bleudauvergne

I've sent my list to Jack, I don't think I did too well.

This is fun, I'd like to give it a try but want to give everyone a chance to answer. Should I PM my answers to you?

Finding you shoe polish chcoolate is now on my list, Bux. I have an idea of a few adresses where I can inquire.

A picture says a thousand words. Three family photos exist of me as a child. One, a Sears portrait. Two, a photo of me playing in the child size kitchen my father made for me. Three : At about the same age, I wanted to make a cake, but my mother wouldn't let me. Therefore I went around to the neighbors and borrowed the ingredients one by one. Mrs. Web, the neighbor who lent me the sugar, sensed that something was awry and watched as instead of returning to my house, I took a beeline for the woods, where I was collecting the ingredients. She told on me and I got in big trouble.

I love it already, Jack. I can't wait to see the smoking brick oven in action. Thank you for doing this!

Good for you, Felice. Cheese is a great thing to discover. As for the seep into skin types, that's just it. If I didn't have a mission I'd spend all my time wandering aimlessly, and then my feet would hurt. You enter the city and it's like getting sucked into a vortex. I can't sit all day in a cafe when I'm in Paris, there's too much energy buzzing about and I feel like I have to be circulating in it. An exposition or a museum is a formidable mission, I agree. I'll try and afternoon in a cafe the next time I go and see what happens, though.

Lunch was out with my niece, we were running errands - so the pork chops are now in the freezer. A bowl of chicken soup, which was supposed to have noodles, but I asked for the soup without. They were happy to oblige, and a very kind cook added julienned bamboo shoot instead of the noodles. It was quite satisfying with the coriander and chives. Next I had some sauteed Chinese greens, but I didn't get a picture. Tonight's dinner will be a Flourless Quiche, a salad, and the cheese plate. This way I will use my leftovers.

This to me is really the key to the super amazing meal you put together there, Marlene. That's what it's all about. It looks like it was a simply beautiful meal, very inspiring. Get well Sam!

Perhaps if you follow the menu every other day, or two days on two days off? This was my problem as well... Well that and many of the recipes have fish which I'm allergic to, so I'll pick & choose a couple recipes from the list to join you on over the next week, as there's room in the fridge - we must finish off some of the current leftovers first though! ← I agree, however one thing that should be noted is that the menu does help me to keep the meals in proportion for their maximum efficiency, i.e. serving bigger meals at lunch and smaller meals at dinner. I have realized that instead of fixing up elaborate meals, I can focus my energies on presentation for the dinners. I have a long way to go and it will be good for me. We're slowly clearing out the fridge. I do have to fix the pork chops for lunch though.

Last night's dinner: Eggs : Salad : Followed by the cheese plate in which I had St. Marcellin, Vieux Morbier, Some of this lovely cheese from Auvergne seasoned with pepper and garlic - the name escapes me, and a sliver of Roquefort. For the first time in ages the plate has no goat cheese. It was all cow's cheeses except the Roquefort. They had dessert - The Brouillade aux Fraises des Bois made with cognac, topped by a layer of meringue and vanilla flavored ice creams which I packed in ramequins and fit in above the brouillade just before serving to make it look like a souffle coming to the table. The batch of brouillade I made was too small for 3 so I sacraficed my share (I had a couple of tastes while making it) so that they could enjoy it with the ice cream - it just seemed like it would marry beautifully with meringue flavored ice cream. Instead of dessert I enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay.

Now that you're this successful, maybe it's time to start thinking creatively and not of imitating Nutella. Some years back as the Salon du Chocolate in Paris, I purchased a chocolate "paste." It came in a flat metal tin exactly like shoe polish. When you twisted the little gizmo on the side of the can, the lid popped off and there was the shiny surface of a brand new tin of shoe polish. I bought it for a nephew, but quickly realized that dark bitter chocolate flavor wasn't going to appeal to him anyway and like the grinch that I am, I kept it for myself. The tin was yellow and it was the product of a chocolatier in the northeast of France. He had a booth at the salon. I don't recall his name or if the stuff is available anywhere else in France. It was quite spreadable at room temperature on toasted brioche and rather excellent. I can't even recall, but I believe there were nuts or nut butter in the paste. Nutella should not be our paragon. ← I think Bux is right. Just mastering the plethora of ways we can use chocolate and incorporate it into our daily lives while following the Montignac method should be the goal. I would love to know what that paste was, Bux. Please try to remember.

