FFwD - Rice Pudding and Caramel Apples

Rice Pudding with Caramel Apples

Gary was so very excited when I told him this week's French Friday recipe. He informed me that rice pudding is his favorite food. Gary and I have been married 42 years. I never knew this was his favorite food and I have NEVER made rice pudding.  Bad wifey. Bad wifey.

So for my first attempt at rice pudding I am happy to report that it was perfect! Gary said he's never had better and we both agree the apples should be made for many, many things...as an ice cream topping for sure!

Michael and Dorie Greenspan

The International Food Bloggers Conference was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed every single Dorista present but it made me want to meet the rest of you! And meeting Dorie was as fabulous as I thought it would be. She is a nice person besides being a talented cook, baker, and author. On top of that she and her husband have the nicest relationship! I will be doing a post about the IFBC soon.

This post participates in French Fridays with Dorie as we cook our way through her book Around My French Table.

Live Blogging @IFBC

Hold on folks it's 2013 and this is baptism by fire!

Go....

Kashi Stretch Island Fruit Co all natural fruit strip - 1/2 serving of fruit in each strip with no sugar added.

Gluten Free #www.amazon.com/dp/BOOOHG84EQ

  It's good and great to carry in your purse while at a food conference #IFBC. Love Kashi and what they stand for in the food community!

Lindt Lindor Chocolate Truffle - Made in the USA! I didn't know that and it's one more reason to love it!

@Lindt_Chocolate  #LINDOR

Annie's Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks - @annieshomegrown. Everyone loves Annie's! It's what my grand baby eats and I'm going to take this pack to him:). 100% organic and gluten free. 

Sahale Snacks - @SahaleSnacks - Maple Pecans are To.Die.For. They start with the best ingredients. End of story!

JunoBar from Bumblebar - first non GMO, vegan, organic energy bar. Gluten free. Made with date paste! My grand baby would like this! His daddy would too! @bumblebar

Brookside Chocolate - Acai Chocolate Acai with Blueberry @brookside_choc   This is REALly good and I've been wanting to try this.  Nummies:)

Navitas Naturals - @NavitasNaturals Super Food provider. Organic. Non GMO. The Dragon Fruit is interesting and another great one to keep in the car, purse or backpack

Manuka Doctor Honey. New Zealand honey made from Manukas! Tastes good and very good for you. I heard something on NPR about New Zealand honey a few months ago. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. 

Happy Family - @HappySuperfoods   Another good one for Mr. B. 

Yum Earth - @YumEarth  Organic fruit snacks using real food, fresh food. Mr. B needs some:)

Schaffer Burger Chocolate - @scharffenberger.  Completely delicious chocolate from an American company. Yummy Bean to bar, single source chocolate from Peru! What's not to love. All I need is a nice red wine to go with it:)

ZICO Coconut Water - @zico  Latte flavored coconut water. Hummm...not my favorite flavor but I love coconut water!

Drink Chia - @drinkchia  Drink your chia seeds. We all try to get more nutrition in our diets. Here's one way to do it and it tastes good. I will look for this one. 

Fever-Tree Ginger Beer - @fevertreemixers  No HFCS, artificial colors, or preservatives. This is good! All it needs is a lemon and some vodka!

Bai5 - @drinkbai  5 calories per serving  made with the outer berry from coffee beans. Tastes good like eating 160 blueberries! Try a baitini. 

Suja Juice - @SujaJuice  this is good. Made with organic fruit and veg. Can't wait to try their 3 day cleanse. 

These new products were brought to us by Amazon. Thank you Amazon Grocery and thank you @IFBCGood stuff!

FFwD - Tuna-Packed Piquillo Peppers

I'm tired everyone. I've been up so long that I can't even calculate how long I've been up.  Yes I'm that tired. But I'm happy.  I'm content.  And I'm stimulated. I have so much to process. I have to sit alone with things and let my experiences percolate. Tonight I met Dorie and 'The Original Dorista', her husband, Michael. I also met several of the Doristas I've been cooking with in this fun and challenging project, French Fridays with Dorie. The evening was such a pleasure!

I'll have more to say as the @IFBC progresses and I get some sleep. It just seemed kind of sacrilegious to not get my post up for this particular French Friday when I am with Dorie and so many of the Doristas. 

I wish I could have found the Piquillo  peppers but I didn't and I ended up using red peppers that were just bell peppers in water. Still, this was good.  I recently bought olive oil infused with Tuscan herbs and I used that for the olive oil to add flavor since I didn't have the piquillos that Dorie says are slightly smoky and sweet. Heating them intensifies all the flavors and with a nice baguette made an easy and delicious light supper. 

I can't figure out how to put in links on my iPad. I think I'm just too tired to think about it! You all know where to go to find all the  French Fridays with Dorie posts. 

FFwD - Veal Chops with Rosemary

There is so much that could be said about veal but I'm not going to say it.  I'll just leave it at the fact that I bought two veal chops from Whole Foods and the butcher spoke to me EXTENSIVELY about how their meat is raised, butchered, sourced. I've had THE TALK with the grocers about swordfish and now veal and now I think I will leave it alone. Buy from someone you trust and get on with your life (at least that's what I told myself!).

