Cookbooks a Gour-Maybe Can't Live Without: Peace Meals

I love this book - Peace Meals - by The Junior League of Houston (had to give a shout out to my hometown) These ladies have really outdone themselves with this latest edition. Although admittedly, my meals could use a little more peace. My cookbook would probably be called "Texting, Photographing, Watching Mad Men and The Killing, Responding to Emails Meals". A few of my favorite recipes are the "Outrageous Brownies", "Autumn Fruit Pork Roast", and "Smoked Gouda Sweet Potatoes".

The photography is amazing, the recipes are consistently good. Go get a copy asap! I have given this as a gift many times and it always gets great reviews.

Apricot Almond Tart with White Chocolate & Lemon Glaze - Recipe Coming Soon

LBA (lazy blogger alert) - this was the dessert served last weekend with the Lone Star Lobster Rolls. I'll get the recipe up this week, promise, but I want to tempt you with the pics. It's sweet but not too sweet, tart in a good way, fresh and fruity, summery - everything you want in a dessert. I used apricots because they looked the best at the store, but you could use probably any stone fruit (plum, apricot, peach etc.). The glaze was a good excuse to use some white chocolate I had left over from the Sow Your Wild Oatmeal Cookies.

Lone Star Lobster Rolls

At the request of the lovely Gour-Maybe readers, I have slaved over a hot stove all day (aka ran errands, sat by pool, cooked for an hour), so I could give you the one, the only, the Lobster Roll. Tarragon Dijon Mustard and basil - not usually found in lobster rolls - plus super toasted/garlic butter buns and fresh herbs along with classic ingredients and freshly-cooked Lobster make this a Gour-Maybe classic. Thanks to Mr. Thomas Keller for the inspiration, but I like mine:) I really do! Shockingly simple as well once you get the hang of it. Thanks to my friends for being taste testers and having a real (ridiculously cool) house with amazing light for these pics. Get the scoop on the roll after the jump.

Drink This Now! 2009 Lucienne Pinot Noir

Ok, maybe not right now right now, but you know - soon! This past weekend, I was in Austin, Texas celebrating my brother's MBA graduation. We were excited to eat at Wink off of Lamar, which I would definitely recommend. I had beef tartare and duck, both were really good. However, my fave part of the meal had to be the wine. I heart a good bottle of Pinot Noir, and this was one I hadn't tried. This was a multiple bottle scenario, so we had plenty of time to formulate our opinion. It's a 2009 Lucienne Pinot Noir - I recommend you go grab or order a bottle asap. It retails around $50. There is a long description of why it's so tasty at the link above which involves temperature, sunlight and the words:

"Lush chocolate covered cordial raspberry combine with subtle earth and Darjeeling tea undertones"

But I'm always a little over the verbose nature of wine descriptions, so I'll stick with - it's freaking good.

Goat Cheese, Prosciutto, Tomato and "Black" Basil Flatbread (Just Don't Call It Pizza)

basil chiffonade - nice claw CCC ;)

Let's be honest, this flatbread is really a pizza. Especially since we were making it with pizza dough (vs a non-rising "cracker" like base). It's just semantics, but for some reason,  it just sounds so much better than "pizza." Especially to two girls cooking. Two slices of flatbread as an appetizer? Sure! Two slices of pizza - um - maybe not. You ladies know what I mean. But call it whatever your little heart desires. We used goat cheese, prosciutto, fresh tomatoes, basil (two varieties) and it was truly delicious. All the herbs and tomatoes came fresh from the garden of my lovely hosts. In Gour-Maybe fashion, you have two options - do everything from scratch, or select portions where the purchased items don't detract from the quality of your final product. We used a fresh purchased dough (available in many supermarkets and boutique pizza shops), and went fresh on the rest. It looks beautiful, is easy to serve and can be made with really any combination of toppings you like. (Might I suggest arugula, prosciutto and goat cheese?) Get the skinny on the FB after the jump. 

Gour-Maybe Guest Kitchen #2 - Ranch Edition - Course 1 - Get Your Goat Cheese Plate

So as I mentioned, we are going to be doing a bunch of cheese plates on Gour-Maybe - there will be some overlaps as you begin to see I have some favorites, but new cheeses will on every plate, promise! At the ranch we did a goat cheese-only board. This is another cool way to select cheeses - by various styles within a milk category (i.e. cow, sheep). My lovely co-chef, "C", shall we say "prefers" goat, so goat it was. We picked up two of my favorites: Valdeon (a goat blend you might recall from the Spanish Cheese plate), and Truffle Tremor (you might recall from my rave about Cypress Grove). We also added a hard cheese - Lamb Chopper (another favorite from Cypress Grove Chevre) and a soft brie - Montchevre Cabrie. We served it with a full line up of cashews, dried cherries, figs and water and rice crackers as well as honeycomb (LOVE honey on a cheese plate) . Delicious. These four cheese are different in texture and age and taste great - this would be a fantastic start to any meal! If you've tried them, would love to hear your feedback.  Gour-Maybe counter-intuitive tip: Remember not to serve these and other cheeses right out of the fridge, cheese is best enjoyed at room temperature.

Booze note - I drank some Peju Sauvignon Blanc with this and it was really a good combo. They have several years (2007-2010) of delish SB and other wines.

Gour-Maybe Guest Kitchen #2 - Ranch Edition - Coming This Week!

Hi Gour-Maybe world, I am just back from a fun and food-filled weekend in the country with lots to share. From fresh herbs and a fantastic sous-chef (well, actually, just chef - I was more the sous chef and photographer haha) to a meal that included skirt steak, a corn salad, to an all-goat cheese plate, we have lots to cover. So I will start with a few pics to get your mouths watering!