Over my holiday break Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to give Mama and Dada a rest. Realizing we should take full advantage of this and some gift money (thank you Grame and Poppe!), we decided to head to one of our favorite close-to-Grandma-getaways, Napa. Now, I’ve been wanting to go to Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc Restaurant for a while now, and the last time we were supposed to go… well, we didn’t make it for some horrible unforeseen circumstances. That’s a story for another time. This time we made it!

It was everything I’d hoped it would be. Simple, well thought out and executed, and utterly delicious.

As a souvenir, my awesome husband bought me
the Ad Hoc at Homecookbook while we were there. It’s a huge book, with lots of great tips and explanations – making the task of trying to recreate Thomas’ recipes much less daunting. I’ve only just started to devour it. I included a video below that talks more about it, if you’re interested or have the time to watch. {If you’re reading this in your feed, you may need to click through to the actual post.}

I love that he talks about just picking a recipe that seems doable, and starting from there – so that’s what I’ve done. This weekend I’m going to make his Split Pea Soup, and of course I’ll give you an update. ;-)

Seems like someone else got this for a gift too…I just read an awesome post that Adam Roberts wrote over at The Amateur Gourmet. He just made the Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables – looks like I may have to try that one next…mmmm.