Bloggers Are The Nicest People

Blogging has been an adventure beyond anything I anticipated.  I didn't realize how supported I would feel when I decided to join a cooking group, French Fridays with Dorie.  This is a great bunch of bloggers;  supportive, kind, funny and best of all opinionated!  I enjoy opinionated people.

Kathy at Bakeawaywith me is exactly that kind of blogger and she has very nicely passed on the Liebster Blog award to me.  You need to check out Kathy's blog.  Her tag line is "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand."  Now who wouldn't love her!

And lastly, I would like to pass along this award to Life on Autumn Trail, my fabulous daughter in law, Mixed Grill Favorites, My Life as a Chic Country Cowgirl, Maggie's Mealtime Magic, Confessions of a Culinary Diva.  All of them are entertaining and interesting blogs, especially Life on Autumn Trail, its about my grandson, but I swear I'm not prejudiced!

FFwD - Quatre-Quarts

quatre-quarts

This is the kind of cake that everyone needs to know how to make.  You can do anything with it; it can be cupcakes or a layer cake.  You can use it as a base for fruit, frost it or serve it plain.  It can be a family dinner dessert, a special occasion cake or just a snack.  I've been making a similar cake for  quite a while from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.  I love that title...I love that cookbook!

People that grew up eating cakes made from a mix sometimes think made from scratch cakes are dry but to me cake mixes produce a gummy cake.  You know like packaged white bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth?  I like the texture of a cake to let me know I'm eating cake!  It was really good with strawberry coulis!

Quatre-Quarts with strawberry coulis

January has been a month of great recipes so far!  Check out all the French Friday cooks.

FFwD - Jacques's Armagnac Chicken

This is good...I mean seriously good...and easy!  Its like chicken pot roast.  You just throw the veg into the pot then put in the salt and peppered chicken, pour brandy all around it, cover tightly and voila, about an hour later you have a pot of deliciousness!

It doesn't really need anything to go with it but I'm obsessed with roasting vegetables and had some brussel sprouts in need of cooking so I coated them in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and roasted at 400° for about 20 minutes.  Sweet and salty and crispy. I tell you if you haven't tried roasting vegetables you're missing out on a flavor bonanza!

A little white wine is good too.  I'm loving Chateau Ste. Michelle Gewurztraminer. Crisp and light and good with so many different foods.

I think this is my husband's favorite French Friday recipe to date.  He just couldn't stop talking about it...and it was perfect for lunch the next day.  He said its like chicken pot pie without the pie. He's right.

The other French Friday cooks have great pictures and opinions!  Go visit them French Friday with Dorie!

MCP Project 12

Click on Photography to follow my struggles with the latest challenge in my life!

FFwD - Bubble-Top Brioches

Who doesn't love homemade bread?  I love it and love to make it and I'm grateful to Dorie and the French Friday cooks for getting me baking again.  I used to bake bread once a week but fell out of the routine last summer and never got back into it.

Here in Oklahoma its been a gorgeous week...lots of sun and not too much wind...temps in the 60s.  It was gorgeous sitting on the patio with fresh from the oven brioche, orange marmalade and a cup of coffee.  I could get used to it!

This was my first brioche and it was so easy it won't be my last!  Check out the experiences of all the French Friday cooks at French Fridays with Dorie.

Happy New Year - 2012 Is Here!

Apple Cidercar

I believe in making resolutions. Resolving. Setting goals. Making lists. Promises. Commitments. I love the idea that with each new year we have the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and our lives. Its not the keeping of the resolution, the achieving of the goal. What I like is the effort, the trying, and when I fall short finding the motivation to try again. And when I give up I can count on loved ones, whether family or friends, to believe in me despite my failures.

A cocktail to ring in 2012. Can you think of anything better than a cocktail that is equally delicious hot or cold? Apple Cidercar. Its very good made with Williams Sonoma apple cider concentrate but its also delicious made with any good apple cider. Just use the amount of the concentrate and water combined if you're using regular cider. 10 ounces. We like to rim our cups or glasses with raw sugar. I hope you love it as much as we do.

2012. A New Year. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are too.

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!