Our daughter's Lemon and Chocolate Chips Cake - Made in France

We are back! The year went by very fast... and yes, we did cook a lot, mostly vegerarian every night as our children decided to give up meat. But, as my husband would say, nothing really interesting, worth putting on this blog!! No comment!

Now that our children are in France for most of the Summer, our daugher is using her stay as an opportunity to bake, watch baking competition shows and eat pastries from top pastry chefs whenever she can! Below is her message and the recipe she used for her new lemon cake.

Hello eveyone! Today my mom is not making this cake, I juste arrived in France for the summer (yes, jetlaged), and have decided to put my hands in baking again. During the school year I don't really have the time, but as soon as go to France, I take my opportunities. Today, there was a soccer game, I am not a fan of soccer, but I do watch the World Cup and mostly when France plays. Today my grandfather asked me to bake, and I was up to do my first baking in France. I decided to make a lemon cake. This is one does not use butter and milk, because the oil replaces it. This is a very easy and simple cake to make everywhere with anyone. My mom had made a lemon poppyseed cake, very good too (but mine is better, still love you mom) but my grandmother didn't have  poppy seeds , so I decided just to make it with lemon. Juste before putting the dough in the pan, I thought that the cake needed something else. I thought why not put small chocolat pieces, just enough that that there are some in each piece of cake. I then after the cake was baked I added a lemon icing to give it even more taste!! Bon appetit


Ingredients (for 8 people)

• 94 g flour

• 170 g sugar

• 10 g baking powder 

• 1 pinch of salt

• 3 eggs

• 7.5 cl neutral oil (canola)

• 1 lemon (zest + juice)

• Shredded chocolate - to taste

• Preheat oven to 360 F (180C)

• Mix in the dry ingredients and add the beaten eggs and oil. Mix well.

• Add the lemon zest

• Add 1/2 of the lemon juice, including pulp and mix well until smooth. Add the chocolate shreds.

• Butter your mold and pour the batter

• Bake for about 25 minutes

• For the icing, please see the Lavender Cake recipe here.

Comments

From my grand-father: you need to add a tablespoon of rhum in the batter

My comment: you don't have to put too much chocolate

Crottins de Chavignol Chauds en Salade - Hot Baked Goat Cheese with Greens

One of our daughter's favorite dishes is hot baked Crottins de Chavignol served on a piece of toast along a plain salade verte. Crottins are small round-shape goat hard cheese. The most famous ones come from Chavignol - a small village near Sancerre in the Loire Valley. 
France (and Europe) being very strict as to protecting regional products and savoir-faire,  the crottins can only be called Crottins de Chavignol is they are actually coming from the Chavignol area.  They are protected by what we call an Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) which is a French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products that come from certain terroirs. Other areas in France produce crottins  de chèvre - they are just not labeled "de  Chavignol". 
We grew up eating crottins de chèvre chauds either as an appetizer or a lunch/dinner entree  They are an easy-to-choose-easy-to-make affordable dish that pleases most cheese lovers. For those of you who have traveled to France, they are generally on many casual restaurants, served on a slice of toasted Pain Poilâne (or any other pain de campagne if pain Poilâne is not available.)
Unfortunately, this is one of the dishes I hardly make in the US. Much to my family's regret. Reason? Price of the crottins. In France, you could purchase crottins de chèvre for less than 1 euro each (2 euros if you want them organic or de Chavignol), while in the US, I find them at at least $5/piece for locally-made cheese. What is an affordable entree in France become luxury across the Atlantic! 
We therefore serve them on special occasions only (or when they go on sale, which is to say... rarely.) 
As a result, whenever we go to France, our daughter makes sure to eat a lot of them, always volunteering to help prepare them whenever she can! I think that if we were not living in an apartment building in the center of Philadelphia, she would try to get a goat to make her own crottins! If you have access to crottins where you live, please try to make this salad. You would not be disappointed! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 1 (or half) a crottin per person
- 1 (or half) of wholewheat bread
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- Thyme/Rosemary (optional)

• Put the crottin on a slice of bread with rosemary/thyme on top
• Pour some olive oil on the crottin and the bread
• Bake in the oven under the High Grill for 5 minutes (or more depending on the power of your oven; you want the crottins to start melting but the bread should not be burnt)

Tarte au thon de l'été

Don't ask me what I did these past few months.... I did cook a lot but never managed to bring it to this blog. My apologies! Fortunately, Summer being in full swing, we all have a little bit more time to cook and experiment.
My nephew from Marseille came to spend the month of July with us in Philadephia to attend a ballet camp. Since our children were in France for their Summer-long vacances and that my husband joined them, C. and I ended up spending most of July together. Apparently, he was worried that spending time with his gluten-free vegan aunt, he was going to eat "des graines" everyday! My worry was that because of him spending time in the US, he would fall victim to the double-frappuccinos, supersized French fries and other double-cheeseburgers!!! At the end, it was a balance of easy-to-eat French and US food. We had vegan and beef hamburgers, blue corn tortilla chips (a lot!) and haricots verts (beaucoup), salade verte and Sweet Potatoes Fries....
One evening, C. suggested to make this Tarte au thon that my sister-in-law and many of my friends cook in France this time of year. We used the Marmiton recipe (for those of you who want the French version) and C. found it very tasty. I will definitively make it again for our family when they are all back from France. Until then, I would encourage you to try it! Served with a salade verte, it makes the easiest Summer dinner.
Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
 - 1 pie dough (in France, people tend to use the puff pastry one; since I don't always have some handy, I generally make a pâte brisée)
- 2 cans of tuna (in water, no salt added)
- 2 small tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 eggs
- 20 cl light cream
- 3 tablespoons milk
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Swiss cheese (optional)

