Lord, Julia, how did you do it?

I guess it's safe to finally reveal how we've been spending an inordinate amount of time on these past weeks....

Our appetizer and dessert entries for our annual competition with four other couples. I can only imagine what you were all thinking when you read that first sentence!

This contest started long before I met my husband and has evolved into a heated competition that he and his friends dreamed up to liven up our typical get togethers. A trophy of a mounted wooden spoon and secret ballot voting was even introduced last year. Last year our artichoke dip and pecan encrusted sweet potato pie didn't even come close to winning so we are determined this year and have spent several weeks trying out different recipes and testing the reactions of work colleagues. I know, it's a bit sad, but it's been fun. It gave Theo an excuse to get his parents' ice cream maker out of storage and gave me an excuse to go to the cooking store for a new ceramic tart pan. So, for the appetizer I'd made chicken liver pate with homemade rosemary focaccia bread. For dessert, we made a flourless chocolate tart with a chocolate crust and two flavors of ice cream: mint chocolate chip and white grape-lemon. We just couldn't come to an agreement on the ice cream flavor.

It's taken most of our Friday night and Saturday to make these dishes and I am exhausted before we even leave for the dinner party. On my ipod, I have been listening to Julia Child's autobiography about her and her husband Paul's years in France. God, that woman loved food! It was easily her obsession. She would spend days figuring out the exact amount of every ingredient that should go one recipe. My attention span wanes half way through a recipe that someone else has already figured out. And if I have to convert it from cups to grams, forget about it.

So, after having to chill my chocolate crust dough not once, but twice - first after kneading and then again after rolling it out and shaping it into the pie dish - I was not enthused about having to bake the crust twice before filling it with a chocolate mousse mixture to bake. The reason for the two rounds of baking of the crust is to use, in the first instance, uncooked beans or rice to weigh down the crust to keep it from rising. I accidentally skipped the step of placing baking paper between the crust and rice I was using and, thus, had rice baked nicely into my crust after ten minutes. With the time ticking away before we left for the competition and the air seeping out of the mousse mixture I had just beat the life out of, I started over on the dough. I luckily had just enough eggs and flour left and got the torte finished just in-time to wrap it in aluminum foil and get the next tram. In the ensuing hour or so of sitting on the counter in foil, not only did my torte not cool off, but it had turned into a fudgy pudding of sorts. All I could do was try to mask the mistake with chocolate powder. It still tasted good, but it just wasn't the same and everyone knew it.

Update: We got third place! Out of five... I can't help, but admit my disappointment. I will save you the post mortem except to say that all of the other entries were head and shoulders above last year's. We had a delicious meal and a great night. I guess that's what matters most.