Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

This week I was excited to make a dessert for French Fridays with Dorie . Apple cake was a perfect addition to our Halloween weekend. This dish was so easy. The most time consuming part was cutting the apples. Dorie recommended to choose a variety of apples and so I chose one granny smith, two red delicious, and two gala (I did five and not four because they weren't too large) and it worked out wonderfully because they were all on sale for 88 cents a pound - yes, I am trying to keep within the food budget:). I was so curious after I had folded the batter into the apples to see what the batter tasted like....now I usually don't eat or taste batter -a) because it is a bad habit that I don't want to fall into and b) I am pregnant (raw eggs) - but I really wanted to try it and so I did. It was so delicious - I just kept on having more until I had to vocally tell myself to stop it and that it was bad for the babies (yes twins). Anyhow it cooked for the whole 60 minutes and the aroma that filled the room was amazing.

I loved the custard like texture and the amount of apples and the different flavors of apples in this dessert. I will definitely be making it again this fall/winter. Thank you again Dorie - this was amazing. And I do need to give a little shout out to my sister- the author of Project Domestication for not only convincing me to make sure I really got a variety of apples as she did in her "Tuesdays with Dorie" Apple Pie but also for encouraging me to join this online cooking group. This month has been so much fun in creating new meals and desserts!

P.S. I did make one change - I did not add rum but substituted white grape juice. Not sure what it tastes like with rum, but it sure was good the way I made it.

Hachis Parmentier

I looked forward to creating this French dish that is similar to America's "Shepherd's Pie." I also was excited about creating my own beef bouillon - I have never done that before. So how did it go? Well - besides a couple mess ups, it went well and tasted delicious. And my husband - who is hard to get a response out of when it comes to food said that it was more flavorful than he thought it would be...and although that doesn't sound like much of a response..trust me coming from him it is!:)

So I made this all in one day and it wasn't too laborious. I decided to double it - since I had a ton of Russet potatoes - and that all went well until I discovered that I only had 1 lb of the cubed steak. The real unfortunate thing is that I put all of the items in the soup pot before I put in the meat - so I ended up doubling everything except for the meat (I couldn't run to the store with my baby taking a nap). While the beef and bouillon were simmering I cut up my potatoes and put them in a pot of cold salted water and put them in the fridge until I needed to cook them. This saved me time in the long run. I wasn't sure what type of sausage to get (I rarely eat sausage)...do I get ground sausage or sausage links? I was confused. I ended up using Jimmy Dean regular ground sausage and I really liked that combo with the cubed steak. I put the veggies in with the meat mixture and all was well until I realized that it looked a little too saucy when I put it in the casserole dish. I was stumped--why was it too saucy? I put the right amount of broth in....? Then while eating it I realized that it was because I only used half the amount of meat (the cubed steak)! Duh! Why didn't I realize that before I put the potatoes on and cooked it? Before I slid it into the oven I had considered draining some of the liquid out, but decided against it- well...I should have because it was a little too wet...but don't get me wrong it was delicious and I will be making it again - especially during these fall and winter months! I guess I will just learn from my mistakes and like my mom always said...practice, practice, practice.

And the bonus? Leftovers for the next 3 days....it made a lot!

Oh yes....and I am loving French Fridays with Dorie. It is fun to know that I am not alone in this adventure. And it is nice not to have to plan one meal (or dish, dessert, etc...) for the week - it is already done for me:)

Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

I really enjoyed this "French Fridays with Dorie" pick! It has a unique blend of spices and herbs. It took me awhile to gather all the spices. The star anise was most difficult to find. I finally found it at a local grocery store...a small bottle was $8! I bought it and then remembered about the Indo-Pak grocery store on the way home. So I stopped in there and a huge package of star anise (about 10 times the bottle - no kidding) was $1.99! I couldn't believe the price difference. So I will be visiting there anytime I need some sort of Asian or Middle Eastern spice.


This dish was super easy to make and fun. I enjoyed the aroma the spices lent to my kitchen. And low and behold I love star anise. It tastes like black licorice. I steeped a few stars in some boiling water and sipped it as I cooked. It was great!

This soup is so flavorful and yet light. It could easily be served before a main course, but it was delicious on its own.

"A Chicken in a every Pot...."

In an attempt to be more domestic and more economical I decided that I needed to buy a whole chicken (69 cents/lb!) and cook it. My goal was to make it very basic and to use the meat not just for Sunday dinner, but also for chicken enchiladas the next day. I rubbed it down with butter, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. I stuffed it with onions and celery. It was very easy to prepare and not as gross (dealing with the raw chicken) as I thought it would be. While I was preparing it the phrase, "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" kept repeating in my mind. It was a phrase President Hoover used in his 1928 campaign slogan right before the Great Depression hit. I know it is random that I was thinking it, but I guess teaching U.S. history for so many years has ingrained those types of things in my brain.

It turned out okay. I guess I am just so used to "chicken breast" chicken that the different flavor that the other parts of the chicken had was strange. It was not bad, nor gross. It just needed more flavor- it was almost like it was too chickeny.. So next time I make it I will be adding herbs and spices. Economical it was. It allowed me to make a whole 9X13 pan of enchiladas - stuffed full of chicken - 16 tortillas to be exact. So one chicken gave us 4 days of dinner. Not too bad! I will definitely be trying this again and hope to nail it down and give it a 5 star rating!

Gougeres

So I had to look up on the Internet to see how to pronounce this word - I have a feeling I will be doing this a lot, since I studied Spanish and not French...Anyhow, we are having company over for dinner tonight so I thought I would whip these up and serve them with my Beef Stew. Although it is still in the upper 80s here in Texas I thought this would be a fun "fallish" dish to welcome in October.

The gougeres were fun and easy to make. And I really appreciate all the basic ingredients. I was really nervous that they would burn but they did not. I used sharp cheddar cheese and I followed the directions to a "T".




While beating the dough, it reminded me of my mother's yummy carrot cookies that she would would make every fall. (Grated cheese looked like the grated carrots; dough the same color...)

I thought they turned out lovely and they taste delicious. Who knew french food could be so easy?!

A New Adventure

I have created this blog in response to my desire to hold myself accountable in becoming a better cook. I will post my "French Fridays with Dorie" recipes on this blog. I hope to become a more experienced cook and to create fun, delicious meals. So here we go!