• Pre-heat the oven to 400F
• Lay the dough in a deep pie dish.
• Spread the mustard
• Spread the tuna
• Slice the tomatoes and lay on top of the tuna
• In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the creme fraiche and milk
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Pour the batter onto the tomatoes and tuna
• Add the cheese if using some
• Cook in the oven for 40 minutes

Cake Amandine aux Framboises - Almond and Rasberries Cake

For the first time today, Spring seems to be coming to Philadelphia! All the more surprising that we got about 5 inches of snow last  Thursday! Patches of snow still remain in the city... but hopefully not for too long...  I get tired of snow in the city! It's nice for about 2 hours after the snow storm and then it starts to get dirty, mushy and sometimes really icy! Worst for all of us who walk in the city, the snow is pushed to the corners of streets so you can not cross the street on foot without getting your shoes wet!!
My husband always makes fun of me because I put on my snow boots (or sneakers when it's dry enough) to get to work in the morning, something hardly anyone would do in Paris. I carry my dress shoes and  jacket in my backpack (another no-no in Paris) but I figured that if I am going to walk close to 10km (6 miles) every day, I'd rather be comfortable than stylish - at least for the communiting part of my day. It's also cheaper (my dress shoes last longer; I don't have to worry about orthopedic surgery!) and healthier (I used to log in close to 15,000 - 17,000 steps per day before I lost my Fitbit).
I have been trying to have him walk more with limited success  - he likes the bus better except when there is about 5 feet of snow in the city and then he enjoys the peacefulness that comes with it and then he walks home! He might be the only one wishing for another snow storm in Philly in the coming days!!

To celebrate Spring, I was thinking of making that Cake aux Framboises. I have made a few times in the past and it's always something our family enjoys.
I know, I know, raspeberries are not in season in Pennsylvania yet... but it's a nice treat to celebrate the start of what I hope is going to be a season of wonderful fruits & veggies!
Bon Appetit!

Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 150g of brown cane suggéra
- 150g corn flour
- 80 g corn starch
- 5g baking powder
- 80g almond meal
- 1 tbs vanilla extrait
- 2 tbs milk
- 150 g soft butter
- 200g frozen raspberries
- Fresh raspberries for decoration

• Preheat oven to 360F (180C)
• Butter a rectangular mold
• In a bowl, cream the sugar and the eggs 
• Add the corn meal, corn starch, baking powder and almond meal.
• Add the Vanilla extrait, milk and butter and mix until you get a smooth batter.
• Pour half of the batter in the mold. 
• Make one layer with the raspberries
• Pour the rest of the batter
• Bake in the oven for 50 mins
• Unmold - Eat cold with fresh raspberries.

A Post by our daughter : Le Punch du Soleil!

Hello,
I am Gaelle's  daughter.
I know she talks a lot about me and my brother on her blog. I like most of her recipes but not all of them! This time I was the one to cook.I  made this drink called "Le Punch du Soleil". My mom liked it.I  added a little more fruits than the original recipe.(I like to improvise too!! )

I hope you will like it!!!!

For 4 persons you need:

1. Press 4 oranges 
2. Peel 1 pineapple and 5 kiwis
3. Cut them in little pieces
4. Then put them in a blender.
5. Next pour them in 4 glasses and have fun drinking it!!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

A few months ago, I was in San Francisco and a friend of mine introduced me to a great local artisan chocolatier and we got to talk "excellence in Chocolate in the US and France" while visiting his atelier...  It was really fascinating to hear him talk about his passion for chocolate and innovation in chocolate-making... I do believe in "innovation" in companies; some of our Executive Education clients are actually coming to Wharton to get their executives to be more innovative.....  Obviously, it was even more mouth-watering to talk about innovation in... chocolate making! The very interesting thing he told me is that when he wants to bounce ideas, he calls up a French artisan chocolatier (excellent as well, trust me!!) and the two of them talk shop! From a business standpoint, this is really exciting to see two competitors helping eachother come up with another great product. It's a win-win situation: they both have something to win in coming up with new products because it will help their profession against the industrially-made chocolates that are out there and stealing some of their market share....
I could not leave the atelier without purchasing some chocolate bars to take home to Philadelphia to share with my husband and our children. This started a discussion among us as we tend not to agree on what defines "un excellent chocolat"...  Like everything else in food, it does take time and experience to be able to distinguish and appreciate differences in chocolates... I am no expert... but do know that I'd rather not eat chocolate than a mediocre one... A real treat? A really nice piece of dark chocolate with an espresso after lunch (once all the dishes is done so that I can really enjoy my coffee!)...

Despite all that I just wrote,  when it comes to baking with chocolate, I generally use the  IKEA dark chocolate bars.  IKEA chocolate??? Yes, I know that it is definitively not the best chocolate out there but it is good enough to bake a cake for a Sunday afternoon tea-break! This is my price/quality hat taking over....

Here is a recipe I got a few years ago. This recipe is a great recipe, and not just for people who avoid gluten.... The best thing? It's even the next day.. so very practical when I don't have time to bake something on Sunday morning...  Verdict of the Chocolate-cake eaters in our family? They all love it! Would it taste better with a more-upscale chocolate? I am not sure. Will have to try! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• 275 gr (9.7 oz) dark chocolate
• 5 medium eggs separated
• 175g (6.1 oz) sugar
• 140g (4.9 oz) almond flour (ground almonds)
• 1 TBs of rhum or orange liqueur (optional)

• Preheat ovent to 170C (340F)
• Roughly chop about 50g of the chocolate and reserve
• Melt the remaining chocolate in the microwave or in a double-boiler
• Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually whisk in half of the sugar, a tablespoon at a time until incorporated - you have a soft meringue.
• Beat the egg yolks together with the remaining sugar until pale and doubled in volume.
• Carefully fold in the meringue mixture into the egg yolk mixture. 
• Gently fold in the chocolate
• Fold in the rest of the meringue
• Fold in the almond flour and the chopped chocolate.
• Add the rhum/liqueur.
• Fold into a round mold and bake in the oven for 30mns. After 30mns, turn the oven off and leave the cake for another 15mns. 

