Birthday dinner at Tru

On Thursday, Betty treated me to a dinner at Tru for my birthday.  In 2004 we had dinner at Charlie Trotter's kitchen table in celebration of my graduation from cooking school and we have been to Spiaggia for a private party, but normally we don't get much more expensive than Boka or Topolobampo.  So for Tru, I got all decked out in my one and only suit and we headed out.  When we arrived we had to wait for the valet to verify our reservation before he would take our car.  Once that was done, we entered the restaurant.

The entrance was very dark, we were met at the door and once they checked our reservation we were led to our table.  The dining room was also dimly lit, but with spotlights shining down on the individual place settings set up on tables with white linens.  I didn't really think of it at the time but I believe only the three positions on the table where we were sitting were lit, the fourth wasn't.  I noticed throughout the evening that everything seemed to be pre-staged for each table.  For instance, when they needed flatware for our table they would open a drawer at the service stand and pull out a platter with the three sets of silverware our table required.

Once we were seated, a waiter arrived at our table with menus printed just for us (They each had "Happy Birthday Chris" on them).  He offered sparkling or still water and inquired if any of us would like to start off with a glass of wine or cocktail.  Since we were planning on ordering a tasting menu, I opted for the wine pairings while Betty chose a single glass of wine.  I wish I could remember the names of the wine pairings, but I wasn't taking notes.

The food started off with a gougère, a choux pastry made with cheese.  We were then offered a choice of breads, brioche roll, chapeau roll, pumpernickel roll and parmesan crisp.  My favorite was the chapeau roll, which seemed to be made of a standard french bread dough.  Salted and unsalted butters were provided, but a carafe of a really good olive oil would have been nice.  The anuse bouche was a savory panna cotta with a paper thin tuile and dusted with caramelized fennel powder.  I wasn't sure about taking pictures, so I didn't pull out my iPhone until the first course was served.

The first course was listed as "white sturgeon "caviar", avocado, hazelnut".  The "caviar" was served in a caviar tin atop a bed of avacodo puree with crackers and a mother of pearl spoon.  I believe the hazelnuts were between the "caviar" and the avocado puree.  Obviously, this isn't actually caviar.  Instead it is the essence of sturgeon mixed with other ingredients and made in to a caviar like shape through a process called spherification.  Follow the link for details on the spherification process, the term was coined by Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame and is quite interesting.  I'm not really a big fan of real caviar, so I wasn't disappointed at all with this "caviar".  Everything worked well together and the presentation was playful.  I'd give this first course an A.

The second course was a corn soup garnished with creme fraiche and bacon bits accompanied with cheese pastry straws.  Unfortunately I have not receive the copy of the menu they were going to email to me, so I can't give you the menu description.  If it finds its way to me I'll edit the post with their description.  The waiter suggested drinking the soup directly from the cup, using the gold wing as a handle.  The soup had a great corn flavor and was VERY HOT!  The only way to drink it was to wait a few minutes between sips for the top layer to cool off a bit.  I wasn't really fond of the cheese pastry straws, to me they tasted like old oil.  Betty apparently wasn't too fond of them wither since she quietly moved her second one to my plate.  The soup alone would probably rate an A, but due to the cheese straws I'd have to give this course a B.

The third course was listed on the menu as "wagyu beef ravioli, foie gras, chive".  The wagyu beef in the ravioli consisted of meat that had been braised and shredded, they could have been from the shank or short rib.  Since they have braised short ribs on their prix fixe menu I'm guessing that is what it was.  I overheard a waiter telling another table that the short ribs were braised for 72 hours, I'd REALLY like to try that some day!  The foie gras medallion was grilled, I'm not a big fan of foie gras but this was really good.  The remaining garnish was chives and edible flower petals.  After the bowl was brought to the table, extremely hot beef consommé was poured over.  Once again, this dish was excellent.  Very intense beefy flavor in the consomm, tender wagyu beef in the ravioli and foie gras that had a nice caramelized crust yet was still creamy inside.This dish was easily another A.  Heck, let's give it an A+

The fourth course was listed on the menu as "alaskan halibut, young carrot with ginger".  The halibut was poached, possibly in butter, and was cooked perfectly.  It was just to the point of flaking, moist and seasoned just right.  It was served with three preparations of carrots, the baby carrot with micro parsley, a reduction of carrot and ginger and a carrot foam.  Once again, I didn't see many problems with this course.  Everything was cooked perfectly.  Betty wasn't sure about the foam and Jenny ended passing most of her halibut to me.  Oh well, I was making out like a bandit that night.  Even if others might not have enjoyed this course as much as I did, I'll still give this course another A.

