Does it quack?

The house passed final inspection this morning. Yay! There is an end in sight. I can almost put that part of my life behind me. Perhaps, maybe, sometimes I'm starting to think the self imposed work hiatus may taper away in a few weeks. Maybe. A month. Perhaps. Might happen. We'll take it day by day still. Maybe. Perhaps.

Day two in total duck immersion. The kitchen smells like duck. The sofa smells like duck. My hair smells like duck. My arms smell like duck. My clothes smell like duck. The carpet smells like duck. The dog smells like... well, the dog still smells like dog. But the dog has duck breath from licking the kitchen floor.


Duck liver paté crostini. Poor man's foie gras. Um. No. Tastes nothing like foie gras. Pretty good. But it's no foie gras.


Seared breast of duck with port sauce. I'm getting better at this. The duck is more tender and flavorful. Crispy perfect skin. Barely pink in the center. The duck breast needed wings, so I drew them in with sauce. It also needed some green and orange colors to punch it up visually, but I was tired and hungry. I learned how to make beurre manié today to thicken the sauce. At least I thought I made beurre manié. I tend to just wing it, and make things up as I go along. The sauce and duck were delicious, so I assumed it was sucessful. Hopefully, by the end of Adventures with Duck 2006 (tm), I'd have used every kitchen gadget I own, and maybe learn a few new techniques. And not die from a heart attack.


Smooth fragrant avocado gelato with prickly pear sauce. Thankfully, no duck in this course. I won't attempt to make duck ice cream, or duck Italian soda. I'm still trying to forget the taste of Jone's Holiday Turkey and Gravy soda. Avocado gelato has a squeeze of lime juice to maintain its faux wasabi color. Otherwise, it would be wasabi mixed with soy sauce color. In a previous life, prickly pear sauce was prickly pear jam that failed miserably. I rescued it. Prickly pear only had to change majors. The lime ties the two together. Yummy.


Making duck broth from roasted bones and trimmings. I managed to squeeze out another quarter cup of duck fat to add to the confit. I'm probably the only one to use the fat separator doohickey to get rid of the broth and keep the fat.


Slowly bubbling away mid-confit. Emaciated ducks didn't exude enough fat to cover completely. But it will be delicious just the same. Tomorrow, duck confit! I can't wait. I hope I don't die of a heart attack before I get to take a bite.