FFwD - Make Up Day - Gougéres

Hello Friends! I hardly know where to begin this post. So much has been happening in my life lately and there is so much happening in the next few months.

Gougéres

First, my gougéres. They are delicious. I think this was one of the early French Friday recipes and I actually thought I'd made them but what I made was the goat cheese mini puffs which also uses a páte á choux, though it is slightly different.  I used a combo of cheddar and pepper jack and next time will use more pepper jack.  The little pepper kick is wonderful!

Anyhow, they are super easy to make and wonderful to eat. We ate several (can I call six several?) and I have a bag in the freezer ready to bake at a moments notice. I love having ready to bake items in my freezer!

I need to post about the past couple of FF recipes. I've cooked, photographed but not posted. Come on Lola/Guyla! Get with the program! So much to do...so much I want to do...so much I'm not getting done!

I had my son, daughter-in-law and grandson for an entire week! Is there anything better than having your grown children return home? I don't think so! And my SON is returning next week for a couple of days. More good news...we have a baby girl joining our family in January! As my clever daughter-in-law put it "a little PINK with our beloved blue". Happy, happy, happy!

I have reached my goal weight! The Fast Diet is the perfect plan for us. Now I'm trying to figure out how to maintain but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include 'several' gougéres with my drink every evening.

Happy Friday everyone! Life is good! This post participates in French Fridays with Dorie. We are a dedicated group of fun loving home cooks cooking our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. There is still time to join us!

FFwD - Dieter's Tartine

You take one look at the list of ingredients and just know this is good! How could it not be?  Its the middle of summer here so tomatoes are fresh and delicious.  Recently, while visiting our grandson in Dallas, we had Armenian cucumbers. The skin is thin and mild and there are no seeds to speak of.  They are similar to an English or hothouse cucumber but a bit more flavorful.  I was happy to find them at our local Farmer's Market.

Dieter's Tartine

I just toasted baguette slices and spread them with goat cheese.  I had some in the fridge that needed to be used and in the interest of cooking what I have I used goat cheese but I will look for fromage blanc another time.  Very occasionally I see it at the cheese store.

Since my basil plant is going crazy I used basil instead of chives and I couldn't pass on the olive oil.  Everything was fresh and delicious and I can't wait to make it again. These could be a great light lunch but since we ate most of a baguette and a roll of goat cheese I'm not sure it was a diet lunch!

And then......we had pie! I found This great recipe recently at the Taste of Home web site. I used the tart dough recipe to make a pie crust for a cherry, peach and blackberry pie! To. Die. For. This is my new go to recipe for a crust.

I hope all the French Friday cooks had a good week.  Don't forget to head over and check out everyone's blog.

FFwD-Mediterranean Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad

Several  (10?) years ago celebrity chefs went on talk shows telling us to stop eating swordfish.  They had been over fished and there was a danger of us eating all the swordfish in the sea so we needed to stop eating them and allow their numbers to come back to a sustainable level.  I stopped eating swordfish.

About the time I might have considered eating it again we were warned of high mercury levels in large predatory fish. Swordfish are near the top of their food chain so they are high in mercury, but safe to eat once a week.......unless you are young, or pregnant or nursing and then you should avoid it all together. Something about being told there is poison in my food but I'm the perfect age for my body to handle it that puts my appetite off.

And here we are at French Friday and swordfish. I'll admit to a slight panic. The moral issue has been resolved. Swordfish numbers have rebounded and as long as we are eating harpoon caught from Canada and the North Atlantic or East Pacific we are purchasing fish caught in a manner that causes minimal damage to other types of sea life.  Mercury in swordfish is unavoidable. Just don't eat too much of it.

Mediterranean Swordfish

So for the first time in many years I bought and prepared swordfish. The deliciousness helped me to forget abut the mercury. Swordfish really is a perfect fish...firm, not too fishy, everything we usually want in seafood (except that pesky mercury).

We loved it! The only thing I would do differently is sub some arugula for half of the parsley in the frilly herb salad.  It had a tad too much bite. But all in all it was a big hit at my house!  Usually after cooking fish inside we are spraying lysol for a couple of days trying to get rid of fishy smells.  Not with swordfish!

This posts participates in French Fridays with Dorie. Happy Friday everyone!

FFwD - Whole Cherry Clafoutis

Yippee! I'm on time. I think it's the first time in 3 weeks!  Life has been busy, good busy mostly.

Whole Cherry Clafoutis

I like clafoutis! I've never made one myself but I have a friend who makes them.  Hers are more cakey than this one, though, and a bit less eggy. This was good and easy to prepare. Egg custard with cherries is what Gary said. "What's not to love?" I have to agree. I debated the pit issue, to remove or not remove. I decided to follow the recipe and leave the pits. Next time I think I'll remove them though.

