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Monday, January 24, 2011

Celebratory French Dinner



To celebrate the birth of Batiste, I decided to make something French for dinner. I didn't have time to make it on Saturday night (his actual birth day) so I did it the following night.

Flipping through Julia Child's book, I settled on trying a cheese soufflé (I can't believe I've never made a souffle before!). It turned out really well, even though I totally forgot to mix in the CHEESE! I dusted the dish with cheese and sprinkled some on top before popping it into the oven so it was still a little cheesy, despite my major mistake. The dish I used was too small, even using Julia Child's guidelines...oh well. I think the whole point of a soufflé is that it puff up...and puff up it did! Next time I'll use a bigger dish and hopefully it will look a lot better.

We also made a warm Brussels sprouts salad, using a copy cat recipe from Project Foodie for Pizza Antica's delicious dish. This salad turned Dave from an adamant sprouts-loather to a sprouts lover and we both looked forward to wintertime during college when this dish was on the menu. It is so, so good. So even though this isn't by any means French, it did go well with the not-so-cheesy soufflé. We had to stop ourselves from eating the whole batch--2 full pounds of sprouts.

For dessert we had crème brûlée. Nothing fancy since I make this all the time. Mmmm, mmmm good.

Welcome to the world, Batiste!

(As a side note, since my friends seem to be birthing babies left and right these days I think I'll make this a tradition--celebrating their births by making a meal tailored to their heritage. I wish I had thought to make something Filipino when Zennie was born last year, but at the time I only made a rosemary wild rice pilaf since Rosemary is not only her middle name but is a Mediterranean herb and the Bowers are Italian). Phooey. I'll look up some Filopino dishes and see what sounds good so I can make something to celebrate her first birthday.

Our friends Brian and Sarah will welcome a baby boy mid February...she's half Chinese so I will figure out something fun to make--hopefully a new dish. My officemate will welcome a daughter at the end of February--he's Mexican and his wife was born in Hawaii. Then John and Jessica will have twins--twins!--in April; she's from Georgia and he's from New York and I'm sure I will have fun making a Yankee/Rebel meal.)

6 comments:

steph.kelley said...

What a great idea! I love theme parties (and they are rarely done) and cooking, so by my count you struck a winner with that one. :) loooove --- xoxoxo

Unknown said...

Your soufflé looks awesome! I want to tackle that sometime in the near future. For now I'm going to lay off Julia Child since my waistline has expanded significantly since I got her book.

Looks like you have a lot of international cuisine in your near future!

Kaitlin said...

oh gosh....totally need to be in davis for the mexican/hawaiian food night...two of my fav foods!

Kaitlin said...

p.s. look how SKINNY you are!

The Bowers! said...

It is the camera angle, Kaitlin! (Seriously.) Good work Dave...I didn't even have to ask you to make me appear skinny in that picture!

Kelly said...

Super fun way to celebrate new babies Julie! You are so creative :D