Meringues Francaises - French Meringues

We don't go back to France for the Holiday season. It's too expensive and too exhausting to cross the Atlantic (flight +6 hours jetlag) and spend most of our time either driving or eating and not necesseraly being lucky with the weather to enjoy time outside. As we say, we need an extra week off after we come back to recover! This is why we'd rather go back in the summer when we have more time, the weather is (generally) nice and we don't spend the whole time eating!

This year, we were lucky to have my parents come and spend Christmas with us. We were all very excited and took advantage of their presence to have a formal, albeit early, Réveillon on Christmas Eve and formal Christmas lunch on Christmas day (with a nice breakfast with viennoiseries in between!)  And since it is very French to share eachother's Holidays menus, here are ours. On Christmas Eve we had a soupe a l'oignon, escargots, fresh oysters, smoked salmon, and a tarte tatin. On Christmas Day, we ate a nice orange-cumin salad, a stuffed capon with chestnuts and apples and a Charlotte aux fruits rouges. I can't remember what wines we drank; and yes, you can add a few munchies for the apéritifs (on both days) as well as sweets (mostly chocolates) for additional (!) sweetness. I thought about making meringues but since my husband had made some chocolates, I decided against it. I might make some for New Year's Eve.

Meringues are a typical French petit four (ie, a small piece of dessert served after a nice meal or with coffee) and unlike some other petits fours, they are really easy to make. They look intimidating but honnestly, the only thing I don't like about meringues is that they need to bake for about one hour in the oven. Unlike chouquettes or savory gougères, I don't make meringues often. I have never been a big fan of meringues, which I find extremely sweet and nothing to write home about.  My children (and husband) really like them; they have some everytime we get together with my relatives in France. My sister-in-law makes very good meringues and always makes a few batches for us to eat with coffee ; although our children are not drinking coffee yet, they are entitled to the small treat we, adults, eat with our espressos (most often a piece (or two) of dark chocolate; once in a while, when available, meringues.) Un petit plaisir... Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:

For about 20 meringues :

• 2 egg whites
• 125g (4.4oz) sugar (or about 50g (1.76oz)/egg white)
• 2 drops of lemon juice
• 1 pinch of salt

• In order to maximize your chances of success, it is best to leave the egg whites rest for an hour (covered by a kitchen cloth) on the kitchen counter. 
• Pre-heat the oven to 200F (100C)
• Put the egg whites and the salt in a bowl
• With an electric batter, start to beat the eggwhites until they become a little bit foamy.
• Add the lemon drops
• Steadily add the sugar while beating the egg whites
• Beat until the egg whites are "firm", ie they don't drop from your batter anymore.
• With a spoon (or a poche a douille),place each meringue on a baking sheet covered with parchmin paper.
• Bake in the oven for about one hour; every 20mns, open the oven to let some steam out. 
• The meringues are ready when you can easily peel them from the baking sheet.
• Turn off the oven, open the door and let the meringues cool in the oven until it is cold.

My Personal comments

• Don't use a silpat; the meringues don"t cook well on a silicone mat.

Apple-Rhubarb Healthy Crumble

A few months ago, I discovered that I have a gluten sensitivity. Nothing like celiac disease but enough to make me feel uncomfortable after eating gluten-based pasta or bread. And enough to make me want to avoid any gluten-loaded food to avoid the unpleasant days that follow such food intake.

So no gluten? What it really means is no food that has wheat, oat, barley and rye... so yes, no bread, no wheat-pasta, no pastry made with wheat flour...  Pff!! "How limitative!!", might you say? 

After a few weeks, I can tell you that this is absolutely not limitative as long as, comme toujours,  you are willing to adapt. When you cook for yourself eating gluten-free is not an issue at all, especially if you live in the US where most supermarkets now carry gluten-free options. When you think about it you can choose from: rice, wild rice, buckwheat (which despite its name does not contain wheat), millet, corn, quinoa, lentils, dry beans, potatoes and all the fruits, nuts, and vegetables you want. Nothing to make you go hungry!

It becomes tricky when you eat out or are invited over: your traditional American-Italian restaurant is a poor option but Japanese restaurants are a good one! Worse comes to worse, you eat the filling of a sandwich and not the bread or you settle on a salad without the croutons!

The hardest to give up at this stage? Bread, definitively! I did try to start a new gluten-free starter but my two tentatives with buckwheat flour failed; I have read that some people have been successful with brown rice flour, which is what I will try once temperatures are lower (too much heat killed my starter last Summer). I am also working on a decent crust recipe that could be good enough to make quiches.

As for dessert? Sorbets are always a good option; so are French macarons or crèmes brûlées when available (if they put anything to artificially thicken the custard, it is corn starch)...  So nothing to feel deprived of! Honestly! It's just hard to explain to people who are not aware of what gluten is but once you give them alternative options, then they are generally OK. The worst are the people who doubt that you can have a sensitivity! I just wished them not to have any!! 

