Blueberries and Almond Bundt Cake made by our daugther for my husband's birthday

We celebrated my husband's belated birthday yesterday evening. Following our family tradition, he got to pick his "Menu" and he opted for Empanadas. De Carne. Obviously.
We had not made empanadas for a while and since our daughter does not eat meat these days, I improvised a vegetarian version replacing the meat in the original recipe with spinach and ricotta and omitting the olives. That way, everybody was really happy about the main dish. However, the best part was our daughter's Bundt Cake with blueberries and almonds. She got the recipe from one her friends' and adapted the icing because she had never made a cream cheese-based icing before and did not want to try it on this cake.

For a few weeks now, she has been taking baking classes as an afterschool activity offered at their school on Fridays. She has been enjoying learning new tricks and recipes but, much to my husband's dismay, there is never enough leftovers from him to taste when he gets home. As a present for his birthday, she therefore offered him 4 weekends of baking whereby she would bake at least once during the weekend for him for 4 weeks. Useless to say that he was really excited but made sure that the Bundt Cake was not Week 1!
We'll update the blog with her recipes - and, if I have time and make something really fun and special, I'll post the recipes as well. It's not that I have not been cooking from scratch most nights these days, it's just that I have not made anything really different. That said, as I am looking for new ideas for the daily cooking, I'll find new recipes in the different cookbooks we have around the apartment. Bon Appétit.

Link to the original recipe is here: 
https://beyondfrosting.com/2018/04/04/blueberry-almond-bundt-cake/

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

Our Daughter's Cake à la lavande - Lavender Pound Cake

Hello and happy summer! For once, this recipe is not my mom's!  Since I am really into baking these days,  I figured out that, since I am in France (yes vacation! for 2 1/2 months - too much right?),  I should use this time to bake. The weather in Normandy (one of the places I'm staying over the summer) has been sunny and really hot ;  and then rain, rain, rain!

With my grand-parents, my brother and some of my cousins,  we went to a Gospel concert organized in the village's church. After the concert, we had a "collation" for the artists. We helped out to make something for them, and it had to be a dessert. Good for me, I was up for it! My grandmother told me I should make a chocolate cake, but I thought it was too ordinary. I thought that maybe I could make a lavender cake. Since there is fresh lavender (and no chemicals on them!) in my grandmother's garden (yes lavender in Normandy!), I did not have to purchase any. 

It was a success - they all loved it! So I even made it again for a "goûter" (afternoon snack) and it got  eaten quickly! Hope you love it too! Bon Appétit!

For one pound cake

• 200g flour plus some of the mold
• 8g baking powder
• 2 ts organic lavender buds and some for decorating
• 100g butter + some of the mold
• 200g sugar
• 3 egs
• 125ml whole milk

For the lemon icing:

• 150 g powder sugar
• 10 g water (more or less depending on consistency). .
• 1 organic lemon

• Infuse lavender in milk (I generally do it while we eat or a few hours before baking the cake; the milk should really taste like lavender)
• Preheat oven to 360 F
• Soften butter in microwave oven - it has to be soft but not melted
• Mix sugar and butter together until white and double in volume.
• Add the eggs, one at a time
• Mix the flour and baking powder and add them to the sugar mixture
• Pour the milk (with lavender buds) and mix well with a spatula (my mom calls it the indispensable tool (outil indispensable) in a kitchens)
• Butter + flour the mold
• Pour the mixture in it and bake 40 -45 min
• Unmold the cake and let it cook on a rack 
• While it cools down, prepare the icing

• The icing has to be liquid enough to drip on the sides of the cake but solid enough to create an opaque layer.
• In a pot, mix water and powdered sugar
• Add a few drops of lemon and half of the lemon zest
• Pour on the cake when the cake is cool and decorate with lavender sprigs

Personal Comments

• You could use smaller individual molds - just adjust cooking time to 15 -20 min
• Make sure to use organic lavender as you don't want to eat pesticides!
• I use butter + flour even on a silicon mold
• The cake tastes better cold but you could eat it warm as well

Pissaladière

It's Summer again! Well, technically,  we are still a few weeks away from Summer but as I have come to realize "Summer time" is a very cultural theme.  For French people, l'été really means July and August - the time of year when everyone gets some time off. June is when everyone starts to think about their Summer vacations ; this is why I really like going to France in June. Days are really long, Parisians are starting to slow down, eating outside ,and easing into their Summer days....
In the U.S., Summer officially starts at the end of May with Memorial Day weekend and finishes early September with Labor Day. This is when plane tickets prices soar; this is when everyone starts barbecuing or, if in Philadelphia, talking about their weekend at the Jersey Shore....

