It's been a while since I've last written, but it's only natural considering that I haven't really done much in the way of cooking the past few weeks. I've been consuming various video-based media and oddly enough, coding of all things.

This week, it seems like the focus has shifted back to cooking so I feel like I have something to say, even if it's meaningless to many of you.

Sunday I learned that bison steaks can be oh so good. I got a ribeye cut that must've been close to a 1 lb from Whole Foods. After letting it come to room temperature and generously applying sea salt, black pepper, paprika and garlic powder, I pan-fried it in butter to a rare-medium rare. Then I topped the package off with arterial death: chopped shallots pan-fried in more butter. It was just heavenly - as a beef eating carnivore, I could only really think of one other steak that struck me as deathly good. Although it was a bit on the pricey side, I'm definitely going to try another bison steak in the future to see if it turns out this good.

In other news, I'm rapidly beginning to realize that my culinary enemies are bread making, carmelization and cleaning. Every loaf I've made (including the one from yesterday) seems off for some reason: the texture/flavor just doesn't jive with my idea of bread. Just tonight, I failed at making caramel for creme caramel, ending up with rock vanilla sugar candy. And I've always hated cleaning up. Eventually I'll have to show them I know kitchen kung-fu and kick their asses. I'll let them live...for now.

Tonight, I hosted my first real dinner party. Because I felt compelled to show off my newly acquired cooking skills, I decided to invite a few friends over to sample the best that Chez Moi could offer.

The actual prep process started earlier this week, when I made polenta and experimented with deep frying techniques to make polenta fries. The process continued last night when I made creme brulee & began brining a chicken. Unfortunately, that was the easy part.

The actual day of work was quite involved. I had to get the place cleaned up in the morning. Then in the afternoon, I had to plan out everything and execute as close to flawlessly as possible. I ended up deboning the chicken and marinating it first. Then I continued on to cutting up a pound of onions to be caramellized for French Onion Soup. Next were croutons for the French Onion Soup. I then followed up with breading the polenta for frying. Finally, I readied the romaine hearts & asparagus for grilling.

Once everyone arrived, it was a mad dash between cooking and eating. I'd finish off one dish, serve it, join everyone else for consumption and then rush back in the kitchen to prepare the next dish. This frenzied tradition started with the French Onion Soup, through Grilled Romaine Hearts, Asparagus, Polenta Fries and finishing with the Herb Roasted Chicken. By the main meal, I was actually able to sit down and relax a while. IOW, catch up on wine compared to everyone else.

I finished things off with the tried and true creme brulee. I love my kitchen blow torch. And everyone else did as well. ("Fire! Fire!") ^_^

Overall, I think it went really well. The food turned out well minus mishaps with half of the polenta fries and the not so great beurre blanc. The guests enjoyed all the food, and I think a good time hanging around & vegging was had.

However, I must say that it was a *lot* of work for one person. I can't believe how many times I stopped to do dishes or to clean the counter top before continuing cooking. I honestly think that I spent most of today standing vs. sitting like I normally do. In any case, I think it was well worth getting the real life experience of hosting this kind of affair...just don't expect me to do it again any time soon.

Yesterday, I went to my first Howard Dean meetup. It was a bit more sedate than I anticipated. I guess the watching and listening to the man gave me a different expectation than what I experienced - the nitty gritty of spreading the word, writing letters to people (this month:major Democratic figures like Al Gore) and watching pre-recorded presentations. I wrote my two letters, but I'm still not comfortable with canvassing...guess that'll have to wait until I'm ready to deal with strangers. Still, it was nice to finally go to some place and be with people that feel the same way as I do about Dubya and the direction he's taken the nation.

Today, I went to my knife skills class. Although there was some overlap with what I picked up in the culinary basics class, I did learn some new things in this class: carving roast animal carcasses, slicing tomatoes, cutting bread, chopping and sharpening a knife. I also splurged and picked up a Wüsthof 10" Chef's Knife and Super Slicer from the Grand Prix line along with a diamond sharpening steel and various other kitchen knick-knacks. After using both of those knives today, there just wasn't any way I was going home without them. The 20% off definitely didn't hurt. (=