bleudauvergne

Wow, that looks heavenly! I also did the potato leek cake and it was scrumptious. I ran them thought he grater on the moulinex to save time. It might have been prettier if I had hand julienned them.

Oooh oooh! Kathleen. Your First blog really inspired me with a lot of great writing style. It looks like we're in for another week of fabulous reading and fascinating content! Just the idea of recording your thoughts and progress as you struggle with the learning curve is very courageous. Lots of luck as you cook your way through this week! Congratulations on making the pumpkin soup! That cake looks really wonderful.

Awe inspiring chili!

What a nice article! The cheese above looks like the various cheeses of the town of Epoisses (didn't know there was more than one, did you?) In honor of this thread and the article John provides us with above, I will have a glass of Chardonnay from the Bourgogne.

I guess that means lunch tomorrow... NICE looking kale, Abra. Your salad had a beautiful touch. Simply beautiful.

Yea, that skate you had last night has got me in the mood to find me some and cook it up right away.

I will certainly ask about it this weekend...

Don't worry about mess and clutter. Mess is good! Clutter is inevitably interesting! I like your cutting board shot after prep! I was contemplating a pile of moss and pine needles I picked out of some mushrooms last night, thinking I should take a photo. That is a heck of a lot of coffee! Did you drink it all?

Would high-gluten flour be like type 45 French flour? Thanks.

I will certainly do it the next time which will be just as soon as we work our way through this generous jar of delectable sauce.

We certainly enjoyed last night's sauce and cake. I did not heat the sugar as much, I took it to hard ball (260 F) stage and continued with the recette as if I had brought it up to 350F, I just thought it might solidify on me! It still made a nice thick sauce.

Something about this blog has got me hooked in. I want to know more and eagerly await your next meal. Thanks so far.

Ok, I'll be the first to gush! That looks terrific-- and thanks for the extra tips on making it. I will definately be trying it. Hope you do follow up with a discussion/recipe on your favorite caramel sauce recipe... ← Thanks Ludja! From memory, the sauce went as follows (if I make any errors, I'll correct them tonight when I have Yard's book in front of me): Mix 1.5C white sugar, 0.5C light brown sugar, 4Tb corn syrup and 0.5C water in medium pan. Cook over med-high heat until you reach 300F, then reduce heat to med. When you reach 350-355F, take pan from heat, let bubbles subside, then add 1C heavy cream (warmed in microwave), 0.5C sour cream, 1t vanilla, 1t lemon juice, and a good pinch of salt. Whisk to mix it all together. You may have to put the pan back on the heat for a few minutes to get all the hardened caramel bits incorporated. Like I said, this is my favorite caramel sauce now. Its nice and dark, smooth in appearance, and has a more complex flavor than most caramel sauces due to the sour cream and lemon juice (not to mention truly caramelized sugar). ← Hello All I have the toffee on and look at my thermometer - are you sure they said 300 degrees and 350-355 degrees F? Because that's some hot sugar. I have a guest who said something about Sticky Toffee Pudding - So I'm in there boiling this sugar. Quick can someone confirm these temps? Thanks.

Nice to finally see you! What have you decided to order tonight? Do they make their own pasta? That pasta looks good and so do the pizzas - I was glad to see no cheese on the Napoletana.

Last night I was drawn again to Paula's Wild Leek and Mushroom Torte, the Tourte de poireaux de vignes et champignons on page 90. Even though it's not the month of May and I can't get wild leeks or ramps, I just used regular leeks. It made a great casual supper for visitors just arriving. Today at lunch I served what everyone else is serving - the Autumn Squash Soup With Country Ham and Garlic Croutons, or Creme de potiron on page 67. It was a great lunch and warmed us up on this blustery autumn day. This soup is so easy and so delicious that it is a shame not to prepare it, right now. We of course followed it up with the last of the Leek and Mushroom Torte which reheats well.

I have never seen her show or any of her books, but I can say I have some respect for her, this is why. A month ago, another one of my nieces aged 22 arrived in France for a year here. We found her an apartment and I was getting her settled in with just the very basic rudiments of a student kitchen. As we're looking here and there for equipment and such, she decides that she doesn't need a stove because she doesn't know how to cook anyway, and she decides that a single hot plate burner will suffice for the year she will spend here. I respect her decision, it's her place after all, and I'm guiding her through some one pot meals, one of them a stove top rendition of a boeuf bourgignon which is really easy, and as we're browning the beef I say - see that on the bottom of the pan? Don't worry about that because when you add the liquid it will all mix in and add flavor to the sauce. She says, "I know, I learned that from Rachel Ray". So if this woman has got my niece interested in cooking enough to watch and learn a few things, I say - I respect her. Seeds planted now can bloom later, there's time for that.