The only issue I had was it wouldn't set!  I had to cook for 18 additional minutes! What's up with that? My oven temp is accurate, or my thermometer and over gauge say the same temp at least. When I googled the issue there are several posts out there about clafoutis not setting.  Hummm......

While searching I came across this wonderful LA Times article about a blind Clafoutis baker in France.  Its worth a click and a read!

I'm caught up on cooking!  I made the socca and while its good right out of the oven I wasn't crazy about it. Now what to do with a bag of garbanzo flour?

Socca from Veaux Nice

The wheat berry and tuna salad was a big hit! I'll make this again as we love tuna and this was a nice change.

Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad

We are deep into summer here in Oklahoma!  I wish a nice rain and a cool breeze for everyone.  Happy French Fridays with Dorie everyone!

Not FFwD and This Isn't Socca Vieux

For me life gets in the way of French Friday from time to time. Many of the French Friday cooks are so organized that they rarely miss a post. If they have company coming or they're taking a trip it's no problem for them. They get the cooking done, the blog written and post it first thing on Friday! I. Am. Not. That. Person. I have decided to forgive myself and move on.

This week I'm in Memphis with my sweet mother-in-law. She lives with her daughter who is on vacation so I'm staying with her for part of the week. she is a great and kind lady but does NOT understand my love and devotion for cooking but she does love eating the results! I don't have garbanzo flour and I don't want to run around looking for it.

For dinner tonight we had a delicious lemon pepper pasta mixed with leftover chicken and a few things my dear friend gave me.....she even gave me the lemon pepper pasta! Life is good!

I would include the usual link to the French Friday with Dorie web site but I don't know how to do that on my iPad. Sorry!

FFwD - Back of the Card Cheese Bread

Summer has come to the plains!  We went from monsoons to heat.  Has Oklahoma become tropical?

Back of the Card Cheese Bread

This recipe is very easy and very adaptable to whatever ingredients you have on hand.  Four eggs make this bread more like a cake!

I didn't have tapenade so I used pesto.  I had a drawer full of end pieces of cheese of unknown varieties.  There was a piece of parmesan and a little cheddar, though.  That much I know.  I had a few olives and a bit of roasted red pepper.  It was a mishmash of stuff that came together perfectly.

I took it to a going away party for a friend who has retried and is going to try out different places to see where she wants to live.  She's going to Mississippi first.  What an adventure!

And, yes, this bread is wonderful with a glass of white wine!  I like Honig Sauvignon Blanc.

Check out all the French Friday cooks!

FFwD - Strawberry Tartine and Anne LeBlanc's Pistachio Avocado

Fresh Fruit Tartine

You know this is good as soon as you hear the ingredients.  Strawberries, bread, goat cheese and balsamic vinegar.  Fruits and berries are so fresh and delicious right now.  We're eating tons of everything we can get our hands on and its surprising how good everything is.  That's why I couldn't stop at strawberries but had to try this with peaches and blackberries too.  They are all delicious!

A friend gave me a bottle of chocolate balsamic vinegar and it was perfect for this fruit tartine.  I can't wait to make it for her!

Anne LeBlanc's Pistachio Avocado

Dorie says this is more a list of ingredients than a recipe and she's right but who knew avocado and pistachio was such a wonderful pairing?  I've been looking for pistachio oil for weeks and couldn't find it but I read on the FF board that many people were making it. That was my plan but since I didn't get my act together (something that occurs with alarming regularity!) and get it done I was left winging it!  I  still plan to make the pistachio oil one of these days!

I have a bottle of chili infused olive oil that I drizzled on the chopped avocados and sprinkled toasted pistachios on top.  Add salt and voila, delicious!  Gary wrapped it in a flour tortilla and loved it.  We'll do this one again!

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and concern for we Okies through the crazy weather of the past couple of weeks.  The El Reno tornado came much closer to us than the Moore tornado had and we experienced some flooding.  We've come out okay and had decided to take up the carpet in the den anyhow!  The flood just got us moving!  I did not know it could rain so hard.  Hopefully, bad weather is behind us for this season.  Its been exhausting!

You can check out all the French Fridays with Dorie results!

FFwD - Asparagus Soup or From FFwD Loser to Sated in Under an Hour!

Where do I even begin?  You can't help but have heard about the tornadoes in Oklahoma this week.  The worst of it was about ten miles from us and not headed our way but it is such an odd sensation to know your city is being shredded and no one can do anything to help or prevent it.  Then when we heard the tornado had hit an elementary school and was headed for a mid high the nausea from the fear of knowing there would be fatalities in what was at least an EF4 tornado. I think when we see the devastation on television we are all amazed that there weren't more deaths.  Of course, when it is your loved one the statistics and miracles have no meaning.

