AliThinks

I Done Been Cookin'*

Earlier today I read Loulou's blog post about pasta with salmon and peas, and decided to make it. As I commented on her post, I probably wasn't going to follow her recipe, but she did inspire me.

On a weird whim, I decided to broadcast my cooking. It's been six months since I've used USTREAM, so I dusted off my login and started a broadcast. Allan helpfully posted a link to my broadcast on Twitter and elsewhere, and pretty soon I had a few viewers. Woo-hoo!

I stopped the broadcast while I was waiting for the pasta water to boil; the salmon and peas and cream were ready to go. Mari was watching, and she asked me to post a photo of the finished product. This is for you, Mari:

Because you can't go wrong with Loulou's recipe, I'll just tell you what I did differently:

• I only used olive oil. (Lexington locals, I buy my olive oil in bulk a refillable bottle at Lexington Seafood on E. High.)
• I used a medium-sized onion instead of shallot, because I had no shallots.
• I used half and half instead of whipping or heavy cream.
• I forgot the chèvre. (And we had some lovely goat "cheddar" from a Ozark Hill Farms, no linky.)
• I used eensy-weensy farfalle instead of little shells.

Something tells me that Loulou's recipe turned out better than mine did. But! I had fun cooking, and it was tasty. And! I made a salad of romaine hearts and homemade vinaigrette.

Here's the recipe for my vinaigrette, with full props to my ex-husband, who taught me how to make it:

1 part dijon mustard
1 part vinegar (red wine, white wine, rice)
2 parts olive oil (or canola oil)

Whisk the mustard and vinegar together in a bowl until homogeneous. Add sea salt to taste, and blend. Add olive oil drop by drop, then in a thin stream, whisking the entire time (pretend you're making mayonnaise) until the oil is incorporated into the mustard/vinegar. Taste, and add more oil or vinegar if needed. Add a few grinds of pepper to taste, and mix. Drizzle onto salads, steamed vegetables, avocados, or whatever strikes your fancy.

So. Mmmm, yeah. Bon ap! Next time I broadcast my cooking, I'll storyboard it (okay, maybe not) and record it so I can post a link here.

*It's not as if I never cook. I just don't blog about it.

Casual Dinner, Saturday Night Version

Casual Dinner, originally uploaded by Alison.

If you click on the photo, you can see all the notes I added on the Flickr page.

Holy Crap, I Love Cooking

It's easy to forget what a pleasure cooking can be. When you are working, raising children, and busy busy busy, cooking can be a chore. I recently outlined why I never made this a food blog. The main reason is that I never follow recipes, and I never write anything down.

Yesterday I read through the January 2007 issue of Food & Wine, which arrived at our house last week. Besides a whole page dedicated to Clotilde*, number 61 [for Cookbooks From Bloggers] in the "100 Tastes To Try in 2007", there was a pasta recipe that called my name.

Aaaaaliiiiisonnnnn, it said.

Well, not really, but boy, it sounded good. For some reason I wanted to follow the recipe closely. Created by chef Yves Camdeborde for the brasserie/room service at his hotel, Le Relais St. Germain, this pasta recipe is fairly simple, but its flavors defy its ease. Luckily for me, Food & Wine posted the recipe on its website. I do love you readers, but you know how, um, casual I can be about recipes.

The recipe can be found here. (Please click that link) I used a can of Reese artichoke bottoms, drained, rinsed, and drained again. I also used Dreamfields penne rigate. The next time I make this (because the recipe is a keeper), I'll try light cream and/or half-and-half. Oh, and I found some frozen smoked chicken breast strips from the company that starts with Ty and ends with Son. You could probably leave out the chicken, but some tasty lardons would be delish. The original recipe calls for pasta shells, and having prepared it, I can see why. Penne is a good pasta, but shells would capture the sauce so much better.

I didn't take any photos, so you're just going to have to make this yourself. It's pretty quick, easy, and damn, it's tasty, too.

*whom we had the pleasure of meeting at her 2nd blogiversary party in October 2005...which led to my interviewing her for The Parisian.

As Promised

Yesterday I posted a photo of my candied cranberries. It's time to tell you what I did with them.

We didn't decide to celebrate Thanksgiving at my dad and stepmother's house until Sunday. The lot of us will be there: my dad's children, my stepmom's children, and our respective families. If we all make it, there will be 26 of us. That's not counting my two kids, who've never celebrated a real American Thanksgiving.

Since there are so many of us, we all bring something to take the load off my stepmother. I asked what Allan and I could bring. "Red wine* or a fruit pie." I said we'd bring both.

Sweet Jewels

Inspired by my friend NewWaveGurly, I made candied cranberries this afternoon. NWG covered her cranberries in chocolate. I have another plan for mine, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the full story.

Orange Tomato

   

    Oh yeah, baby. Click me!

Voilà: a little brightness to counteract the bland nature of my last post. I told you the tomato was orange! It was delicious, too.

