Epic. Simple.

In celebration of our little blog hitting 1,000 views since we started, and somehow hitting 1,100 in the following 2 days!, I decided to cook a very special dinner.  It may not seem elegant, it may seem simple, but that's many times my favorite.  This is elegant to me.  I wish I could have had everyone over whose ever been a reader, but....I live in a tupperware.  Call me up, you can take turns coming over.  Tonight is about my family and my friend.  And making the postage stamp of a dwelling smell amazing all night.

Aioli.  It's simple, it's garlic & lemon.  And it's got spring all over it.  Blanched Spring veg.  Goat cheese, from the Cave of course, some traces of homemade ricotta, and bread.

Garlic paste, whisked with egg yolks & salt.

 Whisking in the olive oil, lemon juice, and tasting for salt

Roast Chicken, butterflied, and with a fennel pollen paste.

Before cooking...

...after cooking.  Crispy skin & all.  Don't be jealous.  ;)

Home grown greens, lemon dressing, Parm shavings

An Orange Olive Oil Cake.  My weakness.  Bake, me, wha??  I'll admit, I was cranky.  If you are on my friend's list, and you KNOW who you are, you know this.  However....It tasted like heaven.

The juice of 1 orange, the zest of SIX ORANGES, and olive oil.  No wonder it tastes and smells like singed orange essence.  It's fantastic.

Cake, whipped cream, beat into submission by a vanilla sugar I made recently.

Wines ~ Villa di Corlo, Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro
Hitching Post Gen Red, 2007