The sun now hits my window at an angle that casts a shadow right down the middle of my dinner table, giving me a natural vignette. Kinda cool, kinda annoying, but we're working with it.

I broke down a full chicken, roasted and reduced the bones from stock to jus, dry brined a breast and thigh for 24 hours, blended the thigh with mirepoix and crimini mushrooms, stuffed that into the breast, and seared it in the smaltz that was rendered while making the jus.

While the ballotine finished in the oven, I made my carrot puree and finished the jus with butter, thyme, and shallots. Plated with some micro greens.

With locatelli pecorino romano.

Ingredients:

• 2 large slices of sourdough bread
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• • I used provolone, gruyere, and sharp cheddar
• 1/2 cup napa cabbage kimchi
• 4 slices thick-cut bacon cut into 8 strips
• • Streaky/belly bacon is preferred over back/Canadian

Directions:

• Add the bacon strips to a cold pan before bringing the pan up to medium heat
• Render the fat from the bacon, flipping occasionally until desired crispiness is reached (I went for about 10 minutes total cook time)
• Remove the bacon from the pan and press the two slices of sourdough bread into the grease to toast them
• Flip once the bread begins to toast but before it becomes brown (I went for ~3 minutes)
• Flip the toast back and layer on your ingredients, starting with cheese on both pieces of toast, followed by bacon on one slice and kimchi on the other. Top the bacon with the rest of the cheese.
• Cover the pan, lower the stove to low heat, and allow cheeses to melt slightly before pressing the two halves together to form the sandwich
• Press the sandwich with a weight or a spatula and cook until the cheese has completely melted
• Remove from pan, cut in half diagonally, plate, and enjoy!

Need more practice on my quenelles but I was very happy with the flavors! Brown sugar, apple cider, apples, shallot, cayenne, touch of cinnamon, and Dijon mustard were used in the pan sauce.

I used the unsliced ends of the peppercorn bacon I get from my hometown butcher to cut some massive lardons and fry up some leftover veggies and rice. It's a tasty way to enjoy less than crisp veggies.

I was inspired to try making these after seeing the success that u/tsonfeir had when they made theirs. Turns out anxiety is a big help after all! :)