Christmas recap

Well things went really well for our first time hosting Christmas. Everyone arrived at the end of the afternoon for an apéritif (my MIL brought lots of bottles of bubbly for the occasion!) I served Deviled eggs which went over well, along with some bought puff pastry nibblies.
For dinner I made a Chapon which MG and I thought was a castrated turkey - turns out it was a castrated chicken but given the size of it (3,5kg!) I kept calling it a turkey anyway... So that turned out yummy and we had it with mashed potatoes & gravy, polenta, green beans & bacon, stuffing and carrots!
Afterwards sticking with local tradition we had a trou normand to help us digest before attacking the cheese and then dessert. I made a hazelnut/blackberry cake that my FIL adores and a pumpkin pie which everyone loved. I snuck upstairs for a 6 way google hangout with my dad, sister, uncles and grandparents which was SO fun!
By then we were stuffed and exhausted so we opened our stockings (it was my little surprise this year - I made personalized stockings for the family! I think it's a tradition that should take hold here!!) and I think they all liked them along with the goodies inside! Then we watched a movie.
But we voted 3 to 2 to open the rest of the presents the following day (Christmas morning).
After a relaxed breakfast of challah and lots of coffee we finally got into it ;-) and there were fantastic gifts all around!
We kept it simple the rest of the day, leftovers for lunch and Carcassonne all afternoon.
I called my mom after they had left and did another FaceTime chat with my sister in Oz. I love technology!!

So all in all a great Christmas weekend. We're seeing some friends tomorrow & invited for NYE so between now and then it's time to relax a bit because I got offered a 3 month contract starting January 3rd :-)

Merry Christmas!!

Cookies & Turkey

Yesterday I went to Caen to sell my 300+ cookies that I made for the Greedy Guts Christmas market. Everything went really well! I had plate of cookie samples that I'd get people to try and almost everyone that tried some ended up buying cookies! I sold all but 12 (1 box of a dozen) in about 4 hours so I thought that was pretty good! Plus I had sooo much fun doing it :-)

When we got home last night I threw a pumpkin pie in the oven (thanks mom for the canned pumpkin! A real life saver!!!) and then this morning I got up early to put together a December thanksgiving lunch. We had wanted to invite some friends for thanksgiving but they were busy last week. Turns out that moving thanksgiving back a week is perfect timing! As it is impossible to buy a turkey in November in France somehow waiting until the first week of December they magically appear! Got a great deal at 4.50€ /kg too! It ended up being cooked perfectly and I realized as Mystery Guest was carving it that this is the first time I've ever cooked a turkey! After all these years celebrating in France either someone else has been in charge of the bird or I've made a chicken. So I was very proud of myself :-) we also had homemade cranberry sauce, mom's fantastic stuffing, carrots and mashed taters (mystery guest did the gravy, yum!) now we're sitting on the couch vegging while it continues to pour down rain outside. So lucky that the rain miraculously stopped for the few hours that the Christmas market was on yesterday - thank god!

drool

My new creation - Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies (Cx4? does that work as a nickname?) Anyway my mom sent me a little care package and only a few of the candy canes made it intact. Rather than eat all the little pieces myself I decided to re-create my alltime favorite combo: chocolate and mint.

My favorite ice cream.
My favorite candy (junior mints & after eights).
My favorite tea (peppermint with a square of chocolate on the side.

Yup, been my favorite since I was a kid.

Since I'll be selling my cookies at the market in Caen tomorrow I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a new Christmas cookie!

(anyone notice it's been photographed on my new cookie stand??)

DIY cookie stand

The weather is being bipolar this week after 3 weeks of beautiful sunny and almost spring like weather yesterday we had a rain and windstorm whip through and today the sun is out again. Fingers crossed that the weather will be half decent on Saturday when I go to Caen to have my cookie stand in the little Christmas market!

(seriously, fingers crossed! I'm making mad cookies and if no one comes I'm not eating them all!!)

To get ready I wanted a way to lift up the cookies instead of just having them on plates on a table. I got some ideas from other DIY bakers and came up with my cookie stand! I think all in all it cost me 4.50 euros to make and is rather classy looking if I do say so myself!