Hi doronin, You are so right that the method is really easy when you can prepare everything at home. When you can prepare everything at home, one of the things you get used to is having all of the ingredients you need to make things palatable and eating just about whatever you want, however you want it. If you want dressing or a sauce, or a nice hearty stew, you make the dressing or the sauce and it's legal and legit, and your food tastes good. But if you order that hearty stew in the canteen you know for a fact it's loaded with thickeners. It's pretty dire when you find yourself in a position where you have to make choices at restauants and lunch canteens, the whole idea of the sauces has to be eliminated because there's dextrose, modified starches, etc. everywhere in industrial cafeteria food, lettuce that tastes like plastic, etc. I think you have pointed out something really important, that one of the keys to following this method is to have support, a real problem with this method is temptation and whatever everyone else around you is doing. It's super easy to follow this diet when it's convenient. But once you have to start finding your way through the whole problem of how to have a satisfying meal with what's available from cheap snacky stuff, well, the diet becomes very hard to follow. I know myself pretty well, the temptation factor gets much worse when I have lots going on at work as well. A perfect excuse is - I need to finish this I need to work on that, therefore I don't have time to seek out a good lunch, therefore : sandwich. Lame excuse but I confess have found myself using it over the past few months. And I will not be shy - the pounds are creeping back. Another confession. I have recently been making a lot of baked goods. It started with a birthday party and the cake was suprisingly and amazingly delicious. I have since made two other cakes just for fun. One of my husband's students is getting ready to finish her dissertation and I say: Oh when is her defense? I should bake a cake! I suppose I should get that out of my system, yes. I'm working on another project which involves various savory pastry doughs so once that's over I guess I'll swear off it again for at least awhile and get back on the program. I can use it! Maybe a good idea would be to get this thread back up and moving and concentrate on what kinds of changes we have to make at home to incorporate really good boxed lunches into the program. I don't mean waking up and between breakfast and the shower tossing a couple of chunks of cheese in a sack and calling that lunch, but really working on a series of steps to prepare someone in the office canteen dilemma for a thoughtful approach to this. I suppose that would also include equipment and some time set aside in the evenings to plan for the next day's lunch. Also finding ways to replace my current downfall, 'pastry therapy', with other mindful satisfying kitchen tasks.

The great thing about pyramid molds is that you can fill them to whatever level you like! Just make sure you get the same amount in each one!

Elie, I just called my butcher to ask him about this. I reminded him that in this particular recipe they are simply pan seared - he thought about it for a minute and then gave me the deal: The thing about the veal kidneys are that they are going to release a certain amount of liquid during the thawing process, more liquid than they would normally release. In order to get a good effect when cooking them you have to make sure they're really well drained and dry. He said that you should take the time to let them defrost fully in a colander and then wrap them in a clean dish towel and gently squeeze them and pat them completely dry before you put them in the pan to cook. He concluded rather cheerfully that using the frozen kidneys for a recipe like this is "not insurmountable" and that you can still get a quite good result by using frozen. Hope that answers your question.

That's what happened to me! I was skinny as a rail until we had the first one, and after that, well, it's been all downhill. ← more specifically known as the pounds that you put on after the Happy 10 which both men and women gain during the honeymoon period of a marriage/partnership. ← Is this supposed to be per year? When does it stop? ← Wow I thought the culprit was the eG 20, but now I see it must be from my marriage. OK that makes sense. Reading you blog Stan, makes me want to try the lactaid drink just to see what it tastes like. What happens if you drink milk?

...All the better to get a nice taste of Europe... First trip you just want to soak in as much as you can. Will you be traveling everywhere by train? You're welcome here in France should the mood strike you before coming home. Local tour guide in Lyon awaits you. PM me if you do decide to come through. A quick jaunt from Zurich.

I am taking a moment this morning to savor your wonderful trip report again, and especially Lyon - you were in my neighborhood and we may have well passed each other on the street! Your stairwell shot was taken on my 'stairmaster'! Do you remember by chance a blonde huffing and puffing her way up? This butter perparation is classic to the snails - it's actually called beurre d'escargots, 'snail butter'. You can get the prepared butter or even the prepared escargots ready to pop in the oven at many of the traiteurs around town or make it yourself, quite easy. Here's a quick recette translated from Paul Bocuse's La Cuisine du Marche, obviously for a whole lot of snails but you can divide as necessary: Beurre d'Escargots 1 kilo of fine butter 20 grams of sea salt 1 gram of ground pepper (L: I guess you'd say a pinch) a grate (L: or two) of nutmeg 50 grams of minced garlic 40 grams of minced shallot 50 grams of mild almonds 100 grams of finely minced parsley. Method: Put the salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic, shallot and almonds into a mortar and mash down until you have a smooth paste. Once that's done, add the parsley and softened butter. With the pestle, mix it gently just until everything is incorporated. This should be kept cool in a ceramic container until ready for use. (L: It should be noted that not everyone uses the almonds.) Indeed that's a crawfish, called ecrevisse in French which is typically simmered in a vegetable stock with a bouquet and then served cold in a salad like this. I also love the gizzards, and we find them everywhere here, confit. The great thing about the confit process is that it lends well to canning and we can keep a few cans for whenever we're in the mood for these. I had a wonderful salad at a friend's house in which she sauteed some potatoes in the poultry fat in which they were preserved, and then served them warm over the potatoes. The first time I tried them I was really pleased too, since the gizzard actually a very flavorful muscle that is constantly worked throughout the life of the bird, it's smooth and meaty and tastes great. That cake is called a cannelé, a specialty of Bordeaux, actually. A nice dense rich traditionally a rum flavored cake. Pignol is a traiteur local to Lyon, and they do a nice job of things on the whole, and from time to time they have a tendency to call things by one name but not prepare it in the expected way, adding their own little Lyonnais 'twist' to it. It may have been parfumed with another flavor - so did it have any particular flavor? Was it a rum flavored one?

Whoa, hey there! Now this is going to be a fabulous week.

That must have been a very special meal. Does his wife have a special recipe for the pate that she prepares every time?

I've just received a message from someone I know in the States on this very topic. She says that jack rabbits (similar to hares) are hunted all over the US and most home cooks use the blood as described in Paula's recipe. I know that some people would not be able to bring themselves to process the animal at home, but there are many who would, given the chance.