So, it's Summer again in the U.S. and time to entertain outside. Since we only live in a two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, we can not entertain a lot during the cold months of Fall/Winter/early Spring.We are fortunate, though, to have a large roof top in our apartment building, which we use as an extra room everytime it's hot enough to sit outside.  This varies a lot -  we experienced a very hot Winter, which made it possible to eat outside in February! Most generally, we really start opening up the terrasse at the end of April. This spare open space with full view of the Benjamin Bridge enables us to host a few parties during the warm days of Summer in Philadelphia...

Since apéritif is one of my favorite meals, we tend to organize large "apéros" on our roof top. This makes it easy to organize and host: no back-and-forth with the kitchen downstairs : the food is already out. Everybody can help themselves with what they like (or want to try).... It's just a nice way to chill out and enjoy the company of friends.

Among all the things we make are the usual suspects : Guacamole, Hummus, white beans and fennel dip, salsa and chips, nuts, cake aux olives et au jambon, charcuterie and cheese, etc.  This year, I made a few variations of pissaladières. Pissaladières are from the South of France and traditionally involve caramelized onions, black olives, anchovies on bread dough. Since I know few people  who like anchovies, I tend not to make them with anchovies, especially when a lot of children are coming over. This year, I had extra feta cheese so I added feta instead of anchovies since we were having more than 12 kids over with their parents. I don't bother making my own dough anymore (my sourdough starter died a while ago) so I just purchase pizza dough at the local supermarket.
Really easy to make - and as usual, something you can improvise around to adapt to the palate of your guests. It's also very easy to bring Pissaladières to a Summer pique-nique or your next BBQ since it's officially in season!
Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients

• A ball of pizza dough
• Onions (more than you think you need - I use 3 large ones for one Pissaladière)
• Herbes de Provence
• Anchovies, black olives, feta cheese

• Pre-heat oven to 400F
• Lay out the dogue in a square pan
• Cook the onions in olive oil until translucide but not caramelized (although you could caramelize them)
• Add herbes de Provence, salt, pepper to taste
• Lay the onions on the dough
• Add Anchovies/black olives, etc.
• Bake in the oven for 25 minutes

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. 

Coconut Chia Pudding

Don't ask me where September and most of October went... We have all been busy : first a professional trip to California (my first in 9 years! San Francisco looks even better than the last time I went there/when I lived there (but more on that trip in another post) ),my parents' visit (always a treat), a trip to France for work (VERY hard to say "no" when it was offered for me to to Paris!!), then friends' visit... and of course, the Rentrée des Classes (back to school) with homework, new activities, new friends, etc....

One of the things people who have come to our house discover is that, since I turned vegan a few months ago, we have a lot of seeds & nuts (in addition to other grains French people don't eat often like  Kasha, Quinoa or Millet)  in the house as I use them as a great source of proteins.
Among the cashews nuts (raw or roasted (always unsalted)), almonds, walnuts, soy nuts, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts, Brazilian nuts, Macadamia nuts and other pecans, the seeds that trigger the most interest are Chia seeds. Most people have never heard of them; or when they have, they don't really know how to use them. They just know it's supposedly good for you because of their Omega 3-6 content...
I get the same question at work where some of my colleagues have started eating them...  No later than this morning, a colleague told me that she was putting a few in her tea; since Chia seeds become gelatinous, it reminded her of tapioca pearls...  I had never thought about this way of using them and will try it out...

