bleudauvergne

I'm really quite brutal, I clip the whole first digit when I'm using them for soup. When I want them to look good, I parboil and then the claws easily come off completely just by pulling them off.

I want a candy pot. You cook the ingredients and the pot turns certain colors when it reaches soft ball and hard ball stage.

I tend to crack the bones and add feet. I feel like it adds although it could be completely in my imagination. I read somewhere that this was the best way to extract all of the flavor from the bird. I admit nothing goes to waste at my house, so cooked bones are generally thrown in the pot in addition to uncooked. I always ask for extra feet from my poultry vendors because these are in many cases thrown in the bin if the customer doesn't want them. They give me all they've got and I take them gladly. I put them in the freezer if I'm not going to use them right away.

€73.50 with one lunch menu and you getting two courses + dessert and wine sounds like a real bargain! Now the veloute de fourme d'ambert really interests me. Can you tell me what you felt it was based on, potatoes?

Loic always loses when I am following the plan, and he loses faster than I do. To keep him nice and fat, I tend to round out his meals when I'm doing the boring dinners, for example, when I prepare a carb dinner like brown rice and ratatouille, I'll add some meat to his plate, serve him wine with dinner, and he normally has bread with his cheese. I also make his favorite dishes from time to time to keep him happy. He still manages to take off weight though and it's not fair but that's the way the whole grain cracker crumbles. I lost a total of 20 pounds while on the Montignac plan, and after reaching stage II and eventually not following any plan altogether, I've lost more weight, but I can't attribute it to the plan directly. I can definitely say that my eating habits were changed simply by becoming more aware of the glycemic index level of what I'm putting in my mouth, and eating better makes me feel better, which has little to do with the weight loss. The better I feel, the more I want to get out and do things, and that just makes life easier all around. At this point I am not dieting, nothing is off limits to me now, but I tend to still stick to certain rules on the plan, i.e. avoid the baguette, often enjoy my cheese with salad instead of bread. I am considering going back on the plan to take off a few pounds for summer.

Tammy, this blog is fascinating. I am so sorry you have to face the "spread" each day at work. I was thinking about your evening meals. You mentioned that the kids sometimes split off into groups. That's like going to your friend's house to eat any time you want! Do the parents generally linger and talk much at the dinner table, or does the cleanup take place and everyone goes home? How many other people in the community have babies Liam's age?

Not 4 I understand the "4" taboo (and how you can neutralize it), but what is the reasoning for '4-Happiness Shou Mai', '4-Color Rice Pudding' the Four Virtues/Arts/ etc. You can't get away from 4-Season Beans, because there are 4 of them and that can't be changed. I've found myself making excuses for 4 pleats, by thinking they are really 2 & 2 divided by a pinch in the middle. I don't step on cracks on the sidewalk, either!!! LOL! ← I agree with Jo Mel on the number of pleats. This is not a stuffy fancy dish, it's home cooking. In no way should be be striving for 88 pleats!! As for the number 4 all I can say is I agree with Jo Mel on this one, this idea that 4 must be completely avoided in all things at all costs is an exaggeration. Any more or any less is too complicated or too simple.

There's something wonderful about the place I can't put my finger on, something that makes me want to explore. I loved the shot of the people in the kitchen. The lady in the pink apron reminds me of someone I knew in school. The buildings out back, the brown ones give a wonderful sense of place... Now when do you start cooking, the day before? Are you going to stuff grape leaves?

Hey that's great greenwich st! Green tea. This sounds like a wonderful idea.

Hey Tammy, what kind of a kitchen do you have to work with? Your community sounds interesting.

Bu xie! The sauce is a mix of Chinese dark vinegar, soy, with minced garlic and a couple of drops of sesame oil. There is a good discussion of the making of these dumplings with recipes here.

It has been such a wonderful week with you. Thank you ever so much for every single word of encouragement and all of your kind words, they mean so much to me. It is always great to have guests, and you have been just perfect. I'll see you around the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters. I am off to bed!

snowangel, I'm sorry I never got a chance to answer your question about school lunches, I'll start a thread in the France forum during the week next week!