I was lucky to find gluten-free oats in a Natural Store close to us in Philadelphia. That way, I am able to eat gluten-free oatmeal in the morning and to make my granola recipe gluten-free... or to use gluten-free oats in this crumble recipe. Unlike other crumble recipes that call on butter and wheat flour, oats and oil are used in this recipe instead (hence the "healthier" title). You don't have to make it with gluten-free oats if you and your family have no gluten sensitivity but if you do (or want to experiment something different ), this is a very good recipe for dessert which you can use all year round. Bon appétit!

Ingredients (inspired from Chocolate & Zucchini)

For the topping:

- 100 grams (3.5 oz) rolled oats

- 100 grams (3.5oz) brown rice flour (or 100 grams AP flour)

- 100 grams (3.5 oz) cane brown sugar

-  80 ml (2.7 Floz or 1/3 cup) neutral oil (I generally use canola)

- 1/2 ts cinnamon

- 1/2 ts salt

- Another spice of your choice (I generally use cardamon or just lemon zest)

For the filling:

- 4/5 medium apples

-  2 stalks of rhubarb, cleaned and cut into small pieces

- 100 gr (3.5 oz) Brown cane sugar

• Prepare the topping and let it cool in the fridge for about 2-3 hours (I generally make it the day before)
• Preheat oven to 360F
• Cut all the fruits in small pieces and mix them with the sugar.
• Put in invidual dish or in a deep dish
• Cover with the topping
• Bake in the oven for about 40 mns

Lemon Cookies - Petits sables au citron

Everytime I start a new post, I promise myself to publish more than my once a month. Then as days weeks go by, I just wonder when and where I will possibly find time to cook something new worth-being-posted and publish it online. Time flies. And I just wonder where it goes. What????  School is almost over? (I don't know about you but the Summer-show/Field Trip always sound like end-of-the-school-year to me)... And I have not booked the Summer camp yet! (for my French readers, American children get at least 11, if not more, weeks off in the Summer; how working parents with a minimum of 2 weeks off manage to spend relaxing time with their children in the Summer, is still a big mystery to me). My list of TO DO things keep being longer. My TO READ New Yorker pile gets bigger. My piano practice? What piano practice??
I am up at 5.20 am... I have set it up earlier and earlier hoping that I would have time to read a few pages of the newspaper while enjoying my breakfast au calme (one of my petit plaisirs!!). Pff, how utopic of me? I find  myself unloading the dishwasher, preparing lunchboxes while eating a spoon of oatmeal here and there... then finishing up very fast before waking up the children at 6 am. And from that minute on, it's go-go-go until I get to on the train after droping them in school : I have 15mns where I can read a few pages of the newspaper or send a few personal emails...
6 am, it's early...I did try to wake them up 15 minutes later to have them sleep more but they told me that they'd rather be up earlier and have time to play after breakfast-teethbrushing-handwashing than having to leave straight after breakfast (which generally meant no teethbrushing). Anyway, after a day of work in an office, I come home and then again, I feel that I am back on my track-and-field days with a stopwatch in hand: feed the children, supervise/sign homework, supervise teethbrushing, read bedtime stories, turn light off before 7.30pm. Go back into the kitchen to clean the mess and start preparing dinner for the next day, have dinner with my husband (he cleans the dishes if you wonder where he had been!! ), do one load of laundry and few other house chores.... before going to bed early. With the newspaper if I have not had time to read page 2!
I cook dinner the night before?  I know. I am that kind of person and that's, my friends, is my savior. The few days I thought I would be back early and have extra time (ie 15-20 mns) extra to prepare dinner, it never worked...  So yes, as I write this post, dinner for tomorrow is already cooked (kasha with leeks and tomatoes, slivered almonds and ricotta cheese). Otherwise, our children would be ever more sleep deprived. Or eat  n'importe quoi.  As a result, I have come to love Thursdays because that's the only night I don't cook. Fridays is Aperitif Night so I don't have to prep much! Unless we have friends over. Of course. So maybe I should just plan to write my blog on Thursday nights. Assuming I have been able to cook and take pictures of a few worth-publishing dishes before. That means, cooking on the week-end because my daily cooking, while from scratch, is fairly limited! That's a challenge! We'll see. Until then, you can always either make these littles sablés or prep your dinner for tomorrow. Your choice! Bon Appétit 

Ingredients

• 1 stick (115 gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) light blond cane sugar
• 1  egg
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 3/4 cups (245 gr) all purpose flour
• a pinch of salt.

• Mix butter and sugar together until creamy
• Add egg and beat until well incorporated
• Add flour, salt and lemon zest and mix until well incorporated
• Knead the dough to bring it together. Divide it in two parts.
• Let cool in the fridge for one hour
• Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
• Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out.
• Use your cookie-cutter to make cookies
• Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. While the first batch is in the fridge, roll out the second batch.
• Bake cookies for about 10 mns or under golden brown.

Yesterday With My Children We Made ..."Petites Saucisses en pâte feuilletée"

Our children had two weeks off over the Holidays and since I only had one week, that whole week was about spending good quality time with them. When school is on, I see my children but I don't have enough time to spend playing with them, except for the word games we play while they eat dinner. I do read them stories but I don't have the time to sit down and play a card game for instance, except maybe on the week-end.

So during our week off together, we played. Everyday. I took them out in the morning but after their afternoon nap, we decided to stay home and relax. And play. Le Père Noël had been kind enough to bring new games (Qwirkle, Four-square,  Uno, in addition to legos & playmobils), so we were ready to play them and have fun. It was really enjoyable...

One of the things we also did together was to cook. BUT since it was also MY vacations, I made sure that everything I cooked was fast-and-easy (with the exception of Christmas Lunch maybe!!).