I personally put them in yogurt or on apple sauce, never on anything salted for some reasons...
I have also used them to bind dough in cakes.... but most recently, I have been making Chia pudding. This is the easiest dessert to make and the options are endless when it comes to taste, texture and flavor.  I first saw this Chia pudding in a local restaurant and realized that it was really easy to make. I now saw some "Chia Pods" in the dairy section at Whole Foods (I have never tried them and will wait for them to go on major sale to purchase one : for the same price you can make about 10 of them, if not more)...
Our children do eat Chia seeds in their yogurt... and have been enjoying some versions of this Chia pudding.... so voila another easy healthy homemade dessert! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• Chia seeds
• Coconut Milk (whole, not light)
• Agave syrup or honey for sweetness
• Vanilla extract

• In a large bowl, measure 1/4 cup of Chia Seeds. 
• Slowly add 1 cup of milk, stirring a lot. Stirr more so that all the seeds get wet.
• Add syrup/honey and sweeten taste.
• Put in the fridge, stirring it frequently so that no chia seeds cluster together.
• Serve cold with cut fruits (mango, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, etc.)

My Personal Comments

• I have tried it with Soy, Almond and Coconut milk. I prefer it with whole coconut milk.
• You can play with the ratio chia seeds: liquid. I like it at 1:4 but some people like it at 1:3.

Cold Celery-Cucumber Soup

I just came back from two (too short) weeks of vacation in France where we spent time with relatives and friends in rural Normandie, Lozère (that's in the middle of nowhere France) and the French Alps (near Annecy - a city worth visiting both in the Summer and Winter!) Needless to say that we had a great time....

It was really hot (unusually hot for the season), which made us eat a lot of salades composées, generally made up with fresh vegetables from the potager. Spending time with friends who are lucky motivated enough grow their own vegetables in their potager (think fresh lettuce, peas,  tomatoes, fresh French beans, fava beans, zucchinis, eggplants, etc....) reminded me of my grand-mother's silly cucumbers & zucchinis!What I loved about gardening with my grand-mother in the Summer was to watch the vegetables grow and trick us into growing too fast for us to harvest and eat (hence a lot of canning!) My grand-mother got really upset when one zucchini/cucumber would escape her thorough gardening and hide from her to become so big that we could only puree them into a soup...

If you are feeling overwhelmed with cucumbers this summer, here is a quick recipe. I make this soupe froide a lot either with celery or with fennel. The recipe below is vegan (and my husband did say "hmm c'est super bon!!) but you could definitively use cream or yogurt instead of silk tofu and raw cashew nuts. Bon appétit!

Ingredients
- 2 small or 1 large cucumber (skin off but with seeds unless too bitter)
- 1 small celery stalks & leaves
- 1 small red hot pepper (optional)
- 1/4 cup of raw cashew nuts
- About 1/2 lb of silk tofu (250g)
- 2 Tbs of olive oil
- salt, pepper

• In a blender, put the silk tofu
• Add cucumber and celery (cut into small pieces)
• Add cashew nuts, hot pepper, salt and olive oil
• Blend until really smooth
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve cold

My Personal Comments

• In total I have about 7 cups (1750 ml) of ingredients in the blender (loosely packed)
• The trick is to blend the soup longer than you would want at high speed so that it becomes really smooth.
• I would add about a cup (250gr) of plain yogurt instead of the silk tofu.
• If using fennel, two small bulbs would do the work.

La salade composée verte....

May already went by, pff... And June also (re  pfff). I just can't really remember why it went by so fast.. but May brought our first CSA produces: fresh rhubarb, fresh asparagus, fresh French beans, fresh garlic, fresh lettuces etc.  Petit plaisir du dimanche... Nothing better than fresh local produces... Even though I have to be more creative when it comes to serving the same vegetables weeks after weeks... I feel fortunate to be able to have access to and be able to afford such produces. That said, I don't purchase ALL the fruits & vegetables we eat from the local Farmers' market. For once, it would require me to spend even more time in the kitchen to find good recipes to cook with the vegetables -I-could-only-find-at-the-market-that-Sunday. Then, I am not sure that my family would approve of eating within the limitation of this supply (Kale is definively not their favorite food.... yet!)... but more importantly, our already-high-food budget would explode...  So we compromise or, rather, mix-and-match.  When mix-and-matching, I use Farmers' market produces for dishes where they are served with minimum transformation and supermarket produces for the rest. For instance, if I am only serving a zucchinis compotée, I will use the Farmer's market zucchinis. If I am making a ratatouille, I will use the local supermarket ones. I am sure there is a difference. Maybe I would be able to tell it. Would it really matter? No. Will we enjoy the dish as much? Yes.

