Corn Pancakes

Interesting to find that simple and savory pancakes made from a can of corn 

 made it "Around Dories' French Table"...but we are glad they did !

Per Nana:

The most difficult part of this recipe was digging out my blender. 

 I am a person that does not like to clutter

the countertop with appliances so I "store them".

That said, this was one simple recipe.  

I blended the corn, flour, eggs and salt into a beautiful mix.

Before I started to fry the pancakes I happened to check out  the

 "LYL" on Dorie's website. There was one entry and they were not too

 pleased with the results so I decided to fix it before I started.

I fried halve of the recipe as per Dorie, and to the rest I added grated Italian

 cheese and cayenne pepper.  The dark brown pancakes are the cheese

version and I think I over cooked them.  Whatever, they were good.

I must admit, I liked both versions.

I topped each with a bit of sour cream, served it with ham

 slices and a lovely fresh green salad.

Hubby and I enjoyed it all.

The recipe is so simple, and can be used as a great

 little extra appetizer with wine or drinks.

Per Tricia:

We loved this recipe. It was very easy and while you could certainly 

add other ingredients into the pancake if you wanted to play around - 

we genuinely enjoyed the recipe exactly as Dorie shared it.  

Not only was it delicious, but the ease of preparation and fact that you

 basically only needed to make sure you had a can of corn in your

 pantry means I have a very solid chance of reproducing this again

 in the near future !

Like Nana, the toughest part of the process was looking for my

 blender (which I never did locate and moved on to the Cuisinart.......) 

and the taste of these were well worth the effort.  Also like Nana, 

my husband and I had a discussion about what a nice little "nibblie" 

these would make with drinks.  The boys were fans as well.

Great recipe !!

David's Seaweed Sablés

Possibly the most unusual FFWD recipe to date.......
















Per Nana:

This was such an interesting group of ingredients that I  could 

not  imagine the end result. The nori was easy enough to purchase,

 but  there were no instructions other than to make sushi.

I researched  the internet and the only information I could find 

was to heat it in a fry pan until the color turned green.  Actually, mine 

started to turn brown so I decided that was not good.   When I tasted the

 nori I was undecided whether or not to continue with the recipe -

the taste was horrible.  When I finally stopped tasting fish, 

I decided to go ahead and finish.

The batter mixed  well  and I gathered it into a ball and cut it

in half, making (2) 8" rolls that I refrigerated for several hours.

I baked each tray separately as Dorie suggested and only had 

to add about two minutes to the cooking time.

I was really surprised  how well they turned out.  Different,  but nice. 

 A bit like a cookie, but with the salt topping, it was also a  little like

 a snack type cracker.  It did not have the flavor of seaweed or fish as the

 nori did when I tasted it plain. I would like  to use this recipe again with some

 of the other ingredients that Dorie suggests, such as the olives or the cheese.

  All of these additions would make a great snack to have with a glass of wine. 

Per Tricia:

Sorry to "bail" again but Nana also made these far in advance and I 

still have a container of the "shrimp cookies" sitting on my counter.  

Needless to say - we simply didn't need another batch.  I don't believe 

the last ones are going to get consumed as it is.

This is not to say that these were a disaster. 

 Taste testing the "seaweed cookies" was quite the adventure around

 here.  My husband and sons all agreed that it was a very "confusing" item

 to describe  since it was clearly sweet yet clearly salty as well.  Sort of a 

rich and savory Danish butter cookie with a lot of salt. Even while eating 

them  we could not quite get our heads and taste  buds around these. 

The truth is that there was a distinct fishey after taste and none of us

 wanted to keep consuming this amount of butter and sugar 

for a  "fish cookie".  Interesting or not.  And it was interesting.  

Thanks Dorie, for the adventure and thanks Nana, for the hard work.

Happy French Friday.

Lime Honey Beet Salad

Worth a try, if not a repeat.....

Per Nana~

Does anyone have a good recipe for rabbit stew?

Just kidding but these adorable little bunnies are 

eating my flowers and herbs on the patio.

Unfortunately, this recipe did not go over well.   

 Hubby loves his  beets with the combination of vinegar & 

oregano and nothing will change his mind.

He continually asked what ingredients I had used in this salad, 

and could not decide which one he disliked the most.

I will admit I did not care for the fresh dill, 

but the rest of the ingredients were okay. 

The beets were cooked to perfection and when

 added to the herbs looked fantastic.  

I had high hopes, but it was not one of my favorites recipes either. 

 I'm anxious to see what the other Doristas thought.

Per Tricia~

I truly did not plan to play the 'let's take turns" card with Nana

 on this recipe.  She even brought me over some of the ingredients. 

 But when I read her write up (done very early, of course) and

 learned that even my beet-loving Dad was not a fan....I bailed. 

 I got the olive oil ice cream tested in this house and we have seaweed

 cookies coming down the pike.....I am not going to invoke the wrath

 of my taste testers for a beet recipe that will never get eaten.

Happy French Friday to all the brave Doristas who tried this !!

Olive Oil Ice Cream

Who knew ?  Dorie- that's who !

Per Tricia ~

I stepped up for this week's adventure solo, since Nana does not 

have  an ice cream machine.  Granted, she could have borrowed mine

 but I am  not sure we thought we needed two versions of this one.

We were wrong.  The ice cream machine is officially operational for the

 season and this was a wonderful start to a hopefully creative summer of new

 flavors.  And this was a new one flavor for sure - one that would have had it's

 page  turned right on by....were it not for "French Fridays with Dorie".

I truly could not imagine what this was going to taste like but the end result

 to me simply tasted like a very rich, lovely vanilla ice cream.  Did I mention

 VERY rich ?  But with literally an "aftertaste" of mild olive oil.  

Luckily I had a full house of very curious taste testers.  

Everyone said they were quite surprised at how good it was and all

 agreed it was rich.  My husband agreed it had a great vanilla flavor and

 found  the olive oil interesting.  My sons actually thought it tasted a bit

 like "cookie dough" but I think that might be a stretch.  Or simply a

 compliment :) They also said they wished they didn't know the olive oil

 was in there because they wondered if they would have noticed it otherwise. 

 Yes, it was going down pretty fast....

And while I did not send over my ice cream machine, I did send a nice

 sample of the dish to Nana and my father- who happened to be celebrating 

his birthday.  He has done many things over the last 81 years but I can say 

with certainty that this was the first time he tasted "olive oil ice cream".  

 And he approved.

Thanks, Dorie - for making his birthday that much sweeter !

Happy French Friday

& Happy Birthday Dad !!