Will and I have decided to make special dinners on Sunday nights. We spend a nice chunk on Saturday planning and shopping and sometimes prepping. Then Sunday we invite guests over for a nice, long, leisurely dinner.

This week’s dinner is highly inspired by our recent trip to Paris. We’re majorly digging French food right now, y’all.

Escargots de Bourgogne

Our big souvenir from Paris was an escargot set with all of the accoutrements (see below) that we bought at a store called Guy DeRenne. I would liken it to the kitchen/tableware department of Crate & Barrel but with all things French. We ordered our snail shells and canned escargots from Amazon.com and Will whipped up a traditional Bourgogne compound butter.

Roast Chicken with White Wine, Lemon & Herbs de Provence

Will used our beer can chicken rack to make this roast chicken. Instead of beer in the can, we put dry white wine and some slices of lemon. Then he stuffed butter and Herbs de Provence under the chicken skin and generously all over the outside and roasted it in the oven. It was seriously the most flavorful, moist chicken ever. And so beautiful!

Gateau de Crepes

I’m a huge fan of crepes. While we were in Paris, I vowed to learn how to make them. Thanks to my fantastic birthday gift of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child and Simone Beck, I had all of the instruction I needed. I made up the crepes yesterday and kept them in the fridge until today. Then I carefully followed Julia’s instructions to make a Mornay sauce, a spinach filling and a mushroom filling. Then the crepes get layered with alternating fillings, covered with the Mornay and a bit of extra Swiss, and baked in the oven like a cake. Amazing!

Orange Almond Cake

I saw this Orange Almond Cake on Laura Calder’s French Food at Home and decided I needed to steal the recipe. It only contains eggs, orange zest, orange juice, sugar, almond flour, Grand Marnier, and candied orange rind. I used orange marmalade instead of candied orange rind and it was too bitter – do not recommend. But the cake itself was delicious and seriously as easy as making cake out of a box – no joke.

We are moving into a new era of food adoration in our house. This also means we need to move into a new era of gym attendance. But it’s sure fun to plan a menu that’s not so everyday, work together in the kitchen to bring it to the table and then enjoy it with people we love.