Hollandaise Sauce.

I feel like it's time to share another recipe with you. I really enjoy cooking out of "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. I've been exclusively using their recipe for Hollandaise sauce since I started making it years ago. I love the acidity that the lemon juice adds. It truly brightens up the sauce. My favorite way to eat Hollandaise sauce is over poached eggs. All that buttery goodness!  Here is the way I make their recipe...

Melt 2 sticks of diced butter in the microwave. In a small saucepan, beat 3 egg yolks with a wire whip until they become thick and sticky. If I'm feeling particularly lazy, I use my handheld electric mixer for this. Add 1 Tablespoon of cold water, 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Whisk for another minute. Add another Tablespoon of cold butter, but do not whisk in. Place the saucepan on very low heat and whisk for two minutes until the egg yolks thicken. You will know your egg yolks are thick enough when you can see the bottom of your saucepan between strokes. Immediately take off the stove and add yet another Tablespoon of cold butter to stop the cooking. Finally, whisk the butter that was melted in the microwave by gradually adding it to the saucepan until it has been thickened.

 

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Thanks to Daphne over at Moo Moo's & Tutus for writing up such a nice review of my Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Dinner Party. You can read the post right here!

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"Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" dinner party got featured again over at Katie Grace Designs. Thank you so much Katie! You can read the post here.

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The party I threw Friday night has already been featured on Celebrations At Home, Everyday Celebrating, Not Just A Mommy!. Thank you so much for all of your sweet words which inspire me to keep on with this party obsession I've recently acquired since having children!

Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Dinner Party.

I love Julia Child. Always have - way before that movie came out. And I recently finished reading "My Life In France". It inspired me to cook more out of her cookbook... what better way then to have a party?!?! My husband and I hosted a "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" dinner party for fourteen guests. The weather was ideal. Not too hot and not too cold. There were rules to the party, and each couple needed to bring a dish cooked out of that particular cookbook following the recipe exactly. They also had to provide a bottle of wine that coordinated with their particular dish.

We hung up lights, used existing decorations from previous parties I had hosted, shopped our local thrift stores, used scraps of fabric, shopped our friend's homes, and managed to keep our party decoration budget below fifty dollars. I made sixty yards of orange and green bunting which I hung from trees, along our fence, and up our front walk.

There was a little station with faux mustaches that I had made out of black card stock for our guests to hold and take a photograph with.

I used old wine corks and made place card holders for the men, the women having a different place-setting. The fabric bows that I tied to the back of each chair were strips I had torn from an old vintage sheet that I got from a yard sale for free! Used spaghetti jars held split peas and rice and a tea light to help light up our table. Three different clusters of branches from our yard that I spray painted an antique white gave height to our table. Two clusters held Eiffel Tower cutouts and paper rosettes with button centers. The larger cluster of branches for the very center of the dining table held orange fabric flowers that I had made from scraps of fabric I had gotten from a friend. The place-mats were simply sheets of scrapbook paper, and I used the same paper to make little flags for the straws (that were in Mason jars), and name cards.

Napkins were rolled and wrapped with the same fabric that I made the bunting from, then tied with the twine that the bunting was hung from. One friend made fabric roses that were inspired from Dana of Made. Another friend, Courtney Burge, took these pictures for me as I was busy running around and didn't take any pictures for myself! It was such a fun and cheap dinner party to host. In the words of Julia Child, "Bon Appetit!"

Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Dinner Party.

I'm so excited you are going to participate in our big dinner party. If you do not have a copy of the cookbook, we own one that you may borrow. Our local libraries carry three copies, so you may want to reserve one for yourself. Without further ado, I give you the requirements for the evening... 

• Remember, this is strictly a first come first pick basis when choosing the dish you would like to bring.
• The dish you choose MUST be made from the cookbook "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" by Julia Childs. 
• Each couple will choose one dish between the two of you.
• Please bring a bottle of wine that compliments your dish. Julia Childs gives some great suggestions with each recipe.
• You must follow the recipe exactly. If it calls for butter, use butter. Go ahead and use that heavy cream. This is one night we will not worry about calories.
• For aesthetic (and my personal OCD) purposes please serve your dish in a white or glass dish.
• This will be a child-free event.
• Please do not pick a soup. I don't have bowls!
• So we don't get duplicates of a dish, please specify on the Evite invitation, what dish you will be bringing when you respond.
• We will need
• 2 Appetizers
• 4 Vegetables
• 5 Entrees
• 3 Desserts

*photo courtesy of the Evite invitation.