FFwD - Salmon with Basil Tapenade

I HATE blogging!  There I got that off my chest.  I like being part of the blogging community but honestly sometimes the blogging part is SO much more difficult than the cooking part that it makes me CRAZY!  I am starting this post again for the THIRD time due to technical difficulties beyond my ability to understand or explain!

Salmon with basil tapenade minus the basil tapenade:(

I'm pissed that I left the tapenade off for the picture because it was really, really good and complimented the fish so nicely....and it was kind of a pain to make because the little oil cured black olives don't give up their pits easily.  As I was cutting out the little devils I was saying this better be worth it and it was!  If you're smart you'd just buy some tapenade from the grocery store and make everything so much easier.

When I went to the market to buy the salmon the farm raised was on sale for $4.99 a pound.  That caused me to stop and think.  Did I really want to pay $12.99 for the wild caught?  I mean the nutrition and flavor are so much better with wild caught (plus no dye) but how do I KNOW its really wild caught and that's quite a price difference.  In the end I went wild and I'm glad I did.  It was worth every penny and the flavor said wild caught!

Our French Friday moderator is on vacation but you can find some of the other sites on facebook.

FFwD - Blueberry-Mascarpone Roulade

Blueberry-Mascarpone Roulade

This is a perfect summer dessert!  Its light, not overly sweet.  You could use any summer fruit.  And the cake bakes in under 12 minutes so you don't run the oven too long, heating up the kitchen.  Bake the cake in the morning.  Prepare the berries and refrigerate them.  Make the filling in the afternoon, assemble the cake, let it chill for a few hours and you have a fantastic dessert that looks and tastes like you worked on it for hours.....and you did...but most of those hours were spent with a book, the components cooling and chilling and setting.

Our French Friday website is unmoderated lately but hopefully we'll be back on line soon! Go to Facebook to see what the other cooks thought!

Happy Friday the 13th:)  Be careful!

Our home away from home!

Do you think I can keep up with French Fridays in a travel trailer using a toaster oven and no fancy pans or equipment?  We'll see and I look forward to the challenge.  We just bought a 27 foot Slingshot and plan to give it a test run next week.  This has been a dream of ours for several years and we've begun making it a reality.  The lure of the open road and all that.......

FFwD - Crunch Ginger Pickled Cucumbers

Crunch Ginger Pickled Cucumbers
Around My French Table

We're off to a great start with our FFwD recipes for July!  These pickles are delicious, light, and fresh, everything you want in a summer side dish.

These pickles are super easy to make.  A little ginger, a bit of vinegar and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Leave the in the fridge for a couple of hours and voila, your cucumbers are pickles!  I used a hot house cuke and I definitely recommend it.  The milder flavor lets the ginger shine!

A friend and I took a road trip to Memphis to spend a few days with another friend.  I LOVE spending time with my favorite girls!   I made these for our 4th of July cook out.  Everyone enjoyed them and I'm already wanting another cucumber so I can make them again.

My friend decided Memphis has the best margaritas...or at least the best margaritas are at the Jones's house...or wherever Mr. Jones and his margarita shaker might be!

We went to the Peabody to see the ducks, walked on Beale Street and spent time floating in the pool.  The most fun of all, though, was spending time with my friends.  A special few days well worth the 8 hour drive:)

I hope everyone enjoyed the pickles and the 4th as much as I did.  Check out all the French Friday posts!

TwD - Hazelnut Biscotti

Hazelnut Biscotti
Baking with Julia

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!  We have so much going on here that I didn't get these made in time for posting last Tuesday.  Its okay, though, because I ended up making them while visiting a friend and it was fun to share my baking project!

These were really delicious and easy to make.  They were especially easy since my friend took care of removing the skins from the hazelnuts!  Thank you DeLynn!  Next time I might leave the skins on.  Doesn't seem like it would hurt anything!

