dinner!

Today was crazy busy and awesome and way more productive than I thought it would be.

After I got back from trying on dresses (and are there ever a million and one stories there for you!), Lauren and I spent a couple hours chilling at my place before she made her way down to Union. As soon as she left, busy time started with me, as Bunny's sister and her fiance came over for dinner.

What a magnificient dinner it was. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding and the broccoli and cauliflower gratin that popped up on The Kitchn a little while back. We finished things off with some chocolate and orange cupcakes I'd made a few weeks back and Bunny and I had popped in the freezer.

Can we talk about how good that gratin was? Bunny's sister went crazy over it and I had to print out the recipe for it. Even Bunny said he wants me to make it again, and he doesn't even like cauliflower. I did a few variations, and I would change a few more things when making it again, but all in all it was good.

Notes for next time:
I found there was too much mornay in the dish - the vegetables didn't need to be smothered quite so much. Next time I'll go for a much lighter coating. Probably as well I'll change to red onions, and maybe see if I can saute some mushrooms in with them. Also I think I'd like a richer butter in the topping.
Surprisingly, I would have liked bigger florets of broccoli and cauliflower than what I did there.

What I think is great about the dish is that even with me doing all sorts of details, the vegetable dish ended up being the star of the show. I could see doing a much simpler dinner with that. It's so much like mac and cheese, that you could almost have it on it's own as a meal.

I think it would pair amazingly, though, with a really lovely roasted chicken breast (or even cheat and buy a rotisserie one at the grocery store, really). Just the two things would stand up as a meal very nicely. With the gooey, creamy-ness of the mornay coating everything, it was really a very rich and filling dish. The sauce was substantial, which made all the difference in the world.

Success!