One of the things my children love to eat are those little snack sausages. To make it fun, I thaw puff pastry and cut it in rubans which they roll around the sausages. We dip the sausages in mustard before so as to make them a little bit more spicy. It's easy. It's messy (YES!). It's fun, quoi! It's really enjoyable to see them master the different tasks (the little drop of water to close the dough at the top!) and love to make them. I feel that at least, they know that they can have fun in the kitchen... 

My goal for 2012 (I don't have resolutions; too hard to keep!!) : to make time for them in the kitchen because I know they enjoy being des petits marmitons. Even if it's just to mix the granola as we make it... or to help me shape the baguettes in funny shapes. This is priceless... and on top of that you can make sure that they'll develop an interest in food and therefore become better eaters. So don't wait, have fun with your kids in the kitchen. Bonne Année!!

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of snack sausages
- 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry dough- thawed
- Wholegrain mustard (or other mustard)
- a little bit of water

• Preheat oven to 400F (200 C)
• Cook the sausages according to instruction, dry them in paper towel
• Spread the dough and cut it into lengthy rectangular pieces. Ideally you should make nice triangles, but that's too time consuming!
• Dip the sausage in the mustard bowl then wrap it into a piece of dough. Place it on a baking sheet (parchmin paper or Silpat)
• Bake in the oven for about 20 mn or until golden.

Mango Salsa

My daughter is in First Grade and she is enjoying learning how to read and write. It's fun to see her being so happy to read a full sentence... and even more proud to be able to write new words. One of the games we have been playing these last few days is the "MENU GAME". She comes with her ardoise magique and asks me for the menu for the next meal. Then she gets down to the task of writing it down so that she can read it before we start our meal. This game is hard for a 6-year-old just discovering sounds. Why do "haricots" take a silent "h"? Why do French people spell onions : "oignons"? "Yaourts"? "Fruits"? This is tough! At least, since we eat a lot of veggies and most days, my children have yaourt and fruits for dessert, she gets to write it over and over again. It gets more difficult with the main dish as I try to diversify the menu and include international ingredients in our diet (curcuma anyone?)
Although she goes to a bilingual school, we have been playing this game in French only. English spelling is tough for French native speakers ("sprouts, eggplant, grapes, grapefruit, pineapple"?)... so we'll wait for a few months once the whole French potager is spelled correctly;)
Until then, here is a nice little exercise: easy for the adults who prep the food, relatively easy for the kids who want to spell (in English)... and very easy for everybody to eat with chips for an apéritif or as a side dish to fish. For those of you who want to be able to spell the French Potager by the end of the year, I wrote the ingredients in French as well. Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients:
- 1 mangue (1 mango)
- 1/2 oignon rouge (1/2 red onion)
- 1/2 concombre (1/2 cucumber)
- 1 bouquet de coriandre (a bunch of cilantro)
- Piment Rouge (Red pepper flakes)
- 1 citron vert (one lime)
- Sel (salt)

• Cut the mango and cucumber in small dices
• Slice the red onion very very thin
• Cissor some cilantro (as much as you like)
• Season with lime juice, salt and red pepper flakes.

Marble Poundcake - Gâteau Marbré

For my French or francophiles readers, I am sure that if I bring up the Savane Papy Brossard-an industrial version of marble cake-, fond memories (or even water in your mouth?) will come back. I don't know why this one really sticked with us (my husband, me, my sibblings and our friends).... but there is always this happy-talk about it (French people LOVE to speak about food in case you had not noticed!)
Growing up, I remember being thrilled when it was served at birthday parties (yes! at birthday parties) since my parents were not purchasing it! Sure enough, it was loaded with sugar... and an a lot of artificial je-ne-sais-quoi that made it addictive. Truth be told, I can't remember the last time I had some... but since the brand reappeared in French supermarkets recently (they use the name Cake Savane with different flavors and different packaging now; they even sell Brownies!!), I now know that I could have some next time I go. However, tasting it again would maybe kill all the memories...
Le gâteau marbre is a valeur sure of French cakes but for some reasons, I had never baked one for my children (the reason being that my husband associates gâteau marbré with Savane Papy Brossard so much that however good the gâteau marbré is, it will NEVER give him the pleasure of the Savane Papy Brossard!!)
It was therefore quite a wonderful surprise to hear him say "hmm, pas mal le gâteau" when he ate some! It was indeed really good (the kids loved it in case you wondered!)
At least, I know that, except for the chocolate (dark but industrially-made) there is nothing industrial about this cake as opposed to the ingredients listed on the Brossard website... . so if my husband can enjoy my gâteau marbré, Brossard might not make money off me for a while... I'll keep my memories intact instead! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 100g (3.52oz) dark bittersweet chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 220g (7.7oz) light brown cane sugar
- 120 ml (4 US Floz or about 1/4 cup) plain yogurt
- 220g (7.7 oz) flour
- 2 ts baking powder
- 120g (4.23 oz or a little over one stick) salted butter (melted and warm)
- 1 TBS vanilla extract
- 1 TBS Baileys (optional)

• Preheat oven to 165C (330F). Put the butter in the oven as it warms up to melt the butter. Make sure not to let it burn!
• Use a little bit of extra butter to grease a cake mold
• Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler or in the microwave (with a little bit of water)
• In one bowl, mix in half the flour and half baking powder together.
• Repeat in another bowl.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with half of the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add half of the yogurt and mix well
• Pour half of the melted butter, the flour and vanilla extract and mix well. Reserve
• In another large bowl, beat the last two eggs with the rest of sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the rest of the yogurt and mix well
• Pour the rest of the butter, the flour, chocolate and Baileys and mix well. Reserve
• Pour about 2/3 of the Vanilla batter in the mold.
• Pour the chocolate batter over the vanilla
• Cover with the remaining1/3 of the vanilla
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

My Personal Comments

• You can play with the layers of vanilla-chocolate the way you want
• You could add a few cocao nibs (or chocolate chips) to add a little bit of crunchyness to this cake.

