Upper Crust

Epicurus told us that we should first “ look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.”

But I take issue with this position, for I am more of a if-you-bake-it-they-will-come foodlosopher.

And bake, I did:

Now I just wonder where everyone is... Nevertheless, my buns, bread, and biscuits are happy hibernating for the winter in my freezer, or at least until further notice.


The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

Today marked our first battle in the Boulangerie. Equipped with a menu of British Soda Bread (sourdough) and white dinner rolls we prepared for a long night of kneading, knocking back, and nailing bread.

For all this violent language, the process of bread baking in fact involves more nurturing than knockdown drag-out fighting. As it turns out, bread is a highly particular animal. It requires multiple moments of resting in its 12 stage development. The resting periods allow the dough to relax and grow (or rise), where as the gradual shaping intervals help discipline the otherwise unruly creature. Highly sensitive to temperature, dependent upon precise measurements, and deathly afraid of direct contact with salt, bread dough clearly lives up to it's KNEADY name: it must be looked after from the moment of its inception.


Bun in the Oven

Traditionally, bread was baked in a hearth over a roaring fire that blackened the bottom portion of the loaf. Therefore, the upper unscathed part was given to the master of the house, giving rise to the modern connotations of the term Upper Crust.


The Roll-ing Stones

But today we cooked for the masses creating individual dinner rolls, each shaped by hand and topped with a variety of custom flavors including fennel, poppy, and seasame seeds, olives, and flour to name a few.

I even included an extra specially personalized Romantic Roll:


Virtual Valentine for my husband :)

So although I am not ready to surrender the butchery just yet, I am willing to declare a small victory in the Boulangerie today.



Darcy Jones

A Monday of Meats

There is nothing quite like waking up to a morning of marinated meat… maybe it’s an acquired taste.

In any event, we began the exceptionally cold winter week with a bang: Beef Bourguignon. After 24hrs marinating in red wine our trimmed beef shoulder was tantalizingly tender. After a quick sizzling sear, we sank the meat into a sea of veal stock and set it to stew in the oven for a good hour.



A quick sauté of bacon and mushrooms later, the braised beef is basted in it’s own sauce and adorned with steamed potatoes and parsley-sourdough crisps.


Just a light lunch.

Round Two: A Roasted Roast Beef

Positively Primal.
The primary cut of roast beef could send any of us into a meat comma. This preparation of simply seasoned and seared beef is like crack for carnivores. My result is a little overcooked by French standards, but as for my own: Brilliantly Bien!



My dish after our brilliant 3-star Michelin French chef got a hold of it:



Isn’t it amazing how presentation can take something from passable to truly palatable.

And then there’s the way my husband chooses to plate his meal:



Weather it’s rustic or refined, you gotta love a man’s approach to meat.


Darcy Jones