The Stars and the Cookie Jar

Bugger, that's over. My mousse didn't fall, I didn't cut myself, I barely burned myself, I'm allergic to persimmons, and they clapped for me.

Oh, it was brilliant. I fall down now.

Selkie's Fall Menu For 14 Persons And The Cat

*Mixed Salad with apples, walnuts and mandarin orange*

Butternut-Bourbon Soup
1 large (2.5 lb) butternut squash
3 cups apple juice
1 cup half-and-half cream
2 cups chicken broth [YES from a tin]
1/4 cup bourbon
cinnamon, salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Method: Have someone else split, peel and hack apart the butternut into pieces that will fit into your large soup pot. Add the apple juice and enough water to cover the squash. Boil squash until tender, remove from cooking liquid, mash and force through a sieve (not required, but a good thing). Put the mashed butternut back together with the cooking liquid, and thin to your liking with chicken broth and cream. Heat to a simmer, add and correct spices, add the bourbon, and stir a last time before serving. Makes 14 soup-plate servings or 6 bowls.

Fruit-Stuffed Roast of Pork
Note: Yes, yes, I know. But it wows people. And the thing is, it couldn't be easier. It's like falling off a goy. And... it seems to come out stellar every time?

1 10-lb boneless loin of pork
3 cooking apples
3 peaches
3 plums
olive oil
pepper, salt and rosemary to taste

Method: Heat oven to 400 degrees [this is the same temperature as the potatoes, so if you have a two-rack oven, you can do both at once]. Chop fruit, unpeeled, into coarse dice. Set aside. With a sharp knife, separate the pork loin into four pieces. Stand each piece on end and slide your knife down and to either side, creating a pocket. Widen the pocket in each piece of pork with your hand. Fill the pockets with chopped fruit, and secure with toothpicks or with a needle and twine if you prefer. Wash your hands. Drizzle olive oil over the pork, sprinkle with spices, rub oil and spices over, and set the stuffed pieces of pork in a large roasting pan on the lower rack of the oven. Wash your hands. Leave the pork in the oven for at least an hour, or about fifteen minutes longer than the potatoes. To serve: remove toothpicks or twine, slice crosswise to display fruit, and spoon pan juices over.

Pommes Arteriosclerosis
5 large potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
1 large white onion, peeled
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic
cracked black pepper and salt, to taste
asiago cheese for sprinkling, optional

Method: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Fill a mixing bowl with cold water. Slice potatoes paper-thin (a mandoline slicer works best, but you can do it with a sharp knife) and drop the slices into the bowl of cold water to prevent discoloration while you work. Slice onion crosswise, also paper-thin, and separate the rings. Drain potatoes and press dry with a paper towel. In buttered baking dish layer potatoes, then onion, then potatoes, then onion, ending with potatoes. Chop the garlic cloves and add them, with salt and pepper, to the top of the dish. Pour heavy cream over all. Sprinkle sparingly with asiago or other strong-flavored hard cheese. Bake at least 1 hour, or until potatoes are brown and bubbly.

*asparagus*

*lots of bread and lots of butter*

Chocolate Mousse
2 cups chilled heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
1 calibrated small thermometer, such as a candy thermometer [I borrowed mine for the evening from work]

Method: Melt chocolate, in a double-boiler or the microwave. Set aside in a warm place. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. In a saucepan, heat 3/4 cup of the heavy cream until just hot, not simmering. Add egg yolk mixture in a thin, slow, steady stream, whisking constantly. Clip thermometer to inside of saucepan and keep whisking over low-medium heat until the custard reaches 160 degrees F. [You must do this if you are serving this dessert to the immuno-compromised, children or the elderly.] Remove from heat, cool slightly and whisk in chocolate. Refrigerate until completely cold. Then whip the remaining heavy cream to very stiff peaks, and quickly and gently fold in the chocolate mixture. Chill for at least three hours. For 14 servings, spoon into demitasse cups (2oz) and top with pomegranate seeds or chocolate espresso beans. Chill again until ready to serve.

Tarte Tatin
1 recipe of your favorite pastry for a one-crust pie
six large baking apples, peeled and sliced
3 tbsp unsalted butter
cinnamon and sugar to taste

Method: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lavishly butter the bottom of a nine-inch skillet. Sprinkle with enough sugar to cover, and cinnamon to taste. Arrange a layer of apple slices as attractively as possible in the bottom of the skillet, directly on top of the cinnamon-sugar. Heap the rest of the apples into the skillet. Roll pastry thinly enough to cover the entire skillet with an inch overhanging all sides. Drape crust over apples. Do not vent the crust. Bake for 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes. Set a platter over the skillet -- the platter needs to be sizeably larger -- protect your hands with oven mitts, hold skillet and platter tightly together, and flip the skillet upside down so that the top [only] crust is now the bottom crust, and on the platter. Pray. If all has gone well, straighten any apples that may have gone askew in baking. Serve warm. If your tarte tatin doesn't invert successfully, flip  the whole thing back into the skillet, and serve apple cobbler.

*ice creams*

Ethiopia Harrar or Ethiopia Lekemti [any coffee with predominant berry, grapefruit or wine notes]

Amuses-Bouches Du Chat

Method: Drop some tart crust on the kitchen floor. Add some of the egg whites from when you separated the eggs for the mousse, and liberally spill your heavy cream. Serve with nonchalance or disdain.