The SND kitchen is officially open again. We just cooked our first big meal in the new digs. To christen the place, Hungry Bear and I wanted to make a decadent multi-course dinner to celebrate the end of our moving process. We tossed around a few ideas for the main course, including braised pork belly, but went with veal chops with morel mushrooms. I couldn't pass up making the fantastic morel sauce. So, we created the menu as...

Chicken and Duck Mousse with Peppercorns 
with a sweet French baguette and cornichons

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Red Butter Lettuce with Baby Vegetables
carrots, radishes, cherry tomatoes, avocados and lemon Dijon vinaigrette

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Veal Chops with Morel Mushrooms 
served with roasted parsnips purée and sautéed asparagus

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
topped with mini M&Ms, chocolate nibs or crushed pistachios

Carrot cake again? I know, I know, how much carrot cake can someone eat? Well, I've eaten entirely too much of it in the last two weeks. After Hungry Bear made her fantastic carrot cake, I wanted to make a light version while her normal, full-fat version was still fresh on our minds.

The light carrot cake recipe was adapted from Cook's Illustrated (CI). I used all the CI fat reducing steps...

• Reduced the amount of oil from 1 1/2 cups to 1/2 cup
• Reduced the number of eggs from 4 to 3
• Used Philadelphia Neufchatel reduced-fat cream cheese
• Lowered the sugar quantity in the frosting

Then, I kept the majority of the normal cake's other ingredients to keep the flavors similar, which means pineapples and coconut flakes were included.

Cook's Illustrated's light cream cheese frosting recipe uses 12 oz of reduced fat cream cheese and no butter. I didn't like the idea of buying two 8 oz boxes of low fat cream cheese and not use 4 oz. So, I modified the recipe to use 8 oz of cheese and added a little butter.

I love carrot cake. Of all the non-chocolate cakes, it's probably my favorite one. When Hungry Bear gave me the choice between carrot cake and chocolate turtle cake, I still chose the carrot cake. I wanted to keep it uncomplicated this past Sunday night, and what's better than a simple carrot cake with cream cheese frosting?

Hungry Bear used a recipe from an old roommate, Roz. You know, the kind of recipe that's written on an index card and handed down. The cake contains pineapples and coconut flakes, which we both enjoy in our carrot cake. Hungry Bear mentioned Cook's Illustrated (CI) pooh poohed the use of canned crushed pineapples, toasted coconut and wheat germ in The New Best Recipes. In fact, they were "unanimously voted out", but CI approved raisins and nuts as options... um, no thanks. I love Cook's Illustrated, but sometimes their decisions seem completely arbitrary. With all due respect to CI, Hungry Bear and I unanimously voted pineapples and coconut flakes back in!

Our friend, Deb, recently took a "Venture to Vietnam" cooking class that was offered by First Class Cooking in San Francisco. Deb loved the class and was looking for volunteers to test out her new cooking skills and recipes, so she invited Hungry Bear and me over for dinner this past Saturday.

Deb and her husband, Brennan, are our eating partners in crime when we go to Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc, which is my absolute favorite restaurant in the Bay Area. We even get the Ad Hoc menu emailed to us on a daily basis to drool over, and we sometimes take a last minute trip for dinner in Napa.

Using the Ad Hoc menu template, Deb surprised us and emailed the dinner menu to us on Saturday morning. The menu read...

Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Cold shrimp, carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, cilantro and mint served
with a crushed peanut lime vinaigrette

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Lemongrass Beef Skewers
Tri tip beef marinated in a lemongrass garlic mixture

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Ca Kho To
Catfish simmered in a ginger, chili and caramel sauce

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Coconut Ice Cream/Mango Pudding
TBA - depending on chef’s mood later today.

Needless to say, we were very excited about dinner. When we arrived at Deb and Brennan's place, Deb had the spring rolls prepared, the beef skewers marinating and was in the process of making the caramel sauce for the fish. There was also a bottle of 2004 Quivira Zinfandel - Anderson Ranch decanting on the table.

Since Vietnamese food is my peep's food, I was impressed that Deb wanted to cook Vietnamese for me. Brennan was actually a little nervous for her, but she wasn't concerned at all.

Deb was right to be confident, as dinner was excellent. All the dishes were tasty and were easy to prepare with fresh, simple ingredients. They were also healthy (very minimal oil/fat) without sacrificing flavor. And the Zinfandel paired well with the lemongrass beef and ca kho.

Deb did make a homemade coconut ice cream mixture, but the ice cream maker had to chill for another 12 hours. So, dessert was MaggieMudd ice cream (toasty coconut, vegan coconut pineapple and mint chocolate chip) with toasted coconut shavings and chocolate chip cookies.  My favorite MaggieMudd flavor was the mint chocolate chip. After we finished dessert, Hungry Bear proclaimed, "Hungry Bear is no longer hungry."

Deb was gracious enough to send us home with leftover ca kho. For dinner on Sunday, Hungry Bear and I stir fried some water spinach and had the catfish on a bed of jasmine rice... yummy! The caramel sauce soaked rice was simply delicious.

Now I have to reciprocate a Vietnamese dinner and pull out my mom's secret recipes!