Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Dinner

 This is how dinner tonight started...

Mary is very excited that we will be having duck for dinner

 Then it looked like this...

Wild duck breasts

And this...

Dried summer pears being reconstituted
And this...

Dried pears, garlic, celery and onions

And this...

Duck breasts cooking in the pear, garlic sauce

Mary made up this recipe as she went.

Mary, testing the meat

And this is the final product...

Dinner is served
 Seared wild duck breast with a pear garlic reduction, over reconstituted summer pears with celery and onion. It was really good, the twins descended on it like starving little wolves and Mike was thrilled that they turned out so well!





 She also made desert. Starting with the fresh cheese I made this morning.

Fresh cheese, made this morning
Did I mention that Mary is a pastry chef?

Mixed with sour cream, vanilla and honey

So, that plus these...


My eggs

Made this...
The batter

Which then became this...

It's a cross between cheesecake and a custard pie

And here is the recipe for the pie. Thanks to my dear friend Mary Mayberry.

Farmer's  Cheese Pear Honey pie

Crust: 1 individual packet honey graham      crackers from box
        1 tsp honey
        1/2 cup melted butter
Filling:
         1 cup fresh Farmer's cheese
         3 Tbs sour cream
         1/3 cup sugar
         1 tsp fresh honey
         2 Tbs pear honey
        1/4 tsp salt
        1/4 tsp vanilla extract
        5 fresh eggs (3 whole and 2 yolks, reserve 2 egg whites).

Directions: pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

In a food processor, grind the graham crackers to make fine crumbs. Melt butter and add to graham cracker crumbs, pulse for a few seconds. Add honey and pulse again. Butter a glass pie tin, form the crust and bake for 5 min.

Filling;
In a food processor, combine farmer's cheese & sour cream and pulse until very smooth. Add sugar and pulse again. Remember to scrape the bowl to ensure no lumps. Add the vanilla, honey, pear honey and salt. Pulse to combine, scrape bowl and add whole eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Whip egg whites to medium-soft peak and fold into first mixture in three parts. Pour into pie dish and bake in a water bath for 25 min in middle of oven.








7 comments:

  1. Larry?! You ate Larry? Oh wow...LOL!

    Everything looks so yummy!! Mary is going to want to start her own farm...or does she already have one? Amazing how well you young ladies are doing. BIG TIME PROPS to you both! I couldn't ever do it.

    Thank you for sharing the day with us =)

    ~Jill

    ReplyDelete
  2. We did NOT eat Larry! These were wild ducks from the creek, LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL....Whew! I'm happy to hear this.
    ~Jill

    ReplyDelete
  4. And no, Mary does not have a farm, she lives in the city. I think I'm converting her though. She wants chickens. That's how it all starts...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hahaha! So you are saying that Chickens are the gateway drug yes? I would have to agree. We have vegetables growing but we can't have chickens in this subdivision. It's making us crazy having to buy eggs. Great post. Totally TLC or Food Channel worthy! The presentation was so pretty! So what was the taste comparison to you other cheesecakes?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, Jen, chickens ARE the gateway drug to farming. It may seem harmless at first, but next thing you know you're comparing seed varieties and contemplating dairy cows. Lol!
    The pie was amazing. A lot like custard, and not too sweet. It was less dense than my recipe but still creamy. It was so good I threatened to keep Mary locked in the basement (which I don't even have) so she could bake it for me forever (I may have laughed maniacly at that point!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. You'll just have to build a basement

    ReplyDelete