I think I am in love.

I've spent this weekend getting to know my most recent lover.  We shared our first meal together on Saturday evening, and, quite frankly, I think my longest long-term relationship is about to ensue.  With this:

Yes, last week, I received the crème de la crème of cookware, the most coveted of all pots to have to put my cracked wooden spoon to; ladies and gentlemen, my parents gave me a Le Creuset 5.5 quart round French oven.  In cobalt blue.  I've wanted said item to take residence in my kitchen cabinets for quite some time.  We couldn't be happier together.  

So, after having a day to think about what to cook in this new acquisition to celebrate its new home in my kitchen, I decided on the following menu:

Mustard roasted chicken with root vegetables (#3)

Fennel and tomato salad (#4)

Blackberry crisp (#5)

Three new recipes for a wonderful Saturday evening with Beth, roommate, and Schaeffer, friend.  Both diners have healthy appetites, discriminatory palates and enough candor to tell you exactly how they feel about things.  In other words, they were good choices for the first tête-à-tête with my new lover.  

 
Whilst I began the cooking ritual, my roommate was working on the second batch of bread from a sourdough starter that she began coaxing and nurturing in our home about two months ago.  The bread had been rising since very early on Saturday morning, rested in the fridge and was now making our home smell something like the bakery in Dupont.  The result was really quite something.  A most delicious fresh and crusty sourdough.

 
The recipe called for chicken with bone and skin, however, I always prefer boneless skinless breasts.  Although the fat from the skin would've added some real flavor, alas, it simply wasn't in my fridge.  I added fresh thyme and parley and substituted yellow onion for purple.  All settled in the cobalt pot, it was really something to peek at before it went into the oven.  

 
Fortunately, despite no skin and bones, the whole grain mustard and vegetables packed flavor into the 45 minutes of roasting.  I paired the chicken with a salad, based on ingredients in my fridge that were bound to the trash if not used at once!  So...tomato and fennel it was.  And a dash of lettuce.  And onion.  And, a simple dijon white wine vinaigrette.  

The roasting yielded perfectly tender vegetables and succulent chicken.  However, the results cannot be credited only to me.  This was, of course, the first meal with my new blue lover, and I could not have done it alone.  The heat conduction is really something else.  And the best part of this relationship?  The heat conduction is guaranteed to last longer than our honeymoon period.  

For the dessert, I found some incredible blackberries at the grocer.  I've seen fruit be the perfect conclusion to a meal.  Growing up, my father's grandfather, Great Grandpop Benedetto, who came to American from the old country, Italy, in 1917 used to cut a piece of fruit and dip piece by piece into a robust glass of red wine after each supper.  Although I am grateful for very early childhood memories I have of his warm and bubbly mannerisms, he passed away when I was quite young.  Thankfully, this fruit and wine tradition was preserved in our family.  However, if there could ever be something better than fruit for dessert, it is baked fruit!  

A few fast pulses of butter, brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon, a handful of rolled oats and a generous shake of sugar in the blender, crumbled over blackberries and tossed in the oven brought about bubbling and sugary smells.  The final aesthetic result from my distracted attempt at blackberry crisp?  More like blackberry soup.  At first I thought this was a failure.  I mean is it a crime to want your food to look pretty?  I think not.  But it was nothing a bit of vanilla ice and thoughtful plating couldn't help.  

Not too shabby I think.  

But, more importantly, my guests thought so too...

 

 295 to go.