 

I displayed some mince pies that an English friend gave us. His wife made them so I tried one at lunch today. The only other time I've tried mince pies was last year working in the British office (store bought ones, not very good in my opinion.) So even though I thought I might not like them I gave them a shot and they weren't bad. The pastry and frangipane topping were yummy but the filling had an odd vinegary taste to it.. So I had to have a second one to confirm. 

I also think I might end up eating numbers 3 and 4 because a) Mystery Guest doesn't like dried fruit and b) he thought they were savory and when I said they were sweet he just got that "oh crazy English people" look on his face....

shameless

In case you don't follow me on twitter or on facebook... some shameless self-promotion (heck it is my blog!) for my cookie website and my holiday special! What else would make a cookie fanatic happier than a personalized cookie jar filled with homemade cookies? Honestly, I can't think of anything!

Oh, and for anyone in the Caen area I'll be at a mini Christmas market put on by Greedy Guts on December 3rd!

christmasy

I'm getting in the Christmasy spirit around here and working on a new gingerbread recipe. It's a really different kind of cookie dough (no eggs!?!) but it really cooks up well. I made them on the thicker side then I normally do (and tried really hard not to over bake them - I swear I check on them, turn my back and my oven decides to cook faster? wtf?).

Still trying to decide if I prefer them chewy (as above) or more "gingersnappy". I think I'm leaning towards chewy and it seems as though facebook friends agree with me!

I also got a chance to do something I love - cookie decoration! I practiced my "flooding" technique which worked out well and is so easy once you know how.

I've also got a Christmas surprise up my sleeve but MIL has my blog address and churns it through google translate so no sneak peaks unfortunately!

lunch

Just a little snapshot of our lunch today. We stopped by the in-laws yesterday and my MIL gave me some fresh cod filets that my FIL caught (he loves to fish). For lunch I breaded them with breadcrumbs flavored with lemon zest and herbs de provence and pan fried them. A little soft polenta and voila - lunch!

Yum.

out of the oven

saturday morning baking

This afternoon we're headed over to a friend's family summer home where they are staying for the weekend. We'll go in the afternoon and stay for dinner. 

I said I'd bring dessert. 

I don't think they'll be disappointed....

  

 Unfortunately I've started a tradition whereas everytime we go visit them (or crash at their house outside of Paris before catching a flight) I bring my double chocolate chunk cookies. There is now an expectation (and addiction!) to uphold!

I've been dying to try a new recipe that my friend Aimee keeps putting up amazing pictures of and if I lived in Paris I'd probably live IN her teahouse where I'd eat cake and knit all day.

Here's a  before shot of my version of her tart.

 

peach pie 2.0

I made peach pie this morning. The last time I made one was two years ago according to my blog!  We're invited to a friend's house for lunch and I wanted to take a dessert that wasn't too rich and chocolaty. I got some white peaches and even made my own crust this time around. I'll let you know how it tastes... I can't really cut a slice out before we go... although I'd love to!

Garden update

 Yup, garden update. I ran around taking pictures of my garden to blog while Mystery Guest started up the BBQ! We had his family over for a good 'ol fashioned American BBQ for lunch. On the menu? Homemade burgers (this ain't no MacDo!), marinated chicken, potato salad (with purple potatoes!) and his mom brought over some salad and some carottes rapees. Unlike a French lunch there was no entree nor cheese course but we did start off with an apero before hitting the cheeseburgers and fixins! Of course for dessert I had to go a bit nuts with not only cookies but a big Red Velvet that always impresses people :) Yum.

So everything was yummy and we had a great time sitting outside enjoying the sun (which decided to show itself after a good week of rain around here - good timing!) and I gave a couple tours of my garden:

 Blueberries on the left, tomatoes in the middle and a combination of pumpkin, butternut and corn to the right.

 Monster pumpkin!

 Love the little tendrils that hook on to anything and everything!

 Zucchini!

Mexican lunch!

Inspired by the rainy weather (and Masterchef Australia!) I decided to cook some sunny Mexican food.
I marinated the chicken thighs overnight in lime juice, tomatoes and salt. Then I rolled them in a little taco seasoning before pan frying them. Oh my god that chicken was heaven!!!!

I also made Mexican rice by cooking plain rice first and then in a separate pan sautéing onions and garlic before adding tomato paste, salt, pepper and cumin. Then I mixed it all in with the rice - yum yum!

 Finally I made some spelt tortillas inspired by Andi & Homesick Texan. They came out yummy too!