Quiche (flourless) Serves 4 as Main Dish. This quiche is made without a crust and is a dinner menu item in a Montignac menu. The recipe can be followed for any low carb diet. The original recipe contains bacon, which I don't eat when following the Montignac method, because most bacon is sugar cured. I have also cut this recipe significantly, due to the copious amounts that Montignac recipes yield, and my prior experience with quiche. I feel that this can easily serve 4 reasonable servings with no leftovers. 4 eggs 200 g leeks 150 g leftover meat, pork, chicken, etc. 1 small onion 150 g creme fraiche or heavy cream 100 g hard cooked cheese, any kind 1 T olive oil or poultry fat salt, pepper, grated nutmeg Wash the leeks and save only the white and tender green parts. Slice them into 1/2 inch rounds. Mince the onion. Cut the meats into 1/2 inch cubes. In a saucepan over medium low heat, sautee the minced onion and the leeks in about 2 T of olive oil until they are soft and translucent. This should take about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Break the eggs into a bowl, beat with the creme fraiche to combine, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Incorporate the grated cheese, the meats, and add the onion / leek mix, using a slotted spoon to avoid adding the cooking liquid. Put the preparation into a greased gratin dish. Bake in a 160c / 300f degree oven or in a bain-marie for 40 minutes. Serve warm. ( RG1290 )

Quiche (flourless) Serves 4 as Main Dish. This quiche is made without a crust and is a dinner menu item in a Montignac menu. The recipe can be followed for any low carb diet. The original recipe contains bacon, which I don't eat when following the Montignac method, because most bacon is sugar cured. I have also cut this recipe significantly, due to the copious amounts that Montignac recipes yield, and my prior experience with quiche. I feel that this can easily serve 4 reasonable servings with no leftovers. 4 eggs 200 g leeks 150 g leftover meat, pork, chicken, etc. 1 small onion 150 g creme fraiche or heavy cream 100 g hard cooked cheese, any kind 1 T olive oil or poultry fat salt, pepper, grated nutmeg Wash the leeks and save only the white and tender green parts. Slice them into 1/2 inch rounds. Mince the onion. Cut the meats into 1/2 inch cubes. In a saucepan over medium low heat, sautee the minced onion and the leeks in about 2 T of olive oil until they are soft and translucent. This should take about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Break the eggs into a bowl, beat with the creme fraiche to combine, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Incorporate the grated cheese, the meats, and add the onion / leek mix, using a slotted spoon to avoid adding the cooking liquid. Put the preparation into a greased gratin dish. Bake in a 160c / 300f degree oven or in a bain-marie for 40 minutes. Serve warm. ( RG1290 )

I am so sorry you hurt your ankle! Hummous can be combined with meat in Stage II, so as long as you go back to strictly stage I things, you're alright. SD Your meal looks like it was awesome! We are also going to slightly stray from the menu tonight since we still have leftover sauce from the pork roast we have to use. One thing I have realized about the Montignac menus are that although they are full of variety and wonderful things to cook, I end up with a fridge full of leftovers and no way to use them if I strictly follow the menu. That's a serious problem. Therefore tonight I will use the leftover sauce on the eggs and top with a pepper garnish. We are hungry today because I screwed up the fish en croute de sel and we had to throw it away! It's a long story. But the avocados and shrimp were delicious.

