Monday, November 10, 2014

Julia Child Night #6

Another successful and delicious Julia Child Night is in the books!  I'll let the pictures (mostly) do the talking.

We started off with our usual appetizer course of olives, cheese, crackers, and olive tapenade.

I love my aunt and uncle's slate cheese board that you can write on!
 We also had a signature drink to start the night which was called the French Pearl. It was made from gin, Pernod, simple syrup and lime juice.  It was so good!


Since I wasn't able to help out on Friday, my brother stepped up and helped out with the meal preparation and serving.  He looks sharp in his chef's jacket!


The kids were running around most of the night but I did talk Matthew into taking a picture with me.


This year my cousin and her family were able to join us.  Her daughter, Lydia, had the best striped outfit of the night in my opinion.

Before we knew it it was time for the plating process to start.  It's hard to capture action shots, but this is my mom and her two sisters working on the amuse bouche (my mom is in the middle).

We started off with an amuse bouche of gravlax with cucumber and dill.  Gravlax is not a French recipe, it's Scandanavian, but Julia Child has a recipe for it.  It was delicious!
Gravlax for the adults, swedish fish for the kids
 Our next course of the night was a Provencal soup with pistou (i.e. pesto).  I think this might have been my favorite course of the night.  It was so delicious with that dollop of pesto stirred in!


I was responsible for the salad course which was a winter salad with home made buttermilk dressing.  It had sliced beats and apples on top and was delicious!


The main course was Chicken Provencal, which is chicken cooked in a tomato sauce with olives. It was delicious!  Our side dishes were green beans almondine and escoutoun which is a cheesy polenta.  Yum!


We took a pretty long break between dinner and dessert which was necessary after all those courses!  We capped off the night with Chocolate pot de creme, which is a chocolate custard, and coffee with homemade Bailey's liquor, made by my sister-in-law!


And of course it wouldn't be a Julia Child Night without an end of the night apron photo!  The number of people in the photo grows every year!


It was another fun event and we all left with full stomachs and hearts!  It was fun to introduce Phil to this tradition and to more of my family as he got to meet more of my aunts, uncles, and cousins!

Seems like in a blink of an eye, we'll be planning Julia Child Night #7!

What was the best thing you ate this weekend?  

25 comments:

Becky said...

What a great night! I think this is such a cool tradition! I was in the woods all weekend but we definitely ate well as out friends were in charge or bringing the food.

I think my favorite thing we had was an appetizer Saturday night - it was naan with goat cheese, bacon, and fig spread and it was DELICIOUS! (Even Lemon agreed and let me keep it down!)

Hang in there this week - I hear your weather is supposed to be brutal!

Gracie said...

Another delicious meal - and I love that the kids got Swedish fish. Cute.

megabrooke said...

YUM! What a special tradition! I love all the courses! We have some of those tiny appetizer spoons that we got for our wedding, but we haven't used them yet! We've been envisioning a cocktail party with little apps and such- I might need to ask you for some ideas! So glad it was such a hit!
Best thing I ate this weekend was this delicious rustic Italian chicken soup with autumn veggies and roasted garlic and tomato. (The name itself is a mouthful! It was so good!)

Jeanie said...

I just love this tradition of yours! I'll bet Phil was blown away by the flavor and all the warmth and love of your family! It all looks fabulous!

Keep cozy. Word on the street is that winter is early, thanks to a bombogenesis, which is my favorite new word!

Leigh said...

Everything looks so good! I love how you had swedish fish for the kids...so cute!

katielookingforward said...

Love this! I had brunch at Red Cow on Sunday with friends, grilled cheese and tomato soup was good. My grandma made a "martini stew" on Saturday night that was also awesome.

Nora said...

I love that some people wore berets! Such a fun tradition. What a great family you have. The food looks delicious!!! Thanks for sharing with us and already looking forward to J.C. Night #7!

Emilie said...

I had so much fun following along with your photos - everything looks delicious! The Swede in me loves the Gravlax and dessert looks incredible. Family traditions like JC night are so special. The best thing I ate this weekend was a sweet potato soup I made on Saturday. It was so easy and filling.

Marlys said...

It was so delicious and fun! I wonder what Phil thought of all the noise and talking we did! He seems to be a keen observer so truly would love to hear any comments he made!
We all had a blast and ate some wonderful food! And drank lots of good wine in addition to the French Pearl drink, which was a hit!

missris said...

This looks like so much fun! And I love the apron photo too :)

Carolina John said...

Fun fun fun! That does look amazing. Congrats on another great Julia Childs night!

Stephany said...

Looks like such a fun night! This is such a neat tradition your family has. So cool!

Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said...

Looks so awesome! What year did you start Julia Child night? I thought I remembered the first but now I'm thinking maybe it's the second I remember- don't think I read any blogs til 2009 :) Either way, crazy long tradition!

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

Yumm those drinks! And dessert! The best thing I ate was probably the ribs my hubby made last night!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

This is such an awesome and fun tradition!! I want to come!! Haha!

Are those maple leaf napkins in the first photo!? How very Canadian of you guys :-) They look like Canada napkins!

That soup looks amazing, and the salad - wow! Buttermilk dressing would be great!

The best thing I ate this weekend was cilantro squares. They were ridiculously good.

I'm glad Julia Child night was a success!!!

Jamie and Missy said...

The soup was my favorite dish, too! Although, the main course was a close second. We were so excited to join all of you this year! Thank you for an amazing experience.

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

Looks like fun! I can't believe this is already the 6th one! My favorite is the amuse bouche, especially the Swedish fish. That's really fun. I love that you guys have kept this tradition over the years. It's fun to have a family get together at a different time than the holidays, as the holiday season gets so busy and chaotic at times.

The best thing I ate this weekend was a breakfast burrito at about 5 a.m. on Sunday morning after hike/run/walking with my friend during her 100 mile race. We had been hiking for about 4 hours by that time and she was pretty tired and at the turn around they had these egg, bacon and cheese burritos, and it was the best thing at the time! Not fancy, but it hit the spot. Plus it perked her up enough to make it to the finish before the cut off time!

Amber said...

Looks so fun! I love the idea of stirring pesto into a soup. I think I would love that too as you can never go wrong with pesto in my opinion. I especially love your tradition of stripes and aprons!

Probably the cupcakes I made were the best thing I ate last weekend! That peanut butter cream cheese icing was to die for!

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

Looks like it was another successful event! It all looks great, but I think the appetizer and the drink sound right up my alley ( and of course the main course). I'm a sucker for a good appetizer plate. It's one of my favorite things to have when we do a girls night.

San said...

Wow, the food looks delicious and the evening like so much fun!

Abby said...

Wow!!! What a night! This makes me pathetically homesick.....

Great photos!! Amazing food!

Best thing I ate was the mussels with lamb sausage and au jus Saturday night :) it was quite a treat after our race!!!

J and A said...

This is amazing!! I love that you guys do this - so fun. I wish I could attend!! ha ha Looks delish.

Charis Faith said...

The food just never disappoints! What an amazing menu! Y'all are so creative! Love the outfits, everyone definitely goes all out to make this memory! I am so glad that you are back home and able to fully take part and enjoy everything again! It's a wonderful sign that the apron picture has more people every year!

Shoshanah said...

I love, love, love your Julia Child posts every year! All the food looks absolutely delicious, but if I could only pick one it would likely be the soup as well. And I do the think the sweedish fish for the kids is pretty adorable.

Cherry Blossoms said...

Now I want french food it all looked amazing! Where is your aunts cheese board from? I Love it!