I've been absent for a few weeks.  First there was a trip to Memphis for our niece's high school graduation.  She was the last graduate of her generation in our family. The baby. Our next high school graduation will be our grandson!  It was a proud moment with all the cousins gathered for the occasion.

My sweet mother-in-law and niece.

Then there was Mother's Day with my mother-in-law, a great lady who has taught me, by example, so much about kindness.  The men cooked a delicious brunch while the ladies sat around my sister's in law pool!

Mr. Adorable admiring the rhino at the zoo.

Next we had our two year old grandson for a week!  What are we teaching him through our example?  One thing we noticed he learned is that all he has to say is "Help please Gigis." and Gigi will help him get whatever it is he wants!

Asparagus soup with Bacon Bruschetta

Now for the food.  This is a simple soup or would have been if I hadn't burned the leeks, onions, garlic and scallion mixture!  I was so disgusted with myself I was tempted to give up and let my husband take me to dinner.  Instead I salvaged what I could from the mess and set the pot to soak.  Since I've rambled enough for one post I won't go into the ridiculously expensive frozen asparagus I used but just say frozen works fine!  I don't know if it was because I didn't have the suggested amount of aromatics but the soup was bland so I added a spoon of chicken bouillon, a bit of dried chili pepper flakes and a big glug (yes I said glug) of cream.  Delicious!

I served bruschetta topped with bacon, mozzarella, and tomato (an open faced sandwich) and my husband loved it all!

Pioneer Woman's Bread Pudding

P-Dub, also known as The Pioneer Woman, came to my aid with her Bread Pudding recipe 'cause we Okies are sticking together this week!  I used Whole Foods Cranberry Walnut bread and instead of Jack Daniels in the whiskey sauce I used Canadian Mist.  Its good, I mean REALLY good!

I haven't even touched on hiking or fasting, both of which are entire posts in themselves. Thank you for hanging in there with me and if you skipped to the end that's okay too.  I needed to say all this more than you needed to read it!

All of the amazing French Friday cooks can be found at the link.

FFwD - Creamy Mushrooms and Eggs

Creamy Mushrooms and Eggs

"This is a winner for breakfast, lunch or dinner!"  That's a quote from my husband and he said I could use it!

Breakfast for dinner is one of our favorite meals so when I didn't get this week's French Friday recipe made as planned for weekend brunch we were happy to have it for dinner.  I added asparagus and it was a delicious dinner.

While I was cooking we had Missy Cocktails, also known as a Raspberry Lemon Drop, but our daughter-in-law introduced us to the drink and we just call it The Missy Cocktail.  Anyhow, they are a tad strong and that could have influenced our love of the Mushroom Eggs....I don't think so but I want to let you know its possible.

Delicious Raspberry Lemon Drop

Tomorrow my friend, Franny, and I are going on our first hike.  We've been talking about doing this for a while and are finally getting ourselves together to do it.  Its only 7 miles and not very strenuous but we're hoping to build on this easy one at a nearby state park.

I hope everyone is having a nice, if somewhat unpredictable, spring.  Results for all the French Friday with Dorie cooks can be found at the link!

FFwD - 'Chickened' Out on Cod and Spinach Roulades, Pun Intended

I need to state up front that I am a food coward.  I often have someone else taste a new food and tell me if its good.  If they approve I might nibble the edge.  I hesitate to taste new food or anything I'm not familiar with.  So when the recipe starts with put the fish in the food processor with egg whites and cream you can understand my squeamishness!  So to be fair to the recipe I asked Gary what he thought about it.  I'll just say he wasn't enthusiastic and leave it at that.

'Chickened Out' Roulades

But I wanted to play.  So I decided to try boneless chicken thighs.  I made the filling as directed in the recipe, onions, garlic and baby spinach.  It made a delicious filling or just a nice way to prepare spinach.  I did not puree the chicken but rolled up the thighs around the filling and pan fried them.  It turned out delicious but I should have made the sauce.  For some reason the sauce didn't appeal to me and the rolls seemed a bit undressed with no sauce.  I served them on a bed of roasted sweet potatoes, though, and with several glasses of chardonnay they tasted wonderful!

It was good and we enjoyed them as did our friends.  I have mixed feelings about my departure because the point of this project is to try new things and learn new skills.  On the other hand this is not the sort of dish we would enjoy.  I DO feel that my participation in the group is what gave me the courage to try something on my own.

I hope everyone had a good week.  So much tragedy in the U.S. this week.  I wish peace for everyone everywhere.

This is a French Friday with Dorie post.