Meanwhile, back in the kitchen...

This past weekend I finally decided to conquer one of my fears in the kitchen: Croissants. They've always seemed to daunting to me because they are so time consuming and so seemingly complicated because of that butter disk you have to incorporate just so. For those of you who don't know, this is the short story on how to make croissants: You have to make the dough and let it sit in the for nearly three days (two nights at least). At first it rests on the counter for a few hours, then in the fridge over night, then you alternate putting it back in the fridge with thirty minute stints in the freezer. You also have to make a butter block - which is basically taking cold butter and hammering it into a more pliable form and then shaping it into a fairly large, thin rectangle. Then you stick that back in the fridge to firm up again. Then you wrap it in the rolled out dough. Again and again and again until your dough has 27 alternating layers of dough/butter. Then you finally cut out your triangles and roll them up and then let them proof on the counter for about 3 hours before baking them. And that's the ONLY way to get those flaky buttery layers that make a croissant so fantastic. This whole process has, for a long time, intrigued me and intimidated me. But I finally decided to just get over it and I was delighted with the results: See? I got my butter flaky layers! I couldn't have been more thrilled. It worked. These croissants were absolutely delicious. I nearly ate all of them. I should never make them again. But I most certainly will. In order to balance out the mass consumption of croissants, I made a simple salad for dinner. I tossed salad greens in a pomegranate champagne vinaigrette that I made and then I topped the greens with goat cheese, prosciutto, plums and mint. I think it's one of my all time favorite salads.