Yesterday With My Children We Made - Wild Berries Cupcakes - Gluten Free

In my quest to bake easy (and somewhat healthy) petits gâteaux for my family (especially for my children 4pm goûter), I have been baking a lot lately. Nobody complained about it ... EVEN when the petits gâteaux are gluten-free! Un miracle! We are fortunate enough not to have food allergies in our family. Baking gluten-free is therefore more of a way to bake something different for me than a necessity. It keeps things different, ie interesting, for me. And that's important because since I am not keen on sweets, I could well live without baking any petits gâteaux. The reason why I do it in the evening is to avoid having my children eat the same store-bought petits gâteaux over and over again. Now, I bake one or twice a week and rely on store-bought petits gâteaux the rest of the time. It's healthier. It's also cheaper... and it gives me an opportunity to bake with up-until-now unknown ingredients (sorghum flour anyone?)
My children can't tell the difference between with gluten and gluten-free petits gâteaux yet, even when I have them bake with me and therefore exposed to different flours,... they are more interested in what's in the petits gâteaux (wild berries and chocolate chips are big hits), than what it tastes like. My husband, on the other hand, is the one who always complained about the texture of gluten-free petits gâteaux, especially if they are not sweet enough to his tastebuds. But since I tend to feel that his tastebuds have been polluted by too much sugar, I am not paying attention anymore. I just keep baking. If he is hungry for dessert or petits gâteaux, he'll eat them. I know. Same with my children who open the sac du goûter after school and can be disappointed with what they are offered. 99% of the time, they eat what's given to them because they are hungry after school. That said, I do try to make good cookies so as to have a few recipes I could just make over-and-over again, with limited adjustments in the filling for instance. This would save me time and make everybody happy. With no complaints, even if the cookies are gluten-free. That's good! Bon appetit!

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (250ml)  buttermilk (or plain yogurt)
- 1/2 cup (125ml) neutral oil
- 1 lemon (juice + zest)
- 1/2 cup millet flour
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 2 ts baking powder
- pinch of salt
- frozen berries (a few per cupcakes)

• Preheat oven to 350F (175C)
• In a bowl, cream the egg and sugar together until light and fluffy
• Add the buttermilk, oil, lemon zest and juice
• In another bowl, mix dry ingredients together
• Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet and mix a few strokes.
• Pour into molds, add a few berries per cupcakes, and bake in the oven for 25-30 mn or until a knife comes clean.

My Personal Comments:

• You could make them with AP flour if you did not have the gluten free flours available. 

• I used frozen wild berries but fresh would be ideal 

Tiramisu

The other day, I was asking my children which cake they wanted us to bake to celebrate my husband's birthday. While we have established the tradition in our family that the guest-of-honor chooses his/her birthday menu, my husband was away (on vacation, for ONE FULL week!!), it was therefore a surprise for him! I listed his favorite desserts : tarte tatin, pithiviers, apfel strudel and tiramisu (only to list a few)...
When she heard "tiramisu, my daughter almost screamed "tiramisu, c'est mon préféré dessert!" (yes, we are getting a few English grammar mistakes in her French these days but so far we find it funny!)...  She discovered Tiramisu last Summer in France when my sister-in-law made a delicious one. .. and fell for it! She had it again when one Italian friend of ours brought one a few months ago... and since then, she has made sure that we know that "Miratisu" or "Ramitusi" or "papa, tu sais le dessert que j'adore" is her dessert préféré!  So, Tiramisu, it was.
What I like about Tiramisu is that it's so easy to make : nothing to heat, nothing to let to rest for a while... just plain easy to make as long as you think ahead of time to refrigerate it long enough. I literally made this in less than 15 minutes... and let it sit in the fridge for about 5 hours (but this was not enough).
In the end, the sad part of the story is that my daughter was not feeling well that evening and decided not to eat her dessert. Both my son and husband immediately volunteered to eat her share (my husband won; it was his birthday after all)! My daughter did eat another little Tiramisu the next day, though... and I'm sure that if I were to ask her again what she would want for dessert, "Miratisu" or "Mirasuti" or "tu sais le dessert que j'ADORE" would pop up! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
For 6-8 ramequins
- 125 ml (1/2 cup or 4.2 Fl oz) strong espresso, at room temperature
- 45 ml ( 3 TB or 1.5 Fl oz)Marsala (or rhum)
-  2 eggs
 - 1 pinch of salt
- 1 small container Mascarpone (about 250 grams)
- 90 gr (7 TB or 3.17 oz)sugar
- Ladyfingers cookies, about 2-3 per ramequins.
- Unsweetened Cocoa
- Bittersweet chocolate (optional)

• Mix the coffee and the Marsala and set aside.
• In a bowl, beat the eggwhites and salt together until they beging to be stiff; add half of the sugar and beat some more until stiff.
• In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the mascarpone and beat and stirr well.
• Fold in half of the eggwhites; and then the rest until fully incorporated
• Scoop some of that cream into the ramequins (about 1/3 of the height)
• Cut the ladyfingers in half and soak them in the coffee. They have to be soaked but not soft. 
• Lay the ladyfingers on the cream in the ramequins.
• Shred some bittersweet chocolate on top (optional)
• Cover with more cream.
• Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, overnight it best
• Just before serving, spread cocoa powder on top.

My Personal Comments:

• If you don't put bittersweet chocolate on top of the ladyfingers, the Tiramisu won't taste very sweet.
• Don't hesitate about the alcohol, it's what makes the difference in the Tiramisu and the taste does attenuate after refrigeration.