This was good. Good meat prepared well usually is. 130 degrees is a bit rare for us so I stuck the pan in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes to finish it off.  One of them was a bit too done and the other just right. As with so many of the recipes from Around My French Table in the end its about the method and I will use this method again. In fact, I'm thinking of a blue cheese butter for steaks.

While I was at my sister's-in-law house I took advantage of her fig tree and made these delicious fig scones that I found on Mary's Pinterest site.  I also made fig bread and brought home frozen figs for jam.

Fresh Fig Scones
To.Die.For.

Take care friends. Life is hazardous to your health! In less than a week some of us will be in Seattle at the IFBC.  I wish we were all going to make it. Maybe one of these days we will all be together in one spot. That would be something!

Go over to French Fridays with Dorie and check out everyone's experiences as we cook out way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

IFBC Baby!

Sorry everyone but I live in Oklahoma. When we hear something like IFBC its assumed to be a sporting conference of some sort so I can't help but yell 'IFBC Baby!' Just as an experiment I tried telling a few fellow Okies about IFBC in Seattle. They immediately think its about basketball but that's a long story and only professional basketball fans would get it. When I say no, their brains go straight to college sports and then a worried, puzzled expression spreads across their faces. Is there a new conference they haven't heard of? Are they out of the loop? Is there something happening in sports that they are unaware of? Rodeo? International Federation of Bucking Critters?

Okay, I know its not nice to tease people too much but as a foodie living in Oklahoma I take my shots where I can.

IFBC is actually The International Food Blogger Conference. This year it will be held in Seattle September 20-22, 2013.  It will be my first food blogger conference ever! I'm kind of nervous but I'm more excited.

I've participated in this group called French Fridays with Dorie since December 2011. We are cooking our way through Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around My French Table. I've never met any of the other cooks and 17 of our members will also be at the conference! On top of that Dorie Greenspan herself is the keynote speaker! On top of that she is going to meet with us as a group! I know! It just gets better and better! If you are attending the conference you will know us by our fabulous French Fridays with Dorie tote bags created by Trevor the Clever (that's kinda catchy, isn't it?) at Sis Boom Blog.

I've beaten myself severely (mentally, emotionally, but not physically) for not doing the things I told myself I would do with my blog. I feel I let myself down and its made me cranky and not want to do anything with my blog. Why are we humans so complicated and contrary? But I have now determined I WILL use this conference to learn and I WILL come home and USE what I have learned to make my blog the reflection of me that I want it to be. I won't go into the fact that it is a reflection of my current state of mind and............didn't I just say I won't go into that? Oh I am afraid I reveal too much......

Anyhow IFBC is going to be fabulous and I can't wait to meet new people, see new things, and have new experiences!  Did I mention I'm going to meet Dorie?

FFwD - Duck Breasts with Fresh Peaches Catch Up Post

Oh my! So far behind I'm not sure of the best way to catch up.  Ignore the past and start with today? Do a sweeping post that covers everything from the last several weeks? Or should I cover each week in its own post? I think I'll just get started and see where it leads!

DragonCon 2013

To begin with...Dragon Con! I went to my first sci fi/fantasy convention over Labor Day. Atlanta's Dragon Con is a gathering of over 50,000 science fiction and fantasy fans. My husband went last year (see the fun things one can do after retiring) and convinced me to go this year. We've already made plans for next year and we're looking around for other Cons we can make!

This is just a small taste of the craziness! We participated in trying to seize the Guinness record for the most number of Star Trek uniforms in one room. We didn't make it but there were over 900 Trekkies gathered, one of them 3 months old!

No Duck Chicken Breasts with Peaches

French Friday a month ago was Duck with Peaches.  I cooked it, photoed it, but didn't blog it! I couldn't find duck breasts so I used chicken and it was really good. We shared it with good friends around their pool. I love summer and eating by the pool! This is a great dish for carrying to friends.  Just be careful not to over cook the meat (which I did just a tad) since it will need to be reheated!

I also took Tzatziki which was excellent with fresh vegetables. Our garden had produced an abundance of squash and cucumbers. Now our garden is producing nothing!

Taztziki

One of my sweet daughters in law had given me these delicious little chocolate shells for Christmas and I finally used them. Wow! Super easy and super delicious! I must find more! I filled them with chocolate mousse from Whole Foods then topped with a little cream, a raspberry and some pistachios! I still fantasize about them!

Heavenly Bites


I'm getting frustrated! Why won't Blogger let me go back to the left margin? Errrrrr!  Moving on.......That's enough for one post. Think its time to get a cup of coffee and relax for a minute. I have a love/hate relationship with technology! Who doesn't, though? Right?

Well I ended up not blogging what I thought I would so had to go back and change the title of the post! I WILL get caught up! Maybe not this morning though...

This post participates in French Friday with Dorie.  Follow our adventures as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French TAble.