Black Olives Tapenade

I love olives.  I have always loved them and the story goes that for my two-year birthday a friend of my parents' gave me two olive jars. I was in heaven and did not bother playing with the doll I received as a gift! (hint: if you don't know what to bring to our house, good olives are always welcome!).
Being in France makes it cheaper to eat olives. Some of them grow just in your backyarkd if you live in the South of France... or just across the border in Italy or Spain or a little bit further away in Greece (but Greece is closer to Paris than San Francisco is to Philadelphia)...
Since we eat olives a lot in our family, my children have developed a good taste for them, including the spicy ones that we find at the supermarket.
My love for olives made me want to have a perfect Tapenade recipe to eat as an appetizer for our weekly aperitifs or just together with a nice salade composee for nice and relaxed Summer dinner. One that would not be loaded with salt and additives. One that would be smooth enough but with tiny bits of olives. This is not easy. I am not even sure this recipe is my favorite one. Why? Because I have not found the right olives to put into. I tried the cheap version with canned olives (yeah, canned, I know, I know) and it was tasteless. I then went the other extreme where I used cured black olives and that was way too strong (and too salty). Good thing I am in France these days, I'll be able to go and pick the ones I think would make a tapenade perfect. In the meantime, don't complain not to be in France (well, you can), but try to find the right olives near you and don't be disappointed if it does not work out great the first time. Trust me, when it comes to olives, you are on for major discoveries...I am still discovering some and can't wait to try new ones in the years to come!! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of black pitted olives (Kalamata would do)
- 1 clove garlic (you could put two if you like it a lot)
- 2 Tbs olive oil (a good one)
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 2 anchovies (optional)
- 1Tb capers (I put 2 because I like them a lot too)
- Salt

• Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until reaching desirable consistecy.
• Add salt if needed (it will depend on the capers/anchovies).
• Refrigerate
• Serve with crackers, toasted bread.

Apple- Rhubarb Cake

One of the best things we did earlier this year is to join a CSA. We are luck to have a Farmers' Market just across from our building on Sundays. The place was meant for it (used to be one way way way back but only got used as a Farmers' market a few years ago). The farmers have produces that don't compete with what even Wholefoods would offer. We are talking about in-season, fresh (FRESH) produces, most of them organic. So yes, this is kind of our luxury because, let's face it as well, it's not cheap. However when it comes to purchasing veggies on Sunday to have enough to cook for the whole week (meal planning anybody????), it's worth investing in good fresh local produces.
The two guys we are supporting are called Tom and Matt. I admired their dedication to good produces. While we think we are having a hard time with the heat (who is readin this post in an AC room???), Tom and Matt are working their crop to make a living. That's just admirable. Merci Messieurs.
I'll have more to talk about Tom and Matt this Summer but one of the first produces we got in May was rhubarb. Lots of fresh rhubarb... so one day I decided to try it on a cake. It turned out to be a good cake, cholesterol-friendly to top it all. My son did declare that he did not really like rhubarb but it was just a one-night-only comment. The next day, he was happy to have another piece of cake!
I know that I should have published this recipe when rhubarb was in season. Oh well... you can always use the recipe to bake a cake with peaches these days... I can't wait to get some in my CSA box!
Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:
- 200 g flour (a mix of flours would be OK)
- 2 ts baking powder
- 100 g sugar
- 1 ts cinnamon
- 200 g apple sauce (no sugar added)
- 100 g neutral oil (canola for instance)

• Put all the dry ingredients in one bowl
• In another bowl, mix in the apple sauce with the oil and mix into the dry ingredients
• Bake in the oven at 360F for about 45 minutes

Gazpacho

As I was driving the kids to school one day, we were behind a camion citerne (tanker) and everytime we are behind one, we play this game of trying to guess what it is inside the tank. I started that game a long time ago, trying to keep my children quiet in the car:  it was also a way to make them aware of how things move from point A to point B depending on their physical form.
Since we have played this game many times now (too many trucks on the Philadelphia highways!!), my daughter knows and start with the usual "orange juice, olive oil, water,". Picking up the game, my son started to say "apple juice, milk"... and then "beer". I started laughing! Soon enough he and his sister were saying "white wine, red wine, pisco!" We all started laughing...I felt that a stranger listening to this conversation could have thought that my husband and I are such heavy drinkers that our kids know all the names of the beverages we drink!! Yes, they tried a drop of Champagne at their christening; yes, they tried a drop of beer and wine; but no, we are not heavy drinkers! We just happen to enjoy a drink here and there (especially on our Friday aperitifs) and my kids just happen to be great observers...

