What did you cook or eat today (January 2024)?

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Yesterday was husband’s birthday, so we went out for dinner tonight to a fancy place in our neighborhood. It’s been there since we moved here 15 years ago, but I’ve only been there once before, and he’d never been. We will definitely be back.
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Fancy cocktail- gin, bar mix, and prosecco
We got coconut shrimp as an appetizer - forgot to take a photo.

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My entree - black truffle & ricotta stuffed pasta in a rosé sauce with sun dried tomatoes.

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His entree- beef stroganoff. The steak was incredibly tender.
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Desserts- white chocolate raspberry creme brûlée for him, and white chocolate skor cheesecake for me.

We also both had monte cristo coffees to finish off.

All delicious, but I feel like I won’t need to eat again for a week!
 
vernplum said:
Brits don't say that in general - that's more an American thing.

The history of how it came to be is something to do with French cookbooks containing meals with many (like 5 or 6) courses with entree being one of them, right before a course of large amounts of roasted meats. Since most Americans weren't having these huge spit-roasted courses, these meals got simplified down and 'entree' ended up being the main one. Or something like that. It's wrong whichever way it happened <dons flame-retardent suit, ducks and runs for cover>.

:D
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This looks to be basically the story. A French cookbook published in 1895 and available in the United States described the “traditional French menu” as consisting of five to six courses: soup, hors d’oeuvres (and/or fish), entrée (or entrées), a roast (the star of the show), a final course and then dessert. But, the wealthy were the only ones who could afford all those courses. Entrees at the time included butchers' meats, suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal. I suppose that was distinguished from the main course because those without the means likely didn't have a whole pig, as you suggest above.

I just realized that, after the entree, and after the roast, there's a FINAL COURSE before dessert. Having never been fabously wealthy, I can't imagine preparing a meal where I would only eat a few bites of each course. What happens to the rest of the food? I can't imagine a 6-course leftover meal the next night, so it was probably given to the servants or possibly discarded. It's easy to see why the less affluent figured why not just eat the game fowl in the third course and skip the others?
 
Herbaceous said:
Yesterday was husband’s birthday, so we went out for dinner tonight to a fancy place in our neighborhood. It’s been there since we moved here 15 years ago, but I’ve only been there once before, and he’d never been. We will definitely be back.
View attachment 109522
Fancy cocktail- gin, bar mix, and prosecco
We got coconut shrimp as an appetizer - forgot to take a photo.

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My entree - black truffle & ricotta stuffed pasta in a rosé sauce with sun dried tomatoes.

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His entree- beef stroganoff. The steak was incredibly tender.
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Desserts- white chocolate raspberry creme brûlée for him, and white chocolate skor cheesecake for me.

We also both had monte cristo coffees to finish off.

All delicious, but I feel like I won’t need to eat again for a week!
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Everything looks amazing (I'm also imagining the coconut shrimp with a sweet-and-sour dip). Just looking at all those pictures overdafted my bank account. :laugh:
 
I never knew there were separate courses until I was 18. We started going to restaurants then so that was when you had entree mains and desserts. !!

Russ
 
medtran49 said:
Finally got around to making the instant mashed potato flakes gnocchi. Used a browned butter-sage sauce with Pecorino Romano.

They weren't quite as good as baked, riced potato gnocchi, but they were WAY better than those commercially made shelf stable gnocchi in the plastic bag at the grocery. Way easier to make than from scratch. I'm going to post the recipe in the challenge.

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Butter sage sauce is delicious. I've done both baking the potatoes and boiling them and I've noticed no difference in the final product. Boiling them seems to be easier.
 
Puggles said:
I've done both baking the potatoes and boiling them and I've noticed no difference in the final product. Boiling them seems to be easier.
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I think there's a HUGE difference. The less flour you have to add, the less heavy they are.
 
InnovAsian chicken pad Thai that was on BOGO and egg rolls from another company, the name escapes me, which were on sale.
 
Ribs and chicken from a local BBQ place - haven’t eaten there in nearly 20 years. It was good.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
Everything looks amazing (I'm also imagining the coconut shrimp with a sweet-and-sour dip). Just looking at all those pictures overdafted my bank account. :laugh:
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The shrimp came with a pineapple-mango aioli! Positively delicious.

Husband’s been a bit down about his birthday this year (stressed about work, said it didn’t feel much like a birthday) so I wanted to do something nice for him. He really enjoyed it and I think it helped him feel a little better.
 
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