Photos of the food preparations

Prepping ingredients 

Close up of ingredients waiting on the counter. Fresh thyme and dried rosemary stand in readiness.

Browned vegetables are a thing of beauty

Browning the carrots and the pearl onions. Pearl onions are a pain, even with the boiling water and then the ice bath. But so tasty. Good organic carrots.

Sometimes a watched pot does boil

Waiting for the pot to simmer. Took a long time to brown all the meat.

No such thing as too much counter space

I started getting out ingredients and slicing and chopping at 10:00 this morning. Finished up around three p.m. At left are the ingredients for the wild mushroom puree for the crostini (in the red container on the counter).










The mocha rum cake is wrapped up under the cake pan on the counter. We dug into it tonight (two thin slices) to determine if it was fit to serve guests. Died and gone to heaven! It was. Waiting for S.O. to go to bed so I can sneak another thin slice. Chocolate Nirvana.

The homemade vanilla ice cream isn't bad either. We licked the beater and the freezer container. I inherited a vanilla bean from my mom, and once used, I didn't replace until yesterday. $4 a pop. Who knew? I only used 1/2 because it seemed so strong. Plenty vanilla-y. Oh yum. Who is this crazy person who can't leave the kitchen?

Moi? How could this be? Moi