm going to steal this one!

LM and I still have our cooking party planned - postponed from a couple of days ago till next week due to random road work.  However, we did manage to come up with a shopping list and a couple of things we want to experiment with in the kitchen.  And we came up with a (partial) menu for our snack/lunch on the day as well so I am feeling pretty organized after the dinner debacle.

She also told me the results of her butter research:  not good.  So we have a couple of theories to try out and if they don't work, someone who might be able to provide an answer.  I can't wait to play!

All in all, one of the best dates I've had in a while.

So until next time, may you have as much fun on your date/s as I had on mine and keep smiling!