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

Dorie Days in March 2019

Well, no one is reading this blog anyway, lol, since the group long since finished the Around My French Table with Dorie Greenspan.

I am here to play catch-up.....I have 3 pics for the last 3 weeks of March (first recipe I posted separately).

Beggars Linguine - a surprisingly good pasta dish as Dorie promised.  This was a girls night dinner, wine, and a movie!
Salt and Butter Break-ups - I'd call that one a huge shortbread cookie, pretty good.  I burned it terribly because I was cooking food at the same time.  I should have used my airbake and kept a better eye on it.  I cut the burnt part off and hubby snacked on this over the week with his coffee. 
Orange Caramel Scallops and Ginger Carrots - Just loved this scallop dish, I used local fresh sea scallops, I think it's my favorite shell fish.  Dorie suggested that the gingered carrots were a perfect accompaniment to the scallops and I hadn't made them yet so I did! This was our Friday night dinner.

Back to Dorie.......8 years later! Savory Cheese & Chive Bread (originally scheduled for 3/2011)

Hello, out there!  My fellow 'Dorians' have long finished the cookbook and have moved on but not me!  I took a break, several years in fact, but decided that I wanted to continue cooking my way through 'Around My French Table' by Dorie Greenspan.

So it's March!  It's been cold this week!  Good time for warm, freshly baked bread so I was happy when I looked at the list of recipes that I hadn't done yet and bread was at the top.  This one was from March 2011!

Savory Cheese & Chive Bread
Page 35

Not the best angle, I admit (forgot how to rotate pics in the blog).

I used a goat's milk hard cheese and freeze-dried chives.  It's a dense, cheesy, chivy, savory bread that reminds me of cornbread.  I like it as a snack.  Good with a cup of tea or coffee or milk!

So starts my lonely blogging journey as I resume my cooking adventures with Dorie.  

Full disclosure:  I got to missing it and the other bloggers that I went online to try to find the group but no such luck.  So I googled for other cookbook blogger groups.  I found just one-it's a Wok Wednesday blogger group based on the 'Breath of a Wok' cookbook.  So even though I bought the cookbook and have the not-recommended nonstick wok (it's by a well-known cook though I can't recall his name at the moment) I still was feeling nostalgic about my Dorie group and book.

So here I am!   

Catching Up With French Fridays with Dorie in 2014

Here's to a great new year - 2014!  I hope it's a good one for everyone around Dorie's French Table. Instead of New Year's resolutions, I try to determine a mindset for the year. So 2014 is all about optimism. I am feeling optimistic about everything - finishing my certificate in Instructional Technology Design, expanding my role in my job, my family's good health, a wonderful sweet spring, a great garden, long hot summer days....even though it's about 19 degrees outside right now.  Whew- what a winter southern New Jersey has had so far!  Way too cold (damn frigid) and some decent snowstorms (by our standards)!

Our wonderful neighbor Rob was snow-blowing the driveway again this morning for us and as I past him on my way to work, he cheerfully (not) reminds me that we have about 8 more weeks of this!  I use this weather to do some cleaning-out in the house and minor little fun projects, like recovering my bar stools (they look great in their new black ultrasuede!), or getting stuff together for  Goodwill runs.  I just love a reorganized closet!

And that led me to think about Dorie and the Around My French Table cookbook blogging.  Gosh, I have missed participating and reading other Dorista blogs on the same!  But I have to accept the starts and stops with it though I so admire (and envy) the staying power of many members of the group.  So, I jumped on the French Fridays with Dorie blog to see what was happening.  The January menu was there, but there was a new link, one that spelled the coming end.......Recipes Left to Complete.  I felt a bit of a panic and sadness realizing that the cooking and blogging was nearing its shelf life.  It seems this is the last year.

It's January, a new month in a new year.  So I start again......and somehow I've got to see this last year through.  I'll be starting another class next week so that's gonna fight for most of my free time but I am determined.  Instead of a weekly recipe and blog, mine might be monthly.  I will accept that. So here's 4 out of 5 Dorie recipes for January ( I don't think I will get to Paris-brest though on page 475).

