Vintage Mink

My honey gifted me this gorgeous vintage mink stole over Valentine weekend. It was actually his mother's and - I'm still shocked by this - his sister was going to throw it out! So he snatched it up and made it a gift to me. I wore it out for Valentine's Day dinner and felt like an old time movie starlet.

We had a wonderful, dreamy, romantic time together. I couldn't have asked for more... Cheers!

Something's Fishy

We're still in terrine and tray mode in Garde Manger class - thankfully next week we switch over to sausages and charcuterie. Today we made poached trout in court bouillon, and scallop mousseline terrines on mirrors with tray garnishes of our choice.

I made the little choux pastry garnishes for our tray, it's so simple and quick, and with little discs of the scallop mousseline and some parsley mayonnaise, they were actually quite tasty. Giving the trout a little hot pepper to hold in its mouth also amused me to no end. Plus now I know that mousseline is what the little fish balls in phò soup are made of and I can now make my own. Eureka! Cheers!

Salmon Mousse Terrine and Chaud-Froid

We're in the terrine phase of our Garde-Manger class and today was salmon mousse terrines on decorated chaud-froid. That's just a fancy way of saying gelatinized salmon and cream, on velouté sauce with more gelatin. So. Much. Gelatin.

My partner and I had fun making our undersea scene with little carrot fish and dill seaweeds. The only bummer is I botched the clean whiteness of the chaud-froid with some dark aspic instead of the clear gelatin glaze Chef had prepared for that purpose. Ah well! We still got 84% and I am quite happy. Cheers!