Birthday Dinner for My Sweet Husband

Hello there! I don't have any cards or projects to share with you today, but I wanted to give you an update. In my last post, I told you that I was planning an extra special birthday dinner and dessert for my husband using recipes from my newly acquired copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This idea came about as a result of my husband going absolutely nutso over all of the food the main characters prepared in the movie Julie and Julia.

Well, I LOVE to cook, and I frequently try out new recipes, so I was really excited to bust open this book and start cooking! Armed with a brand new Fontignac cocotte and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I was ready!!

While my husband was at work I spent pretty much the entire day in the kitchen! But, let me tell you...the results were SO worth it!!! For the main course I made Boeuf Bourguignon with boiled potatoes and peas on the side. When Tony walked into the house I could immediately hear him saying, "Mmmmmmmmmm..." I asked him if he had a guess as to what was for dinner. He guessed it on the first try and then promptly admitted that as he was digging through the fridge that morning looking for something to take for lunch, he spotted the meat I had hidden way in the back. (That stinker!!) He was SO excited about the meal! When I took the lid off of the cocotte, his eyes totally lit up!!

Here's a photo. (Sorry it's kind of dark.)

And for dessert.....drum roll please.......chocolate almond cake!!!! Now, this was the part I was most nervous about! As I mentioned earlier, I LOVE to cook, but I'm not much of a baker. And to be honest, I have not baked a single thing since we moved to the our house in the mountains. We live at 9000 feet, and baking gets tricky at that altitude. So, I had completely avoided it until now. I did some research on-line about baking at high altitudes and found a lot of vague advice, a lot of "you just have to experiment with it and see what works" type of advice, and then finally some specific recommendations for baking above 7000 feet. I tried that last bit of advice, and lucky for me, it worked!!

Here's the cake! It was delicious!!! Tony even took a piece to have with his lunch today!!!




And a close-up! It was REALLY YUMMY!!! And I think this is the first cake I've ever made completely from scratch!!!

Just wanted to share my kitchen success story with you all! Hope you enjoyed it!

Enjoy the rest of your day!!! And while you're on the computer, hop on over to Lisa's blog---She's giving away an AMAZING prize package!!! Click HERE to check it out! Good luck!