Then it was just a matter of pulling the chicken off the bone and putting together a burrito with fresh tomatoes & avocado! The only thing missing was cilantro & sour cream... Oh and a picture 'cause I ate too fast! :-)

an egg

I know what you're thinking, it's an egg - a boring white egg.

Actually no, it's an egg from our neighbor's chickens, free range happy chickens. What happened was on Wednesday I made a big Red Velvet cake.

Yup right?? You betcha!!! It was a friend's birthday and he would have spent it commuting and not celebrating so we invited him over for dinner and to celebrate his birthday. Birthdays in my book are special, they are celebrations that can last for a good week if need be. So I made a BIG special cake - for three of us... I don't know if you can tell but that is one big mofo cake! The friend took about half of it to work the next day to pawn it off on colleagues and I divided up the rest and went over to the neighbor's. 

That's always the tricky thing when you "stop by" the neighbor's, you are always invited for a coffee and it can take quite some time to actually leave. I wanted to make it quick so Mystery Guest stayed at home ("I need to get back MG is waiting for me to eat") which worked pretty well. But my neighbor said since I couldn't stay would I like a couple of her eggs? 

Yup!! She gave me a dozen eggs!! That's not a couple but as she pointed out, a couple to eat soft boiled, a couple for a cake, a couple for a quiche and pretty soon no more eggs! I always like getting eggs from her, they have the yellowest yolks possible! I made pancakes with them and I swear it looked like I had added corn flour to the batter!

Whew! All that to say that the thing that really struck me yesterday is that the eggs are mostly white. 

White you say? Of course! 

In my America (to use a KylieMac expression) store bought eggs are always white and eggs from the farmer's market are more "rustic" and tend to be brown. In France I have looked high and low for white eggs to decorate for Easter (try decorating brown ones? yeah, the dye doesn't do much...!) and here I find them, fresh from the neighbor's chickens! 

In my mind that's all sorts of backwards. And the end to my long winded story... 

... about an egg.

beat the heat

There were mangoes on sale at the store the other day so I went ahead and got two. I haven't eaten a lot of mangoes fresh before but I love them.

I decided to test out making a smoothie with them to beat the heat. It hasn't been too hot here, just right but the house with all its windows heats up fast so we've got the blinds drawn during the day to try and keep the temps down. (so excuse the crappy cell picture in the dark room)

I do have to say the smoothie was AMAZING! It was as rich as a milkshake but all I did was blend 1 mango, 1 yogurt and a splash of milk to loosen it up a bit.

Ahhhh... yum.

Homemade cookies!

My new secret project which has been underway for a few weeks now is finally up and running! 

All of those yummy cookies you've been drooling over are now for sale! 

Head on over to my new website to check it out!

The first 10 orders will get 50% off shipping costs :) Spread the word!

country life

Another quirk living in the country -  the bakery truck! Think the milkman but for bread! In some areas there is a bakery truck that stops by every day or multiple times a week. Ours comes on Tuesday and Friday afternoons around 3 or 4pm. I've never bought bread from the truck, although I have bought it from the bakery it comes from.

I didn't buy any today either because a few weeks ago we bought a bread machine so I've been playing around baking my own bread. I know it's another "kitchen gadet" but we've been buying more and more whole grain, spelt and other "fancy" breads which can cost a good 2 or 3 euros for the small loaves (300grams or so). With the bread machine I can make a 750g spelt bread for 1.15 euros and they've been turning out pretty good! Plus, I mean come on, how good is it to set the timer and wake up to fresh bread?

I make the dough in the bread machine, it takes 1 hour and 30 minutes but does all the kneading and rising for you. Then as the last few minutes are ticking down I turn on the oven to get it nice and hot and pull out the dough. I shape the dough and then let it sit for 5 minutes or so while the oven is finishing preheating then stick the bread in. It takes about 20 minutes or so to cook and voila! Fresh bread! I guess it is time consuming but because you're not having to sit over it or anything you can start the machine and then go do something else.

I'm curious to try Ksam's monkey bread one of these days... oh and there's a "jam" function on it too...

