Thanksgiving '08 and Beyond

So I must say that Thanksgiving did go amazingly well. Even though it was a couple weeks ago, this is definitely going to be one of the Thanksgiving meals go down in history. I think that one of the biggest hits was the Salty Caramel Gelato. We used David Lebovitz's recipe, which I found on-line. David Lebovitz wrote a cookbook that I just absolutely have to buy now, The Perfect Scoop. I've read that there's actually a recipe in the book for Chevre Ice Cream, or Goat's Cheese Ice Cream, which I'm insanely over-joyed about, since my wife and I had Glace (French Ice Cream) Chevre in Paris, at Les Deux Magots.

So we got a round of rocchetta, an Italian semi-firm cheese and I'm going to make an ice cream from it. It's made of equal parts cow's milk, sheep's milk, and goat's milk, all three things that make my world go round. The rocchetta reminds my wife and I of a cheese we had together in Rouen, the capital of Northern Normandy, while we were on our honeymoon in France. We both forgot what the cheese was called, but I think it's selles-sur-cher, which I've read can be a hard/firm cheese or a soft cheese.

So I ate half of the rocchetta and I'm going to use the other half in a glace ice cream. I can't wait to try it. I've also seen an amazing looking cheese ice cream recipe in Gordon Ramsay's new cookbook, Three Star Chef. It's Gorgonzola Ice Cream, which I can't wait to pair with a Flourless Chocolate Torte! I'm actually not going to use Gorgonzola, but a Point Reyes Farmstead Blue Cheese. Maybe I'll even make some type of caramel/toffee syrup to go over the top of it, or add cacao nibs, which are like wonderful unsweetened little chocolate beans. This is all just making me hungry. I swear, I'm getting fatter just thinking about all this.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is what inspired me to start making more adventurous ice creams. The Sated Caramel Gelato was just go unbelievably good, it feels like there's an endless amount of possibilities. But sooner or later, I'll get around to posting the recipes of the favorite dishes we made for Thanksgiving, all were with spelt flour.

Anyway, bon appetit!

Lee Morgan - The Gigolo

A couple weeks ago, I ordered some CDs off of amazon.com. Talk about a deal! They were all Blue Note records. I got this incredible album, The Gigolo, by Lee Morgan. Morgan definitely has a bluesy-soul type R&B vibe to his trumpet playing. It's almost like he understands the blues so well that he applies it to jazz without even trying. This is definitely a jazz classic.

Blue Note records were to jazz what Stax was to R&B, where every album was just an absolute classic without fail for just about ten years. Too bad times like this are over. People just don't go into the studio and record material this good this fast any more. And talk about production, there almost is none.

Anyway, if you can, get this record. It's amazing.