Jeez, you'd think that I'd be able to write something here - but alas, it seems to be more of a habit than anything else and when you get out of the habit, it seems that the page becomes blank with nothing to jump out at you.
So I take full responsibility for that and I'll try to do better.
To start, I'll tell you what we did for dinner last night. It was yummy.
A friend of a friend killed a bunch of ducks this past weekend and my friend called me to come cook them last night.
So I had 10 wild duck breasts with the wings still somewhat attached. Unfortunately they had skinned the breasts which meant that the required layer of fat on the duck breast was also missing.
Which means that they would be dry unless great care was taken.
Duck meat is all red meat, not to be confused with poultry in any fashion. It's more like beef which means you have to eat it rare and cook it quickly or it will dry out into shoe leather that will not be revived by any gastronomic means known to man.
So, with a little salt and pepper dusting, we plunged them into some very hot oil and put a crust on them as best we could. Then put them into a roasting pan with the bottom filled with red wine and crammed them into a 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime - I made a L'Orange sauce. Classic french style with bacon diced up ever so finely and shallots and onions and garlic and cooked that down and then added a jar of orange marmalade and about a cup of orange juice. Add to that some red wine and brown sugar, salt and pepper, some red chili flakes and lots and lots of ginger. I let it cook down till it is reduced by about a third and then cheated by thickening it up with some arrowroot and let it sit there and mingle eith itself for a few minutes.
Pulled the duck breasts out of the oven and slathered them with the sauce and put them back under the broiler for a minute to glaze them.......
Good eats!
Plated them and covered them with more sauce and added the horseradish mashed potatoes that I had made and some lima beans and crescent rolls and we called it a dinner.
But the best part for me was watching my beautiful wife arrive after just getting out of the shower. And since we were just having dinner with some friends she had not even bothered to put on any make up or underwear or even shoes........she had on her big, pink, fluffy slippers!!!
And yes, there were 8 people there for dinner!!
Even with all that, I still had the best looking, most amazing wife in the room. All the other boys were jealous.
And I got to go home with her!!
So yea, life is still very good for me.
I hope yours is going well too!
We're headed to New Orleans on Friday night for dinner at Brightsen's with some friends and then having breakfast Saturday morning at the Camellia Grill and coming back home.
Then we'll head to Baton Rouge to watch the Saints try to pull off the impossible on Sunday.
And that's all the news that is news.
Peace!
