French laundry recipes

so amazingly good.... Dinner parties always stresses me out - especially those where I have to contribute a dessert. With various tastebuds in mind (some of my friends have a sweet tooth, while others like a tangy dessert and there were also kids involved), I was in a bind on what to make. Eventually I settled on a mix of bittersweet chocolate mousse, white chocolate mousse and a tangy lemon tart recipe, which I wanted to try. Due to a few mishaps (including a roving cat who ran away for a…

One of my favorite bites I had at the famed restaurant The French Laundry was the gruyère cheese gougères. Gougère is a French cheese pastry puff and the ones we were served at the restaurant were so tiny we all left wanting more, so I had to recreate them at home! I modified the recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery cookbook to make it a little easier to make these gougeres at home.

This simple tortilla soup recipe from Sally Schmitt of Apple Farm Kitchen in Philo combines tomatillos with orange juice in a chicken stock.

The foundation of this creamy casserole is a classic mornay sauce, a béchamel sauce to which cheese has been added—in this case, Comté, a French cheese with a complex, nutty flavor that melts beautifully. The dish comes from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro, in the Napa Valley, where the staff makes it as part of their annual Thanksgiving dinner for veterans and their families.

Sorry about neglecting to post in a while, but have I been in a baking/cooking storm lately. As a matter of fact, the sweet aroma of my lemon macaron shells baking is wafting through my house at this very moment. The highlight of this current baking/cooking storm has to be this beautiful salad I made out of Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry cookbook. I am just awed and incredibly inspired by Keller’s work and the food at The French Laundry. For those of you that don’t know—The French…

From the French Laundry Restaurant in Napa Valley comes this Garden Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette. It deserves high praise; it is fantastic.

Despite The French Laundry’s reputation for famously elaborate food, this refreshing...

This is really more of an appetizer composed of parmesan custards with parmesan crisps on a toasted slice of baguette, a few romaine leaves and 2 dressings. It is Thomas Keller's interpretation of Ceasar Salad. I love the layering of flavors and textures! Most components can be prepared in advance and the dish composed at the last minute.

Fabulous recipes from star chef Thomas Keller include amazing lemon-brined fried chicken and elegant smoked salmon crisps. ...

The dining room was quiet except for the staccato duet of fork on plate. My friend T. held up his well-scraped plate and broke the silence: "This is what 'I want more' looks like." ~ ~ ~ That evening's plate-scraping was due to this simple-but-soulful apple cake; the recipe borrowed and improvised from my prized copy of Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. The recipe originates from Sally Schmitt, who owned and ran the kitchen at The French Laundry restaurant before chef Thomas…