Jeanette's Birthday

To celebrate Jeanette's birthday, we spent the day in Olympia cooking, eating, and planning for Thanksgiving, which was later that same week!  Jeanette picked out everything we made, choosing things that sounded particularly good to her or that she's been wanting to make for a while.
Since Bethany was driving down that morning and we had a lot planned for the day, Jeanette made breakfast the night before so it was all ready for us to just enjoy that morning.  The recipe was from the book 'a passion for Baking' and is called Rougemont Apple Pastry Cake.

Of course, we made fresh raw whipped cream to have with the cake! 

And now for dinner:

The salad we made was Escarole and Bacon Salad from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine.  We substituted prosciutto for the bacon, and used romaine lettuce in place of the escarole.

Using a couple different cuts of lamb from Cornerstone, we made Braised Lamb with Almonds & Mint from the November 2011 Bon Appetit.



As a side dish we had Spice-Roasted Cauliflower and Jerusalem Artichokes from the November 2011 Food Network Magazine

The Jerusalem artichokes and chives were from Cornerstone as well, and they were delicious!

Lastly, to go with dinner, we made Thyme Gougeres (October 2011 Bon Appetit)

We replaced the Gruyere with homemade raw cheddar from the Cornerstone Dairy, and used thyme from the garden at Cornerstone too!

All the flavors went really well together and complimented one another--it was a great dinner!

Last but not least...dessert!

This Toasted Nut Tart from the November 2011 Bon Appetit was a delicious twist on pecan pie, and the homemade, raw pistachio ice cream put it over the top!

We left out the pine nuts and used maple syrup instead of corn syrup--the filling was rich, but sooo good!