I have an obsession. I love buying cookbooks. And not just the easy-to-make weeknight recipe books but super hard and complicated cookbooks produced by amazing chefs that have some of the best restaurants in the nation (some of them ~ the world). When I buy these cookbooks I read through them with post-it notes flagging countless recipes I want to cook. But I rarely cook them. I’m not even a very good cook. I also have run out of space for them on my bookshelf. So before the cookbooks take over my house I think I should use them… cook with them.
So here’s my project: to cook every recipe in my fancy-smancy cookbooks. And to document them here, as I hope my blog obsession will force me to actually cook these recipes so that I can blog about them.
May 4, 2010
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Potatoes Dauphinoise
I definitely didn’t stumble upon a novel idea when I was overly inspired to cook from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” after watching and reading Julie & Julia as I read somewhere that the cookbook sold more copies in 1 week of 2009 (something like 22,000) than it had in any full year since the book was published.That’s a LOT of butter consumption going on in people’s kitchens by the way.
Now I never intend to remove bone marrow, make an aspic, or bone a duck but some things like Vichyssoise (chilled leek and potato soup) are easy enough to reproduce. And so since I’ve decided that Sunday is my 1 day a week that I cook dinner (nutrisystem, take-out menus, restaurants, and leftovers take care of the other 6 days) the other weekend I attempted Potatoes Dauphinoise (scalloped potatoes baked in cream). Also, a disclaimer on the pictures below… bad food presentation skills + bad photography skills = horrible pictures, even though I think I do have a decent camera… oh well). And in case you thought that scene in the movie where they show the amount of butter being used was a joke, it wasn’t. So since Julia Child and Diet Plan 2010 do not even come close into working hand-in-hand, I made a couple concessions. Like exchanging heavy cream for 2% milk (I though fat-free milk might not work) and butter for I can’t believe it’s not butter – light. It still was nowhere near a good-for-you meal, but I tried…
So, after greasing your bowl with butter and garlic you are supposed to make two layers of mandolin-thin sliced potatoes, butter, cheese (it called for shredded swiss but I was too lazy to shred my own so I went with the store bought shredded mozzarella instead), salt and pepper. Once the dish was layered, the cream / milk is poured over the entire artery-causing goodness.
Results? It was amazing! Heaven in my mouth. Seriously the best potato dish I’ve ever tasted. I wonder why… ahem butter, milk, cheese… 
Too bad for Diet Plan 2010 this is not a Doctor-approved dish for Ryan so I had to finish the entire thing myself. It was a rough week but someone had to do it.