Since it's hot these days, here is a cool non-alcoholic soup for you and your family. My children enjoy eating this gazpacho because they really get to chose the toppings they can eat it with! Worth the extra time to chop extra veggies to put on the table... Bon Appetit!

PS: And for those of you who had never had Pisco (a drink originally from Peru but which we discovered in Chile), here is a NY Times article I recently came across! We generally drink it with just lime, crushed ice and powdered sugar... but who knows, in a few years, my kids might add a few cocktail names to their "tanker list!"

Ingredients:
- 2 large cans of whole peeled tomatoes (good quality)
- 2 fresh tomatoes, skin remove
- 1 cucumber
- 1 red onion
- 1 clove garlic

For garnish:
- Bell peppers
- Onion
- Croutons
- Cilantro/basil/chive
- Cucumber
- Tabasco
- Salt, black pepper

• In a bowl, blend the canned tomatoes (including liquid), the fresh tomatoes, cucumber, 1/2 onion and garlic. 
• Chill for a few hours
• Serve cold.

My Personal Comments:

• If I am able to plan ahead, I refrigerate the canned tomatoes overnight so that they are already chilled when I blend them with the other ingredients.
• If can not plan, put the bowl in an ice-bath while refrigerating it. 
• To peel the fresh tomatoes, drop them for 30s in simmering water.

Hummus with Basil - Hummus au Basilic

It has been a while, well more than a month (yes, I know, too long), since I last posted a recipe. Part of the reason is that my husband is taking the pictures and it has been hard for the two of us to coordinate: you know the day I make something worth being published on the blog, he left his camera at work... or the day he has it at home, the salad I made for dinner is not worth a blog entry!! If only I'd follow the weekly menus I create on my way to work or while riding the bus, we could better coordinate... but that has been hard... and since my children are off school for their 11-week-long Summer, I don't need to plan and cook meals ahead of time anymore.  Part of me likes this but I also know that by not having a meal plans for the weeks to come, it won't really make my life easier. So chances are that I'll be somehow planning again soon (I can't help it, you see!!)

If you were to ask French people what (culinary-speaking that is) they associate Summer with, they'll tell you : "l'apéro" et "le barbeque". We did not need Summer to servir l'apéritif in our house (we have it every Friday!)... but Summer being here, it will mean that we'll offer l'apéritif even more often! Super! "moi, j'adore l'apéritif" says my three-year-old! But who does not enjoy munching on different things while having a drink and relaxing?
Since I try to offer something different than just chips & salsa and pistachios when we are having a drink, I have been experimenting. Hummus is something I now make a lot (as well as gougères)...and, as a consequence, never purchase anymore. Since we started growing herbs on our balcony, I had extra basil, which I added to my recette de base. You could really adapt the recipe to your liking; I also like adding roasted red bell peppers in hummus. If we have too much, I keep it in the fridge and serve it on the side of a large salade composée. The type of dinner that really does not require any planning. Ou presque! Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas (if you use canned, keep the water)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tbs lemon juice
- 2 Tbs Tahini (sesame paste)
- 2 Tbs Olive oil
- Salt
- Cayenne Pepper/Paprika/Cumin (optional)
- Fresh Basil

• Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth. You can add some of the water from the canned chickpeas to reach the desired consistency or more olive oil or water.

My Personal Comments

• You could add an extra garlic clove if you like garlic a lot (I don't)
• You can keep it in the fridge for about 2-3 days.

Wild Berries Financiers

"Il est bon ton restaurant, maman" do my children say when they are in a good mood and they enjoy what I am serving them for dinner!! I enjoy hearing that but I like it even better when they claim that "on reviendra bientot!" (they'll come back soon)... Not that they really have a choice... but at least I feel that they forget the dinners they did not really enjoyed and for which I had to fight to have them finish up what's was on their plate... ( and I am the one who does not like to be forced to eat; but I guess it's different when you know that the reason why your children declared that "c'est pas bon", when they loved it a month before, is that they are tired or just in a bad mood, or just want to make you pay for not being home with them after school...).Argh....


