Coconut Friands

Nana came through and tested this fun recipe....... while Tricia and family only " taste" tested the results this week.  Yum !

Per Nana:

This is such a simple recipe to make.  

If you have coconut on hand, adding the rest of the basic ingredients is a snap.

A wonderful  dessert to make if someone calls to drop in for a quick visit.

Since I had only sweetened coconut in the house I 

reduced the amount of sugar called for in the recipe and 

my friands were not too sweet at all.

I baked them for about 22 minutes and they turned out lovely.

The next time I prepare this recipe I would like to try some of 

the additions that Dorie mentions in her bonne idee. 

All in all, this is a great recipe and hubby and I enjoyed them.

Per Tricia:

My contribution, in addition to taste testing duties, will be to 

share a story about Nana's "Basel" plate in the above photo. 

 

I too have a matching plate from the same store in Basel, Switzerland

 purchased at the same time.  It was 20 years ago and  I joined both parents

 on a trip to France where we focused mainly on the Alsatian 

Rue de Vin (the wine road).  We enjoyed a magnificent trip through

 the wine country, consuming enough  Choucroute to last a lifetime. 

We did not tire of it and washing it down with the local Riesling 

and Gewurztraminer certainly helped.  One day we decided to cross

 border and investigate the nearby "big city" of Basel, Switzerland.  

We had a lovely time  exploring the town, but when we returned

 to the parking garage we found we needed Swiss coins to pay the meter ! 

Shops were now closing so we tried to find anything we could

 buy in order to receive the precious Swiss currency.  A local 

antique and decor shop accommodated us and we each bought a plate.  

This was "pre-Euro" and life has gotten much easier since then.  

 A special souvenir for sure, perfect for getting back into France

 or for serving Coconut Friands :) 

 Happy French Friday ~

Sardine Rillettes

This one is near the top of the list of "recipes we would never have tried, were it not for "French Fridays with Dorie". 
 
Per Nana:

This recipe brought back a lot of memories of the 70's and 80's.  

Many a Saturday evening with friends consisted of a pitcher of 

Martinis or Scotch sours, with various homemade spreads or dips.

I often made a spread of sardines, chopped egg and mayo, or chopped 

clams with cream cheese on small rye bread,that I ran under the broiler.

  One of the first dips I learned to make was a package of Lipton's  onion 

soup mix with sour cream. Times have changed a bit, 

now I use Knorr's vegetable soup for the dip. Don't laugh,

 they are still tasty combinations today.  

I love the ingredients added to the cream cheese in this recipe, 

they give it quite a  flavor.  I decided to stuff a few peppadew 

with the mixture, topped with some capers.  Hubby loved that,

 he is a great fan of peppadews, and since I am not, I used some

 saltine  crackers with slices of petite pickles.

This spread is also great on sliced toast, and as I made the full recipe 

of two cans of sardines, I think that will be lunch for a couple of days.

Per Tricia:

To say that there was a bit of apprehension about this one would be 

an understatement.  I had no desire to try anchovies but I try not to let

 this come into play when it is "French Friday".   Plus, I was trying to keep

 my bias off the radar so that my taste testers would not be swayed.  

I was initially quite surprised when I opened the sardine can and found

 something that looked more like large pieces of tuna than "sardines". 

 This was actually the first time I ever cracked open a can and I was 

expecting teeny little silvery fish to be inside.  Since my tin consisted

 of boneless and skinless sardines packed in oil, it definitely resembled 

tuna in my book.  Phew.  Only hubby was on hand to test the recipe before 

the post and we both concurred that it was nice - like tuna with a "kick".

 In full disclosure I am not a huge seafood fan.  I thought 

I was bound to dislike the result - at best.   But it was definitely way 

better than I ever dreamed and my husband "officially" liked it.

  Regardless - it was a fun adventure and Dorie once again took me 

 happily out of my comfort zone.  As usual.  Happy French Friday.

Asparagus & Bits of Bacon

A perfect and easy dish- we will be adding this to our Easter meal !



Per Nana:

I was not too excited about this recipe when I first read it, 

but surprisingly, it fooled me. Using the bacon with warmed

 onions  as a topping really kicked it up a notch.

I will admit I did not use the hazelnut oil or the lemon juice, 

simply because I had neither in the house at the time.  I did use 

EVOO (as Rachel Ray says), along with wine vinegar.  

