Menu 2: the Bride has Mixed Results

The soup: Disappointing. A lot of effort and a strangely colorless result - leeks, cabbage, and pasta - all the same color. That bit of chopped parsley slung on at the end was gratuitous. The flavor was very good, but still, not worth the effort. I'm going to eat the leftovers for lunch and hope it will have improved with sitting. Admittedly, I cut the fat here by 2/3s, but I don't think 4 more tablespoons of butter would have added enough flavor to be worth it, and it certainly wouldn't have affected the color.

The veal: Yum! was the unanimous verdict by the COG, the Son of COG and the Bride of COG, herself. We used humanely-reared veal, which was, naturally, hugely expensive. We used wonderful wild mushrooms, which were also, naturally, hugely expensive. The whole meal, in fact, caused the COG to mutter under his breath for quite a long time about the price of groceries.

The preparation method is similar to one I use quite a bit, so everything went well except I couldn't get the calvados to flame. This recipe is one I will return to. In the future I'll try pork, though, which is a natural complement to the apples. Loved the apples! But, again, in the future I'll probably leave the skins on. I like the texture of the skin on baked apples.

I cut the fat by at least half and used a little butter for flavor and mostly 'good oil' for the bulk of the fat. I don't think it hurt the flavor appreciably and I (and my gall bladder) slept easier knowing the arteries of the COG and the Son of COG were undamaged.

The Creme Renversee - I wish I'd taken a picture because it came out perfectly. It looked so lovely on my blue and white dish, with a pool of caramel around it. I have tried to make it before (with mixed success), but previous attempts meant I had already figured out the caramel part and knew the custard needed time to cool. In fact, it came out better this time than ever before. I used 2% milk and the exact amount of sugar.

I used a ceramic dish which I warmed in hot water, dried, then placed on the special warmer burner of my range while the sugar was caramelizing. Peaceable, I think you have one, too. Baby, you probably don't, but I before I had a special warmer, I just put the dish on the stove while I did the caramel. The goal is warm, but completely dry. Having the dish warm gives you time to coat it with caramel before it hardens. Too cold and it hardens too soon. However, having it too warm also doesn't work. And not completely dry is another kind of disaster.

We had a California merlot with the veal and it was terrific.

I thought the timing of this menu was easier than the first one. The soup and creme caramel done ahead of time. I waited until the apples were tender before starting the veal, which just took minutes. It's a basically fast and simple method of preparation.