The best was the other day when they decided to start their own cooking school and restaurant for all their plush toys. They had put on their apron, took out all their pretend-play food and kitchen ustensils and given a plate to all of them. It was really cute!

My son did explain to "Monkey" how to peel and chop an onion, making sure to let him know that "his eyes were going to cry but that it was OK"! They were making salads, pizza and even ratatouille even though it's not their favorite dish any more!

This made me more motivated to have them participate more in the kitchen. I have to say that since I am back at work, I have not had the time or the patience to have them cook with me. Just seeing that they were able to teach their plush toys how to make bread, soup or even a salad, I feel better because they did not forget or lose their interest in cooking. And that's worth a lot...
This recipe is one that they helped me bake a few days ago on a week-end day. Try it with your children! Bon Appetit!

Ingredients: 
(for about 8 financiers or a large one)

- 1.05 oz (30 gr) butter + some for the molds

- 3 egg whites

- 2.6 oz (75 gr) Almond meal/flour

- 2.6 oz (75 gr) confectioned sugar

- 1.05 oz (30 gr) all purpose flour

- 1 Tb (15ml)  Kirsh or other berry liqueur (optional)

- zest of one lemon

- Wild berries (frozen or fresh)

• Pre-heat oven to 400 F (200 C)
• In small pot, melt butter and let it brown (making beurre noisette). Reserve
• In a bowl, mix in the almond flour, the sugar and the flour
• Whisk in egg whites in the dry mixture
• Add the liqueur and lemon zest
• Stir in the butter 
• Butter the molds and divide the dough into the molds
• Add berries in each mold, pressing down to cover some with the dough.
• Cook in the oven for 15 minutes. 
• Cool on a rack.

My Personal Comments:

• Financiers are easy cookies to make when you have leftover eggwhites. You can even freeze the egg whites and then work your recipe based on how much eggwhites you have.

Article: "Family Meals Help Cut Risk of Childhood Obesity"

If you are not convinced of my eating-by-example theory, here is a good article that should convince you that eating with your children is a great long-term investment.

Family Meals Help Cut Risk of Childhood Obesity

Study Shows Family Mealtimes Have a Healthy Effect on Children’s Nutrition  By Jennifer Warner

Do we do it at home? Not enough in our family since my children go to bed earlier than when my husband comes home (and I try to eat with my husband)... However, when my children are having dinner, I make sure to be sitting next to them at the table/in the kitchen and talking about their day... We have our routine questions (who was the capitaine (line leader), who counted, whom did they sit next to at lunch, what did their friends eat, what did I do during my day (hmmm, try to explain that you put together a Powerpoint presentation to find potential investors for a new molecule!!). It's part of our family sharing and it's a nice way to wind down to...
A friend of mine and I were actually talking about this this morning. He was telling me that, like most working parents, he and his wife did not spend much time with their children on weekdays. He and his wife are able to sit together for dinner most nights during the week... but they were trying to adapt their morning routine so as to make breakfast another family meal. That would be ideal! BUT I can't see how that could be feasible in our family on weekdays (just because it takes so much time to my husband to get ready!!). One thing we do and never miss though is our Friday evening aperitifs, but I am not sure it would qualify as a healthy meal spent together!!
Do you manage to eat dinner with your family most days? What are your favorite discussions?

Keep on trying sharing meals with your family!! It's worth it for all of you!

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 

White Beans and Sausage Stew

Patrimoine génétique... I am not talking (again) about GMOs (but yes, try to avoid them as much as possible!!)... but about the inherited diseases that we might face one day for just being the children of our parents'. I never realized how important it is until we started talking about cholesterol in my family (they speak arthritis in my husband's!!). I won't go into much details but having had a blood work done recently, I had the unpleasant surprise to discover that I, too, have a cholesterol problem, albeit minor at this stage.

But I am not even 40! And I eat quite a healthy diet, exercise, don't smoke, drink a glass of red wine  (or Pisco) here and there, and I am definitively not overweight!! Quite unfair, I want to say! Fair or not fair, that's what genetics is about...and we have to accept it...

