October 2019

I am posting late!

The first recipe is the Salad Nicoise- wonderful! Yellow fin tuna in olive oil, kalamata olives, eggs, green beans.....and the mustard vinaigrette was delish!

Next was the amazing beef pot roast.  This was marinated overnight in a red wine marinade and then the marinade was cooked down and then added to beef broth.  Truly the best pot roast I've had!! Ugh, blurry picture!

Now the Caramel Custard Almond tart was sublime!!!  Everyone loved it. And it's so pretty!!!

Last was the Muenster Cheese Souffle.  This was soooooo good!  And pretty easy to make....considering it's a souffle!

September 2019

September had some great recipes!

First up - Ahi Tuna Pizza
Made using puff pastry and combo of tomato, kalamata olives, basil, tomatoes, radish,shallot, basil and tuna, this was surprisingly delicious.  A friend said it would make a great 'bring it' to a party.  Maybe so, but kind of pricey to do larger scale.  We just loved this tuna pizza!!

Second - Tuna Stuffed Paquillo Peppers
Wonderful tuna salad in oil with lemon and capers, parsley.  This was a good, quick mid-week dinner with toasted baguette on the side!

Third - Veal Chop - NOT- had to use veal cutlets
This was ok.  Loved the rosemary and thyme butter but the veal was still a bit tough?  I don't think I overcooked it.....Wegmans didn't get the chops in, wonder if that would have been tastier and tenderer?

Fourth - Rice Pudding with Caramel Apples
My rice pudding came out stiff once it cooled, quite annoying!  Should have stopped at the soupier phase.  The caramel apples in the butter, cream, and sugar caramel was delicious if not amber colored.

August 2019

This month has went too fast....and I have my last remaining recipe to cook on the last day of the month!
But here's what I cooked and what we ate this month:

Tzatziki - pg 24
A nice blend of lemon, yogurt, garlic, and cucumber though I thought the garlic amount was a little overboard in taste and I found the dip rather thick for my taste.

Next was Boulevard Raspail Corn on the Cob - pg 336

Dorie had a good story for this version of corn on the cob - it's baked (simple, right?) but the French made it sophisticated as only the French can do.  It was good! Roasted in husks in a hot oven.

Floating Islands - pg 427

Well, it was a good way to use the full 6 eggs, the yolks went for the custard and the whites for the meringue....Very good flavored custard but it wasn't as tight as I expected (yep, cooked it until it reached 180 degrees!) The meringues were baked in a water bath in a  buttered and sugared spring release pan covered in foil.  Mine did not reach the top of the pan, no where near it.  I added a chocolate wafer instead of chocolate ice cream.  So....I don't think I'll make this dessert a second time, not because of taste but just didn't care for the whole 'floating island' concept, lol.

Last, but not least:  Duck breast with fresh peaches - pg 230

My husband loves duck so I hope this turns out well.  Having a friend over for dinner and we had just recently had a girls night out dinner where one of our party had a less than desired outcome of duck breast.  Her dish came out worse the second time around.....

We shall see how mine comes out Saturday the 31st.  

SO.....I was late getting this one cooked but it was so worth the wait!  I've never cooked duck breast but I gave myself a 90/100 on this one coz it had crispy skin and was med. rare!  Delicious!  I served it over a bed of baby arugula and spinach.  It was a perfect backdrop for the rich duck, cooked peaches and wonderful balsamic/white wine vinegars, garlic and thyme sauce. OMGosh, did I say we loved it?!

July 2019

So here's what I cooked and we ate during July:

Wheat Berry and Tuna (not!) Salad

This is an amazing salad with all kinds of goodness:  mixed greens, tomato, onion, avocado, cucumber, hardboiled eggs, and wheat berries in a mustardy vinegarette!  The wheat berries took an hour to cook!  I left out the tuna because it sounded gross for this salad.  Not to mention that you'd have to eat the whole thing rather quickly so it wouldn't spoil.  A friend suggested that salmon would be nice and I agree--on the side. I made this salad for the July 4 cookout at my sister's; everyone loved it!

Next was Whole Cherry Clafoutis
Just as Dorie described--not quite a custard, not quite a cake.  I used Oregon sour cherries canned in water.  I would NOT use cherries with pits!  Really?  To what point?  Anyway, it was a great chilled dessert, not too sweet.

Third was the Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad
OMGosh!  This was delish with fresh swordfish steaks.  My sister joined us for this dinner delight.
The onion caper lemon au jus was fabulous.  This dish had my sister wanting to cook this up from her yet unused copy of Around My French Table that I bought her in the hopes of getting her to join me in the weekly recipes (never happened, lol).

Last is Dieter's Tartine (pic coming) which I will cook on the last day of July...
Good for a hot summer day lunch. Crusty bread with lowfat cottage cheese, tomato, and cucumber though I may sub avocado for the cuke....hey, it's a healthy fat!

See you next month! Thanks for reading!

June 2019

Where did the month go?!
Well here's the Dorie dishes for this month originally put out June 2013.
1. The Goat Cheese and Strawberry Tartine was my dinner one night!  Simple, fruity, cheesy, bread bliss! The balsamic vinegar was the perfect finishing taste touch,   Love quick creations during the summer!