Excellent presentation and ideas for the soup and salad, Eden! I love your dishes too. Thank you so much for posting the photos, please continue, no matter what you cook! It's very inspiring to see what you're doing, it makes me want to keep on the diet! Well, here's what happened with the nutella experiement. As mentioned before, I soaked the hazelnuts. I was going to do it for 6 hours, but lost patience after 2. Then I put the nuts in their water in the microwave and zapped it on high for two minutes. My niece and I spent about 1/2 hour peeling that little papery husk off the nuts. While we were doing this, Loic, mentioned that we could have bought the nuts already peeled. Duh. Once that was done, I put the following into that cup that comes with the immersion blender, and on the scale, in went : the 60 grams nuts, soaked 30 grams cocoa (bernachon) 30 grams powdered milk 60 ml water 30 grams fructose 4 tablespoons walnut oil And blended it. Once the initial mix was homogenous, I then incorporated 1/3 more cup walnut oil bit by bit, and it progressively thickened. It began to act like nutella. Doing this in a regular blender or a mixer would not work, because it gets very thick and you have to work to push it through. I had to scrape it off from the sides a couple of times. The thought that I might burn up the motor came to mind. I think I should have incorporated a lot more oil to get it to the consistency of real nutella. Result - I called in my niece, and took down the house jar of european real nutella, and the result of the experiement and had her taste them both. I asked her what she thought. She paused, and said she couldn't explain, but they were different. The real nutella wasn't quite as thick, and was lighter in color, I suspect from more milk. I asked her to think about it carefully. OK, she finally responded, the real nutella is significantly sweeter. Check. The first ingredient on the jar is sugar and my ratio of fructose did not correspond. There is also a complex flavor in the faux nutella that doesn't exist in the real one. I asked her if it could be the walnut oil. Her eyes brightened at that moment and she responded that that's what she thought it was. I put the faux nutella into a sauce squeezer and stored it upside down to let the paste settle to the nozzle end. That way I could squeeze it out in the design on the dessert. My tasting notes - the texture is smooth but I can still detect little bits of hazelnut, not hard or grainy, but simply not absolutely pureed to the smooth paste I wanted. I suspect that longer soaking of the nuts is in order. The nuking of the hazelnuts I think was beneficial because the nuts began to give off a nice toasted hazelnut aroma. I served the paste on the dessert about 4 hours after initially mixing it, and it seems that the resting time was good for the texture; it seemed smoother and the hazelnut grain was no longer in the forefront. Voila. Experiment complete. Refinements to follow. Montignac's menu gives copious meals on the weekends. So I'm going to get to work on lunch, with an adjustment - I don't have time to chill the pate for 6 hours to I'm going to serve a simple avocado and shimp entree, which might be better anyway. As a replacement for the chestnut dessert, I am going to play an encore of the dessert from last night, but this time I am going to use fraises des bois. Loic has done some reserch on Camut, the ancient Egyptian grain revived by the Americans in these last few years with the GI of 30, and found that our boulanger makes 100% pure camut bread. He brought home a loaf still warm from the oven this morning and I tore into it voraciously before I realized that it might be nice to take a picture. And here's a link to Montignac's GI page.

The drinks all though this blog look fantastic. This is definitely my favorite blog of all time!

The bleudauvergne food lab conducted an experiment tonight. It came close. Very close. The Consomme de Tomates was a good simple soup. I'd do it with Basil next time. The Quinoa was delicious and everything but the kitchen sink went into the vegetable pot. Dessert was the Brouillade de pommes a la cannelle, and with the faux nutella, they were simply delicious. The texture and flavor were really wonderful. I decided not to sprinkle cinnamon on top. I will talk tomorrow about what Montignac says about quinoa.

Saturday, Dinner : Consomme de Tomates Couscous Integrale aux legumes Fromage Blanc, faiselle, or yougert - Nonfat We don't have any coucous integrale, so we will have to use quinoa - that would actually take out the grain element of the meal, enabling me to have the dessert! Yay! Tonight will be my opportunity to clear out the fridge of a whole lot of leftover vegetables. I have been preparing more than we're eating. This whole idea of the brown rice, WW pasta, quinoa, or couscous integrale with veggies on top is a good one, even if it isn't so fancy.

