Maybe cassoulet

I was a vegetarian for close to a decade before my daughter was born. I really didn't fully venture back into the world of meat eaters until a bout with severe anemia left me craving bacon cheeseburgers.

I still resist cooking meat. Of all the meats to prepare, sausage is my dreaded least favorite. Gooey and gross.

But I work tonight and thought I'd fire up the crockpot again with something that resembles a hearty French cassoulet.

On the bottom of the crock pot:

- 1 large clove garlic, sliced

- 1 can petit diced tomatoes 

- 1 tiny can tomato paste

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (all I had)

- 1 approximately 3/4 chunk cube of homemade chicken stock from my freezer

Next I browned a pack of sausage links. 

Being cheap, I put three in the fridge for later and sliced the other two, putting that and the dribbles of grease from the frying pan into the crock pot.

Finally I added:

- 1 can white/ Great Northern beans (bean slime rinsed off)

- 1 can whole potatoes 

- about 3 tablespoons parsley 

- about 1/2 cup frozen sliced mushrooms

Or maybe I dumped more parsley than that...

I plan to cook for seven hours on high. Adding water if liquid is needed. 

Even at first stir it looks great:

I did not add water, but after the first two or three hours I turned the heat down to low.

This was what my small bowl looked like:

My family enjoyed it. Daughter announced it was only a tiny bit less amazing than Saturday night's Kedjenou. I expected it to be more tomato soup-like but I'm happy to report that it's more of a savory stew. (I don't like tomato soup.) Success.

I wish I'd made a bigger batch.

Fête Nationale

Slept in this morning and since it is "Bastille Day," my husband had procured croissants from Wegmans.

Coffee, croissants and jam from the farmers market.

Crêpes with coconut flour

We invented these crêpes and served with berry filling:
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 1 tablespoon local raw honey

These were delicious.

Bâtard and quince

A few more weeks and my last full semester at Lafayette will end. My daughter is drowning in her phlegm and her ear tubes are falling out. Target opens at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. We're still barely making ends meet.

But hey, no sense complaining. This is life.

Today I stopped at Wegmans because my poor daughter wanted ice cream and I'm restricting her dairy right now because of her allergy/ear issues.

I got her coconut milk cookies and cream ice cream.

She also wants to cook dinner tonight so I got vegan ravioli, one butternut squash and the other roasted red pepper. She suggested ravioli for the meal.

I also got salad greens and Health is Wealth Pizza Munchees which are also vegan.

And sushi. Because I can't make it through Wegmans without a serious impulse buy.

I also got bâtards, a small type of French bread, because I've craved a bâtard with butter and quince jam for months. A few weeks ago, I discovered Lebanese quince jam at the Mediterranean Deli. Imagine my delight when I found bâtard bread today. The flavors bring me back to Tunisia.

I also made myself a smoothie of vanilla maple yogurt from Klein Farm, frozen pitted dark cherries, a fresh banana and a splash of sour cherry nectar from Turkey. (Another find at the Mediterranean Deli.

My belly celebrates.

Crôque monsieur Américain

My daughter has been hungry for "French grilled cheese" as she calls crôque monsieur, but since I don't have cream, or fancy ham, or an extra $15 to buy good gruyere... I whipped up an Americanized version that satisfied about 90% as much as the original.

Now, if you need measurements, I'm sorry because I don't have a clue.

I started with two tablespoons butter in my small Le Creuset saucepan. I mixed in about two tablespoons flour and melded them together over medium high heat with a rubber spatula.

I splashed in soy milk and half and half, and then cheddar, provolone, Romano and Parmesan until smooth.i added a large pinch of nutmeg and some fresh ground black pepper.

I ended up with about 2 cups cheese sauce.

In a cake pan, i toasted 6 slices of bakery bread, placed 1/3 slice gouda on each, topped with two teaspoons tuna, and then topped each with two teaspoons sauce. I added a slice of cheddar to each. Another two teaspoons cheese sauce. Put lid on.

Then I sprinkled fresh cauliflower and garden peppers into the bottom of the pan. I covered each sandwich with sauce then doused the vegetables lightly.

Baked 10 minutes at 475, then broiled until bubbly.

Sausage and apple vegetarian waffles

I promised my family a pancake breakfast. I told the family they could pick the variety. They picked waffles. My husband suggested the funky French sausage waffles. When I started to gather the ingredients, I noticed something horrible.

We had one tablespoon of butter in the house.

HOW COULD SUCH A CATASTROPHE OCCUR?

So, we walked to Bottom Dollar and bought 4 pounds of butter at $2.09 a pound.

The waffle recipe is based on this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-sausage-waffles.html?m=1

But since there is a universal law that I cannot make the same meal twice, here is the new version.

Keep in mind this is based on a French gaufre recipe and I think gaufre might be French for "dripping with butter."