The fifth course was described as "glazed veal ribeye, spring garlic, asparagus, wild mushroom.  The portion size was a little small on this one, there were three thin slices of veal, a caramelized spring garlic, two asparagus spears and three types of wild mushrooms.  The flavors were excellent and because the halibut portion in the fourth course was fairly large I won't hold the portion size against this course.  I just with there had been more of it!  I believe the sauce on the plate was a veal demi-glace.  Everything was again cooked to perfection and seasoned just right.  There is a reason placed like Tru don't have salt and pepper shakers on the table!  I'll give this course another A.





Between the fifth and sixth coursed, the "treat" cart was rolled over and we got to choose a few small sweets.  The offerings included truffles, house-made marshmallows, macaroons, fruit jellies and small chocolate tortes.  Each of us chose several and everything was excellent.  I had the chocolate torte (which was actually some type of white cake that had been soaked in chocolate liqueur)and a macaroon.  Between the three of us we got to sample all the items on the cart.

Between the fifth and sixth coursed there was a little bit of a service bump.  One of the waitstaff apparently thought we had ordered the prix fixe menu and presented us with the cheese cart and dessert menus.  We sat there for about 10 minutes before our main waiter came over and politely asked if we wanted to change out dessert course or order any coffee or tea.  Betty ordered a coffee, Jenny ordered a tea and I stuck with the remaining wine pairing I was expecting with the dessert course.  As you can see, I jumped the gun a little bit and took a bite before remembering to pull out my phone and take a picture.  The menu lists this course as "raspberry sorbet, yuzu cremeux, crispy coconut".  The sorbet by itself was overly sweet and the yuzu cremeux didn't seem sweet at all, but when you ate them together, as intended, they were superb.  The crispy coconut were setting atop macerated raspberry halves with what I believe was raspberry coulis used to stick them in place.  This dish was another home run, definately and A.


The final thing, which I didn't get a picture of, was a small chocolate torte with ganache frosting and two lit birthday candles sticking out the top.  This was about the diameter of a quarter so there was no sharing this time!  It was presented on a rectangular plate with "Happy Birthday Chris" written in white chocolate.

After the bill had been paid we walked toward the exit and admired some of the art on the walls.  The staff presented us with small breakfast cakes to enjoy with coffee the next morning and held the door for us as we walked out.  Our car was waiting for us at the curb as we exited, which was a nice touch.  All in all, this was a superior dinner and one I'll remember for a long time (minus what I lost from drinking all those wine pairings!).  As far as the wine pairings go, I though three of them really accentuated the coursed they were presented with, while the other three were good on their own but didn't seem to really boost the foods they were served with.  This could just be my own biases when it comes to wine, I'm not a big fan of fortified or overly sweet wines which several of these were.  Now I have to figure out where to take Betty for her birthday, I suggested Alinea but she shook her head no.  Probably doesn't want me to spend that much money, but I may just make reservations anyway.  I'll tell her that were going to Boka and just walk on by a few doors to Alinea.  If Grant Achatz's next restaurant, Next, has opened yet I may take her there instead, but I would like to go to Alinea while it is still considered the best restaurant in the United States.

A (little over) week of going out for lunch continued.

I didn't go out to lunch on Thursday, we had reservations for Tru that evening and I wanted to be hungry for that!  On Friday, I decided to finally try Hot Doug's.  I'd heard a lot of things about "The Encased Meat Emporium" and wanted to try it out for myself.  Friday was chosen since they only offer their duck-fat fried french fries on Friday and Saturday.  I made it to the restaurant just before it opened at 10:30 am, and the line already stretched half way down the block.  By the time I made it to the counter it was 11:20 am.  No biggie, I'd heard that there was always a wait at Doug's.  I ordered a "The Dog" (Chicago Style), "The Paul Kelly" (bratwurst), and "The Salma Hayek" (andouille) along with an order of duck fat fries.  And NO, I didn't finish it all!.  With the exception of "The Dog", I asked Doug to choose the toppings he thought were best (he seems like a genuinely nice person).  My order was to go, and it shouldn't have taken more than 10 minutes to get home, but someone was screwing with the traffic lights on Elston at Fullerton which was causing a HUGE backup.  45 minutes later I finally made it home.