2. Back of the card cheese and olive bread

I subbed in Asiago and thought it was delicious. Dense, moist, and an anytime snack!

3. Sable breton galette with berries.  I think I overbaked my galette (very shortbread-like) as I wonder how I will cut it prettily, lol.  Well if it crumbles it will taste good in a bowl with a little whole milk or ice cream!

Could have made a better design with the fruit but, oh well!

4. Socca fom vieux nice

I drove to 2 stores to find the garbanzo bean flour. My batter is resting now and I will bake it up soon and post the picture late (is this becoming my pattern? :/) Baked and eaten and uploaded!!

 I also included the fresh rosemary to the recipe.  Never had crepes that I can remember....

May 2019

As usual, I am just making the post deadline, lol.  I've got one more recipe to make tonight but, luckily, it's super easy!!
So here's what May was all about:

Creamy mushrooms and eggs.  Good thing we like mushrooms!  Toasted brioche (bought, Aldi's, French made) with a wild mushroom mix sauteed in lots of butter (did you expect anything less from a french cook?) with soft set eggs atop.  Wonderful for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  We had it for Sunday brunch.

Next was Coupetade!  Fancy name for fancy french toast.  I loved how this came out.  The brioche was dipped in an egg and cream combo and then fried in butter.  Then baked with an vanilla custard!  Topped with strawberries and whipped cream.  Highly recommend!

For the 'free selection' for May, I skipped......life is always busy, you know....

Asparagus soup - Reading the recipe had me procrastinating to the last possible day to make this.  Sorry Dorie but I had to go my own way on this one.  What were you thinking when you created this recipe???  I took a bunch of fresh Jersey asparagus, cut off the tough ends and cut into 1.5 inch pieces and put into a large heavy bottomed saucepan along with 1 white onion diced, 1 shallot diced, fresh sea salt and black pepper and 1/3 stick of butter.  This was cooked until translucent onions and softer asparagus.  I added nearly a quart of organic chicken broth and let it simmer some more.  Next I took my immersion blender and gave it a go a few times until I could see it thicken but still have pieces of asparagus.  Into a bowl with a large dollop of sour cream and a fresh grind of black pepper on top.
It was delish!!!

Anne LeBlanc's Pistachio & Avocado - I could not find pistachio oil in the time I needed to get it.  I looked online at Trader Joes, Wegmans, Sur la Table, no luck....so I decided to use my Wegman's Pumpkin seed oil as a substitute.  I am whipping this up tonight so my pic of this may come in late.

And here it is:

had a bad corner that had to be trimmed off

delish!

April 2019 Dorie Recipes!

Here I am on April 30th posting the recipes for the month of April.  The original active blogging group did these about 7 years ago!!  This will be a lonely post unless I can get someone to read them.  I may try for my neighbor bff, patti the cook, lol!! She does a NYT cooking community on fb.  I'm not there yet but I might give it go!  Gotta finish Dorie.

So.....what did I cook this month? 

Garlicky broccoli
Vanilla Eclairs
Mustard Batons
St. Paul pepper steak

I liked the addition of the fresh bread crumb topping for the broccoli.  It gave it something extra that without it makes you realize how boring broccoli on the plate looks!! haha.  Here it is with salmon, yum!

Don't even get me started on the eclairs!  I knew the vanilla cream would be easy enough and it tasted marvelous!  The eclair dough on the other hand was a bit tough....literally, ha.  I thought I could double up and drop 2 big tablespoons of the weird sticky dough and make big eclairs instead of small rounds.  Mistake number 1.  They puffed but remained doughy inside, denser than it should have been.  I expected a hollowed-out puff ball.  My husband is my food recipient and he told me that he was happy that they were ready to eat after 2 separate recipes were needed; two days were used to cook both of these.  Dorie gave permission to let them rest in the fridge for a couple of days.  He was SICK of hearing me complain that I didn't want to make them; I'm more a foody than a sweet eater.  I wailed about baking and making them like I do about coloring my hair, LOL. 

Didn't I misplace (or throw out to Goodwill) my french rolling pin.  Can't make mustard batons without one!  So I had to borrow one from a neighbor.   I used fabulous homemade mustard from my work buddy Carolyn.  Homemade tarragon mustard!!  The batons were a pretty easy bake and impressive looking I think.  Maybe next time I will twist them before baking.  I served these up to my nephew and his new wife Lenka for dinner along with the pepper steak.

The pepper steak.  I used bacon wrapped 5 oz petite filet mignons.  I really let them cook too long on the first side intial sear I think.  Beef isn't one of my favorites to cook either.  It looks pretty awful on the plate I think, too. 

April's recipes were split 50/50 in my book.  I base the score on my abilities to cook Dorie's recipes
decently.  I passed on the broccoli and batons.  Vanilla cream a thumbs up.  The eclair and steak the thumbs are more down....

And that's that.  See you in May! I hope I have more beautiful food to show then.  April was a stretch...

pepper steak

vanilla eclairs

mustard batons

garlicky broccoli