Here's the wonderfully, creamy, cheesy pasta risotto (Jan. 3, page 369).  It made a terrific quick supper all in one pan.  I added peas and ham to give it some extra bulk.

 And then it was Baked Apples Filled with Fruits & Nuts (Jan. 10, page 394) These were dessert on the same night as the pasta risotto.  Naturally, we added vanilla ice cream to the bowl, YUM.

The Moules Mariniere (Jan 24, page 312) was a super simple supper on Sunday.  French baguette sopped up all the delicious juices (shallots, wine, parsley, butter)

Christine's Simple Party Soups (Jan. 17, page 62), I chose the Red Pepper version for another quick something hot to eat on a weeknight.  The hot version wasn't a hit in our house.  I think I'd prefer the chilled version in summer, it even has a summer weight and texture.

Orange Scented Lentil Soup 3_15_13

This time last year we had a 3 day run of 70 degree days.  This year the winter wants to hold on with days of  wind chills in the low 30's, blustery winds, some peeks of sun, and now a rainy, snowy, icy mix today.  Next week doesn't look any better. Sigh. Maybe that will mean we will have a long spring.  I love spring with the slow unfurling of bright green leaves of plants, shrubs, and trees.  That shade of 'new' green is my favorite.

So the weather called for soup, and as it turns out this week's 'Around My French Table' recipe was the Orange Scented Lentil Soup.  Lentils, carrots, onions, celery chicken broth, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, clove, orange skin peel, and fresh ginger were the ingredients.  This soup was super fast and easy to cook up, and then puree. Everything was great until the puree....I ladled half of the soup into the Vitamix, popped on the top, and turned it on. Guess that lid was on right as I had lentils flying around outside the blender.  Luckily not much was lost but the cleanup of under the cabinet and backsplash wasn't so fun. That's life in the kitchen!   I ladled the soup into 2 bowls for Husband and me, topped it with a little yogurt, and we agreed it was the perfect dish for the day.  Love the flavors of this lentil dish.  It will probably replace my own recipe for lentils; we liked it that much!

Lemon Steamed Spinach

This week's frenchfridayswithdorie.com recipe, I thought, was the lemon steamed spinach.  It appears that it was not, but I will go ahead with this post anyway.  What a crazy week!  In New Jersey we had a winter storm threat that didn't quite deliver the snow that was expected (so glad!) but we did have some wicked winds.  Then when we weren't expecting snow, I awoke on Friday morning to see about 1.5 inches on the ground (yes, I know that's not a lot) and had to drive up to the middle of the state for a quarterly conference for work.  March's storm in our are tried to put on a brave face, but she was mild in the end. Winter's last hurrah, I suppose.  Our neighbors in the north though got a good 6 inches.  I know the New Englanders would tell us to quit whining, after all, they got blasted again with some getting another 2 feet.  Oh, I love their summers but those winters...

I don't have a steamer basket (how's that you ask?) so I had no choice but to wilt the spinach in the olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice so it doesn't have full leaf appearance. 'Looks aren't everything' is a true adage many times, and certainly the case with my wilted spinach.  The lemon flavor was a real standout with the baby spinach flavor.  I made a version of the salmon Dorie suggested to go with this dish.  My salmon was simple with a hoisin sauce and toasted sesame seeds. Dinner in about 30 minutes, start to finish.

Now I have to go read all about the cheesy creme brulee that the other Doristas made this week.  It's sounds delish!

Chicken Breasts Diable

I didn't think the recipe sounded so great, I have to admit.  But it was a simple recipe using chicken breasts, shallot, onion, white wine, heavy cream, french mustard, salt, pepper.  So it was to be the Friday night supper.  Son is rarely around for dinner these days with his work and social schedule and I try NOT to cook on Friday nights.  Husband reminded me of that. Usually it's pizza or chinese food night.  I assure him it was going to be a quick cook and not a bother.

