My flan on the left, Bon Appetit’s on the right…

Sometimes I forget I’m not a chef. When friends come over for dinner I spend hours planning the menu, littering the floor with so many back issues of Bon Appétit, Gourmet and cookbooks while trying to find the “core” recipe to build my meal around, that getting off my couch is like stepping into a mine field. Shopping becomes an hours-long ordeal—sometimes with the occasional realization that my budget doesn’t always match my palate (three pounds of organic beef tenderloin for $80?). Then there’s the prep, the slicing and chopping and tasting and measuring into ramekins for later. By the time I actually start cooking the meal, I’m imagining myself in a professional kitchen on a busy night of service.

But I’m not in a professional kitchen. I make mistakes. Some dishes are unsuccessful. And unlike a chef, I don’t generally take the time to work the kinks out of a dish before I serve it to people. And that pretty much explains Thursday night’s Sweet Potato Flan from the October 2007 issue of Bon Appétit. Continue reading »

Comments (0)