What is this interesting looking dish? sweet or savory? ← It's sweet. It's Halva. Mmm.

We had all those greens and we had to do something with them. The best thing to do is make Jiaozi! It's the recipe I learned from my housekeeper in Beijing. This is a very common dish in Beijing. We freeze the ones we don't eat, freeze them on the platter in rows (before cooking) and then you can store them in a sack. (thanks Loic for taking the demo pics while I stuffed the jiaozi!)

Shots from when the kitchen was being installed, first pouring the concrete floor and then installing the fixtures. (That's Lolo ) Now it's a mess but I promised. The drawers under the sink have bins for compost, recycle, leftover containers, wraps and papers, and moulinex parts. The pull out storage cabinets are very useful. I refer to the temp conversions all the time. My 'counter space' which is occupied for the most part by the moulinex - I use it all the time too. This cutting board is what I work most of the time on, it can be placed on the cook top, over the sink, or on the counterspace. I use it daily.

Hi Liz, About angles, I sometimes stand on a chair and sometimes not. It depends. Often I do take several shots from different angles and decide what I like later. I don't generally fuss around too much but sometimes if I'm trying to fit a whole lot of things into one shot I will work on it for awhile. I feel much more comfortable out in the midst of the action and shooting spontaneously but I've been trying harder to get more composed stills lately, I know it's one of my weaknesses. The thing is to imagine in your mind what you want and not to give up until you can see it coming. Sometimes when it comes to the ingredient shots I think I might give up on it and then I'll just start thinking like a painter and the shot comes together. I personally don't think the ingredient shots are very good, mainly because I can never get the light just right, but they convey a lot of information, which I like. I take many horrible photos. But some of them turn out alright. I'm warning you Safran, the kitchen seems quite cluttered.

In order to fulfill the need for a Caesar Salad, you must have the following on hand at home (I'm not giving any kind of instructions for a perfect salad here, what I offer is the bare minimum, the essence of the salad that can suffice to calm the longing. I claim no stake on the secret to a perfect salad): One egg of which you will use the yolk, garlic in any form (I had some of the new garlic found at the market the other day), a couple of anchovies, olive oil, half a fresh lemon, dijon mustard or any kind of mustard if you don't have dijon, and Worcestershire sauce (it's not really a necessity but I think it adds to the dressing). You'll have to have parmesean cheese and pepper to top the dressed salad. Of course you'll need greens but it you don't have Romaine, you can use whatever fresh you have on hand. You want to pound the garlic (of which I only cut the end off and did not use the leaves) and anchovy into a paste, whip the egg yolk , the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard and sauce, and at last incorporate the anchovy paste in for the sauce. Add your leftover meats, etc to your salad, dress with the sauce, and top with fresh ground pepper and parmesean (I decided shavings would be better than grating it after all). Some people insist that garlicky croutons make the salad. For me it's the dressing.

Last night: What I do when I've got leftover meats,and fresh herbs, or when I'm making way on the cheese plate, is to get some pate feuilletee from the boulanger and make things to put in the freezer for a moment when guests arrive unexpectedly. This is what I did last night. I now have about 30 pieces ready to pop into the oven directly from the freezer should the need arrive. ----------------------------------------------------------- The night before: While I've got a moment I'll tell you what they offered on the menu (which was written on a chalk board) at Resto d'Alice. The plats change daily. The house aperetif was a sparkling wine flavored lightly with grilotte (sour cherry) and myrtille (blueberry) syrups served with slices of local dried sausage. Entrees: Salade de chevre chaud - hot goat cheese salad - the cheese is usually melted over rounds of toast and served over the salad. Salade de foie de vollaile - salad with poultry livers (usually chicken livers) Salade oceane - this salade had clams, mussels, crayfish, shrimp, and smoked salmon Rillettes d'oie - this is a spreadable pate of goose meat and fat served with slices of bread - it normally comes with pickles. Salade d'endives, noix, comte - endives, walnuts, and comte cheese Harengs pommes de terre - potatoes with kippers Plats: Andouilette sauce moutarde vin blanc - This is a local sausage with its classic sauce Onglet sauce echallotes - Steak with shallot sauce Aloyeau de boeuf - Beef steak Aloyeau de Cheval - Horse steak Emince de volaille a l'estragon - chopped poultry seasoned with tarragon Truite aux amandes - whole fish pan fried with almond shavings Cuisse de lapin provencale - rabbit in tomato / peppers sauce Pintade aux choux - Guinea hen with cabbage Cheeses on the plate: Tomme de savoie, Camembert, St. Marcellin.