I didn't have chicken breasts, but did have some skinless, boneless chicken thighs, which I use a lot as they are tasty and moist.  I pounded them out flat between wax paper before slipping them into the fry pan with olive oil and butter.  Is there anything better than the smell of chicken frying?  I got a nice brown crust on the outsides and then I let them rest under a foil tent on a platter in a warm oven while I started on the sauce. Into the fry pan went the shallot and garlic and I let them cook until softened and added the white wine, let it boil some, then added the heavy cream and some wonderful french mustard with provence herbs.  Wow, what an aroma.  It didn't take Husband long to come into the kitchen sniffing the air and asking how long until dinner!  I took a taste of the sauce, and while it wasn't 'hot', it had a nice mustardy-winey bite.
I served the chicken along with some carrots and 2 colors of green beans.  Wonderful dish!  It looked like spring on a plate, more than the pea soup from the week before.

We've got spring fever!  March has now arrived and I can't wait to get outside and work the gardens!  The daffodil leaves are up promising to deliver the gorgeous yellow blooms in just a few weeks. The red tips of the peonies also have emerged.  I saw some red flower buds coming on the trees.
I am a March birthday girl and I usually take the day off from work.  My birthday is mid-month and I've been lucky more times than not, to have a warm enough day to spend outdoors.  I walk around our three quarter acre and see all of the gardening tasks to be done and wonder how many hours I've spent doing that in the last 27 years here.  But I love it, especially since I sit and stare at a computer all day at work.  Every year I say to myself that I've planted enough and can just maintain what's there.  But that resolution doesn't last!  Already I have about 15 new plants coming from favorite mail order company bluestoneperennials.com.  There plants are sizable, healthy, robust, and reasonably priced.  Do I know where I am going to plant these?  No, I don't, lol! I buy mostly perennials that the deer leave alone unless they are desperate.  Plants like peonies, daffodils, bleeding heart, foxglove, columbine, hellebores. I have my David Austin roses protected behind a wire fence.  Deer love roses.

I also want to start some heirloom tomatoes and eggplant from seeds. I did that a couple of years ago with good results. I have a grow light and heating mat that I set up in the garage.

So what do you do when spring fever strikes you?

Cheating on Winter Pea Soup

This soup held a lot of promise, after all, cheating on winter sounds like a good idea at this time of year.  All those birds I've been hearing in the morning also sounds like 'cheating on winter'.  Maybe they want to cheat, too, and get started early on the construction of their spring homes.

I certainly loved the few ingredients:  onions, butter, chicken broth, peas, and romaine lettuce, along with salt/pepper, creme fraiche or sour cream and bacon bits. As promised by Dorie, I whipped this soup up in about 15 minutes.  My immersion blender seemed to be working hard to puree everything, and though I have my Vitamix in the corner of my kitchen, I chose to keep blending in the pan.  When I read about the pea skins remaining after this process (immersion vs. regular blending), I thought that maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. Especially after coming home from my hour long Jazzercise class (my replacement class for the one that no longer runs at work), and deciding dinner would be this soup and only 15 minutes cook time.  Jazzercise is a lot of fun; if you haven't tried it, it's an hour of fun dance moves guaranteed to get your heart rate up and sweat flowing!  But I love it.  I took it about 25 years ago (yes, it has been around that long!) and loved it.  So when I found a local class about 20 minutes away, I joined.  I am in my 4th week.  Not a class for faint of heart.  To my surprise and delight, there are many women my age (50+) and older, and younger, so it's a very mixed group.  I am happy to see mature ladies taking care of themselves and in such numbers!
So I wasn't worried about a few pea skins at around 8pm, when I decided to plate up the soup for Husband and me.  Son wouldn't eat this pea soup; he prefers the Chunky Pea Soup with Ham (it is good, I admit).
I loved the vibrant green color!  That in itself was 'cheating on winter'!

The flavor was decent though I thought some herbs would have brightened it even more.  And I did find the pea skins to be quite annoying.  If I make it again, it will have to be blended in the Vitamix blender.

