Tarti#!$

I'm making dark chicken stock. Maybe a double stock. And I just burned myself, taking the mirepoix out of the oven. Burned through the oven mit. And it's only a 350° oven.

I need some fresh curse words.

Alwin says that uniform slicing is key to a good tartiflette. I'm confused, because Bourdain says "small dice", and in any case I'm not at all sure my mandoline is going to do a very good job with potatoes that have been parboiled for 20 minutes -- even had I used the right sort of potatoes.

I can vouch for the the utility of a mandoline with potatoes, though. I wonder; is it time to make a crispy potato galette again?

Tonight -- if I can still hold a pot: my first encounter with bearnaise in more than a decade. Stay tuned.