On the far left is the Salma Hayek topped with caramelized onions, mustard, sport peppers and a dill pickle.  The falvors were all good, but the texture of the sausage seemed a little dry and chewy to me.  I don't often eat andouille as a whole sausage so this might be how it's supposed to be.  In the middle is "The Paul Kelly" topped with mustard, relish and sauerkraut.  The sausage was cooked perfectly, very juicy and perfectly spiced.  The toppings were an excellent compliment to the sausage.  On the right is "The Dog", essentially a traditional Chicago style hot dog with mustard, onion, green relish, sliced tomato, sport peppers, pickle spear and celery salt.  I got mine char grilled and it was probably the best Chicago style dog I've ever had.  The dog was juicy and had just the right snap, even after the extra long transit time.  These were not your standard store bought tomatoes, they were ripe and tasted like a tomato should and the bun, like those on the other two sausages, was soft yet stood up the the juices let off by the encased meats.  The fries made in duck fat were good, but I can't say if they are that much better than their regular fries though.  Was it worth the wait.  Yep, I'd go again and probably will.  I'd hate to see how long the lines get on a Saturday though. 

On Saturday, I made my usual trek to Goose Island for lunch and a few beers.   Every Thursday they have their Beer Premier, which I occasionally make it to but usually wait until the weekend to try their new offerings.  This week the premier is their Midway IPA and this weeks "Farmer's Market" series beer is the Midway IPA infused with fresh apricots from the Green City Market.  

For lunch I ordered one of their specials, a house-made kielbasa sausage on a pretzel roll topped with caramelized onions and dusseldorf mustard with a side of fries and their truffle aioli to dip them in.  The sausage was a very good rendition of a kielbasa, slightly smokey and very juicy.  The roll was outstanding, it has a very thin but crisp crust and a soft crumb.  All in all, a very good sandwich.  The fries were not particularly good this time.  I'm not sure if they were under cooked or if they had just been sitting under a warming lamp for some time before coming out to me.  Oh well, the beer makes up for an occasional misfire on the food and keeps me coming back!  The Midway IPA was fantastic, I ended up having two of them while I finished my lunch.  The new brewmaster Jarod is kepping the quality as high as his predecessor Wil did.  As long as they keep producing excellent beers I'll keep buying them!  I've never been to the Wrigleyville Goose Island location, but I understand that they are smack-dab in the middle of the recently approved hotel-retail development for that block.  I hope they manage to stay where they are!

A (little over a) week of going out for lunch.

At work we were asked to plan out all our vacation time for the entire year by March.  We were in desperate need of an additional employee and this was a way to show how this person would be used and justify the hiring.  I chose to take the week of July 26th off mainly because my birthday is this week and there are a lot of places I'd been meaning to visit for lunch but never had the time.  Each day this week I've been trying to visit a place I've never been to or haven't been to for a long time.

The first place I went to actually was before my vacation.  Old Town Social is a bar that opened up ten months ago less than two blocks from where I live.  It's on a section of North Avenue that I rarely walk by, and when driving by I figured it was just some kind of hook-up bar so I never took the time to go in.  I began hearing things on the local boards about the house made sausages and cured meats, so last week I decided to walk over and try it out.  The interior is nice, high ceilings, huge windows, wooden tables, high chairs and a huge bar.  I took a seat at the bar and started looking over the fairly extensive list of draft and bottled beers.  The first beer I tried was a New Belgium Ranger IPA.  Very nice!  I ordered some food to go, the special of the day was a duck andouille hoagie with a spicy aioli so I ordered one of those and an order of vidalia onion rings.  I then had a Lagunitas IPA while I was waiting.  Again a very nice hoppy beer!  The food arrived and I quickly walked home.

The duck andouille hoagie was excellent.  The sausage had a great smokey flavor with all the spiciness you expect from an andouille sausage.  The roll was buttered and nicely toasted, which made for a great contrast with the other softer ingredients.  At a price of $9 it was worth every penny. 