- 1 egg
- 1 single serving applesauce
- parsley
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1-2 cup diced apple
- 3 Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties, broken into tiny pieces
- 1-2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar

I think that's everything.

Cherry Clafoutis

Today we made a clafoutis based on a recipe from Bon Appetit, listed here:

http://m.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cherry-Clafouti-365670

Apparently, a true cherry clafoutis would leave the cherries unpitted to change the flavor of the baked dish. I pitted mine because between my dental woes and my eight-year-old pits seem risky.

I am contemplating a gluten free clafoutis, using almond flour instead of the white flour, but first I have to research whether or not almond flour would set the custard. I also must make it a priority to get to the farm for eggs.

My daughter did 90% of the work for this as it is a belated Fathers Day treat for Papa.

So-- our recipe--

- 1 pound cherries, fresh, pitted
- butter, to grease a deep dish pie pan
- 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- several generous splashes Fra Angelica
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Pit cherries and mix in some alcohol, let sit.

3. Grease pie pan

4. Combine eggs, sugar, flour, salt and extracts and whisk until smooth and homogeneous

5. Combine milks and heat over low to medium heat until simmering.

6. Pour into egg mixture and whisk together

7. Pour cherries and alcohol into pie dish, top with custard

8. Bake about 35-40 minutes until custard sets and edges pull away from sides, with some browning

Evening wine

I snapped. Had to have wine. Sent Husband to the liquor store and he came home with a cheap bottle of La Vieille Ferme 2010.

Served with Snack Factory Everything pretzel chips, and cheese-- the cheese was a birthday present, aged cheddar and Monterey jack. And sweet Lebanon bologna. And the last of the dates. (Another birthday present)

And for "dessert," 61% cacao chocolate with almonds. My PMS impulse buy.

Life is good.

By the way, the wine was $9.99

All I need

Yesterday, in Wegmans, I fell prey to the croissants. I wanted at least one of each: plain, almond, and chocolate. I know my daughter prefers chocolate, but I'm not sure about my husband... And if I got almond, would they feel left out?

So I bought one of each for each of us. Now I have a colleague who swears Giant makes the best croissants, but I have yet to have a taste test them side by side with Wegmans and it should be done in close proximity to a trip to Europe.

Anyway, croissants are $1.25 (they used to be $1.50) so it's a good example of near absolute purchasing power parity, since croissants are 1 euro in Paris, and the exchange rate is about $1.30 per euro.

Margez

One of my favorite parts of travel to the Arab sections of French cities and to North Africa is lamb sausage, Margez.

This particular platter posted is from a café in the Tunisian resort city of Sousse, about 2.5 hours by train from the capital city of Tunis.

What's interesting about Franco-influenced Arab cuisine is the flood of bread with every meal, even more prevalent than in France. The North African region gives a basket of baguette slices its own twist-- by serving it with the chili pepper paste known as harissa blended with olive oil.

See the empty bowl in the background with red smears? That was harissa.

My travels have renewed my interest in checking out the halal butcher in my neighborhood.

Harissa craving

Had to go to Forks Mediterranean Deli. Read this passage in my book and had the worst *need* for lamb shawarma swimming in harissa: "He ate couscous from a big clay bowl... He poured harissa sauce and we ate with our fingers." (From Ted Morgan's My Battle of Algiers.)

So I bought 3 gigantic lamb shawarma with 2 packs of large zaatar bread, 2 packs of homemade zaatar bread (of which daughter ate one immediately), one bottle olive oil, one side of harissa, one bag of dried strawberries, one bag dried blueberries and a nice container of majhool dates.

I spent $57 but $24 was the lamb shawarma.

Perfumed Pineapple Oat Crumble

This is a favorite from the French cookbook my friend Jessica brought me. The original attempt (with way too much butter after the conversion from metric and translation) is here:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/perfumed-pineapple-crumble-crumble.html?m=0

I did some alterations today, trying to make it heartier/healthier.

Ingredients:
- 2 small pineapples
- real vanilla
- brown sugar
- butter
- flour
- oats

Cut the pineapple and 'perfume' with about 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Grease dish with butter. I used my Le Creuset skillet today.

Sprinkle with brown sugar. The original suggests 3 tablespoons. I didn't measure.

Arrange pineapple in the bottom of the dish.

Make sandy crumbs with remaining ingredients. The recipe suggests 2 more teaspoons vanilla, 2 cups flour and 2 cups brown sugar. And butter -- at room temperature.

I tried:
- vanilla
- one cup unbleached flour
- one cup oats
- one cup brown sugar
- 1/2 stick butter

Cover pineapple with crumbs and bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Clafoutis

Found this recipe online:

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/apricot-almond-clafouti-recipe-9990

And now I'm off to the kitchen, knowing full well i have none of the proper ingredients... But I must try!

Details to come.