The perfect Petits Gâteaux aux Pommes for the New Year

Unlike Americans who send their Season's Greetings cards just before/around Thanksgiving (that's at the end of November (!!!!) for my non-American readers), French people have an extended deadline until mid the end of January. Rien que cela! Et oui...  Season's Greetings, is (still for my non-American readers), a politically-correct nice term that has come to include Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa (Eid hardly ever falling in the Winter months). An easy way out that can't disappoint! Nicer than all-too-kitchy electronic Holiday cards, if you ask me. And even nicer if the people take the time to personalize the card just a little...(but who really does it these days? Really?)
But don't get me wrong, French people take an easy way out too! First, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving and second, we don't go into the trouble of wishing people a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah, at least not in writing. We just bundle our best wishes for la Nouvelle Année. And unless you are home with no kids, a lot of time to kill and a PhD in Philosophy or French literature to elaborate on the wishes, you generally wish people "meilleurs voeux de bonheur et de bonne santé" for Happiness and Good health! What I don't like about the cards is that I sometimes feel that people have me on their mailing list and therefore feel compelled to send me a card. Not that I mind but I'd rather get a short phone call, a postcard sent from their home/vacation town during the year, a text-message even...  Since we don't live in France anymore and since we moved to the digital age very fast, and since it's only January 3rd, I have yet to send something out (a video?). However, more than sending anonymous obligatory cards, I have jumped on the other American tradition to send/give food as presents.  And that, in a way, seems a better way to celebrate the Holidays and the New Coming Year. My favorite gift this season has been a small jar of my homemade Granola (I even tried to send 2.3kg (more than 5 pounds)  to France to share among our relatives, only to be stuck in my husband's suitcase in Frankfurt because of the snow (and still hoping to get it back!!)).... but I have also given fresh baguettes, chouquettes, gougères, in addition to three-course meals at our place. Sharing meals (or food) with family and people is important, including that lonely neighbor across the street. It's more important than having these people on your Season's Greetings mailing list. Seriously! These petits Gâteaux aux Pommes would be a perfect way to start...  Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
(inspired by My Tartelette)
For the cake batter:
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 100 gr (3.5 oz) sugar
- 1 ts cinnamon or Cardamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 ts baking powder
- 85 ml 2.87 Fl oz) milk
- 85 ml (2.87 Fl oz) cream
- 80 ml (2.7 Fl oz) vegetable oil
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 2 apples, pealed and diced

For the cream on top:
- 80 gr butter (2.82 oz) (room temperature)
- 100 gr (3.5 oz) sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ts vanilla extract

• Preheat ovent to 350F
• Butter cake molds and set aside
• In a bowl, mix in all the dry ingredients together.
• In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, cream and vegetable oil.
• Pour the liquids onto the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Pour the batter onto the molds about 2/3rd full.
• Place the apples dices/slices on top. Reserve

• In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
• Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well until smooth. Set aside

• Put the cakes in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Take them out and spread the cream batter on top
• Bake again in the oven for 15 minutes (until an knife comes out clean)
• Dust with powdered sugar for decoration!

My Personal Comments:

• Make sure you don't overcook the cakes in the first step (10minutes) because the cake needs to be soft enough to absorb the cream.
• The cream might overflow : I like to bake them on a dish so that the oven stays as clean as possible
• You could make them with Cardamon instead of Cinnamon
• You could make a large cake instead of smaller ones. Just add a little bit more time for the second baking. 

Cilantro and Curry Gougères with/without Sourdough Starter

My dad is obsessed with enjoys to make un plan de table when there are a lot of us sharing a meal, even a casual lunch in the country. There is a whole étiquette about how to sit people : how do the host and hostess sit, who sits next to the hostess, etc. etc. I don't know all of it but have been used to be assigned to a specific seat often enough to master the basics. In our family, with the plan de table always comes the chair vs. stool assignement as well. The basics are here even more straightforward:  my mother will always get a chair and my brothers will most likely get the stools! Who get the remaining stools is always left at my dad's discretion!
When we got married, my husband made a short speech as we were all sitting for dinner. While I can't remember all of it (désolée, that was more than 9 years ago!), I do remember a comment he made about sharing meals with my family. It had caught his attention that the more meals he was sharing with us, the more comfortable my parents were with him (and wanted him to feel comfortable), the more likely he was to be assigned a stool (as opposed to a chair!) I found that comment hilarious and still laugh about it today! I thought about it because last night, we had friends over for dinner and because we were late feeding the children (our children plus my daughter's best friend C. who had come for a sleepover), we decided to have them sit at the coffee-table for dinner while we, adults, were having a drink. It was a great moment to share with the children (who were even happier to be able to share the apéritif with us to be honnest ( for once I did not make gougères but I have made this recipe for l'apéro in the past.)
One thing leading to another, the kids successfully asleep in bed, we, adults, ended up having dinner sitting around the coffee table as well. We did offer small IKEA chairs or my husband's grand-father's homemade stools... but eventually, we all sat down. Very casual! Very cozy... and very enjoyable! I'd love to do it again... but please, don't feel that we are not enjoying your company if you are not asked to eat at the coffee table!! Bon Appétit! 

Ingredients
- 40 gr (1.41 oz) butter
- 70 gr (2.47 oz) fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) (if no starter, see note)
- 90 ml (3.04 Fl Oz) water
- 35 gr  (1.23 oz) flour
- 80 gr (2.82 oz) cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 ts salt
- 1/4 ts curry powder
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

• Pre-heat oven to 400F (200C)
• Bring water to a boil and melt butter in water.
• Add sourdough starter and stirr
• Add flour and stir; remove from heat.
• Let cool for 2 minutes
• Stir in eggs, one at a time
• Add cheese, cilantro and curry powder and salt.
• Scoop the dough (about one teaspoon at a time) and place the dollops on parchment paper
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown
• Let cool and eat.