I thought the combination was very good, but I will try 

the recipe again with the hazelnut and lemon.

It is a pleasant change for asparagus, as we usually cover

 this spring vegetable with hollandaise sauce.  

I do plan to make this for Easter dinner to accompany 

 a Smithfield Ham and roast potatoes.

Happy Easter to all ~

Per Tricia:

Nice and easy and very "spring-like". 
Any recipe that involves bacon  and onions is going 
to be a hit in my house and this was no exception.

 Not to mention that I love any opportunity to whip 
out my asparagus plate from Crate and Barrel :)



Happy Easter and Passover to all -
 I will be chowing  down with the whole family at Nana's !

Crab & Grapefruit Salad

An unexpected delight and an adventure for sure.......


Per Tricia~

Nana has done a valiant job in keeping our cooking up to date with the 

FF schedule but she drew the line on the combination of crab and grapefruit. 

Those who read our post last week learned that not only did I fail to pull 

my weight on creating my own Cocoa Sablés...but I managed to consume

 most of Nana's.  Needless to say, I was happy to jump in and carry the FF 

duty this week to relieve some guilt, even if I secretly had my doubts about

 this unusual combo as well.  Redemption was needed and redemption 

was served up for both Dorie and I - with no leftovers !

In full disclosure, I did make another speed call to Nana from the grocery

 store when I learned that the tin of jumbo crab meat was $29 a pound.  

She gave me her blessing to buy the $3.50 imitation version located

 next to it.  I know, I know - but at least I am being honest.  It was 

understood that whatever the results, we would presume they would have 

been that much better if I had forked over the difference for the 

better quality product. I bought fresh flowers instead.......

Each ingredient in the salad is a food that we enjoy separately in my

 house, including the much loved Tabasco sauce - but I can say with 

100% certainty that I would not have thought to combine these elements. 

 I was even a bit concerned to offer up the "Dorie food" to my family this  

week but as usual, Dorie was right and my guys loved the dish. 

I actually can not think of a FFWD where I had less faith in a recipe going 

over and my husband and younger son (the available taste testers this week)
 sat and ate the entire dish.  I could not believe it.  And this was after my 

husband commented "did you just add Tabasco to that stuff...." 

(sometimes I feel like I am doing a cooking show when they know I am

 preparing a FF recipe - at no other time does what I do in the kitchen

 stop traffic so they can watch).

This was a fun and refreshing dish and at a minimum restored the 

adventure of how fun new and usual recipes can be.  

We had to taste it to believe it.  

Thanks Dorie !

Cocoa Sablés

 

Per Nana~

Let's call this one "Nana's disaster"....

Somewhere between chopping the chocolate morsels, which ended

 up all over the kitchen,  and hitting the high button on the mixer  

after the last bit of flour mixture was added, I should have stopped.

I could not make the dough stick together and I

 thought the recipe was missing an ingredient.

After a quick call to Tricia (who suggested I check other recipes 

on the Internet) - I "googled" a few.

I did notice that confectionery sugar was being used rather than 

regular.  Also, egg whites were added to the butter and sugar mix.  

I decided to go with the addition of the egg white and that 

seemed to do the job, so I chilled the dough overnight.

Instead of the decorating sugar I used raw sugar purchased at 

Costco.... which will last me FOREVER.

Hubby and I did not care for these cookies at all, however, 

I don't know if it was my fault or the fault of the recipe.

 I will admit the taste of the chocolate was a bit overpowering to me.

After Hubby did the usual taste test, which did not go well,

  I called Tricia and asked if she would like to sample them.   Surprisingly, 

she and #2 son liked them.  At least the effort was not totally a waste.

I am anxious to see how the rest of the Doristas made out on this recipe.

One of the nice additions to doing FFWD is that I finally learned 

how to type french accents on the computer.  

Per Tricia~

My contribution for this week was not only to suggest Nana

 "Google" (yup, I was some big help - huh) when she tried the 

recipe  way ahead of me.....but also to make sure

 I ate basically the entire batch SHE made.  Fabulous with coffee.

 I loved these so much that I will absolutely make them myself,

(esp since Nana has all that Costco sugar left :)

 but unfortunately schedules conspired against FFWD this week. 