American cake

For our weekend away near Etretat visiting friends for the long weekend I was in charge of bringing desserts. To celebrate my new Frenchness (received my confirmation letter in the mail today!!!) I brought a bottle of bubbly as well as cookies and a Red Velvet cake :) I was hesitant bringing an American style cake (not worried about the cookies, they've proven themselves time and time again) because they have a tendency of being too sweet with cloying icing. But with all the rage of Red Velvet these days and help from a Jamie Oliver recipe (which I like since it is in grams instead of cups) I busted one out.

The batter was unbelievable, silky smooth and so sexy. I made the cake at home as well as the frosting (cream cheese with real Philadelphia! YUM!) and then put it together once we arrived with some fresh charlotte strawberries from the market on top.

Needless to say it was a huge success, even those who were not the biggest cake fans really enjoyed it and the cake itself was very chocolaty but not too sweet. I had avoided making a layer cake thinking that too much icing would have been overkill but everyone said that next time I should do it :) Happy days.

The weekend was really fun, relaxing and just hanging out. The weather turned into thunderstorms with wild flashes of lightening on Saturday night and then it poured buckets all day on Sunday which was too bad. But with yummy desserts, fantastic coffee and their new "tea machine" we managed to suffer through it :)

Red Velvet - Jamie Oliver (serves 24, I halved it)

Cake
200g unsalted butter, room temp
600g sugar
12 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
12 tbsp red food coloring (I didn't add this)
8 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
600g flour
500ml buttermilk
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Frosting
300g unsalted butter, room temp
600g powdered sugar
450g cream cheese
3 tsp vanilla
lemon zest and juice

Preheat oven to 180C. Line the bases of 2 x 25cm cake tins with greaseproof paper. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, food coloring and salt. Fold in cocoa and flour carefully then stir in buttermilk.
Mix the bicarb and vinegar together in a small bowl until it fizzes, then stir into cake batter.
Divide the mix between the two tins and bake for 25-30min until risen and cooked through. Let sit for 15 minutes to cool and then remove from tins and cool completely.

For the frosting, cream the butter and powdered sugar together. Beat in the cream cheese. Fold in vanilla and lemon zest/juice. Chill until needed.

When the cakes are cool top one with a layer of frosting, carefully place the second layer on top and using a spatula spread the rest of the frosting on top.

MilkJam tip: top with fresh strawberries and call it "velours rouge" :)

fresh out of the oven

Did I hear someone say cookies?

waiting game

Ever since my conversation with the Préfecture last month I have been obsessively checking the mail...

We live towards the end of a dead-end road and you can hear the cars coming. So then I rush out to see what the mailman has left for me... usually junk mail, sometimes a magazine but never what I'm looking for...

On an anecdotal side note after coming to our house and the neighbor's the mailman stops at another neighbor's house "for coffee" and his car is there for at least an hour... hummm... small town gossip. However that neighbor is elderly and more likely his mother than anything else...

PS made a fantastic new banana bread today - YUM!

new recipe

A couple of weeks ago we got a huge bag of spinach in our organic veggie basket. MG not being a big fan of spinach I tried to find a recipe that would use it up and taste yummy.

I thought to Greek food, feta/spinach - YUM. Google was my friend and found this article that has a great recipe for a Greek tarte. I modified it slightly to use some potatoes also in the basket and came up with this:

1kg washed spinach
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
200g feta cheese
250g ricotta cheese
3 medium potatoes, diced
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Grated nutmeg
2tbsp finely chopped dill
Sea salt and pepper
1 packet filo pastry, thawed
125g melted butter

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Roughly chop the spinach.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and cook the spinach and onion until wilted. Drain well and cool. Then lightly squeeze out any excess juices. In a big bowl, mash the feta cheese with the ricotta, then beat in the eggs, nutmeg, potatoes, chopped dill, sea salt and lots of pepper. Add the spinach and mix well.

Brush one sheet of filo pastry with melted butter and place it in a lightly oiled tarte pan, allowing for some overlap.

Continue layering the brushed sheets on top until you have six layers, then fill the dish with the spinach mixture, fold the extra filo over the edges.

Oh my god, YUM!!! It was sooooo tasty!!!! I went to make it again (this week I had forgotten to order the basket but found spinach at the store on special as the expiration date was almost up) but the store was out of ricotta! I tried our little store nearby but of course no ricotta... what to do??? fromage blanc? Nah.

It was David Lebovitz to the rescue!! I made my own ricotta! Call me Martha? Nah, I prefer to be called David!