Photos of Food!

For the first time ever on the internet you can see pictures of some dishes that I have cooked by going here. I had no idea that they were going to find their way on the web, or I would have done something more with the presentation.

Perhaps I will take some pictures of Christmas (working feverishly on the menu as I write. Tuna melts are the only thing that are absolutely going to be on there. Yes, tuna melts. No, probably not what you are thinking). Part of me wants to move the goose to a salad course (as a confit with greens and dried cherries) and put beef on for the main course. But then I think of how nice roast goose is, and it goes right back on the menu.

I love preparing for the Christmas dinner. I usually start planning it on the 26th of December, with the analysis of the finished dinner. Then, every time I make a trip to a winery or good wine store, I get ideas and change it. Then I rediscover some neglected ingredient, and changes happen again.

Anyway, tomorrow is the third Thursday of November, which is the real Thanksgiving, best celebrated with cassoulet and six day old Burgundy made from the Gamay grape in the Beaujolais district. Serve chilled and quaff copiously.

By the way...and this will make some of you people get all irate and snort and stammer...goose confit in your cassoulet is a waste of goose confit. The long cooking of the cassoulet does nothing for the confit. In Toulouse they do this because they have so much goose meat, but there is no need to go out and make or buy goose confit to make a cassoulet. You already have three types of pork, some lamb (or mutton, if you are lucky), beans, rich brown stock, herbs, etc. You think that the confit will do much more than contribute a general meatiness already there? You're off your rocker.

Instead eat the confit with pommes anna or over good salad greens. Much better use of the stuff.

And, finally, today is the annual cookie judging. If you run into me later today and I can barely move, you will know why. Apparently we have a lot of entries this year. Anyway, this is always a fun event, because it is the only time in the year that I see my colleagues in the food section (including my editor, who I talk to weekly, yet have only met in person once or twice). The rest of the time they keep me locked in a tower, so that I don't scare anyone.