I can't wait to make biscotti with other additions.  The possibilities are endless!  Our hosts for this recipe were Jodi and Katrina.  Be sure to go by the Tuesdays with Dorie site and see what the other bakers thought of this recipe!

They were especially delicious with a cup of tea!

I hope you had a happy 4th of July and that your summer is going well:)

FFwD - Corn Pancakes

Corn pancakes

We have a special occasion recipe in our family fondly called Funeral Corn.  Its the dish my aunt always takes to the bereaved for a funeral supper and over the years we adopted funeral corn as the name instead of corn casserole like she calls it.  

When Gary tasted these corn pancakes he said, "MmmHmmm!  Tastes like funeral corn!".  I didn't expect to like these, thought they'd be bland.  Instead they're delicate.

I added the kernels from an ear of fresh corn for the texture and freshness.  We topped the pancakes with a dollop of sour cream and a salsa made of avocado, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro and lime.  We loved these and will have them again and again. 

I'm kind of obsessed with ice cream lately so for dessert I made strawberry frozen yogurt from 

David Lebovitz.  Perfect ending!

Don't forget to check out all the 

French Friday cooks!  This is another wonderful recipe from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan!

FFwD - David's Seaweed Sablés

David's Seaweed Sables

What is there to say about seaweed in a sweet cookie?  When biting into it the first taste is the sweet butter cookie flavor, then the saltiness kicks in.  After that its kind of a 'what was that?'   My husband says some ingredients should NOT be mixed.  My friend and frequent French Friday taste tester said they were interesting, she kind of liked them.


Toasted nori is hard to chop by the way!  I ended up using scissors and didn't get the pieces as small as I would have liked.  After slicing the cookies pink Himalayan salt was sprinkled on top for color and crunch.

 I don't think I'll be making them again.  They might be trés chic in Paris but just don't play with the Oklahoma cocktail party crowd!


See what the other French Friday cooks have to say!

TwD - French Strawberry Cake

French Strawberry Cake

This recipe was a lesson in fear.....coping with it.....avoiding it.  I swear, I think I need to stop reading the P&Q section of our TwD website.  I'll admit it.  After reading some of the P&Qs I was nervous.  I feared the genoise!

...and with good reason!  Genoise batter is a bit of a diva.  She has a list of demands that must be met!  We didn't use the traditional bain marie to heat the eggs so when I took the eggs out of the fridge I left them in a bowl of warm water a bit longer than usual so they were nice and comfy warm.  I double sifted the flour, sugar, salt combo then sifted it into the egg and sugar.

My biggest concern was when I opened a new bag of grocery store brand sugar the crystals were large.  I mean they were huge.  I mean they didn't go through the sieve I was using as a sifter.  Since I had no other sugar I pressed on and I think it did have an impact on the cake texture.

The beat eggs tripled, the flour folding was accomplished and I considered leaving out the melted butter.  After researching the web I learned that's an American addition and the rest of the world doesn't usually use it.  Then I decided I'm American, the recipe calls for it, fold IT in!  I did and all still went well.

I was gratified when the batter filled the pan almost to the top!  Maybe I would have a tall lovely cake.  Maybe the cake goddess was toying with me.  The cake fell!  But it left a nice rim that I filled with strawberries and topped with whipped cream.

It was a hectic evening and the kids came for dinner (red beans and rice) and I didn't get a good picture.  The cake was so much sturdier than I expected.  Not delicate at all once baked.  We liked it and I'll make it again but this time without the butter!

Thank you Dorie and Julia for pushing me out of my comfort zone!  Our lovely hosts for this recipe are
Sophia and Allison.  You can find the recipe on their blogs.  All the other Tuesday bakers can be found at the TwD website!

FFwD - Honey Lime Beet Salad

I love beets!  I didn't know that I love beets until Dorie showed me how good they are when we made the Icy Beet and Onion Salad last year.  Until then all I'd had was the canned stuff, and they're not very good.  Nothing like a fresh beet cooked at home.  I guess you could say that about most foods though.

