Terrines, while we wait

As an afterthought, I made a rabbit terrine.

Tonight, if they make it through the snow**, we'll feed friends on the rest of the rabbit, in mustard sauce. But my very limited experience with the, ah...bunny, is that there are many annoying little bones. So this time I reserved just the legs for dinner and then cut the meat from all the other bits, to spare us the toothpick size problems. I have frozen all the stripped bones for making stock. The meat I chopped up with the liver and kidneys (did I just hear a vegetarian pass out..? I'm sorry)...

The terrine is a hybrid of Patricia Wells' recipe in Bistro Cooking and Richard Olney's in Simple French Food. Haha. Simple. He was a funny man. I suppose simple is relative. I messed with the seasonings, as usual - cognac, juniper, lots of thyme and a heavy hand with the salt and pepper. And I added, at Olney's suggestion, a paste of breadcrumbs and garlic.

I'll only know how it tastes once I've unmoulded it. It cooked in a low oven in a bain marie. Hot water bath. As I type is the terrine is weighed down with one jar of grape jam, a can of beans and a bottle of artichokes, with dry black beans as ballast. This will compress it a little and also press the meat layer below the fat that melted from the applewood-smoked bacon. I've made a similar terrine before, for a dinner over a year ago, and, like an idiot, I did not write that one down. It was very good. This one will be different, but at least this time I took notes. My newer habit. I have a little black book of untranscribed recipes, now...

Otherwise, we wait. For the promised - or threatened snow. I am very excited. If you have a warm bed to sleep in, and a roof over your head, snow is very beautiful. I'll never grow tired of its magic.

**...well, we now have five courses of deliciousness to last us through the weekend! Snow is coming down, and, so far, it's gorgeous.