Signature Dishes

This never would have occurred to me as I try never to serve guests the same thing they had before. But Dorie Greensspan, author of "Around My French Table" Houghtin Mifflin Harcourt 530 pages - it's a lapful! $40 suggests you adopt a recipe for hors d'oeurs and make it often enough that guests eagerly whisper to each other, "I wonder if she made (the dish)?"

These are beautiful on the plate, but you're going to need strong arm muscles to make them.

GOUGERES
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
11 stick of butter, cut in four pieces
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cayenne (optional)
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups coarsely-grated cheese - Swiss or cheddar

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat and preheat the oven to 425

Bring the milk, water, butter and spice to a rapid boil. Add the flour all at once and start stirring. When the dough is smooth, take it off of the fire and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Don't worry if the dough separates, by the time you beat in the last egg, it will be smooth again. Beat in the grated cheese.

Drop the dough, a tablespoon at a time, on the baking sheets. Give each one plenty of "breathing space" about 2 in.

Turn the oven down to 325, slide the sheets in and bake for 12 minutes and then open the oven door and rotate the sheets. Bake for another 10-12 minutes.

PISTACHIO AVOCADO
2 perfectly ripe Hass avocados, split with the pits removed.
Fresh lemon juice - rub it into the hole so the avocado won't blacken
sea salt to taste
Pistachio oil
Lemon wedges for garnish. I'd be tempted to sprinkle some pistachios around the rim of the avocado - Trader Joe sells them already shelled.

Put each avocado half in a bowl and drizzle the pistachio oil into the hollow center and serve with a spoon.

I'd never heard of such a thing as "pistachio oil" but you can find it at amazon.com! The brand you want is Leblanc. P.S. I just loped off to amazon.com to see what I was talking about -- sit down. Two 8.5 oz. bottles of LeBlanc pistachio oil cost $88! La Tourrangel is $19.95