One thing about Old Town Social is that everything is a la carte.  The prices look cheap until you realize that a side of fries or onion rings will set you back another $5.  The onion rings were good, but seemed a bit oily by the time I got to them.  I blame this on the way they were packed, the box was sealed tightly in plastic wrap so the rings were basically steaming all the way home.  The dipping sauce is the same aioli that was on the hoagie.



Betty and I went back a few days later for dinner.  I ordered the hamburger "their way", which includes cheddar, pickle, lettuce, tomato, house made bacon, aioli and a fried egg on a sesame seed roll.  Betty had the B.L.T. and we ordered a boudin sausage and an order of fries on the side.  The burger was good, flavors were all there, but it was cooked well over the medium I had ordered.  I also wasn't a big fan of the bun, which I think was house made.  It didn't have enough "give" so when I took a bite things started getting squeezed out the back.  If they had a softer bun and could have cooked it to the right temperature it would have been superb.  Betty liked the B.L.T.  The fries were very good, crispy with a soft interior, but a little on the greasy side.  I don't know about the boudin, Betty thought there was too much liver flavor in it and I wasn't a fan of the texture.  The only reason we ordered it was because they were out the the duck andouille.  There is still a lot on the menu I'd like to try, so I'll be back.  In a few weeks when we have the Air and Water show and the Ginza Festival happening on the same weekend I'll be stuck in the neighborhood, so I'll go again.

OK, now on to the actual vacation...  On Saturday I went to Goose Island, as I often do.  Love their beers and the food at the Clyborne location is somewhat more upscale than their other location on Clark in Wrigleyville.  I wasn't very hungry so I tried the rabbit rolls, which were very tasty.  I pretty much go to Goose every Saturday to try out their new beer of the week and have lunch.

On Monday Betty and I went to 90 Miles Cuban Cafe.  We had seen the location on Clybourn last year when we went to a play at the Viaduct Theater, but it was closed by the time the play let out.  For this outing we went to the location at 2540 W. Armitage.  I ordered the cubano sandwich and Betty ordered an special that the waiter recommended.  It was chunks of pork which had been marinated in white wine and citrus, then deep fried and topped with a garlic sauce.  It was very good and came with sweet plantains and a mix of black beans and rice.  My cubano sandwich was forgettable.  The bread was what you would expect for a cubano, but the interior was soggy as if it had been made earlier and reheated.  The ham and the roast pork were used sparingly, and the sandwich was pretty bland.  The version at Goose Island is much better.  I wouldn't order one of their cubano sandwiches again, but I would try their dinners.

Tuesday I went to Piece.  It's a brewery and pizzaria that specializes in New Haven style pizza.  They have a lunch special which is an individual pizza with three toppings for $7.95.  I chose pepperoni, suasage and black olives and it was excellent as usual.  Each year around my birthday I try to have a lunch at Piece.

Today (Wednesday) I went to Revolution Brewery on Milwaukee Blvd.  This is a newish brewpub which I have visited before, and always ordered their pizza (which is good!).  Today I wanted to try their burger.

The Workingman burger I ordered comes with aged cheddar, beer onions, bacon, lettuce and tomato on a house made poppy seed bun.  I asked for the burger to be cooked medium, and it came just as requested.  This bun is MUCH better than the one at Old Town Social, when you squeeze down on the burger to take a bite the bun gives enough so that the toppings don't spill out the back.  Yet it was sturdy enough to stand up to the drippings so it didn't fall apart.  I have to say that the burger and toppings at Old Town Social were tastier, if you were to mix the bun at Revolution with the burger and fixings at OTS you would have an outstanding burger.  Fries were good, not particularly crispy but not greasy either.  It would have been nice to have some dipping sauce instead of ketchup, but that is excusable.  I like mayonnaise or blue cheese dressing personally, but I guess I'm just a freak that way.



That's all for now, I'll add more mini-reviews of places as I visit them.  Th main event will be a dinner at Tru on Thursday.  Can't wait!

Cuisinart ICE-50 Supreme Ice Cream Maker.

