Marshmallows
Chocolate eclairs
Soup dumplings
Shao Mai
Kougi Anan
Croissants
Chicken liver pate
Porcetta
Fish en croute
Ricotta
Bacon

Anonymous wrote:You MUST try Thomas Keller's Onion Soup. The recipe is from his Bouchon cookbook, but also online. It is TO DIE FOR. I make it every once in a while, and it has become the gold standard, even when we go out to nice places with the family... "Oh this one is not as good as what you made." Which is flattering, even though it's not my recipe, but also frustrating when you just paid $10-15 for that bowl of soup

I found this on Epicurious. The first step was "try to make real beef stock....5 pounds meaty beef necks or leg bones..."

I stopped there. A project indeed.

Duck confit
Tamales
Chicken stock
Bolognese
Macarons
Chocolate babka
Apple strudel

Google lumpia--Philippine egg rolls. Very labor intensive but great party food!

Some things I have done to varying degrees of success: Ethiopian injera, sauerkraut, homemade pita with falafel from scratch (really good!), smoked pork shoulder, gravlax, Indian paneer and many time consuming Indian dishes with fresh naan, Vietnamese rice pancakes, all kinds of dumplings, candies like pralines, chocolate truffles and brittle, sour dough bread with homemade starter, fresh tortillas (both corn and wheat) with many delicious fillings, fresh pastas (gnocchi, ravioli), duck confit, homemade cheese and yogurt. Wow, I never thought about this before! I am leaving out most of the sweets since you didn't ask for those...

Just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions.. Still a week to go, but made a few things on this list (onion soup and a spin off the sausage idea).

Last night I did a half spin off two threads and made samosas from this thread (easy to freeze), and tried my first beef biryani (thanks to the potluck lasagne / biryani thread - didn't use the recipes, but was inspired to see how much work a proper biryani is). I was kind of surprised by how many steps the biryani took, but it was worth it. Topped off with home made naan and some easy pickles.

DH comes home for a few days before he leaves again, so happy for the leftovers.

Thanks all.. Have a few more ideas I'll try next week

We make homemade sausage sometimes. It's a multi-step process (if you grind your own meat) and is best spread over several days.

Agree with cassoulet. I think my DH uses a Jacques Pepin recipe, it's very rich.