The only time when I don't compromise is when fruits or veggies (generally from the supermarket, including high-end ones like Wholefoods) have no flavor. I'd rather not buy these produces and fall back on something else, even if it means serving it twice the same week, than purchasing des fruits et légumes sans goût. Fruits AND veggies are meant to be flavorful. The flavor might be subtle (zucchinis for instance) or fragrant (raspberries)... but they have to taste flavorful! Unfortunately, for the sake of supply chain, supermarkets have been pushing for growers to forgo flavorful varieties (heirloom varieties, anyone?) to the benefits of varieties that can travel miles (some of which have been genetically modified to do so...). And unfortunately, some of these travel-resistent varieties do not taste as good (Canadian tomatoes exported to Philadelphia in February? Really??) It's a shame but not matter how many fresh produces I want to include in our family diet, I will try to avoid purchasing those as much as I can.  I want my children to know to appreciate fresh good produces and develop a taste for them.  I don't believe that they are too young to do so; they are already there when it comes to certain fruits (pears and strawberries especially)... so even if Kale is definitively not their favorite vegetable (yet!), I'll keep serving different varieties to them so that maybe, just maybe, one tastes better to them than another. I know what I will get at the Farmer's market this week-end....

One of the salade composées I have been making with our CSA produces is what I call my "salade composée verte" (as opposed to a salade verte, which in French, means plain lettuce). My sister-in-law made one for us last year when we were in Singapore to visit. Since then I have been serving it many times, and as usual, playing with the ingredients that are available to me when I make it. The key is to have a good balance between bitter-sweet and crunchy....It will work with whatever you get at the Farmer's market this week-end or at your local supermarket. No worries! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of cooked Quinoa (couscous or orzo would be fine too)
• Aragula or mixed greens thinly sliced
• Green veggies such as asparagus, snap peas, snow peas, cucumber, raw fresh zucchinis, avocados, edamame, celery etc.
• Toasted Pumpkin seeds (for added crunch)
• Green herbs (basil, parsley, tarragon, chive, green onions) - I generally pick one only.
• Feta cheese (if you have to have cheese in your salad)

My Personal Comments:

• There are no set-proportions but you want the veggies to dominate (ie, you don't put as much quinoa/couscous); the balance depends on what you like and have available to you. If you have fresh zucchinis, then I would not use cucumbers or celery.
• If I have vegan or lactore-intolerant guests, I serve the feta cheese on the side
• I serve it with a regular sauce vinaigrette for dressing

Cranberries - Orange Pound Cake

Spring is just around the corner. We got a nice glimpse of it last week-end when temperatures climbed up to the mid-60s (15C) for two days: everybody was out, students had already traded their down-jackets for t-shirts, their winter boots for flip-flops (??? don't ask!!) It felt that everybody was coming out of their house, fully alive and ready to dance! People were crowding public parks again (we once counted two benches with people in Rittenhouse Square one Sunday in February... last week-end, if two benches were inoccuppied, we were lucky!!)
It was unfortunately short-lived.  We are now back to wearing our down-jackets again (some students are still in T-shirts but because they are hot from celebrating Saint Patrick's Day today!!) .... and I have to say that I have a hard time dealing with this grey-dump-cold weather!

On those days, I only want to stay inside, eat some nice hearty soups, read a good book and/or watch a good movie or play a nice game with our children. Unfortunately, with two children in need of energy-burning exercises, this Sunday-inside is not an option for us (we were homebound for 36 hours when Hurricane Sandy hit last Fall and it did not do us any good. By Tuesday morning, we were already outside for a walk in the neighborhood....)

Nice or not-so-nice weather,  off we go!  Our children bundle up, take their scooters and we go out for at least 2 hours...  If we are lucky, they will take a good nap, which is when I have a few minutes to read a book (or take a nap myself!); my husband taking advantage of this quiet time to work...

