FFwD - Boeuf á la Mode (aka Great Pot Roast)

French Pot Roast!

This is a great pot roast. I made it for Gary's birthday. He had a long day at the river working the Head of the Oklahoma, our rowing group's biggest event of the year. I had this ready when he came home and he was a very happy and grateful hubby!

It was easy to prepare. Dorie suggests marinading the beef over night in a red wine but I skipped this step. I'm curious to see if others did the marinade and what they thought. I was concerned it would mask the beef taste. Anyway after browning the meat and veg I poured in the liquid and stuck it in the oven for a braise.  Tender and flavorful were the results!


While +IFBC so many people asked me my favorite recipe from our Dorie project and I never had a great answer. As I was plating this meal I realized gremolata is my favorite recipe or technique or whatever you would call it from my French Friday experience. I love the way it turns pot roast into something special. I think it is the technique I use most from Around My French Table and it makes everything taste fresh and elevates a dish to the next level!

The best ingredients make the best cake! Thank you @Scharffen Berger Chocolate and @Lagrima!

The next day we had a family birthday party for Gary. It was good to have everyone together and the cake was wonderful. If I had more time I would write out the recipe but I'll save that for a future post. Dorie has a wonderful recipe for a flourless chocolate cake called Michel Rostang's Double Chocolate Mousse Cake that I should have made. I've just been making the other one for so long I kind of forgot about my new recipe. They are actually pretty similar though. I used my +IFBC goodies for the cake! That's an entire post in itself!

Baby B had too much fun and needed a rest!  He had a small piece of cake and a spoon of ice cream then turned to me and said "I want more cake." Cracked me up!

Visit all the Doristas at French Fridays with Dorie. I'm still working on last week's posts comments but will make it all eventually! Happy cooking!

Too much fun or too much cake?

FFwD - Salad Nicoise

Elk crossing

Life has been hectic since I returned from Seattle and The International Food Bloggers Conference. Our son from Dallas arrived the day after I did, my sister from California later in the week, and our rowing club's biggest regatta is this weekend, along with Gary's birthday! I can hear my mom saying 'you can rest in the grave':) My mom was full of sayings. When I was younger it could be annoying. Now I smile at how often I hear her expressions in my head.

We shared our delicious salad with our good and frequent French Friday friends. The addition of a Whole Foods to our city makes last minute entertaining a breeze. I ran by and picked up a couple of cheeses, good crackers, and a few small cakes to share. This easy salad and a couple of good bottles of wine made for a fun and impromptu dinner party.

Salad Nicoise

This is a French Fridays with Dorie post. Join us as for year four as we cook our way through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

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.

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.