in anticipation of The Meal

to prepare for our anniversary dinner at Trotter's, we checked out some of his books from the library - I really had no idea how many cookbooks he had, or what a fantastic work ethic for excellence he has - and DH tried a couple of recipes.

Grilled Duck Breast with Braised Endive, Roasted Apples, and Red Wine Jus. We've never had braised endive, and that jus was just amazing - though I suppose you can't go wrong with port and a good red wine simmered with tasty vegetables. We've been using the leftovers on the occasional steak ever since. (Not that we normally have steak. But we had to step our cuisine up a bit to match the sauce.)

From his book "Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter" - a compilation of improvised recipes from his PBS special. Apparently he never makes the same dish twice, and made all of these dishes on the fly while filming. The title is a reference to the similarity of his cooking style to jazz improv.

Roasted eggplant and potato cannelloni with wilted spinach and cardamom-carrot juice. Wrapped in a thinly sliced potato, nestled in a carrot cumin puree that had been infused with cardamom oil and vanilla oil. Topped with clover and radish sprouts - the recipe called for clover sprouts and onion sprouts. couldn't find the onion sprouts and could only find the sprout mix; something about it had kind of a peppery bite, which might have been the radish ones. still fun though.

This one was from his "Vegetables" cookbook, which we bought when we went to the restaurant and asked to have signed. A little while ago I decided that my peculiar collecting quirk is going to be autographed cookbooks.

These dishes took him all day - and the only help he had was from his dad, whose job it was to entertain boo (his mom and I went to a yarn market all day) but wow it was Fantastic!!!