When Life Gives You Eggs

April 9, 2014 — 1 Comment

Make mousse. I actually had to google, “how long do fresh eggs last?” We’ve never had this backlog. I love to make mousse because it uses the entire egg. Yolks go with the chocolate, sweet bit. The whites are whipped and give it texture. Ice cream is wonderful, but you must make merengues. It goes a little something like this :

1 bar of chocolate, cooking, noir, we used praline

80g of butter

— melty that

separate 4 eggs

whip the whites, add some sugar. not much as your bar of chocolate is sweeter than you think

add the yolks to chocolate nirvana

foldy foldy

scoop into fancy mousse bowls

there it will set in the fridge until dinner

we tasted after three

Stir Fried Rice

April 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

I try hard to get the buffet look with my stir fried rice. In this guy, we have in this order

ground beef browned and set aside

load of duck fat with butter nub in the pan
onions

when the onions are looking sexy

garlic
carrots
celery

then the pre-cooked rice, Uncle Ben’s style yo.
then the ground beef back in

fish sauce
soy sauce
salt
pep

after it’s all cooky cooky, push it to the side

scramble two eggs in the gap

add the eggs to the rest

yell, ” dinner is ready!!”

heat some more and serve

oh merde! don’t forget to add some frozen peas!

You Got Your Electrons, Your Protons and Your Fritons

March 12, 2014 — 2 Comments

Making Fritons today. These are lovely, crunchy ducky bits. They are the Gascon version of Chicharrón. Duck skin and fat leftover from your gorgeous duck butchering boiled in fat.

I’ve not done Fritons before. I asked our local duck farmer extraordinaire how to cook them. She said, “just cook the shit out of them.” … but it was in French and I’m sure she said something more elegant and less American.

Once these little crunchies become crunchy, I’ll slot them out with a spoon and salt. Fritons are a great snack that will keep you going until dinner.

WKRP electron, proton, neutron ref:

Bodie. It’s Alive!

March 11, 2014 — 1 Comment

After much pressure from my husband, I finally created life with him other than human. This is Bodie. He is our sourdough starter. Below, you can see he has just been fed. He will bubble and froth soon.

A ladle of this fermented beast mixed with flour, salt, duck fat and warm water will bring sourdough joy to serve with many things.

Zélie did the advanced dry pour, I added water. We stretched and kneaded for five minutes or so. After, we did some loaves.

It runs something like this:

A kilo of flour
25 g of salt
A big scoop of duck fat
600ml of water
A ladle of Bodie ( or your Bodie equivalent )

Mix it in and do the stretchy knead thing. Things will be sticky. This was a rye loaf so only needs one rising. From here, make your loaves. After a few hours, bake ’em. Let ’em cool. Stop calling them ’em and add a big butter pat. It’s fun to say, “butter pat.” More importantly a good butter pat will make you healthy.

Bodie has serverd us with two loaves of bread thus far. To honor his namesake I offer you this tribute. R.I.P. real Bodie, May 1946 – November 2013.

Tonight, Olives For Dinner

July 2, 2013 — Leave a comment

It’s hot. I’m sick. The kids are on the verge of a summer vacation. For some reason – it may be the porky Mexican Guac fiesta for lunch – I’m not all that hungry. But, damn those olives. Is it the salt? The fat? The vinegar? Who knows, but Olives-It’s what’s for dinner. I just can’t get enough. So I leave you with an olive-worthy tune by B. Mars. Treasure. Poo. No official vid. So imagine M.J. + Earth + Wind + Fire == Olives for dinner.

You can hum this. Spit out the pits.

It Always Happens This Way

June 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

The gaz bottle always runs out on Sunday. Sunday the shops are closed and gaz bottles sit behind bars shooting the shit waiting for Monday to roll around. A bottle out on Friday night is rare, but not without its challenges. Four kids in a car equals “no fun.” yeah, you can sit ( if you get the chance ) and dream about trips here or trips there or a quick pop up to the shop, but you are kidding yourself. A Friday night gaz bottle outage proves smooth if you have the back-up bottle. Smooth sailing, girl, nothing but ease and smiles in the foreseeable future. Don’-choo be dragging four kids to the magazine for a bottle of gaz. Let us take a moment to plan. Okay. Now back to cooking.

Cream Creme a-go-go

May 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

A most welcome b-day prez!

Lunch: Ham and Cheese

April 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

It’s what I was in the mood for. An all-day drive to Barcelone and back made for a lazy next day. Assembling sand-weech was about all I had in me.

In this sandwich:

Cheap supermarket baguette
Lettuce
Tomato
Ham ( sans cuenne )
Mayo
Buttah
Brie

These are the wind power things outside of Narbonne. The sunset last night made them look perty.

I’m Stuffing These Babies

April 16, 2013 — 5 Comments

They spoke to me at the marche. I thought they needed to be stuffed. Stuffed with

Ground pork
Onion
Garlic
Celery
Toms
Zuch innards
Rosemary
Thyme
Basil
Oregano
A dash of chook stock
Some white wine
Salt
Pep

And baked in a typical oven with a little zucchini hat.

Stuffed zucchini, it’s what’s for dinner.

Sweet Lettuce Leaves With Bacon, Guacamole and Cream

March 28, 2013 — Leave a comment

I think this is a Bibb lettuce in America. It’s not bitter in the slightest and does justice to the guacamole I made. I’ve never taken to the chip- guacamole dip extravaganza. I was more interested in the guac over the chip. When you make a quick lunch based on the guacamole you made last night, it must involve bacon and cream. Had I not eaten all the salsa last night, that would have trifecta-ed the dish. But the salsa was not hugely missed as the green goob of yum was the star ingredient.

Should you cook too much bacon and your partner in cured flesh eating crime has taken a nap, you can skip the fancy greens and load your fried, poitrine fumee with Mr. Green. It’s all good.

Guacamole:
Ripe avocados
Lemon
Garlic
Salt
Pep
Cilantro ( only a dash because my husband is one of those “cilantro tastes like soap” people. )

Girl On Grill Action

Stick a fork in it

Fun and Easy