Honey Lime Beet Salad

The Pioneer Woman's grilled flank steak accompanied the salad.  The marinade was a bit too salty and next time I'll use low sodium soy sauce.  All in all it was a delicious meal topped off with Toasted Coconut Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.  Wonderful!

The Perfect Scoop - Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

You'll want to check out what all the French Friday cooks thought of this week's recipe!

FFwD - Olive Oil Ice Cream + Catch Up Recipes

Olive Oil Ice Cream!

My husband is a bit obsessed with ice cream.  Vanilla is his preference.  He thinks it lets the simple basic ingredients and the very concept of ice cream combine into perfect deliciousness.  He's tolerated my monkeying around with ingredients, coconut milk ice cream, almond milk ice cream until he finally asked why can't we have just regular ice cream.  When I told him I was making ice cream I didn't mention the olive oil.

"Yummmm!"  those were his exact words when he tasted it!  When I told him about the olive oil he liked it.  I'm taking it to a dinner party and I bet everyone agrees!

All has turned out well but there were a few bumps along the way.  The burner was too high and I turned my back to check on the baked chicken.  When I went back to the ice cream to give it a quick stir it looked kind of like oatmeal.  It was curdled to a point I've never seen before!  I tried straining but it was entirely curdled so there was only about 1/4 cup of liquid.  I was upset over the wasted ingredients and was about to throw it all away but thought I'd google curdled ice cream saves first.  Blending was recommended.  I blended and the texture was smooth and silky immediately!  Seriously it went from cottage cheese to ice cream in a few seconds!

We taste tested the ice cream topped with toasted pecans and coconut.  Perfect!  I bet the other French Friday cooks did some interesting things with this.

Faux Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad

You might notice those are black eyed peas instead of lentils.  Instead of preserved lemons I used jarred jalapenos.  That's why I call this 'faux lentil, lemon and tuna salad'.

Since I had my doubts about liking this dish I didn't want to run all over town looking for ingredients.  I decided the French home cook and I hope Dorie, would approve of using what I have in my pantry.

The results were surprising and I actually think we will have this again!  See what the other cooks did with this recipe.  FFwD - Around My French Table

lyonnaise garlic and herb cheese

I didn't get a picture of this one.  We didn't like it.  We didn't eat it.  It was a waste of ingredients.  I'm thinking how could Dorie think this is good?  Then it occurred to me it was the quality of the ricotta.   Typical grocery store ricotta just doesn't work here.  It is simply too bland.  I've made something similar using bits of leftover cheeses grated and blended with cream cheese and herbs.  Its not boursin but pretty good.  Several of the French Friday cooks liked this recipe.  Check them out!

I'm almost caught up now!  Sardine rillettes are calling my name!

FFwD - Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

Yes, you read that right, double chocolate!  Yum, yum, yum!

This week's recipe leant itself well to adaptation.  I loved the idea of caramelized bananas and chocolate but I knew we would not be able to eat the tart in one day and once cut I wasn't sure how well the bananas would keep.

So I tried Dorie's bonne idee and made the chocolate shortbread crust (pressed in, how easy is that?), a layer of Nutella, and then the chocolate ganache.  I caramelized a few bananas to use as a garnish along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I would pronounce it just about perfect.  It would have been perfect if I had toasted some hazelnuts to scatter on top but I couldn't find any in my local grocery store and decided I wouldn't drive all over town looking for them!

The tart has kept well in the fridge and will definitely be added to my collection of easy recipes to make with things on hand...except for cream...i don't always have cream.

Our son who lives in Dallas made a last minute business trip to OKC and he pronounced it DELICIOUS!

Ice cream waits for no man or woman to snap a photo but my ice cream started melting when we discovered a baby blue jay was out of the nest a tad early and we were concerned the neighbor's cat would find him before he figured out how to get off the ground.  All ended well with the baby hopping into a shrub and my husband scaring off the cat!  Sorry kitty kitty!

Don't forget to check out all the French Friday cooks this week!