Check out this and other great Dorie recipes at www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com

Squash and Brussels Sprouts

Brown Sugar Squash and Brussels Sprouts en Papillote 1/31/13

In my house, only Husband and I will eat brussel sprouts and squash, Son will not touch either.
Instead of using foil packets to house the cubed butternut squash, I halved Brussels sprouts, and cubed and peeled the apples, and decided to roast them in one large pan. Tossed with olive oil, brown sugar (though I didn’t think the extra sweetness was called for), salt and pepper, they went into the 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
It wasn’t a bad tasting dish, but I wasn’t thrilled with it either. I’ve made both vegetables other ways and found my own version brought out their respective flavors much better. Husband liked it well enough, though.
My versions: I bake butternut squash with sweet corn with butter and maple syrup as a side dish for Thanksgiving. My favorite way to prepare brussels sprouts is simple to microwave them with a tablespoon or two of bacon fat. Heavenly (in my opinion)!
I cooked it, we ate it, probably not to be seen on my table in this version again.

Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles

Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles 1/24/ 13

Was there a picture of this in the book?  No, I can’t recall seeing one.  Perhaps it would have discouraged the Doristas from cooking this dish?  The ingredients sounded good, all but the tomato puree.  Did Dorie want to flatter the cook for some reason?  Sorry, Dorie, that’s not fair probably, but I can’t think why you asked for the recipe when you left after my family and I had it for dinner.

I used rice noodles (didn’t have any cellophane ones in the house), and shitake mushrooms (didn’t have time to shop for the Chinese tree ears).  The Chinese 5 spice, sugar, garlic, cayenne-- all great flavors, along with onion and garlic, yum.  Sesame oil adds depth.  Cilantro is bright.  Shrimp—love it.  The weird ingredient?  Tomato puree.  Tomato in any version seemed odd in this dish. 

After I stir-fried all before adding the tomato puree, I thought this was  going to be tasty.  As soon as the puree went in, my hopes were dashing.  Okay, okay, stick with it, I thought as I poured the shrimp-mushroom-tomato concoction over the rice noodles.  I was happy to cover it up with the cilantro.  Did that help its look?  I think not.  It looked like a bad gravy (another word for spaghetti sauce) over way-overcooked pasta. 

But I called the troops to dinner.  Husband, son (wow, he was going to try it?), nephew and I sat down and dug in with our chopsticks.  Husband loved the flavor (he’s pro anything with pasta and gravy); son takes after his father but refused to eat the mushrooms, nephew (always adventurous) said it was ‘different’ but he liked the flavors but not all the sauce. 

Yeah, way too much sauce.  Where did the sauce idea come in?  I also found the noodles kind of gloppy (is that a word?) I dunno know but if I make it again it will have some kind of red curry sauce zigzagged over the top.  Loved the pungent flavor of the cilantro, would have been better without the sauce.  Must make a note on the page….

Chicken Liver Gateaux with Pickled Onions

Chicken Liver Gateaux with Pickled Onions 1/17/13

I admit I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of this dish.  I remember the good ol’ liver and onions that Mom seemed to cook up a couple of times a month and I liked it less and less every time I ate some!  So I haven’t had any liver (maybe a goose liver pate a couple of times, but to me that’s not the same) for years.

And the thought of pulling veins and fats from the little suckers seemed gross altogether.  But, after reading some surprising good reviews from other Doristas I decided to move forward and take it on.

Cleaning the liver wasn't bad at all. The fresh herbs are always a good thing.  Cream and eggs?  Spells rich.  It was easy to put together and pour into ramekins and then into the water bath in the oven.  I made my pickled onions with red onions.

When the baking was done, the next step was to turn it out on a bed of baby greens. I served a baked sweet potato with it (so colorful!).  And then husband and I sat down with fork in hand, eyeing the pate with interest and yet some trepidation.  But hunger won out and we took a bite.  ‘Not bad’ was the comment after the first bite.  ‘Not bad at all’ on the second.  ‘Pretty good, but it would be better with a bite of cracker’ was the third.  The addition of crackers was a good choice.  The pickled onions were a definite plus’ it added that zing along with a light dressing on the greens.

