Let me tell you about my Friday night... which means, let's talk the Whalesbone.
I arrived early and was able to enjoy the family meal (fried chicken, burgers, salad... delish!). Then Char and Jenna handed me my list of tasks.
1. Portion seafood for paella. No problem. See all that lobster tail? Yeah, I thought it was pretty darn awesome. Cut in half, grab a claw, some clams, some spotted prawns and mussels. Add all of that to the deliciousness of sausage, peas, rice... that's something I think everyone should check out when they stop by the restaurant.
2. Cut up dark purple beets. On it! I HEART beets!!!! And Char is all about it being organic and artisan... so not having to cut everything in small, precise pieces was fine by me :0)
3. Clean greens... a task I thought would be the simplest and it turned out to be a right pain... the miniature greens all over the place... and they took forever to dry (in order to be put away). I didn't heart that task.
4. Asparagus. Prep it by removing the woody ends and store it in water in 1 L containers. Easy as pie.
5. And finally... make ganache. Sigh. You'd think that would be the task I'd be most enthusiastic about... but you see, last week Jenna asked me to make ganache and I figured "no problem, I make ganache at home, I can make a batch for Jenna." Nope. I messed it up. I actually labeled my 1 L container the "fucked up chocolate ganache"... it was that bad. Jenna apparently went on to save it after I left. You could understand why I was tentative to make another batch. ESPECIALLY because it was going to cover a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake for Adrienne's birthday (she works at the WBOY). The pressure was on.
Jenna walked me through it. "Don't mix the peanut butter with the cream, add it to the chocolate, pour the boiling cream over top and melt them that way." "It'll be OK Lynne... I promise. Your other ganache wasn't that bad... I was able to fix it."
Well my friends. I absolutely HEART this ganache recipe. Easiest one EVER. I'm going to make some... not tonight, but soon :0) And seriously, it combines chocolate, peanut butter, cream and... honey. Yep. Killer combo.
So I did that, re-organized the fridge (let me tell you... it gets cold in there when all you're wearing is a pair of shorts and a tank top), and make SUNDAES! I know... I blogged about it last week, but really... people come up with pretty fabulous ideas when topping their vanilla ice cream.
Take Gordon. I like Gordon. He picked chocolate ganache. fresh fruit (apple, banana, pineapple, maraschino cherry) and... RHUBARB!!! Good choice Gordon. You are one of my picks for "best of" the evening.
Then there was the duo... two scoops of vanilla. One with the coconut dulche de leche, the other with strawberry coulis; both with the peanut butter cups and the cookie dough. She labeled his card as "The Copycat". I like that. Plus, they look really pretty side-by-side. They also win a place in my top sundaes of the evening list.
Nadine. You rock! You decided to top your two scoops with flambeed bananas, brownie bites and salted peanuts. I'd totally pick something like that... well done! You too are on the list.
And finally, the winner. I was being TOTALLY biased when I picked this one. I'm OK with that. I hope you are too. Sara stopped by and surprised me at the end of my shift. She came down and was chatting with me and sampled some of the cookie dough I'd made the week before that I had just taken out of the freezer. She thought it rocked. And since I think she rocks, I made her a sundae. So my pick of the evening is:
1 scoop vanilla ice cream. chocolate ganache. rhubarb. cookie dough. maraschino cherries (from the batch I made). marshmallow fluff.
A solid sundae for an even more solid friend.
So that my friends, was my evening at the Whalesbone. Can't wait for next time... and watch out... maybe YOUR sundae will be selected as one of my favourites. And then I'll be blogging about you too :0)
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