So what do I do to avoid having to take medication? The only adjustments I could make are eating less cheese (but considering the price of good cheese here, it's not like we eat triple-cream cheese every day!!), banning red meat while increasing fish such as maquerel, salmon and other omega-3-loaded fish, and reducing the amount of butter and eggs I use when I bake. Quite a challenge, especially when it comes to baking! That said, I feel that, as for anything else, I'll just make compromises: eating a very low-cholesterol diet to be able to have a nice piece of cheese once-in-a-long-while. Voila!

The other thing that I worry is how much will my children inherit: between le cholesterol de maman (dad's needs to be checked btw because he claims that he does not have any but I yet have to see the results!!) and l'arthrose de papa, I just hope that genes dilution won't make our children suffer from any of it. Time will tell...

In the short term, this is one of the few recipes I'll stop eating for a while (or at all), well at least with the sausage option.  This is nothing like a French cassoulet but since we don't have the right beans nor the right meat to make a real cassoulet in Philadelphia, this is a nice proxy. Which makes me think that I won't be eating the canned cassoulet we brought back from France last Summer. Anybody wants to come for dinner? Bon Appétit!

Ingredients
- Great Northern White Beans (preferably dry&soaked but canned will do to)

- 1 small onion, minced

- 2 garlic cloves, minced

- a few carrots, cut into small pieces.

- Fresh thyme

- Cumin seeds (1/4 ts, more if you like it a lot)

- Kielbasa sausage (enough to feed your family; more if you want leftovers)

• In a thick-bottom pot (like a cast-iron), saute the onion and the garlic in olive oil.
• Add the cumin seeds , the carrots and coat with olive oil
• Add thyme.
• If you are using canned beans, pour the beans into the pot, add the sausage and cook at low temperature for 15-20 minutes (you only want the carrots to be cooked)
• If you are using pre-soaked beans, you will want to cover the beans with water, add the sausage and cook at low temperature for about 1h30 (or until the beans are tendered). 

My Personal Comments

• You could add a few pieces of bacon or ham or even pork butt into the dish for extra cholesterol flavor!
• Don't hesitate to make more because it makes great leftover!

Food Inc. ... What do we do now?

I recently watched Food Inc (merci Netflix!!) , the documentary made by Robert Kenner...and while I had watched other documentaties along the same lines (Supersize Me or Fast Food Nation), and while I am aware of the power of large agro-business and distributors companies in this country, I have to say that it made me think even more on how to best feed my family.
My conclusion is that it's a "quadrature du cercle" unless you are either wealthy enough (but we are talking REALLY wealthy) to be able to eat LOCAL ORGANIC food ALL YEAR ROUND... ! Since I can't, what do we do?

As I like to tell my daughter when she has a hard time making a decision as to whether she wants honey or jam on her tartine (and boy, that drives me crazy!!) , we process by elimination...
First, we eliminate processed food as much as possible, especially GMO products. In our family, the only processed food we eat these days are frozen dumplings, fresh cut ham, yogurts, apple sauce pouches, a few cookies, jam, and a few sauces (chutney, BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, etc.). I have started to use dry beans more (I buy them in bulk) instead of the canned ones. I find that once you have cooked dry beans, you can freeze them. This saves me time and enables me to have some "on hand". Besides, it's cheaper by the pound and has less sodium...
Then we try to go for organic when "affordable"; it is my experience that sometimes organic produces and products are not THAT much more expensive that conventional ones. Forget organic raspberries in the middle of winter... but for instance organic pears (on sale) this morning at Wholefoods were not more expensive than conventional ones at the Reading Terminal Market where we also shop.  And when there is a bargain on some organic products, especially the ones we eat a lot, I stock. This comparaison-shopping requires time though...
The hard question to answer is:  is it better to purchase organic pears that come from Argentina or conventional ones that come from California?  If prices are equivalent, no matter the carbon foot-print, I purchase the organic ones. Why? Because the lack of pesticides in organic products is not only better for me and the environment, it's also better for the people who work in the fields... and that's worth it!
When it comes to meat and fish, I purchase less so that we can afford the better quality products (organic or grass-fed or free-range.)  It has worked fine with us for the last few months...Even my meat-eater husband feels OK with our semi-vegetarian diet (he just does not want to say that he feels better!!)
When organic products are just not within the reach of my wallet, I try to buy "local".
And if none of the above options are available, I either go for frozen products or I make exceptions. And  I do make a lot of exceptions. I figure that if 50% of the time, I am able to purchase either organic or local foods, then it's OK for me to purchase conventional products, even if they come from the other side of the world. And I think that even if it were 10% of the time, it would still matter. No need (who can afford it in the first place) to be radical... just a few changes will do everybody good! Especially in the longer term.. and that's what matters to me... being able to raise healthy kids and leaving them with a better place...
What's for dinner tonight? A salade composée made with (conventional, from California) wild rice, organic fennel, (conventional, from Florida) cherry tomatoes, fresh organic dill, and toasted (conventional, from California) almonds.  Bon Appétit!

