A tale of two dinners

Exhibit #1: I came home from work on Thursday evening to find a French feast. Peter, inspired by a recipe in French Feasts by Stephane Reynaud, a book I got him for Christmas last year. It’s a delicious (and easy) dish, and Peter paired it with homemade egg noodles we picked up from Sauders, a Mennonite market in Seneca Falls, NY, during our trip to visit my folks at Christmas, and freshly-steamed broccoli. Here’s the recipe:

Poulet de Bresse au Vin Jaune

• 1 whole chicken
• 7 ounces morel mushrooms (Peter couldn’t find, so he used a mixture of Portebello and Shitake)
• 1.25 cups Vin Jaune (sherry-like white wine)
• 1.25 cups heavy cream
• 5 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 bouquet garni
• ¾ cup chicken stock
• 4 teaspoons flour
• 2.5 tablespoons butter
• oil
• salt and pepper

1.  Cut the chicken into eight pieces. Peel and slice the shallots
2. Saute the chicken in a mixture of butter and oil. Add the shallots and mushrooms and drain off the fat
3. Return the chicken and shallots to the pan and coat with the flour. Add the wine and chicken stock.
4. Add the peeled garlic and bouquet garni and cook at low simmer for 45 minutes.
5. Stir in the heavy cream and cook and additional 15 minutes.

Exhibit #2: I came home from work on Friday evening and both Peter and I quickly agreed that it was cocktail time. We put a call into our friends downstairs, Robb and Salvador (and for Robb, who claims I don’t mention his name often enough on this blog: Robb, Robb, Robb, Robb, Robb and Robb), and invited them upstairs. While we awaited their arrival, I prepared a classic recipe that we had intended to make for our New Year’s celebration up in Maine. But then Peter got bogged down with some debilitating, high-temperature-inducing illness, so we never made it to Maine. He’s all better now, and we decided it was high time to break out the Lipton onion soup mix and make some French onion dip. And let me tell you, it was delicious! Here’s the recipe:

1. Pour pouch of Lipton onion soup mix into a bowl.
2. Stir in cold, fresh, delicious sour cream.
3. Stir and serve with greasy, salty, crunchy potato chips of your choice.