Potage d'oignon dans Les Halles
We have friends in Paris right now. I hate them.
They have rented a flat for a month in the 7th. Did I mention I hate them?!? We originally planned on joining them for a week or so, and then financial reality roared its ugly head. Prices were literally double what we paid a couple of years ago. And we are getting married next month...
So... we're living vicariously through their photos.
Yesterday, it was Onion Soup at Au Pied de Cochon in Les Halles. Just a couple of blocks from the Louvre. I really do hate them.
One of my fantasies is to have a kitchen in Paris and go roaming the markets early in the morning and come home and cook fabulous meals with fabulous products.
One of these days.....
The Last Summer Salad?!?
Beautiful weather out there and that called for a salad. We've already been flirting with the fall dishes, but the weather was just too perfect for anything but greens and the grill.
Bed of lettuce, fresh-from-the-garden tomato, a handful of raspberries, blanched broccoli and snow peas...
I grilled some tri tip steaks that were marinated in a bit of steak sauce and hot sauce.
Victor made a dressing of honey, honey mustard, olive oil and vinegar.
Yum.
Chicken with Spicy Peaches
This was an easy one. Okay... They're ALL easy ones. But this one was really an easy easy one.
I pan-fried two boneless chicken breasts in a bit of olive oil. When they were about 3/4 cooked, I added some sliced peaches and a teaspoon of sambal oelek - chili paste for the uninitiated.
White rice, and fresh carrots with honey and ginger.
The only disappointing thing was the peaches weren't that good. They had a great aroma, but just lacked in the flavor department. Oh well. The chili paste made everything all better. :)
Steak Tips
I've had a bit of a craving for steak tips, lately. I don't eat them often, but I really do like random chunks of beef cooked in various ways.
I'm trying to remember a restaurant I used to go to in Boston that had steak tips... It wasn't a fancy place - more like one of the Greek places on Huntington Ave with excellent food and inexpensive prices. (Okay - it was the 1980's...)
I just remember them being melt-in-your-mouth-tender. Pretty much like what we had tonight!
I did a quick marinade with Moore's Teriyaki sauce and fired up the grill. Meanwhile, I sliced a couple of potatoes nice and thin and into a hot skillet they went. After browning them for a few minutes, they went into the oven.
30 minutes later, potatoes were done, steak tips were done, corn was done, and we were enjoying dinner.
Scallops, Pancetta, and Spinach
I'm a day late, here! This is LAST night's dinner - Scallops in a pancetta and cream sauce.
It was a really quick dinner... Pancetta in a fry pan, added the scallops, browned on one side, flipped, added a bit of sherry, cooked it down a bit, added a splash of cream, salt, and pepper. Served over rice with spinach. It was yummy!
Pumpkin Soup
I love Pumpkin Soup. It's rich and creamy and you can put just about anything in it. My Uncle Dick made a great Pumpkin Soup. He was Half Mexican and half Irish and loved his jalapenos.
And I made a pretty good one last year for our Pumpkin Cookoff at work.
But I was looking fir something a bit different tonight - chicken and black beans were on my mind, so I came up with a really simple one tonight.
I suppose I could have put it on an underliner and made the picture a bit nicer. And if I had any sour cream, I definitely would have topped it with a dollup. But I didn't in either case - and it was still really good!
Pumpkin Soup
- 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 qts chicken stock
- 2 cans pumpkin
- 2 cans black beans, rinsed
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups heavy cream
In large pot, brown chicken in small amount of oil. Add spices and cook about 2 minutes. Add pumpkin and broth. Bring to boil.
Add drained beans and heat through.
Add heavy cream. Check for seasoning, and add salt and pepper, if desired.
It was a really simple soup and I served it with Victor's favorite walnut raisin bread.
Yum.
Pumpkin Cake
It just dawned on me that I came up with this recipe six years ago! Jon and Ken were transferring to Wilmington to open a new store there and I made this as their going away cake - because Jon really liked the pumpkin butter.
It's still really good all these years later. While I made a sheet cake back then, I usually make it in a tube pan - we have a great square tube pan that makes a perfect cake every time - or as a layer cake.
This time around I frosted it with just cream cheese whipped with a bit of pumpkin butter. Yum.
Pumpkin Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 3/4 cup Pumpkin Butter
- 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 350F. Line half-sheet pan or 2 9" pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour. Sift flour and next 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Whisk pumpkin, yogurt, honey and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan(s). Bake about 30 minutes or up to 45 minutes if using tube pan. Cool in pan on rack.