Okay, initial reaction: this was incredible. Now next time I want to follow the directions because that would be mind-blowing.

What I made:

Ingredients:
- one large can pear halves, drained (seven halves)
- one apple, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup triple sec
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup milk (I used unsweetened soy)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg white
- 1 pinch salt
- 2/3 cup unbleached flour

In large bowl, mix fruit, alcohol and lemon juice. Soak for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Take deep dish 10-inch pie plate and butter liberally. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the sugar.

Arrange fruit on bottom of pie plate. Reserve liquid.

Take eggs and egg white and cream with the remaining sugar. Add remaining ingredients, including the reserved alcohol from the fruit. It will be runny, as this is more of a custard than a cake.

Bake about 50 minutes until the clafouti puffs and turns golden. It will deflate some once cooled.

Cool 20 minutes before serving. Best served warm.

Simple crôque monsieur

When we had that **REALLY** unhealthy shopping trip last Thursday, I picked up the basic makings for crôque monsieur, my favorite French sandwich which I hated when I visited Paris as a 20-year-old.

I lent my Barefoot in Paris cookbook to the owner of my favorite Mexican restaurant (MexTex Trio) so I had to wing it... Which considering I had heavy whipping cream instead of heavy cream.

I started with two tablespoons of butter in my Le Creuset tiny saucepan (I love Kev and Tracy for giving me their cast-offs).

I blended in one tablespoon flour with a silicone spatula. Then, over low heat, I added about a cup of cream. Pinch of nutmeg. Pile of shredded domestic Swiss, mild stuff.

Toasted eight slices of bread in the oven 3-4 minutes each side at 450, piled black forest ham on one side, topped with more cheese and about a tablespoon of the sauce. Topped each sandwich and poured sauce all over them.

Transferred to a smaller cookie sheet and drained cheese sauce back onto them from the big one.

Bake for about 10 minutes until bubbly and starting to brown.

* I tried tuna on some. It's boring. Ham is better.

Plum cake "tatin"

Oh, dear.

The plums I canned yesterday didn't seal properly. So, today I made a plum tatin. It's a variation of Ina Garten's recipe from Barefoot in Paris, which I normally use to make an impressive pear tatin.

My original post about this recipe, done the right way, appears here:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2008/12/poire-tatin.html?m=1

Today's version, in the oven now, looks like plums with cake dumplings. The dough turned out too sticky. I should have added a few tablespoons of milk to compensate for the thickness of the yogurt.

PLUMS TATIN

- 2 pints canned plum halves, pitted, in medium syrup
- 6 tablespoons butter, room temp
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 serving Chobani lemon yogurt (slighly more than 1/3 cup)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (there's my mistake, I was helping my daughter with another task and used TWO CUPS flour, that's why my dough was so thick and sticky)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (which I never measure)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease deep dish pie pan generously with butter.

Pour one pint of plums into pie dish with syrup, add the plums from the other pint too but not the syrup. I then put the pie dish in the oven to warm them.

Cream butter, sugar, and add eggs one at a time. Add yogurt and vanilla and mix until well-combined.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and add slowly to other mix. Combine until moist. Spoon over plums.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes. Invert unto platter.


UPDATE:
This is the UGLIEST 'tatin' I ever made. The cake tastes fine, despite the double flour mistake. The plums have a very strong flavor, a blend of sour and sweet. I think it's good but has the same mixed qualities of a good rhubarb dessert. It tasted fine.

Honey Oat and Rye Herb Bread

It's a bread day! I started a basic French bread starter and have decided on a honey oat and a herb rye loaf. I divided the starter in two for the first rise and prepped two batches of add-in flour, one that's unbleached white flour and oats, another that is stoneground rye and a touch of brown sugar. I'll add blackstrap molasses to that loaf during the first knead.

I never make a loaf the same way twice, rather always adding a lil of this or that. Like this day:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/great-day-for-bread.html

Today's loaves came out fantastic! I rolled them thin and long (very French). The white bread came out boring, really, but the spinach-herb-rye bread was super enjoyable.

I've been trying for two days to find the basic recipe so I can try and chronicle my deviations (as if I remember now) and finally here it is (with an adorable photo of my daughter in her seersucker train engineer/baker hat): http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-bread.html

So, facing a 90 degree day after a heat wave of 100 degree days, I got out my bread bowls. In the first very large bowl, I mixed:

• 4 cups unbleached white flour
• about 2.5 teaspoons fresh ground salt.

In a smaller bowl I put:

• 2 cups stoneground rye flour

and set beside it:

• blackstrap molasses
• about one cup fresh spinach
• 1 heaping tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon dill 
• 1/4 cup sorrel
• about 1 cup basil

In another smaller bowl, I mixed:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup whole oats

In the final large bowl, I mixed:

• 3 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey

From the flour/salt bowl, I added about 3 cups of the white flour to the liquid yeast mix. I worked it into a dough and let it sit until it tripled in size. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap. It's supposed to take three hours. Mine took about two.

