Souffle

So, my computer made a liar out of me. It's been down for the better part of two days, and I am only now able to play catch up with all my blogs and all my email. But as promised, here is a post for you to enjoy on your relaxing Sunday afternoon (if you happen to live on an island in the eastern Pacific.)

Have any of you ever tried to make a souffle with a two-year-old running rampant through your kitchen?? Just wondering. Actually, a friend and I took a "free" course on how to make souffles at our local Williams Sonoma. I say "free" because these courses are part of the store's ingenious promotion technique: tell the customer its free, promote every gadget in the store in preparation of the dish, and make sure to rave about how you can't possibly make the dish as easily without it, be sure to throw in a few "it's that simple"'s or "see how easy that is"'s for added emphasis, make yourself readily available after the demonstration for the horde of wanna-be chefs searching for these "necessities," and be sure to tell the suckers, er...I mean....customers about all future cooking lessons to be held at the store.

Needless to say, we fell hook, line, and sinker. Yes, after buying myself a proper souffle dish, a new pastry brush, and an egg separator (I know, I could just use the two shell halves like I've always done, but the separating tool was just so cute, and I just had to give it a new home in my "useless kitchen gadgets drawer." My garlic press and wire cheese slicer were getting so tired of each other, and I thought it was only fair to bring them home a new friend.)

Anyway, tonight was the night I was going to try out Julia Child's Souffle Au Fromage (i.e., Cheese Souffle.) I used Gruyere, cayenne pepper and a little nutmeg, only slightly varying from the Williams Sonoma recipe. If you are not familiar with souffle's, they are one of the most finicky recipes to try and cook. After wasting my first 5 eggs by accidently breaking the yolk of the fifth egg into my egg separator gadget thingy, I was a little distressed. You see, not even a drop of yolk the size of a pin-head can intrude in the egg whites or they will not whip to the proper consistency, if at all. At the risk of sounding too much like Julia Powell's Julie & Julia blog, I will not bore you with the minutae of the rest of the recipe. Just know that it rose above the souffle dish (as it's supposed to) only it was about 3 inches higher on one side. The cheese on top was a little brown and it tasted a little salty, but all around okay. And, I must admit, I am damn proud of myself for accomplishing such a feat while tending to my daughter, who continued to spill her milk, then her water (only after dipping her megablock's in it), and to my cat, who continued to vomit up hairballs in our dining room, and to my husband, who kept complaining about how the stupid computer won't connect to the internet,and how I was the only one that knew how to fix it, and that he must be able to log on to his company server NOW!

Well, I cleaned up the cat puke, the milk, the water, the megablocks. I fixed the computer, threw some meatballs in the crockpot (my husband hates souffle), and baked a proper souffle au fromage for myself and my daughter (who just preferred to call them scrabbled eggs). I sure hope you people in Guam are enjoying your relaxing Sunday afternoon!