Yum.
Christmas Fruitcake
The 2008 Christmas Baking Season has officially started! Today, I started off with fruitcake. This is a new recipe for me, and it looks pretty good.
I absolutely love real, homemade fruitcake. If you've only tasted those nasty doorstops sold in grocery stores, you're in for a treat. There is a difference. REAL fruitcake is good.
Fruit Cake
The recipe makes several fruitcakes and will require a couple of pretty big bowls.
- 1 lb butter
- 1 lb light brown sugar
- 9 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 lb flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp mace
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 lbs dried currants
- 1 lb raisins
- 1 lb golden raisins
- 1 lb glace fruits
- 8 oz glace pineapple, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 lb whole pecans
Preheat oven to 275°. Place dried fruits into large bowl, mix in glace fruits, add 1/4 cup liquor, mix well, and set aside. (Can be prepared the night before.)
Separate the eggs. Beat egg whites until stiff with half of the brown sugar, set aside. Cream butter, adding half the brown sugar, mix well. Beat the egg yolks until thick, beat yolks into butter mixture, along with the milk. Sift flour, baking soda, mace and cinnamon. Stir into butter mixture, then stir batter into fruit mixture by hand. Fold in egg white mixture.
Grease and flour baking tins. (I used bake and serve cardboard pans from Cost Plus.) Place pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven to create steam. Place cakes in oven and bake. Smallest cakes should be done in 50 minutes, continue to bake larger cakes until they test done with a toothpick. Largest cakes usually bake in 1 1/2 hours.
Thoroughly cool cakes on racks and then wrap each cake in brandy-soaked cheese cloth. Wrap well in plastic and store in cool, dark place. Allow cakes to mellow for at least six weeks.
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They look pretty spectacular, and smell absolutely wonderful. I'm ready for Christmas!
Chicken and Stuffed Shells
Last night, Victor made some excellent stuffed shells - from scratch, of course! They were so good, I was going to serve them for dinner again, tonight. But, during her weekly Sunday visit, we sent half of them home with Victor's mom. That meant not enough for an entree, but definitely enough for a side dish!
We have a bag of plum tomatoes from our neighbor, so I just made a quick sauce with the fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, and herbs from the garden. I grilled a couple of chicken breasts about 3/4 through and set them into the pan with the sauce. I also added the stuffed shells to reheat, made a bit of garlic bread and steamed some broccoli.
Grated some cheese on top and called it dinner!
Tomato Chutney
Underneath that cheese and those tomatoes is a kickapoo Tomato Chutney covering a grilled chicken breast. Can we say "delicious" boys and girls?!?
We got in a new product yesterday - a Tomato Chutney - that is just fantastic! Those who know me, know I don't usually go gaga over things. I'm going gaga over the Tomato Chutney, though! It is just the kind of thing I totally love! There is so much flavor going on, you forget that it's also hot and spicy. They did a good job with this one!
And... I got to learn a bit about chutneys in general. I have made chutneys in the past - and everyone knows "Major Grey's Chutney" but I always thought chutney by definition was meant to be chunky. Ooops! I was wrong! Like salsa, it can be chunky or smooth - and smooth is probably more traditional, as it is often made in a pestle with mortar, crushing everything together. (I learned French cooking in school - what do I know?!?)
I have a hundred and one ideas going through my head for this stuff - including using it in soup for a demo at work in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely going to put it on a grilled cheese sandwich, and on a burger?!? Definitely! With sliced and roasted potatoes... In a homemade BBQ sauce...
The possibilities are endless!
Stuffed Peppers and Pasta
We had Victor's mom over for dinner the other night. She is the perfect guest. 90 minutes of chat and dinner and she's ready to head home. We pack up a bag of goodies for her to take with her. Besides an extra pepper, I had picked up several meals at work abnd divided them all into single-serve portions she could freeze. (I love my FoodSaver!!!)
Victor did the cooking, and we had stuffed peppers that were most excellent! It was a beef filling - much like his meatballs - and a side of pasta. Fresh sauce made from fresh tomatoes from our neighbor. Yum.
Mom didn't stick around for dessert. We had cake.
Thai Beef Curry
Last night was a preety quick and easy dinner. I had a couple of blade steaks marinating in the freezer that I sliced thin and stir-fried.
Into the pot went some onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery, mushrooms, bean sprouts, snow peas, broccoli...
Added some Thai Green Curry Paste and a can of coconut milk and served over rice.
Yum.
It was really quick and easy, and used up some veggies that were hanging around with nothing to do.