A few weeks ago sellout.woot.com offered a refurbished Cuisinart ICE-50 ice cream maker as their deal of the day for $139.  This model of ice cream maker has a compressor built in, so no more freezer bowls taking up limited space in the freezer and no more planning 24 hours ahead when I want to make a batch of ice cream.  I had wanted this type of machine for a long time, but the normal price of $250 was a bit more than I was willing to pay for something I really didn't need.  At $139 I was able to rationalize the purchase though, and so far I have been very happy with the purchase!  I love Woot.com!

The shipping notice from sellout.woot.com had been filtered out by my mail server's spam filter, so when it arrived on Friday the 2nd I was completely unprepared.  Earlier in the day I had walked to the Taste of Chicago, spent some time watching cooking demos and exploring the festival and then walked back home.  All in all about 12-15 miles of walking which did a number on my legs and feet.  While I would have liked to get started immediately making ice cream, I waited until the next day to go out and pick up some ingredients.  I stopped by Costco and picked up some heavy cream.  It's really cheap there, I believe it was $5.69 for a half gallon.  When I got home I went about making the base for my first batch.  I went with a basic french vanilla ice cream, the recipe is based on one from Cook's Illustrated, but I had to make a few modifications due to the ingredients I had on hand.  The final recipe was...

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup skim milk
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
1/8 tsp salt

To make the custard, combine the dairy, 1/4 cup of the sugar, salt and the vanilla bean which has been split and scraped.  Put over heat and bring to a simmer.  Meanwhile, whist the remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the 4 egg yolks until they become light and fluffy.  Temper the hot cream in to the eggs by slowly pouring it in while whisking, then add back to the pot and return to the heat.  stir constantly until the custard thickens at about 185 degrees.  Cool the custard rapidly by straining it in to a bowl set over another bowl of ice and stirring until cold.   Cover directly with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for at least four hours before churning.

Setting up the machine was pretty easy and straightforward.  The base is poured in to the freezing bucket which is then lowered in to the unit.  It's a pretty snug fit but not difficult to get in place.  I assembled the paddle, lid and churning motor in one piece and lowered in to place.  The churning motor is a separate electric motor that plugs in to a socket on the top.  Then, all you have to do is plug in the ice cream maker and set the timer.  One thing I noticed is that the churning motor is pretty loud!  The instructions say it will take about 40 minutes to finish a batch, but in this case the motor stopped after about 30 minutes.  The soft ice cream was packed in to gladware containers and placed in the freezer to harden.  It was VERY good, strong vanilla flavor but not overpowering.

The following weekend I decided to make strawberry ice cream.  This time I decided to make a Philadelphia style ice cream instead of a french style.  While french style is an egg based custard, Philadelphia style contains no eggs and does not need to be cooked.  The recipe I used is pretty simple and produced another VERY good final product.

1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups cream
1/2 oz brandy
dash of vanilla extract

After the strawberries were chopped they were macerated in the 3/4 cup sugar and salt for several hours until they had given up a lot of juice.  I then used an immersion blender to puree most of the berries, while leaving a few chunks intact.  The cream was added along with the brandy and dash of vanilla.

Pureeing the berries gave the ice cream base a very attractive pink color without having to resort to artificial coloring.  The finished product has a really good strawberry flavor, but isn't too sweet.  I'm going to have a LOT of fun using this over the summer!  At some point I'm going to look in to creating a low fat/low sugar ice cream that will be a nice non-guilty pleasure.  I experimented a bit in culinary school with a base made of milk thickened with corn starch so I'll probably start there, but that was using a professional batch freezer which is a little more advanced than what I have here but I'm certain that it's possible!

Fourth of July weekend

I took four days off for the holiday.  On Friday I did my yearly excursion to Taste of Chicago.  The main reason is to watch cooking demos at the Dominick's Cooking Corner and pick up some of the cookbooks they giveaway each year, I have every book from 1999 to 2010 except for the 2001 version which is MIA but probably somewhere in the house.  Giuseppe Tentori of Boka was the one I really wanted to see, he did a grilled eggplant carpaccio with cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella which looks pretty good.  I'll have to try making a version of it at home sometime soon.  Every year I walk to and from the Taste, about 5 miles each way.  That way I can eat anything I want without feeling too guilty, but my legs and feet pay for it over the next few days.  After I got home from the Taste on Friday afternoon I went upstairs to my computer.  The doorbell rang later that afternoon, and it took me so long to get on my feet and down to the door that I almost missed FedEx delivering a package I had ordered from Sellout.woot.com earlier in the week.  I'm glad I was able to make it, the package contained my new Cuisinart ICE-50 ice cream maker!  I'll write about that later.

