December 30 Meal: Ducking Out

Duck with Cherries, Spinach, and Pine Nuts

For this duck recipe I ventured over to Carrboro to our trusty butcher, Cliff.  He had packages of 4 duck breasts, so I have 2 leftover in the freezer for the next duck recipe Bon Appetit comes up with.  The accompaniments with the duck were great and had a nice balance of flavors.

Yumminess: 8 out of 10

Celery Root and Potato Mash
I'm writing this over a month after making this recipe and since then it seems like I've made two other variations on mashed potatoes.  We're a bit tired of messing with our spuds, to be honest.  Yes, the celery root adds a nice flavor to change things up, but in the end, regular mashed potatoes are our favorite.  If you want to impress someone by making mashed potatoes more fancy, this is a good recipe.  However, I'll be sticking to my traditional potatoes when this challenge is all done.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

White Chocolate Espresso Torte with Hazelnut Praline

I made this dessert for a New Year's Eve party the next night.  The main problem I had was that I didn't use enough of the Kahlua mixture to moisten the cakes.  The whole thing ended up being a bit dry.  If I were to do it again I'd definitely add more liquid to the cakes.  The icing was good, but the white chocolate curls were a pain to make.  Anyone know an easier way to accomplish the effect?  I took a bar of white chocolate, heated it briefly to soften a bit, and used a vegetable peeler.

Yumminess: 7 out of 10

Brioche Rolls

I also made these rolls the night before we ate them.  Shaun actually had New Year's Eve off, so we had a special breakfast of the brioche rolls.  The dough is fun to make and requires a bit of kneading.  My favorite part was breaking off little pieces of dough to roll into balls.  Three little balls go into one cup of a muffin tin to make a roll.  Add a bit of sea salt to the top and that's it.  They could also be eaten with a dinner.

Yumminess: 10 out of 10