FFwD - Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin

This is the perfect dish for any occasion where you want to impress!  Serve it with a nice side salad as we did for dinner or Blackberry Farms Pickled Beets and Strawberries as we did for lunch the next day.  Our daughter-in-law gave my husband a jar of this deliciousness for Christmas and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves beets.  This is a great way to serve cauliflower when you want a treat but I've just discovered roasted cauliflower and love, love, love it!  20-30 minutes in a 375 degree oven and it needs nothing but olive oil and salt.  Its my new favorite veggie!

I didn't make last week's French Friday recipe, creme brulee, because I'd made it several months ago and   just didn't care for it.  The creme brulee recipe I usually use is The Barefoot Contessa's.  This is easy and works every time! I made it this week using fresh raspberries and Chambord instead of Grand Marnier. I liked Dorie's idea of using jam in the bottom of the ramekin but it didn't work that well for me.  The fresh raspberries are much nicer. Who doesn't love creme brulee?

Be sure and read what all the French Friday cooks think of the cauliflower-bacon gratin.

Clementines and Christmas Fruit

When I was a young child my brother and I would dump out the contents of our Christmas stockings to get to the sweet, bright orange stuck way down in the toe of our stockings.  I know its hard to believe in today's world but we actually anticipated with pleasure the single orange we always knew we'd find there.  In the 1950's a lower middle class child didn't have oranges anytime they wanted one.  Do they in today's world?  Would they want one in their stocking?  I honestly don't know....

Starting in November Clementines arrive in the local grocery stores.  My husband and I watch for them; anticipating their arrival with as much pleasure as my brother and I once anticipated our Christmas oranges.  My brother is gone.  Its nice to have a Christmas fruit to recall the happy Christmases of our shared childhood.

FFwD - Potato Chip Tortilla

As Dorie says this is a "FAST"..." version of the traditional Basque tortilla".  And its not bad, not bad at all.  My problem is coming up with one good reason to put potato chips in my tortilla. (I mean one reason beside the obvious one that its the recipe for this week.) I seriously considered passing, yet again, on this recipe but its so simple I gave it a go. Next time if I don't have the time/inclination to peel and cook potatoes for my tortilla I'll pick up a package of prepared potatoes in the dairy case.  I'd rather save my potato chips to go with a tuna sandwich.

That sounds bitchy, doesn't it?  Its not my intention.  Maybe my frustration over the photography is showing.  The picture taking has become more important to me than the cooking!  I sit around thinking of recipes to make so I can take pictures of different things.  I'm investing in equipment, hoping to make my life easier and my pictures better and it still took me over an hour to get this shot!  Actually, as I think it over, this was one of the first shots I took!!!  I might be getting Christmas Crazy!

You'll want to see what other French Friday cooks thought of the recipe!

FFwD - Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast

This is good! I mean it...this is seriously good!  I have never stuffed a pork loin before and it was easy, easy, easy.

Along side the roast I served mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas. Black-eyed peas that Aunt Ellen grew in Tennessee, put in her freezer and brought us over Thanksgiving.

My husband was in heaven and thinks we should have this exact meal for our Christmas dinner!

One thing I would do differently though is save the lovely red chard for another recipe.  Pork oozing red is a bit disconcerting to some.  Red is all my grocery store had, though, and I wasn't driving all over town hoping to find green chard.  It is lovely, isn't it?

The recipe calls for coriander seeds along with peppercorns to be crushed and rubbed (and salt, of course) on the outside of the roast but I used ground coriander and ground pepper and added just a bit of garlic to the mix for a delicious and spicy crust.

French Friday cooks are asked to not post the recipe but its already on the web at The Sated Palate.  If you want to try this recipe before you buy the book who could blame you?

Check out what the other French Friday cooks have to say about Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast and thanks for stopping by!