One thing that I always do on these gloomy days is make some soups for dinner and, if I feel zealous, a nice pound cake for our afternoon goûter. With a nice cup of tea to warm us up, it helps us deal with the grey weather outside. Until it is nice enough again to be able to enjoy a more fruity (ie, no more citrus) pound cake on our roof terrasse. Allez, encore quelques semaines! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

- 1.5  (200g) cups all purpose flour

-  2 ts baking powder

- 1/2 ts salt

- 1 cup (250 ml) plain yogurt

- 1 cup (200g) sugar

- 3 eggs

- zest of 2 organic oranges

- 1/2 cup (125ml) canola oil 

- 1/3 cup (80ml)  orange juice

- Dried cranberries

- 2 ts Grand Marnier

• Pre-heat oven to 375 F (185C)
• In bowl, combine al the dry ingredients and the orange zest
• In another bowl, combine the eggs and yogurt and mix well. 
• Add the orange juice and Grand-Marnier and mix gently
• Incorporate the oil gently.
• Combine the wet ingredients in the wet ingredients
• Add the cranberries at the last minute - stirr
• Pour into a mold and bake in the oven for 45mns - 50mns or until a knife inserted comes out clean

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.

Smoked Salmon Dip

Our son has been diagnosed with foot & mouth disease. Not the one that can dissiminate cattles (my veterinary husband was fast to associate our son's symptoms to what he learnt in vet school a long time ago)... but the one that affects young children (syndrome pieds-mains-bouche et non pas la fièvre aphteuse for my French readers). And make them MI-SE-RA-BLE. Sooooooooo miserable...  And the rest of us at for the same token, even if we, fortunately, did not develop the symptoms (although suddenly, I feel like I have plenty of mouth sores!!)..
It has been such a long time since I had to wake up in the middle of the night more than once to attend a crying child! And feel powerless.....At least a few years ago, I knew what to do: feed, change a diaper, cuddle... and that was it! This time nothing seems to help... ....and apparently the symptoms might last up to one week...  One LOOOOOOONG week...

Forget about healthy diet at this stage... The only goal is to make our son drink fluids and eat some food... He was delighted to hear at the pediatrician's office that he could eat icecream. More than once a day. Even for breakfast!  Think: a child's dream-come-true...   but even icecream is hard for him to get down these days... And no, I did not offer Little Baby's Ice  pizza-flavor icecream... (yes, I know some people in Philadelphia are very creative; maybe too creative???) but maybe I should?

Kefir, hot chocolate, and homemade smoothies are his most favorite foods these days... So whatever makes him feed himself a little bit is welcome in his glass!! My home made soupe-aux-légumes did not make it past two teaspoons at lunch yesterday. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow to have a few more spoons... or I'll dilute it enough so that he can drink it with a straw!! No matter how willing I am to feed him Kefir yogurt and smoothies, he is like me who shivers from drinking too much cold liquid at once (no ice in my water. EVER). Here he is, drinking his Kefir with a straw (and every sip he swallows without crying makes he happy) but then, 5 minutes later, I see him shiver and soon heading to the bathroom. MI-SE-RA-BLE, I told you......  He feels so miserable that he does not even comment on the menu that we, meanwhile, eat. We do add Kefir and icecream on our menu (our daughter is delighted!)... but we still eat other real food as well! I can't wait for him to feel better. We actually started a list of dishes that he would want to have when he feels better. Think, his birthday is next week and he might have to pass on  his birthday cake! On his list are empanadas, galettes des rois, charlotte aux fruits rouge, bagels, moules-frites, fish with wild rice, corn on the cob, candies, fish fingers, pancakes, madeleines and viennoiseries (pains au chocolat, croissant, brioche, etc.) I told him that except for out-of-season corn on the cob and galette des rois, we'll that when he feels better. I get a smile when he thinks about it... So yes, once he feels better, I will take the time to make some of these dishes and remember to purchase the viennoiseries from school on Friday. But that's not until a few more miserable days. Pff...

