Sacrificing a Thousand Virgins

We had more rain and snow starting on Friday and through the weekend.  It was our usual respectful snow, leaving the roads and living spaces alone and going to the mountains.  And if there is snow in the mountains, you know what that means...de-I snow hiking!  And if de-I hikes in the snow, we're looking a virgin snow to sacrifice to the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel!

In my car waiting for Wild Bill to arrive.

Looks promising

Yes at about 7000 feet we leave first hikers behind and hit the virgin snow.

Each step I intone the mantra

"I sacrifice these thousands of virgin snow flakes to placate the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel!"

I will stuff enough virgin sacrifices down the little horse gods throat!

  Beautiful view when we reach our destination.

Thankfulness is....

...having done my winter trip to Chicago three weeks ago and NOT this week.

Soufflés

Hard to believe that I can be writing yet again about food. 

A couple of weeks ago we were had a planning session with Doctor Debbie and Cabinet Lady for another of our party extravaganzas.  As they are raising chickens and have eggs galore.  I suggested we go to their place and I would whip up some soufflés.  There are those that think that making soufflés is very difficult but if you have ever made anything using whipped egg whites it really isn't all that hard.  Actually Wife tells me that I make this statement from the position of great expertise and I understate the difficulty.

Any way a soufflé is basically egg whites whipped into the stiff peak stage into which you fold a flavor base that is a cream sauce plus what ever flavor.  You put it into a pan in the oven and as it cooks it rises to an airy fluffy consistency.

Dr. Deb took this picture of our cheese soufflé,

I also made individual chocolate soufflés for dessert :)  

The Dinner Report

The Dinner went well.  We were so glad that we had recruited the surrogate hosts because it took a lot of effort to get the food out and right.  Normally we cook for people we know well so it is pretty relaxed.  Since people paid for this we were feeling a bit of pressure.  Didn't get lots of pictures because we were so busy but got some.

Preparation - Day Before

Day one's cooking with the chicken sauce, greens ready for parboiling, and chocolate tempering station all in view.

Roasting meats and vegetables for my stock

I used my new pressure cooker to make stock for the first time

It was great.  Only took an hour when it normally can take 6 hours or more!

The only step-by-step thing I got photo documented - The Stuffed Beef Tenderloin Prep

I cut a pocket in the tenderloins.  The stuffing is Goose Liver Mousse with Duxelles (fine chopped mushrooms sauteed with shallots)

Once stuffed I wrapped the tenderloins in bacon and tied with string.

This is wrapped for storage.  Made this the day ahead.

Preparation the Day of the Event

Table set

All our notes of what goes in which dish so we don't miss anything and our timing list (which got totally screwed up almost from the start)

Glassware ready to go

All the components for three of the courses ready for finish cooking

The Menu

Asian Crackers for our Aperitif 

A Couple of Perfunctory Pictures of Finished Plates

Our first course of pate and gravlax

The Beef Tenderloin with potatoes, greens and sauce

The food turned out pretty damn good if I must say so myself.  Wife's granita was over the top even by her standards. 

THE Diner

Wife and I are putting on what is I believe the most ambitious diner party ever Saturday.  Most of the time our entertaining is on the more casual side.  However, I offered as a silent auction fundraising gift for an organization I support, a dinner for three couples.  The bidding didn't get as high as I would have liked but it wasn't a shabby amount compared to other things that were there.  We are hoping that we have a successful outcome so the bidding will go up for future events.

This is going a six course meal.

Aperitif -  We're serving belinis, a cocktail with peach juice (from our peaches) and Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine with a variety of Asian snack cracers

Course One, Cold Appetizer - A homemade French County Pate, homemade gravlax, homemade pickles, with a horseradish cream for the gravlax and whole grain mustard for the pate.  Gloria is baking her Italian Filone bread.  Accompanied by more Prosecco

Course Two, Hot Appetizer - A Spanish fried cheese tapa with a scallion vinaigrette sauce and a roasted corn salad. Accompanied by a Entre-deux-Mers, a white Bordeaux/

Course Three, Pasta - Fresh polenta with a chicken chasseur (chicken braised in stock, wine, and tomato paste) sauce.  Accompanied by a young Oregon Pinot Noir

Course Four, Main - Beef tenderloin with a mushroom, liver mousse filling, mashed potatoes, greens sauteed in olive oil and garlic.  Accompanied by a 2005 St. Emillion Premier Cru

Course Five, First Dessert - Homemade multi-citrus granita

Course Six, Second Dessert -  Homemade chocolate truffles.  Accompanied by a 2005 Unfiltered Port.

Wife and I were cooking all day today.  We got the bulk of the work done so tomorrow should not be anywhere near as much.  We even have recruited a couple who are friends of ours in our organization to come and act as hosts so we can focus on our cooking, plating, and serving.

It has been so busy, I haven't had time to photo document very much.  I will try to take a few shots tomorrow.

Match Day Two - Chicago to Albuquerque

A draw on Tuesday left neither the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel or de-I feeling very satisfied.  So it was back at it we went on Thursday for my return trip.

• Mini Equine Horned Voyaging Deity comes out with hooves and horn ablaze.  He arranges for a major snow storm to be coming in...and it will hit all three cities I have to travel to - Chicago originating, Denver transferring, and Albuquerque arrival.  Used a lot of deity points to pull that one off.  Just show he means business, I get an email at Noon from United that my Denver to Albuquerque flight at 10 PM is already running an hour late!  Score MUPGT!

• But no, de-I has a major strategic trick up his sleeve.  His flight schedule has him leaving 3 hours before the storm hits Chicago and 4 hours after it leaves Denver!  No problem getting out or getting to.  Bwahahahaha.  Point de-I!

• Infuriated minor member of heavenly pantheon who is short on points has to resort to trying to cause a delay on the train I'm taking to go from downtown Chicago to O'Hare.  Hardly works at all.  No points.

• And I have TSA Pre which means I skate through security in just minutes.  Instead of rushing to get on plane because of delay planned by MUPGT, I have time to both get dinner and download my email.  Point de-I - I'm in the lead again!

• I use my powers of positive thinking and get my Denver to Albuquerque flight to be only 30 minutes late.  With time we can make up in the air, I might even be back at scheduled time...a huge de-I victory.  But when we get on the ground in Albuquerque, all the gates are full and we sit on the ground for 30 minutes waiting for them to open one up for us.  Magical Unicorn Pony God gets the point he needs for the tie :(

 Nonetheless, I've put the Unicorn God of Travel that I'm not going to be a pushover any longer.

de-I-3 / MUPGT-3

I have a bunch business travel the next month or so.  I'm in Chicago and have short trips to Phoenix and Denver also coming up.  So you know what that means...

...de-I and Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel SMACKDOWN!

Match Day One - Albuquerque to Chicago

• de-I gets text on way to airport that his flight to Denver is going to 1 hour late.  Flight ends up being two hours late getting off.  Score Unicorn Pony God.

• de-I has specifically chosen a flight with a 2 & a half hour connection time through Denver, rather than the 50 minute connect time through Houston (which flight was also late BTW).  I still make it to Denver on time.  Score de-I!

• Flight into Denver lands in the absolutely farthest gate out possible with only minutes to get to boarding flight.  Score Unicorn Pony God

• My connecting flight is only a few gates away from the arrival gate.  de-I Ties it Up!

• Once on the plane I get the last First Class Upgrade and it isn't even a bulkhead road.  I will get dinner after all!! de-I surges into the Lead!

• This is one of the only First Class flights ever where they don't serve any food.  Unicorn Pony God snatches a draw :(