Hachis Parmentier - AMFT

True confessions: I grew up on "Shepherd's pie" made with browned hamburger, a package of frozen green beans, and a can of tomato soup thinned with some water, dumped into a casserole dish and topped with mashed potatoes sprinkled with paprika. In true family tradition, I've probably made it 100 times for my children as they grew up. So as I read Dorie's recipe for this version of "Shepherd's pie", I was intrigued... homemade beef bouillon... *sausage*?!... and *CHEESE*?! And then, bake until "... the potatoes have developed a golden brown crust (the best part)." GET ME TO THE STORE!

And off I went...

One of the things I adore about Dorie's recipes is that, so far, there isn't a thing I've tried that doesn't infuse the whole house with aroma. Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes savory, sometimes sexy, and sometimes it's all about the perfume of butter... but this was all about comfort. Soft, beefy, cheesy comfort.

I loved this. It was nothing like Grandmom's/Mom's shepherd's pie - there's a refined complexity to this dish that my shepherd's-pie-sheltered palate never thought was possible to associate with "shepherd's pie". And Dorie is absolutely right about "the best part". Delicious.

For next time, I won't use the casserole dish pictured... it was just a touch too shallow and big, which I think spread the meat filling a shade too thin, and allowed the potatoes to absorb too much of that brothy goodness below.

I need to get my kids to come home so I can make this for them and fix their shepherd's-pie-sheltered palates!!! Ali? Sarah? :)

Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup - AMFT

Wow, wow, wow! This was really fabulous! Really quite easy to put together, and an interesting combination of flavors I've never experimented with in my own kitchen (star anise has never before had a spot on my spice shelf!). The coconut-y chicken broth base was heavenly - both in aroma and flavor... and a few drops of asian chili oil added a beautiful warmth. Absolutely wonderful! (Side note: we loved the gougeres so much, I made them as an accompaniment to the soup. A little non-traditional, maybe, but YUMMY! :-) ) This one's destined to be repeated over and over again in this kitchen!

Gerard's Mustard Tart - Around my French Table

Wellllll... John & I made it. And we had fun doing it. And it was gorgeous. :) I have to admit, it doesn't rank in my top ten favorite Dorie recipes, but John ate two portions and all the leftovers... with gusto! If it were me, I could think of a lot of other tart fillings .....

Yeah, yeah, whatever. John here, having wrestled the keyboard away from Lisa. 8-)

I'm a mustard person. Lisa is not.
I could eat mustard with a spoon (and have). Lisa sometimes applies delicate mustard whiffs after thinking long and hard about it.

And that's the thing. If you love mustard, you will love this tart. If you keep mustard at arm's length, this probably isn't the one for you. Here's a litmus test: If you like mustard on your fried egg sandwich, absolutely give this a try.

Making this dish is so straightforward that we really can't think of much to mention concerning construction. A few observations however: Next time we might add just a tiny amount of fresh rosemary to the egg mixture. We really didn't get any rosemary flavor in the finished product, and were expecting it. Maybe also reserve a bit of the egg mixture, add the carrots and leeks to the top, and then drizzle with the reserved egg. In the oven, some of our carrots and leeks became a little dried out.

Finally, oddly, we'd never steamed leeks before and they turned out amazing. Cool technique, and can think of several omelets that would be awesome with those leeks!