It’s an interesting experience to trade houses with a friend, especially when his is in southern France. Specifically in the Dordogne–the foie gras, walnut, and truffles capital of France. We got here last Monday, only a day late due to the volcano but were fortunately rerouted to Toulouse from Paris so we ended up closer to our planned destination than originally booked. The next day our friend, writer Laurie R. King, joined us for several days, and on Wednesday we went to the market in Sarlat. We came home with, among many other exquisite items, a couple of duck breasts, some fresh fennel, a bag of dried cepes (porcinis if you prefer the Italian), various sausages, cheeses, wines, and a couple of confit d’oie (goose legs that had been confited). So last night, I decided it was time to cook the duck breasts. I found Janice’s Romertopf and remembered that I haven’t seen mine in quite a while and made a mental note to hunt it down when we get back to Scottsdale. If you’re unaware the Romertopf is a clay pot cooker. You soak it in water for about an hour or so, empty it, throw in your food, put it into a cold oven, turn on the heat and come back in an hour or two and voila–you have dinner. I salted and peppered the duck breasts, reconstituted about an ounce of the cepes, cut up a head of fennel and cubed 4 small white potatoes. Into the Romertopf went the fennel, the mushrooms chopped up, the cubed spuds and them the duck breasts, skin side up, to top it off. Cover on the Romertopf put into the oven and turned heat up to 375-400 (they use centigrade over here and it was around 200) and left it untouched for a little over an hour. Took off the lid, made a few slashes in the skin of the dusk breast, and then turned the broiler on for about 10 minutes to crisp it up. Over the course of the hour’s cooking the Romertopf, into which I had put NO liquid, completely filled up with juices and the fat from the duck. The potatoes, mushrooms, and fennel cooked in these juices were sublime, as my brother-in-law, Gary, would say. The duck breast wasn’t too shabby either. After draining off the liquids and cooling them I am left with about 1/2 cup of duck fat. Gee, I wonder what I should do with that?