This is what I'll refer to as my starter dough. After it rose, I took the dry ingredients from the rye bowl and poured them onto my lightly floured work surface. I added half the starter dough and mixed. I added the herbs and the molasses as I kneaded. Then I divided the kneaded lump into two pieces, oiled lightly and returned it to the rye flour bowl and another bowl. Covered with a towel to rise.

I repeated this with the rest of the starter and the white/oat flour. Knead. Divide. Oil. Cover. Leave to rise.

Let sit until doubled in size. About an hour.

Preheat oven to 450. Divide into loaves. Let rise 20 more minutes. Place a bowl of water in the oven. Bake baguettes for 15 minutes, remove bowl of water. Cook baguettes for ten minutes more, maybe less. *I often turn mine when I remove the water, helps the consistency of the crust.

Or I leave the water. Because it's hot and dangerous. Sometimes they cook quickly.

Crêpes de la Canicule (Heat Wave Crepes)

I have had a batch of crêpes in the freezer. I don't even remember when I made them. I got them out of the freezer thinking i'd make a nice fresh berry sauce for them as breakfast. But my mom showed up and stole my daughter before I had a chance to feed her. So I moved that plan to dinner.

Okay, but I worked today and by the time I got home it was hot and I was tired. Knowing eventually I had to eat this crêpes, I had my husband buy berries, bananas and Nutella at Target yesterday. The Nutella was $3.19, for a jar I saw on sale elsewhere for $3.99. (of course, this was a specialty retailer.)

Tonight's dinner became a crêpe with a nice layer of Nutella and topped with a slice of banana the length of the crêpe and rolled. Sides of watermelon and raspberries.

I had separated these crêpes before freezing by slipping wax paper between each one and placing the stack in a ziploc bag. They tasted fresh even though I froze them months ago. Yup, crêpes are gone...

Brainstorming "The Ultimate French Burger"

Tomorrow is July 14. I'm pining for things French and the iron deficiency has me yearning for red meat. "Bastille Day" brings to mind family, picnics and national spirit. And it makes me hungry for a burger.

But how would we make a French burger? Oh, I feel a trip to Wegmans in my bones.

The ultimate French burger would have (play along)...

A brioche for the roll, with a perfectly shaped to fit the roll patty (not too thick not too thin) definitely rare... With some sort of creamy herby mustard sauce, a mild Camembert, hearty leaves of sorrel and maybe spinach or endive. I'm on the fence re: tomato or even scallions...and BIG steak fries with a side of au jus

My friends and my husband are encouraging me to make this bad boy, but it's a culinary creation that can't be rushed.

Mulling it about in my head. Brioche alone is a two day affair requiring 2 lbs of butter and a trip to the farm for eggs. Not to mention, finding the right Camembert to be strong but not too strong and the right meat to make a quality au jus...

My husband wants desperately to take me to Wegmans but the finances aren't proper for a splurge like this.

Crock pot créme brûlée

I must try this!!!!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/02/crockpot-crme-brulee-recipe.html

A couple groceries

When I left work last night, my husband had spaghetti cooking for dinner and he did not sound happy about it. We had the typical sprinkle cheese, and the grated asiago from Aldi, but he definitely sounded disappointed that we were having pasta. So, I bought a big bag of frozen meatballs. Of course, to find the meatballs, I had to go through various aisles of the grocery department. I saw some pork chops on sale for $3.74, when they're normally $4.99. I bought two packs and the meatballs were $5.49. The total was $12.97, minus $1.29 for my team member discount, then $5.90 used up the remaining funds on the gift card from my mom, and the remaining $5.49 went on my red debit card (which saved me another 29 cents).

We returned today, for two reasons, for a cat toy and to see if I could pick up some more shifts this week. The cat climbing hill was $18.39.

But then I went back to grocery. I ended up spending, with the cat toy, $50.45, minus the 10%, which was $5.10, and an additional $2.29 for my red card. That, with tax, brought my total to $44.41.

- Nonni's pecan caramel biscotti, $2.99 (part of a hostess gift for the dinner we're having with friends tonight)
- Pim's raspberry cookies, $2.99 (also part of the gift)
-Archer Farm fruit twists, $2.29
- nature valley crunchy granola bars, dark chocolate, $2.50
- San gorgio elbow noodles, 2 boxes at 80 cents each
- archer farm hot chocolate, French vanilla, $3.99
- canned chicken, 10 ounces, $2.49
- tuna, two of the big cans, (also 10 ounces?), $1.97 each
- old orchard 100% juice concentrate, apple raspberry, $1.17
- market pantry pink lemonade concentrate, 43 cents
- Morningstar vegetarian sausage patties, $3
- Boca burgers, $2.78