Four of Six

   

Click image to enlarge.

   

Here's a little food pr0n for you. We got these organic babies at the local farmers' market. I ate two of them (the eggs, not the farmers) for lunch. My accompanying salad had an orange tomato on it. Not yellow. Orange.

It was a very satisfying lunch.

EDIT: Holy crap, what a BORING entry! Just wait until I take photos of the remaining orange tomato. Yeah, that'll perk things up!

But First, I Made It Look Like A Flying Saucer.

   

    Mmmm, mmmm, finger-clickin' good.

Irresistible, indeed!

   

     Just click it.

   
We walked to Graeter's after dinner, and we each tried the Black Raspberry Chip ice cream. Next time I'll try the Tangerine Cream, and not just because of the cool name.

Well, duh.

   

     Click image to enlarge.

The photo looks much cooler if you click on it, really.

Feeling Pretty Corny

One of the foodstuffs (did I just use the word "foodstuffs"?) I missed when I lived in France was corn on the cob. When I moved there in 1992, it just was unavailable. My husband told me that French people thought corn left on its cob was for pigs. Over the years, corn became more common, but it was always shucked, shrinkwrapped, shriveled, and expensive. One time I calculated that it would cost me a dollar an ear if I bought some. So fresh corn was a luxury. The French don't really do frozen corn, by the by. They put cold canned corn into salads, but that's about it. Again, this is slowly changing.

Can I Just Say? I Rock.

Since I'm not feeling up to the challenge of Self-Portrait Tuesday today, I decided to channel my creative energy in the kitchen. 

I made a quiche. 

By now you're probably thinking I'm doing the Time Warp again.  Memo pads from the 70s, bitchin' 80s earrings...when will the madness stop?  I know: quiche is so 80s, so not for real men, so for yuppies who ate radicchio before radicchio got all ubiquitous on our asses. 

Well, I love quiche, because it's warm and comforting, and it's a great way to clear out the fridge.  Tonight's quiche ingredients were all fresh, however, and for the first time in months I didn't include vegetables.  Stop your gasping!  I'm going to accompany my meal with a nice salad made of frisée.   (And anyway, this is France – quite possibly the only country that considers pasta to be a vegetable – so I figure I'm ahead of the game). 

So what's in that thing I've got baking in the oven right now?  Rondelé Garlic and Herb cheese; this is like Boursin, only it's cheaper. And cubes de jambon.  And a little gruyère cheese to top it off.   Pictures will follow.  I wish my blog had added odorama, because it smells so good here right now. 

Easter Lunch

-- Escargots in Basil Cream Sauce

-- Roasted Lamb Shank with New Garlic

-- Garlic Purée

-- Roasted Carrots, Parsnips, Asparagus and Potatoes

-- Mâche Salad with a selection of cheeses

-- Mid-Atlantic Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis and sucre candi.

-- Chocolates

-- Coffee

I decided to try out this dessert that I saw at Chocolate & Zucchini.  I'm not a major fan of cheesecake, and I have been out of the habit of making baked goods (namely because I didn't have an oven for four and a half years).  Anne had asked me if I could think of a dessert that wasn't too rich, and this recipe came to mind. 

Tell you what:  this version of cheesecake is very easy and VERY tasty!  Its consistency is a bit fluffier than a regular cheesecake, but to me it was just as good.  Tastes great, less filling, or something like that. 

I just had to share.  And yeah, I decorated the plate, but I didn't have anything to pipe the coulis with, so I let it plop out of its container in little blobs.  I just had to share that, too. 

That'll Learn Me To Speak Too Soon

Right. So. Easter Lunch. Garlic-infused leg of lamb and pulling-out-all-the-stops accoutrements. Uh-huh.

Lunch started with an apéritif. (Of course it did. This is France). After having an appetite-whetting drink, we moved to the table and started the first course: dozens of raw oysters on the half-shell. (Of course we did. This is a coastal town). By the time the oysters got sucked down, the leg of lamb was ready. And what did we eat with it? Omigod -- I'm so embarrassed.

Peas. Thank goodness they were frozen and not canned. Oven fries. Also frozen. I'm not kidding.

I couldn't believe it. Not that it wasn't good, but besides the lamb (delicious, by the way), the meal wasn't special. So here's a list of the sides I would have made to accompany the lamb: herby roasted new potatoes, steamed green beans dressed with a homemade vinaigrette, and a salad of field greens. Add to that a fairly young red wine (I don't really know anything about wine, but it's fun pretending), a creamy camembert or brie to finish the meal, and for dessert? Maybe strawberries, if there were any good ones at the market.

The three moms took all the kids to the beach later in the afternoon. The other two moms had kites, and there was just enough wind to fly them. It was cool seeing my kids take pleasure in flying the kites; we don't have any because I've always figured it's too much trouble. And also (mostly) because I have never been successful at flying a damn kite.