Grand Marnier Souffle (Page 844)

RECIPE #1012

• Date: Friday, August 14, 2009 -- 10pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Emilee and Brian's Apartment
• Dining Companions: Brian, Emilee, Chris, Emily, Alex W, Nick, Alison, and Jamie
• Recipe Rating: B
  

I originally suggested Pavlovas with Kiwis for dessert at Emilee and Brian's place last weekend, but that suggestion was not met with squeals of delight. So I started listing various other dessert options. When I hit this recipe it was the clear consensus. It was a good choice too, as Emilee and Brian had the perfect 16-inch pan for the recipe, which I do not. This was a fairly standard souffle recipe. I started by making the souffle base. I made a roux of flour and butter, cooking it for 5 minutes. Then I added hot milk and sugar. I removed the pan from the heat and added egg yolks and Grand Marnier. I then let the base cool to room temperature. Once the base had cooled I beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until stiff, then folded them into the base. I carefully transferred the mixture into a gratin pan, which had been buttered and sprinkled with sugar. I baked the souffle for 25 minutes. Since this souffle was baked in a low gratin dish rather than a more typical high-sided souffle dish, it didn't puff as dramatically as a typical souffle would. It was still extremeley light though, with a perfect souffle consistency. The flavor was nice -- not too eggy -- and the Grand Marnier came through clearly without being overpowering. The recipe, surprisingly, didn't call for any vanilla, and I think it would have been better if it had. The flavor was very one-note. The addition of vanilla would have given it a little more depth. My other issue with this recipe was that the souffle was really calling to have a sauce with it. A nice creme anglaise would have done wonders for this dish. Without a sauce (and because the flavor wasn't so interesting) I found the dish a bit dull. That said, it still tasted good, and almost everyone aroound the table enoyed it.

This recipe isn't online.

Yesterday my special gentleman and I caravaned from Indiana up to East Lansing, Michigan. As we passed the Welcome to Michigan sign at the Indiana/Michigan border, a wave of excitement went through me. For the first time it seemed real that we are moving to Michigan and staying there indefinitely. True, I am not really moving for another 8 months, but my special gentleman has moved, which feels like our officially beginning in Michigan.

We haven't bought a house yet. The house we put an offer on was a short sale which means the owner's bank ultimately has to accept it. Our offer sat at his bank for 4 months and they didn't even bother to look at it. Very frustrating. So we are going to start house hunting again. In the meantime, we are renting a house, which is lovely and huge, with a jacuzzi bath and a big, wooded backyard.

Last night we ate Indian food and went to the movies. I couldn't help but wonder, "How many times in our life will we eat these dishes, at this restaurant?" Or, "How many times will we go to this theater?" We will, most likely, stay in East Lansing for a long, long time, which makes this move extra exciting. It's as though we are slowly unveiling the things that will become part of our everydays lives here. On that note, we have already started the search for a nice place to run. Fortunately, that didn't take much searching. We ran our 7-mile morning run today along the Lansing River Trail which was completely lovely. Around the two mile mark, two deer ran in front of us and then swam across the river. Watching them, I thought, "I think I will like it here." The trail was long and beautifully maintained, every person we passed waved and said hi, and the weather was cool and breezy.

Now that I have a great place to run, I just need to figure out where to grocery shop...