Some little updates

So, one of the reasons that my blog posts have been so few and far between lately is that work has been totally chaotic. Why, you may ask, has it been so much busier than normal? Well, I'm really excited to say that my company has recently launched a pre-sale for our new line of products. My co-workers and I have been working toward this goal for the last 18 months or so, so it is really thrilling for it to finally be a reality. You can check out our new website at www.saleae.com -- we reached our 30 day pre-sale goal in a week, and now we're just raising extra money to go toward the first production run of the new products. Yay!

Right, so none of that had anything to do with food, but it does explain why I have been even busier than usual as of late. Despite all that, I have managed to make time for some exciting culinary adventures. This past weekend was, of course, Easter. My brother came over and spent the weekend and we had Easter dinner together on Sunday. I made steak au poivre for the main course -- maybe not traditionally very Eastery, but it was another Barefoot in Paris  recipe to check off the list. In fact, I made three cookbook recipes -- the steaks, caramelized shallots, and cheese straws. All came out really well! I only have one recipe left in the appetizer chapter -- getting so close...

Actually, the dinner choice worked out perfectly, because I made a very similar recipe when my dad and I attended a cooking class at Central Market (I visited my alma mater -- and my parents -- for a few days a couple of weeks ago). You may recall, a couple of Christmases ago (actually, more than a couple at this point. How time flies) dad and I attended the "Night in Paris" class at CM. We had such a blast, and have been meaning to take another class ever since. It worked out perfectly to be able to go during this last visit, and again, we had a lot of fun and learned a ton, too! The menu consisted of french fries (or pommes frites, as the French say), the steak au poivre with a cognac cream sauce, a green salad, a shredded carrot salad, and an amazing apple tart. Everything was delish, and I really liked the apple tart. It was easy to make (it used puff pastry!) and very elegant -- a recipe I definitely want to make again on my own sometime. A lot of the recipes we made were inspired by Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table, which I just go happen to own, and its a really gorgeous book . I'll feeling inspired to spend some more time going through it more thoroughly.

In other news, I've recently booked a trip to go visit my grandfather back in Massachusetts -- you know what that means! Dunkin Donuts and lobstah rolls galore -- plus, of course, a chance to have a nice visit with my grandpa. Danielle and I are actually going to meet up for a day and a half in Boston, so you know we'll be having dinner at the Union Oyster House, too -- so. much. lobster!