Celebrating 1 Year of The Culinary Librarian!

Today marks the 1 Year Anniversary of The Culinary Librarian! 

First and foremost I would like to thank all of you! My readers! It is a complete pleasure to write knowing I have a great audience to read my work. I hope you have enjoyed 12 months of food and photos. May your mouth water for the next 365 days to come! 

In honor of the anniversary I have collected my favorite photos/stories from each month of 2010 for this celebratory post. Some come from blog posts, some from Facebook posts. Enjoy this look back at a year in the life of The Culinary Librarian! 

January

Fallen Chocolate Soufflé Cake

Last year around this time a few of my very good friends went off to my beloved Paris for a visit and since we like parties so much we had a little French-themed send off for them! I provided the dessert-- this decadent (yet very easy to execute!) soufflé cake. Making chocolate soufflés has been one of my favorite things to do since I fell in love with them at my old resto of employment, the now closed Carmine's Restaurant in Albany (replaced with the fantastic Grappa '72). Since I knew individual soufflés to be a breeze, I selected this cake  as the perfect start to a Parisian vacation. I also love the black & white tiles of my old apartment's kitchen and the butcher block that provide a very French background to the rich cake. 

The full post from January 2010: Les Joies du Chocolat-- sans peur!

February

For the Love of Duck

Bienvenue Printemps!: Pea Soup with Bacon & Irish Cheddar

Inspired by some pea soup my friend enjoyed this weekend in Central Park and the new Bon Appetit's suggestion for an Easter meal first course I decided making some fresh for myself would be a great rainy-day dinner tonight.

Unfortunately I already had frozen green peas and opted out of buying some freshly shelledpeas, even though the soup would have been fresher and more delicious. Instead of keeping it as basic as the BA recipe I decided to bump it up with some extra veggies and toppings.

I added some carrot and red pepper to the mix and opted for fresh (Italian/Flat leaf, of course!) parsley over any other herbs. And I believe most savory things are better with BACON! so I crisped up some cut-up bacon in the soup pot before adding the butter and topped the soup with the crumbles to serve.

As usual I used a shallot, not an onion. I'm big on scent memory and am beginning to think that the scent of shallots softening in melted butter will take me back to this very kitchen on the UES. I guess I'll have to wait to see what the future will hold for me and my shallots! I let the pepper and carrot cook together before adding the frozen (unthawed peas). I used chicken stock instead of a vegetable broth for the same reason as bacon-- extra flavor! Never will I be a vegetarian!! I had to remove a little bit of the broth before I pureed the soup with my immersion blender so it would be thick (I'm not into 'soupy' soups, very much into thick-French style soups). The outcome was most delicious! The Irish cheddar and bacon really brought the fresh veggie flavor to a deeper taste level.

Enjoy!