My Personal Comments

• If you don't have a fresh sourdough starter, you can just add an extra 35ml of water and 35 gr of Flour instead.

Edamame and Goat Cheese Mint Spread

When talking with friends and their family memories of shared meals, pique-niques, brunches or other unusual food events, it became clear that every family creates, one way or another, their family food tradition (in addition to the national food events such as Thanksgiving Dinner or the Galette des Rois.) Examples of French family traditions are two-hour excruciating Sunday lunch with extended family members (grand-parents or in-laws), Fresh croissants on Sunday morning, left-overs on Sunday evening (to recover from the extended lunch with the extended family), Saturday evening pizza, etc.
We had a few traditions in my family. No Sunday croissants unless there was something to celebrate (birthday for instance) but Wednesday lunch at my maternal grand-parents where the menu 99% of the time was white-fish with sticky rice (we loved it back then!!). My mother would have loved to have a drunch (dinner-brunch) on Sunday evening where we would put leftovers on the table and everybody would help themselves with whatever they felt like... but my dad would not agree and insisted on having an easy formal dinner that evening : coquillettes (elbow pasta) or oeufs cocottes (surprised eggs) became part of the Sunday evening dinner tradition.

As I am now feeding my own family, I have been thinking about establishing some traditions as well. While I'd love to go out for brunch on Saturday or Sunday, it is out-the-question for two major reasons: 1)  We don't have the financial means to go out for brunch everyweek, and 2) My husband does not like brunch at all! He needs his breakfast in the morning so by 11 am he is not hungry enough for omelette, French toasts, pancakes, sausages or whatever brunch menu!  And when we do have brunch (like twice a year?), by 3pm, he feels hungry again (I don't know how much of his hunger is real or just a result of his negative attitude towards brunch in the first place..). Lunch and dinners with extended family are unfortunately out of the question for obvious geographical reasons... So, as I have already written on my post on kale chips, we have been having our Friday evening apéritifs. And if we have friends over for dinner on week-ends, we'll serve it as well! This is something we all look forward to and my kids get more and more excited about it. We do have to restrain them from gulping on olives, guacamole, gougères, roasted chickpeas, kale chips, simple nuts or whatever I manage to put together like this Edamame and Goat Cheese Spread!  They (and they take it from me!!) could just eat apéritif munchies and be fully contented (that's why I generally feed them a proper dinner before). I find that our Friday apéros are an easy family tradition; a perfect time together to relax! What are your family traditions? Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
- 1 pound (450 grams) of shelled edamame.
- 1 small fresh goat cheese (about 100 grams or 3.5 oz)
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 or 2 sprigs of fresh mint
- Olive Oil
- Salt, black pepper to taste
- Hot peppers (optional)

• Bring water to a boil to boil the edamame until fully cooked. Rince with cold water and drain.
• Transfer to a food processor and add the fresh goat cheese, the lemon juice and the fresh mint. Blend until smooth, adding Olive oil to reach creamy consistency.
• Add salt, pepper to taste.
• Serve chilled with pita chips.

My Personal Comments:

• You could add red onions or garlic and cilantro to spice it up a bit but I found that, for the children, this recipe with a little bit of Tabasco worked well.

Pistachios Blackberries Cupcakes (Gluten-Free)

Having been on a low-iodine diet for more than 10 days now, I have had time to rethink what it means to "put oneself on a diet" and how difficult that is! I have had to cut all seafood products, all dairy products as well as a long list of other ingredients! The hardest for me to give up? Dairy products because as you must well know by now, yogurt, butter and cheese are pilars of our daily diet.   But, you know what, even though it's really hard not to eat cheese or yogurt and to have to make oatmeal with water(!!) when you are French, the most difficult has been not to be able to share the same meals as my children or friends. My children are old enough to know that I have to eat different things but because I have been cooking (almost) as usual for them, I have not been able to try their food and talk about it with them. And that's difficult! I even felt a little bit isolated (like I could not have one of the nice cupcakes!!) Vivement vendredi!
There is truly something special about sharing a crazy-messy meal with your children...  So unless there is a real medical reason to be on a diet, my conclusion is that you should really eat everything as long as it is with MO-DE-RA-TION.  Moderation is what will make it possible for you to share meals with your children, your family, your friends and co-workers and be happier in life. It's also a way for your children to develop better eating habits. Worth a try, non? So before you cut chocolate cake out of your diet, just think about the fact that having a tiny bit won't harm your body.  Just go and take a walk in the fallen leaves with your children afterwards! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (makes about 8 cupcakes)
- 115 gr (4.05 oz) butter
- 180 gr (6.3 oz) sugar
- 2 eggs
- 80 gr (2.8 oz) buttermilk (or plain yogurt)
- 80 gr (2.8 oz )millet flour
- 70 gr (2.4 oz) pistachios meal
- 30 gr (1 oz) rice flour
- 3/4 ts baking powder
- 1/2 ts xantham gum
- 1/2 ts salt
- a few Blackberries

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Cream butter and sugar together until light & smooth
• Add the eggs, one at at time.
• Add the buttermilk and dry ingredients one batch at a time, finishing with buttermilk.
• Fold in blackberries, being very cautious as not to crush them.
• Pour into molds and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
• Unmold and cool on a rack before eating

My Personal Comments

• You could make the recipe with AP flour instead of rice & millet flour. In that case, you don't need the xantham gum.