Tarte Tatin

Voila one of the most famous French desserts : more famous than the Mousse au Chocolat but maybe tied with the Crème Brûlée, at least in the US. La Tarte Tatin happens to be one of my husband's favorite desserts... but unfortunately, as he would claim, we I don't make it often. I don't really know why because it's not that difficult. Sure, it's a little bit time-consuming and can't really baked in advance (or at least, I don't dare to do it)... but the rest is just dough + caramelized apples... so nothing fancy there. Trust me! AND please, no-store-bought crust for this dessert. You might have saved time but you would have spoilt the dessert....(don't tell me I did not warn you!).

I made this Tarte Tatin for a dinner we hosted a few weeks ago. Since there were only 3 of us eating that evening, there was Tarte Tatin left on the kitchen counter. On Sunday morning, our son came to our bedroom and one of the first things he asked was " c'est quoi ce qui est sur la table de la cuisine?"I had forgotten about the Tarte Tatin. I thought he meant his "pâte à sel" objects  (sort of playdough made of salt and flour) that needed to be baked to solidify before being painted. So I told him that he had to wait because it was not cooked. He insisted, talking about the other plate... but since it was too early and I had no idea of what he was talking about, I asked him to wait until I got ready for breakfast...  I should have known my son better (he is his dad's mignature in a way): he is very fast when it comes to spotting something sweet that can be eaten!!! 

So, Tarte Tatin for breakfast? Mais oui...I could not say no, n'est-ce-pas? And you can be sure that the Tarte Tatin did not survive past breakfast! I guess that la Tarte Tatin might now be my son's favorite desserts as well... (my daughter liked it as well to tell you the truth but she did not spend 5 minutes at 7.30am (that's early for a Sunday morning, no?) trying to make me explain "what was on the table.") Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:
For the crust:
- 1 stick plus two tablespoons cold salted butter (5 ounces), cut into small cubes and chilled in freezer
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- A pinch of salt- 3 to 6 tablespoons iced water

For the filling:

- 7 medium apples (firm apples and flavorful). Purchase more than you would need because they tend to "shrink while cooking.
- 1 stick (4 ounces or 110gr ) salted butter
 - 1 cup sugar

• Prepare the dough:
• Put the flour in a bowl and make a well ; add the butter and mix in so that you reach pea-size pieces.
• Add the water, one teaspoon at a time. 
• Don't overwork the dough, especially with your warm hands. Wrap in plastic film and cool it in the freezer for one hour or more.
• Prepare the filling:
• In a pan/dish that can go in the oven, put the sugar and butter (in pieces).
• Once melted, add the apple pieces. Make sure to add more because they will shrink. It does not matter at this stage if some pieces are on top of each other.
• Cook over medium-heat for 20mn until the sugar turns to caramel. 
• Pre-heat oven to 375F
• Take the dough from the fridge and roll it (over flour-covered surface) into a disc that will be bigger than your pan/dish.
• When you are ready to bake the tarte, lay the dough over the apples and place in the oven.
• Cook for about 25-30ms.
• Flip over a serving dish with caution.
• Serve while still warm.

My Personal Comments:

• Make sure to purchase firm apples.
• Some people add one tablespoon of sugar in the dough; I don't because the caramel is so sweet that you don't need extra sugar.
• You could make the dough in a food processor but you want to make sure that the blade/bowl are cold when you make it.