Rosie's Been A Busy Girl Today.

My Thanksgiving Eve starts early this morning. I'll be brining my turkey and also preparing the ingredients for my Gateaux of Crepes.
Here's the game plan.

Mr. Hawthorne is happy with his hand up a turkey's ass.











Rosie makes a yummy brine for our bird:
Leaves from my bay tree, onions, garlic, sliced oranges and lemons, cider vinegar, about a cup of Kosher salt, about a cup of sugar, some honey, a little Old Bay, salt and pepper.


Here, I'm starting to make my Gateaux of Crepes, from Julia Child's Julia Child and More Company." I'm starting out with the ingredients for the crepes, and nary a tortilla was involved.








Mix ingredients until you have a lovely, smooth batter. Let set for about an hour, so the flour can absorb the liquid, hence making a tender crepe.

And, here's a lovely crepe in the pan.

Making crepes takes a bit of technique and expertise. You pour about 3 tablespoons of batter INto the center of the pan, swirling the pan in all directions to get an even, thin crepe. Then flip it over and cook the other side. Here's my stack of crepes.

I always double the original recipe, and freeze the leftover crepes for later use. Say ... a shrimp filled crepe with orange sauce, cheese, and perhaps Grand Marnier. Or a crabmeat crepe with Brie and sherry. So many ideas.








Now, we start preparing the various fillings for the gateaux. I had Mr. Hawthorne julienne the carrots. Oops, watch out for Pointer!






Here are the rest of the carrots, all julienned, and fresh dill from pots on my deck.

Rosie sautees and flips the julienned carrots in butter as Mr. Hawthorne photographs.









Rosie added a bit of fresh dill and salt and pepper to the carrots. Set aside.

Rosie chopped and peeled broccoli.











Drop broccoli INto boiling salted water and bring back up to a boil - maybe 3 minutes. Until just tender.











Drain the broccoli, then put INto ice water, to stop the cooking and to preserve the green color.

After chopping the broccoli, saute briefly in butter and add salt and pepper. Here's an action shot Mr. H. took of me flipping the broc.

Next, on to my mushroom duxelles. Clean up a basket of mushrooms and dump INto food processor.













Pulse on and off a few times until you have teeny, tiny shroom pieces.












Dump the shrooms ONto a clean towel - an impeccably clean towel- as Julia would say.

Now, have someone stronger than you squeeze the liquid out of the shrooms. That's the balled up towel with shroomies in it and the liquid dripping out.

Mr. Hawthorne got about 1/4 cup of liquid out of those mushrooms. Good job. You need to get as much out as you can.

Here's the squuzzed-out shroomies. Looks like ground pork.

Mince some shallots and green onion. And I used the oniony part of the onion, unlike Auntie Sandy.

















Sautee the mushrooms, the shallots, and the green onions. Salt and pepper. Then add some sherry at the end. Oh, this is delicious.

Now, my friends, all the ingredients are ready for assembly. Tomorrow, I will make the custard cheese sauce and put together this mighty fine gateaux.

Julia Child's Gateaux de Crepes.

Rosie is making the custard sauce for the gateaux: 1 stick of cream cheese, 6 aigs, 1 cup milk, and some freshly ground nutmeg.

The custard sauce is ready, as are the carrots, the broccoli, the mushroom duxelles, the crepes, and the Swiss cheese.

Time to start assembly. Buttered wax paper on bottom. Crepe on bottom. Then start hanging crepes over. Eight of 'em.

First layer is Swiss cheese and carrots.








Pour in the custard sauce.




















Then, top the carrot/custard mixture with another crepe and add the mushroom duxelles in.

Pour more custard over the shrooms, then place another crepe on top, then more cheese, broccoli, and custard sauce.

More Swiss cheese on top of the broccoli layer, then pull the over-hanging crepes over top. Top with more crepes. Cover with buttered wax paper and foil, then cook. Why is my hand that horrendous color?

Here's the gateaux of crepes. It's exploding over top of the dish.

Let set for 10-15 minutes then invert.

Here's the inverted Gateaux of Crepes.

Ta dahhhhh!!!!!!!


Just wait until I slice it.

Ahhhh. Here's the slice. Broccoli, mushroom, carrot, with Swiss cheese and a custard sauce.

I must say, This is DELICIOUS!.

This is, hands down, one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE dishes.

Lunch At The Pearl Then I Do Seafood Crepes The Right Way.

As you know, Mr. Hawthorne and I are fond of going out to lunch occasionally. We like to try different restaurants, critique them, mock them mercilessly, and never go back unless we find one we particularly like. And there are a few we enjoy - a very few. We never go out to restaurants for dinner. Just too expensive, plus I don't like a heavy meal at night. Their lunch menus should be representative of what's for dinner, but at a lower price.

Yesterday, we decided to try out The Pearl. The chef, Marc-Jean Berruet, was one of the chefs at the cooking classes we attended at the North Carolina Aquarium last winter. His rather unfortunate choice for demonstration was bluefish, specifically, Beignets de Bluefish Timgad. As I commented in my post about the cooking class, the sauce was very good, but, like some people, you can dress blue fish up, but just can't take it anywhere. Bluefish is bluefish. Anyways, we've been wanting to try The Pearl and finally got around to it yesterday. It's a very nicely appointed restaurant - crisp white linens and full place settings - as in a dinner fork and a salad fork. A rarity indeed. There's nothing I hate more than when my waitperson comes to take my salad plate away and tells me to keep my fork for the entree, then I have to lick the dressing off my fork and place it back on the table. For crying out loud, would it kill you to bring me an extra fork? Our waiter was very attentive, but I don't like this new trend of not writing down the order. Your memory skills do not impress me. Especially when you forget the glass of water we ordered, then forget to bring a refill for my tea. Oh, and I shouldn't have to ask for a refill. You see an empty glass, take care of it.