Here is a dip that I served earlier this week to the three of us who could eat solid food. For Americans who love their bagels-and-lox-for-breakfast, it would feel like breakfast. For those of us who are not eating bagels for breakfast but rather for lunch, it would feel like a nice dip to serve before dinner or to go along with cocktail drinks. Unfortunately, not straw-friendly for our son at this stage. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Greek yogurt or Labne (Lebanese cream-cheese style)

- A few ounces of smoked salmon, cut in small pieces

- 1/2 Cucumber (diced)

- Capers (to taste)

- Dill

- Olive oil

- Salt & pepper to taste

• Mix the greek yogurt/labne with the smoked salmon, cucumber, capers and dill.
• Add a one Tbs of Olive oil and salt & pepper to taste
• Serve with buckwheat mini-crepes, pita chips or crackers... or on bagels!

My Personal Comments

• I like it best with Labne but Greek yogurt makes it a little bit lighter. You could,  obviously use cream cheese but I personally don't like with cream cheese.
• If you don't have cucumber, you could use celery. The idea is to add something crunchy to the dip.
• If I don't find dill, I use fennel fronds

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

Fougasse aux Olives - Foccacia with Olives

Despite the fact that we live in an apartment, we are lucky to have a roof terrasse to eat out or just relax. One of the things I really like about this terrasse is that we can grow herbs: basil, parsley, cilantro, chive, rosemary, tarragon, mint, thyme, etc. (I am looking for chervil seeds to plant some!). There is nothing better to me than cook with fresh thyme or fresh rosemary or to scissor some fresh cilantro, chive and tarragon to dress a salad (why purchase pre-herbed pre-packed salad at the supermarket when you can make your own??) I also like the fact that our children enjoy drowning watering the plants and to go and cut them fresh when needed. They feel empowered with a very important task! At least, by now, they know their herbs... and enjoy eating them, even a lot of them like in a herb yogurt sauce on sliced cucumbers....
We had a mild winter and even though we did not cover our herbs during the winter, I was SO happy to see that our chive and rosemary were back up, ready to grow again (we must have the chive for at least 4 years now!). It did not take me long to use just a little bit, enough to make me feel that I was eating something really fresh, but not too much to give them enough strength to grow bigger in the coming weeks.
I made my first fougasse, French for foccacia, a few years ago. It's a very traditional bread eaten in the South of France where herbs, especially rosemary, thyme and fennel that grow wild in the Garrigue are mixed with local cured olives and Olive oil. Perfect bread, no?
I don't make it often, mostly because, I use my natural sourdough starter to make baguettes these days and have not tried to make Fougasse with the starter. I should just try. Especially now that I have home-grown rosemary... and really because this bread does not need much time to rise; it's therefore easy to start it late afternoon and bake it in the oven for dinner. You should try! If not, just try to grow herbs in your garden or patio and use them everywhere to spice up your summer dishes. If you ask your children to come and help (or even be in charge), chances are they'd be the first ones to eat them on their plate. Worth a lot, no? Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

• 200g (7 ounces) wheat flour
• 200g (7 ounces) white whole wheat flour
• 250g (1 cup) lukewarm water 
• 75ml (2.53 Floz) olive oil
• 1 pack of dry instant yeast
• Pitted black olives
• Fresh thyme cut
• 5 g (1ts) of salt
• Extra Coarse sea salt
• Extra Olive Oil for brushing

• Stir together lukewarm water and yeast in a bowl until the yeast is fully dissolve. Let Stand about 5 minutes.
• In another bowl, mix rosemary (cut in small pieces) and olives (cut in half).
• Add flour, salt, and olive oil to the yeast-water mixhture. Knead dough until very soft, adding the rosemary-olive mix just at the end of the kneading process.
• Transfer the dough into a lighly oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about 2 hours at room temperature.
• Pre-heat oven to 450F (225C)
• Transfer dough onto a baking pan and press with your fingers. Let dough rest & rise for about 15 minutes. 
• Brush with olive oil, add coarse sea salt
• Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes at 450F (225C) or until golden.

My comments

• You could use all purpose flour instead of the white whole wheat.
• Ideally, you cook the fougasse on a pizza stone. If you don't have one, don't worry, take your best pizza dish.