Cream is the fifth food group

Rather than post about the fight with my mother here, and relive the whole sordid “I will never learn” experience, for the fifth day of NaBloPoMo, I give to you a list of all the things my Dad made for dinner for my birthday. Pictures later, etc.

1. Coquilles Ste. Jacques, from J. Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (Cream, butter, wine, scallops, grated swiss, broiled on a scallop shell. What– scallop shells aren’t part of your batterie de cuisine?)

2. Steamed PEI mussels, with butter (cream), wine, thyme, salt, red pepper.

3. Green beans– with butter.

4. Gratineed brussels sprouts, from MAFC. (A bechamel, made with cream and butter, flour, lots of swiss cheese.)

5. Saute du Boeuf a la Parisienne, from MAFC. (Blade steak, mushrooms, shallots, in a wine, cream, deglazed meat saute sauce.) I am an unrepentant carnivore. Sorry. The redder, the better.

6. Homemade potato chips, from MAFC. (Are you detecting a trend here? Do you think perhaps my parents lived in Cambridge during the premiere and craze that Mrs. Child’s television series created? Do you wonder now how I learned to cook?) These puppies are a pain in the ass, but they are worth making once a year. And, um, they’re really good when you dip them in the cream sauce coating the Saute du Boeuf.

7. David Lebovitz’s Fresh Ginger Cake, from the NYT.

8. David Lebovitz’s Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream, from The Perfect Scoop. (People, if you’ve ever wondered about making your own ice cream, this recipe alone will justfy the price of buying an ice cream maker. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest appliance store or online home electrics emporium of choice.)

The ice cream and the cake will be getting its own post, as it has replaced the Berthillon pear ice cream I ate on my honeymoon in Paris as the most divine frozen thing ever.