I have to get on the ball, I didn't read the recipe for dessert in advance so I have to serve this dessert to my loved ones tonight after dinner. Since dinner is fat free, I will have to skip dessert. But they won't have to. It's my own fault. Anyway here's the recipe, and it will be served tonight. I cut the recipe somewhat, using 3 apples and one egg plus one yolk, then halved the rest of the ingredients. Oh, and I used muscat instead of calvados. Brouillade de pommes a la cannelle An immersion blender came in handy in preparing this dish. These are chilling in the fridge... I'll sprinkle them with cinnamon just before serving. I haven't decided what kind of sauce to do yet. edited to add the pics & comments

Mmm sauce.

There is no way I can do all of my shopping in one stop. I have to chip away at it every day, because there are so many places to go and so many lines to wait in, and so many conversations to have. Therefore the pickings from the market only include what I found today. I did get the pork and the fish for today, and the chops. As mentioned, there were no chestnuts. I swung by a Picard looking for them but understand that they are not available. There may be other things not available, in which case substitutions will have to be found. Back from the market. parsley strawberries peas avocados pork roast and chops tomatoes lemons cucumbers shallots wild salmon lettuce apples beans thyme chives eggs garlic and a St. Marcellin 'bien fait'. The roast was easy. I chose a smaller roast than was in the recipe because I only have three for lunch let it marinate in the mix for awhile. Ready to go in the oven. A La Table! A sharp knife and good fish does not a sushi chef make. But let me tell you, it tasted wonderful.

Saturday : Lunch : Salmon Carpaccio Roti de Porc au Curry steamed market vegetable, Cheese, Brouillade au pommes au canelle. (recipe coming shortly)

Yes, I discovered that. I thought I might get them frozen but no dice. It's for one of the desserts. Therefore we must come up with a suitable other dessert. Possibly involving faux nutella.

Consomme de tomates / Tomato Consomme Serves 4 as Appetizer. Light dinner fare, this can be served cold or hot. It is translated and adapted from a Montignac recipe. An immersion blender is useful in preparing this dish. The dish can serve many more if put in small bowls as a very first course or amuse-gueule. 1 T olive oil 1 kg tomatoes 3 crushed cloves of garlic 2 shallots, minced 2 branches of basil or flowering thyme 1/2 tsp oregano (dried) salt, freshly ground pepper Saute the garlic and shallot in the olive oil over low heat until it turns clear, keeping the flame low enough to keep it from caramelizing. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water long enough to loosten their skins, run them under cold water, peel, and seed them. Cut the pulp into pieces and add to the shallots and garlic. Wash and remove the leaves and flowers from the basil or the thyme. mince the stems and add to the tomato mixture (keeping the minced stems in a tea ball if you use thyme), along with the oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove the thyme stems (if used), and use a blender to mix to a fine veloute. Bring to the temperature you wish to serve the soup, and season to taste. Add the minced leaves of the basil or thyme just before serving. ( RG1286 )

Consomme de tomates / Tomato Consomme Serves 4 as Appetizer. Light dinner fare, this can be served cold or hot. It is translated and adapted from a Montignac recipe. An immersion blender is useful in preparing this dish. The dish can serve many more if put in small bowls as a very first course or amuse-gueule. 1 T olive oil 1 kg tomatoes 3 crushed cloves of garlic 2 shallots, minced 2 branches of basil or flowering thyme 1/2 tsp oregano (dried) salt, freshly ground pepper Saute the garlic and shallot in the olive oil over low heat until it turns clear, keeping the flame low enough to keep it from caramelizing. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water long enough to loosten their skins, run them under cold water, peel, and seed them. Cut the pulp into pieces and add to the shallots and garlic. Wash and remove the leaves and flowers from the basil or the thyme. mince the stems and add to the tomato mixture (keeping the minced stems in a tea ball if you use thyme), along with the oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove the thyme stems (if used), and use a blender to mix to a fine veloute. Bring to the temperature you wish to serve the soup, and season to taste. Add the minced leaves of the basil or thyme just before serving. ( RG1286 )