 I do want to make sure to put in my plug for these cookies because

 I thought they were off the charts spectacular.   Not sure why

 they didn't go over so well at  Nana's but I am not complaining. 

 And these were far from a "disaster" Nana :)

Thanks Nana.......and Dorie !

Cheese Souffle

Ooh la la.  Nothing says "French " like a cheese souffle.........


Per Nana ~

A very delicious recipe.

All week I kept thinking it was going to be a 

failure, but it turned out beautiful.

Seriously, the recipe is quite simple and easy, 

I used Gruyere cheese, which I love.

The amount of ingredients called for in the recipe actually

 filled (2) 6 inch souffle molds.

At this point I had to quickly prepare another.

After 30 minutes I had  to cover them with tin foil because of

them browning too quickly, and at 45 minutes

I removed them from the oven.

 

One soufflé collapsed, but the other was perfect.   I'm not sure 

why that happened, but it was delicious all the same.

As a leftover, I did not reheat any of it, but sliced it and it 

was as though I was eating cheese cake.

Fantastic.

I will definitely make this recipe again and

 I'm anxious to try a larger size soufflé mold.

Per Tricia ~

Only because I have made souffle before was the shock 

value gone.  Otherwise I would have been blown away 

by how reasonable both the prep and cooking ended

 up for such an "intimidating" recipe.

Nana had told me ahead of time about having excess batter

 so I opted for the larger size quiche dishes.  And I also 

had to do  the "foil tent" after 30 minutes.

 

 I mentioned I was going to knock out a cheese souffle

 for our "Dorie Food" this week and my 18 year old son actually 

said "wow, isn't that supposed to be hard?"

 

Which raised the question as to how he heard this. 

 I think it is actually from popular culture where there are jokes 

on tv regarding cooks pulling off the "elusive cheese souffle".

So two things got accomplished in my kitchen this French Friday. 

 My family ended up with a delicious souffle that they all raved 

about and we  debunked our urban legend regarding the difficulty

 factor.  If my boys end  up preparing cheese souffles or anything else

 from "Around My French Table", I will be one happy Mom :)

St Germain-de-Pres Onion Biscuits

Per Nana ~

When Tricia and I joined FFWD, the very first recipe

 that I wanted  to make was the Saint Germain-des-Pres

 onion biscuits.  We have been cooking for over

a year and I still had not made the recipe. 

I was happy to see them listed in the March schedule, 

I planned to make them for Sunday night's supper.

The recipe is very easy, and I was able to use my new biscuit

 cutters that I found in Wegman's housewares department.  

Mind you, I did not need these gadgets, but they 

will go very well with all the others in the cabinet.

The biscuits were not as flaky as some that I have made,  

but the flavor was wonderful with the addition of the onion.  

After I cut them out and put them on the cookie sheet I placed

 them into my refrigerator to be baked at dinner time.  

Maybe that is the reason they did not rise.  I look forward to

 seeing the results of the other bloggers on FFWD.

Hubby and I loved the biscuits and I know

 I will be baking them again soon.

Per Tricia~

This week was a reminder of how very much Nana and I enjoy 

"French Fridays With Dorie".  Fridays.

Even if I did not crank out these biscuits myself :)  

We had been challenged recently by the adding the "Tuesdays With Dorie" 

to our roster....and we tried valiantly to keep up with it all until the famed

 "Rugelach" recipe of this Tuesday.  Suffice it to say that you will find 

no Rugelach post on this blog :)

Madeleine Gely- famous handmade umbrella shop on Bldv StG-D-Pres. Note the cute sign.

So I have enjoyed a wonderful "vacation" week of cooking neither the 

complicated (though I have no doubt they would have been insanely

 good........) cookies that no one in this house actually needs, nor struggling

 to get through the posting and commenting whose time far outweighs 

that involved in the cooking. In fact, I got so lazy  I did not 

even cook the biscuits !  But I am sharing a few "St. Germain de Pres"

 photos from our trip last year.  Ah, the memories.

 

Nana and I have gotten a huge kick out of not only the recipes in

 FFWD, but in the sharing of comments with this group.  

We are hugely touched by the kind and funny words that are shared 

with us and we look forward to having the time and energy to 

continue this journey.  And cutting out that Tuesdays deal will help :)

The famed "Deux Magots".

Happy French Fridays all ~