Now that I’m back to school, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had the chance to do a dinner outside of our regularly scheduled program, which goes something like: Taco Tuesday; food that my parents dropped off; Indian Thursday; Cheese, charcuterie and bread on Fridays… After a few weeks of slowly getting used to our new schedule (back to work with a baby), I’m easing my way back into learning and improving my craft by doing more of these dinners where I try new recipes/techniques.

To start: A foie gras flower with blackberry jelly, finished with a little bit of truffle oil and fresh chives, served with some no-knead bread. The foie gras was a recipe from EMP: it was marinated the night before, sous vide’d the next day, then blended and poured into a mould to set. We both agreed a sprinkling of salt to finish did the trick. We really liked this one! Would definitely do it again…and again and again.

For the main: a veal chop that was sous vide’d, then finished in a hot pan with garlic and butter. Served with a caramelized onion jus and some farm veggies and sweet potato fries (not pictured).

Dessert: We have been testing out Megan’s Oma’s upside down cake recipe this week – at school with the kids and at home. We made it a total of 6 times before posting this! A shout out to Farmer Karin for providing us with the recipes, as well as bags and bags of plums. (Don’t worry, no plums or cakes were thrown out in this process, I have lots of hungry teenagers and co-workers.) Since we still had some pieces of cake at home, this was a half-ass dessert. I just tossed on a sort-of quenelle of ice cream and took a picture. Sorry! I will do better in my next dinner.