My wife talked me into making a fancy dinner this year (on a work night, even). I made three courses from David Humm books (Eleven Madison Park and Nomad).
The first course was a salad from NoMad - snow peas, mint, pancetta, pecorino, white balsamic vinaigrette. We subbed manchego when we made it again the next night, because the pecorino was too salty. Easy and tasty dish.
The second course, from Eleven Madison Park, was roasted duck breast, fennel/potato purée, compressed peaches, roasted peaches, fennel tears, and a duck sauce.
I adapted the duck recipe to be a pan roasted breast, finished in oven. The original was a full peking duck process. (I did start with a whole duck - the body went into the sauce and the legs turned into duck confit tacos.)
The dessert was a deconstructed cheese cake from NoMad: strawberry balsamic ice cream, "cotton cake", fresh strawberries, poached strawberries, meyer lemon gel, strawberry cream cheese, and graham cracker crumble.
