"The cocktail was delightful...

I don't usually go for the French school of cocktails a lot but this was a revelation"

--Joshua Saxe, bartender extraordinaire


So I guess I made a good choice in the Chanticleer (french for rooster). It was quite tasty--1 oz gin, 1.5 oz dry vermouth, .5 oz Cointreau (or Triple Sec). Shake with ice and pour into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with an orange twist (or in my case a wedge of orange).

I took photos of last night's meal in it's various stages. I prepared it completely backwards...dessert to appetizer. I will, however, share the preparation notes and photos in the order in which we ate.

Appetizer:

This one totally came out of my own little head, and thus was far from perfect. I was going for something along the lines of an Italian quesadilla. I had this Italian style flat bread...it had some herbs mixed in with it. I spread a little olive oil over it...both sides. I topped it with provolone cheese, a sliced heirloom tomato, shredded mozzarella, grated parm and a drizzle of this bottled balsamic glaze that I recently found. (I highly recommend this product...I couple different outfits make it.) To serve it, I folded the flat bread in half and sliced into four slices and drizzled a little more of the balsamic glaze over it.


If you don't already know this, hot tomatoes get very juicy. This was tasty, but we mostly ate the tomato and cheese out of the flat bread. Next time, I think I will try heating it on the stove in a pan with oil. The bread just got soggy.

On to the main course

I have already posted this recipe, so now I will post the photo to the chicken as it was ready to go into the oven. See if you can spot my major mistake...


I did buy a whole chicken. I just didn't realize that it was already in pieces. (It was very clearly marked on the package.) The next photo will show all the good things I was supposed to stuff in the cavity but instead had to artfully tuck around the bird.

Doesn't that look so tasty? (The little dish in the upper right corner has my rings in ammonia in it. Did you know that ammonia is a good jewelry cleaner? My diamond is very sparkly these days.)

This next picture is of the basting liquid.

This was orange juice concentrate, lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh oregano.

I served the chicken with mushrooms cous cous (a nod to my Allen boy) and green beans.


And finally, dessert

I made an apple pie. I can't really share a recipe because I was flying by the seat of my pants. I really like Alton Brown's recipe. He uses 2 each of 4 different varieties of apples for a total of 8 apple per pie. I used granny smith, golden delicious, Jonathon, and McIntosh. I peeled them all. (I took a picture of all the skins in the sink because I thought they were pretty, but it seems weird to share my garbage in this fashion. If you are interested contact me privately.) Anyway, I've made Alton's pie before, but couldn't find his recipe. I got distracted by other pie recipes on the Internet, so I used what I could remember about Alton's technique along with ingredients from another recipe. This was not the prettiest nor the most interesting apple pie that I've made, but it was tasty.


Well that's all from last night's date night. This might be the first time we've had two date nights in one week. I watched a cooking show this afternoon where they made coq au vin and chocolate pot de creme. That may be in the works for next week. I also have many corners in my latest Everyday Food magazine turned down. Stay tuned.