On Saturday I started planning the menu for our July 5th cookout.  Steaks are the tradition, so I went to Costco and found some nicely marbled USDA prime ribeyes.  These were BIG steaks!  About 2" thick and 1 1/2 pounds apiece.  When I got home I seasoned each steak with pepper and garlic, then placed them on a cooling rack and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 days loosely covered with paper towels to allow a bit of the natural moisture to evaporate.  Not quite the same as dry aging, but it does improve the flavors IMO.  I decided to cook the steaks sous vide this year, so the morning of the cookout I salted both sides of the steaks, vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer.  Since there were only three of us and we would be making some baked salmon as well, I only needed to cook one of the steaks.  The immersion circulator was set up and set to 135 degrees.  The steak was placed in to the water bath frozen and left for about 4 hours before being removed and allowed to cool a bit in the bag.  I lit a full chimney of charcoal and dumped it all on one side of the grill once it was ready, then evened out the coals with a trowel and threw on a handful of soaked cherry wood chips.  The steak was de-bagged, dried off and coated with a liberal amount of oil before being placed on the grill.  About a minute per side produced a really nice crust, and since the meat had been allowed to cool off a bit before searing the interior remained a perfect medium rare.  I really love this cooking method.  Outstanding results that rival the best steakhouses, and I have two more in the freezer ready to go!  The salmon was made simply by spreading a little mustard and seasoning on top, then cooking it in the toaster oven in some heat-proof plates we have.  Nothing could be simpler and just one plate to clean!


For sides we had corn of the cob, green beans and french fries.  The corn was simple, I cut of the ends and immediately submerged them in a salt/sugar brine.  The corn was then grilled until some of the kernels were slightly caramelized, then dressed with a drizzle of really good olive oil from Old Town Oil.  Since it had been soaked in brine, no additional seasoning was needed.  The green beans where simply steamed in the microwave for about 4 minutes and seasoned with some salt, pepper and garlic.


French fries may sound like a strange choice, but a well done fry can be sublime.  The process starts by cutting russet potatoes in to 3/8" batons and immediately placing them in cold water.  Once all the potatoes were cut, I rinsed them in several changes of water, then covered them again and put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight.  About an hour before serving the meal, I filled my fryer with oil and heated it up to 325 degrees.  The potatoes were drained and dried on paper towels to get as much moisture off them as possible.  This is important if you don't want to be wiping oil off of everything later.  The dried fries were placed in the fryer and cooked for about 5-6 minutes until they just started to get brown on the edges.  Then they were removed and allowed to cool down on a paper lined sheet pan.  Meanwhile, the oil in the fryer is increased to 375 degrees.  While it was heating up I mixed salt, pepper, finely minced garlic and finely minced rosemary in a small bowl.  Once the oil reached temperature, the fries were placed back in the fryer and cooked until they were golden brown.  When done they were put in a bowl, tossed with the salt/pepper/garlic/rosemary mix, and placed on a paper towel lined plate to drain.  It's important to season fried food as soon as they get out of the oil, the seasonings tend to stick better than if it is done later.  These fries were perfect, crisp on the outside with an almost creamy interior.  No ketchup necessary!


We have two cats named Pika and Boo.  For some unknown reason their nicknames are Peach and Booberry, so I made a blueberry and peach pie as a dessert.  This was a Sandra Lee moment, so don't shoot me.  I made an all butter pate brisee, rolled it out and lined a pie tin.  The filling started with a can of pre-made blueberry pie filling which I topped with slices of canned peaches that had been drained.  The syrup from the peaches was mixed with tapiocca flour and cinnamon and poured over the peaches.  I made a crumble topping by crushing some lemon snaps, mixing with some butter and cinnamon and sprinkling over the top.  The oven was heated to 400 degrees with a pizza stone in place and the pie was placed directly on the hot stone to help cook the bottom layer of crust.  By the time we were ready to eat the pie, it had cooled but was still warm.  It was served with homemade vanilla ice cream made made in the new Cuisinart and chantilly cream.  I plan on posting about the new ice cream maker sometime in the near future.  All in all an excellent meal!