Now, on to the meal.

Yummy rolls were brought out with butter mixed with Herbes de Provence. I refrained from asking the waiter if any of Sandra's "gerbils" were involved in the making of the Herbes de Provence. Only one complaint here: the butter was hard as a rock. Let the butter softened so you can spread it, plus you'd get more flavor from the Herbes. Next up, soup and salad, which we split. As I've mentioned before, Mr. Hawthorne and I judge restaurants to a great degree by their Caesar salads.

This Caesar salad did not disappoint. The dressing was superb, probably the best we've had outside of our own. The Romaine leaves were perfectly coated and the chef wasn't stingy with the croutons.

The lobster bisque was divine. Very intense lobster flavor. I sopped up every last drop with my roll. Mr. Hawthorne's entree was Truite Lorraine - trout with a nice herbed cream sauce with bacon, and pasta and asparagus. The bacon sauce was very heavy and extremely rich. Mr. Hawthorne liked it but said it would make dog sh ... no, hot dogs taste good, too. I thought it overpowered the trout. Now, get this. The trout was on the daily specials menu. And there were no prices on the specials menu. But when I see a specials menu, I'm always thinking special prices and good deals. When we got the bill, this trout was $16.00. Yes, SIXTEEN DOLLARS! Had we known this, we never would have ordered it.

I ordered the seafood crepes, reportedly filled with shrimp, scallops, oyster, and rockfish, baked in a creamy Mornay sauce with Gruyere cheese.

Sorry, but this sucked. I found 2 rubbery shrimp inside, 2 scallops, and 1 indeterminate piece of fishy tasting something-or-other. We know seafood and this seafood was not fresh. Very disappointing dish for me. The entire mess was smothered in the sauce. The crepe itself was indiscernible. I think it had dissolved into the mush of the sauce. When I eat a crepe, I want to be able to taste the crepe and I want a crisp texture on the edges. Sorry, Frenchie, but this assemblage was a whacked-out mess of a meal. Price: $13.00. (I could have sworn it said $11 on the menu. And when I checked the online menu, it said $12. Whatever, still too damn much.) Our bill yesterday, before tip, was a whopping $51.00. For LUNCH!!! This is ridiculous. Tea alone was $2.49. Ah, live and learn. So guess what I'm fixing today for lunch. If you guessed seafood crepes, you would be correct.

Last night, Good Neighbor Bob brought us a mess of crabs.

Mr. Hawthorne and I picked the crabs, then I coarsely chopped some leftover shrimp.

My extensive mise en place. In the foreground are my crepes I made for my Gateaux of Crepes from Thanksgiving. They freeze very well.

Parsley, chives, and baby bella shrooms.

The ingredients for my sauce: butter parmesan cheese brie provolone swiss heavy cream lemon orange nutmeg (That's my nutmeg grinder next to the salt and pepper.) salt & pepper cayenne Grand Marnier

First I sliced and sauteed my mushrooms in butter.

You know I have to put in my action shot of tossing shrooms.

Next I made a roux, butter and flour.

Added in salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

Then I added the juice of one lemon and one orange.

Add in cream until you have a nice sauce.

The brie goes in.

Season to taste.

Finally, a nice shot of Grand Marnier.

In another pan, I melted butter, then added the crabmeat, shrimp, and sauteed mushrooms. Just heat through and don't mess with the crab meat much. You want nice chunks and messing with it splits it up.

Here, I've added just enough of my cream sauce to bind the crab and shrimp together. You don't want it like Monsieur Berruet's crepes - all gloppy sauce and minimal seafood.

Put a few tablespoons in your crepe.

And roll up.

I added a bit more of my cream sauce along the top of the crepes, then topped with provolone and swiss slices.

I don't want my crepes soaking in a bath of sauce.

Baked in a 350-degree oven until everything was heated through and the cheese was melted, then sprinkled some chopped parsley and chives on top.

This was simply delicious. You could taste the crab, the shrimp, the lemon, the orange, the cheeses, the ... everything. And the crepe was distinguishable from everything else, unlike the other crepe which dissolved into a messy mass of mushyness. What can I say? Just seafood goodness. Now, remember I made puff pastry last week. I had some leftover and wanted to do something else with that today.

I floured my countertop and started rolling out the dough.

Until about 1/8 inch thick.

Then cut out little rounds.

Brushed with butter.

Peeled, seeded, and sliced a tomato and topped the rounds, then salted and peppered.

Added some sliced black olives.

Then topped with mozzarella cheese. Baked and topped with basil. Besides the savory puff pastry, I decided to do sweet, too. I had some strawberries which I sliced.

Then brushed with apricot jam.

OK, so my puff pastry didn't puff like it was supposed to. These were still really good. The reason my puff pastry didn't properly puff is possibly due to the fact that it was leftover, and I screwed up the layers of dough and butter and they got a bit mushed together, hence they didn't puff.

Still really good. You might want to try these as appetizers. You could use the storebought puff pastry. I won't mind, really.

And for dessert - tiramisu.