I am glad I made this dish, it was surprisingly tasty.

Long and Slow Apples

Long and Slow Apples ( 1/16 for 1/10)

What's not to love about baked apples?  So this was a welcome recipe this week.  I chose the Fuji apples as we love them to eat out of hand--crisp and juicy.
The super thin slices?  No problem, as I have a mandoline.  But buttering all those ramekins and cutting parchment paper circles, yada, yada, yada?  I decided to use one oval baker instead.

While it's true that the dish takes long to bake, and slow as in temperature--4 hours at 200 degrees, it's worth the wait.  We've never tasted more delicious baked apples.  I served it over vanilla ice cream and it was heavenly.  The orange zest baked with the apples makes the dish.  The lovely thin slices of apple are velvety with the melted butter brushed on between the layers of apple and zest and sugar.  Amazingly sophisticated taste from a few simple ingredients.

Herb-Speckled Spaetzle

Herb-speckled spaetzle (posted 1/16 for 1/4)

Happy New Year to all!  And Happy Birthday, Mom!

What about New Year's resolutions?  Some of mine are: to start re-organizing and cleaning out closets and drawers on a regular basis.  I actually did a pretty good job with the home desk, and before New Year's too.  Also, to put away the clean stacks of laundry in the bedroom and not wear directly from them instead of reaching into the drawer for them(something my son does everyday!).  Another, to try to keep cooking with the Dorie club while taking my masters courses but I am allowing some breathing room here; aim for 2 a month, my choice, and respond to 3 blog posts for each week, regardless if I cook or not, and the 3 response blog posts must be different each week.  So in a way, I will be the part-time, 'now you see me, now you don't blogger', and will be sprinkling words of admiration and praise for the other Doristas sporadically as well. I am trying to refine 'balance strategies' for work, life, family, friends, and interests, and give each quality if not quantity.

When I read about the spaetzle, I recalled a conversation with my neighbor friend who's Oma made this for her and her sister many times when she was growing up.  Her version included strong swiss and limburger cheese (I know, limburger?) but she loved it.  So I thought I would rope her in to cook this dish with me, she being a spaetzle expert and all.

So here we were, in my kitchen, reading, measuring, mixing the ingredients, and washing the long unused spaetzle maker she keeps in her garage.  It was during this time that she tells me that she's never cooked it, always leaving that tradition to her Oma. What, I say?  And then we laugh!  So much for having an expert assistant!  That spaetzle maker is a great gadget, I can't imagine trying to make it without it.  So I will look for one in Bed,Bath & Beyond or Amazon.com.  I substituted shitake mushrooms and shallots for the white mushrooms and onions.  So neighbor friend, husband and I sat down and ate this dish with relish.  We loved the little pasta-dumplings with the fresh herbs, shitakes, and shallots in the chicken broth.  Very filling, too!  It was then she told me about her Oma's goulash....so I grilled her on the cooking process to be sure she actually had made it.  She did!  So I thought that would be great with the spaetzle...

My husband is putting away some dishes we use for Chinese food in one of my corner cabinets.  Seems there is a lot of extras sauces and stuff in the cupboard.  Guess I will tackle that 'clean-out' next as he casually said, 'do all of these dishes go into this cupboard?' lol

chicken, apples, and cream ala normande

December 14, 2012 (made on 12/14 but posted 1/16, better late than never?)

I've just finished my first masters course and I needed to celebrate so I reached for my Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  It's been awhile as a 12 week course kept me busy, heck, I could get to my Mah Jongg group either! But it's for a good cause, right, I am finally moving toward a masters degree in Instructional Design.
But I have to say, I liked the sound of the this recipe but after making it, decided I and we weren't too keen on a heavy cream dish.  Wish I had served it over tons of the lemon wilted spinach as Dorie suggests, but instead, I served it over rice.  It looked blah, and there were no convincing 'mmm's' while eating it.

Well it seems I can't find the picture.....enough said on that, I suppose.