Good Morning! Boris, he came back with the wine and the chocolates. About the chocolates, they're creamy and delicious, very special, thank you for that recommendation! He said that the lady was making the package with only the gold wrapping. While she was doing it, Loic noticed that there was another color, and asked her what it was. 'Oh, the red's coffee flavor', she replied, and continued making the package. He told her : 'Stop everything. If you don't redo the package and add some red ones, my wife will never forgive me.' My husband laughingly recounted this to me, and I tasted a bit of the coffee flavor, thinking to myself, ah he's such a smart man. As for the wine, it's special too. It's made with a grape we don't normally see here in France, from the Piedmont region. As for the other things, he would have gotten me some cheese but there was a series of mishaps as he was checking out of the hotel involving payment with the visa card which resulted in a delay of 40 minutes. In Torino, he mentioned, they deal more in cash, and using the card usually involved finding the person who knew how the machine worked. Therefore he did not have the time he thought he would to pick up the perishables just before his journey home. When he went to Mexico, He went on special excursions with the gardener of the place where he was staying into the underbelly of the Cuernevaca markets to get everything on my list. He sourced everything down to the lava stone mortar and pestle, a tortilla press, mexican chocolate, 8 varieties of dried chilis, corn husks, and even the ashes to make my own masa.

Goodnight!

The fruit producers and farmers with fruit trees trim branches of the buds once they come out. It rounds out their inventory. You buy the branch and take it home and put the bare branches in water like flowers. You get to watch them slowly bloom over about a week into magnificent branches of flowers. This I think is my favorite detail of Spring. Of course we got a bunch today, I like the cherry blossoms.

Just pics tonight.

Lunch was a poulet fermier which we got from the vendors who roast them at the market. I took a film of the guys at the market, they were really moving those chickens! Anyway we got one and it was delicious. Gift the Easter Bunny brought back from Italy:

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Since Loic did not have a chance go to the market yesterday, and we usually go together on the weekends, we went today. Many of the vendors change Saturday and Sunday, so we don't see the same things every day. Clouds blew in while we were at the market, but it didn't begin to rain until we got home. When we descended the quai, all of the church bells in the whole city began to ring and at the same time, a choir began to sing across the river in Vieux Lyon. Since a hill goes straight up behind that area, the sound was amplified and it was really a wonderous moment. Loic and I talked to this oyster vendor and learned that he makes the trip every weekend from La Rochelle, which is on the Atlantic coast. He does this 7 months of the year. You see these statues on a lot of street corners in the quartier where I live. The Virgin Mary is very present in the culture of Lyon. The Light Festival celebrating her saints day in December is a wonderful example of it. They hang banners all over the city that say "Merci, Marie" and there are all kinds of legends about the gold statue that was carried up in a rainstorm by the pope at the coronation of the Fouviere Cathedral, an event which included a landslide on the procession. As you can see they managed to get the statue up to the top of the hill after all. When the weather changes, sometimes the gold statue of the Virgin Mary glows like it was glowing today. It's strange and beautiful. There was some talk of places that specialize in tartines in the France forum last week, so this place caught my eye. We didn't go in because we had some perishable goods on our hands at that point. We strolled by the restaurants on the way home and most places were open and packed to the gills. Easter Sunday is a big day at the restuarants, and you'll have lots of places to choose from if you visit Lyon at this time of the year. The first strawberries from France I've seen this year.