Dieter's Tartine

Per Tricia~
Boy am I glad this was such an easy "recipe" week. I have spent much of my free time attempting to learn how to extract all those photos OFF my iphone, onto a new flickr account, and testing other options. I have not felt this clueless in a long time :) 

Luckily, this week's selection was quick, simple and yes- tasty. Ironically, my younger son and I are currently limiting carbs so the two "dieters" in the house were not the ones who taste tested the dieter's tartine !

My husband thought it was a nice combo but reminded me he does not like his bread toasted. Strange, but true and I wish I had this issue. My older son also enjoyed it but would have preferred goat cheese instead of the cottage cheese/sour cream combo used. Overall, it was a nice treat and I did get to crack open the Herbs de Provence I brought back from France. Of course I liked it- it took 3 minutes to make.......

Below is a link to the flickr page (are they "pages" ???) where I hope anyone who is interested will easily be able to see some photos from our trip.  Nothing fancy is used camera wise, just a Nikon Coolpix (and my iphone when the battery runs out.....) by both Nana and I. While these are only fun travel memories that allow us to transport back in time, I do take a TON and had over 2000 digitals to sort through. I narrowed it down to a few hundred, grouped by Château or town, and hopefully these "few" will give a flavor of what a wonderful place the Loire Valley in July is. You will be shocked at how few people are in the Châteaus- we were and enjoyed it all the more !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99047293@N05/sets/

Per Nana~
This week's choice should not even have been called a recipe, it is so simple to prepare. Actually, one of my favorite combinations- especially for breakfast- is toast with cottage cheese.  I loved the addition of the sour cream to the cottage cheese. It gives it another flavor entirely.  

The topping of cucumbers and tomatoes sprinkled with chives really added another dimension to this great little tartine.  Rather than using Herbs de Provence, I added a special spice that Tricia gave me from the "Zoe's Kitchen" restaurant and it was wonderful. 

 After enjoying such a delicious, healthy tartine, I could not resist finishing with a delectable cheese danish. And no, I did not eat the whole danish.

Happy French Friday ~

Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad

Per Nana~
Dorie has a bit of information at the end of this week's recipe in reference to "piment d'espelette". I did not realize that these chile peppers were from the Pays Basque region of France, but it brought back memories of Hubby and I driving through this beautiful area and seeing all the bright red peppers hanging everywhere. It was quite a sight.

I remember the little town of Bidart and having a cafe creme while sitting under rows of drying garlic and ham curing in the sunlight. I thought I would share the above photo that we had taken back then, not too good, but the peppers still stand out clearly. 

When Tricia and I were in Blois, France recently, we came across the weekly food market that had about 125 vendors. One of the tables(above) had a display of piment d'espelette that I found interesting. 

This week's recipe was an absolute winner in our house. I have not tasted Swordfish in many years and after getting over the sticker shock, I decided we should really eat it more frequently, it is so good.  I followed all the directions for a change, aside from the fact that I cut the recipe in half.  I added baby frisee to the parsley to top off the dish. Fresh corn from the local farm made this a delightful combination that we truly enjoyed.

This week I also decided to do a "make-up" recipe for the wheat berry and tuna dish. I have used wheat berry before, but it was used in the Italian Easter wheat pie that includes sugar, eggs and ricotta cheese.  I just loved this tuna rendition. The texture of the wheat berry and the addition of apple, onion, celery and pepper is so good.  After adding the egg and avocado to it, I had a delicious lunch. Hubby was not impressed. More for me to enjoy ~

Per Tricia~
I managed to make this dish, but remain firmly behind on all other aspects of life, due in part to the wonderful recent vacation. Thanks for the great comments about us sharing photos and be warned, I have been wading through tons of pictures each night. I hoped to get them linked to this post but didn't make it. My fingers are crossed for next week. Consider yourselves warned :)

A purchase on the recent trip at our favorite "souvenir" shop in the Loire Valley - the local grocery store !

We were delighted to see how many folks were on board for a NY area "Dorie Convention" - we will have to work something out for sure. For now, Nana and I still plan to hit Seattle in the fall and are VERY much looking forward to meeting all who can attend that one.

Do the labeled tupperwares look familiar ? Yup- Nana provided me everything except the
 Swordfish, know it was a  hectic week. How could I not make this one ?  And how lucky am I  :)

Now, that fish.  That EXPENSIVE fish. Our usual splurge is a nice hunk of Costo salmon. We all adore it and because I was particularly disorganized this week - we had a huge slab cooked mid week without my realizing FFWD focused on fish.  But I can assure you that I was not going to spring for Swordfish at $26 a pound for two teenage boys and a hubby to call a first course regardless. 

 Since Nana raved about how good it was, I sprung for one big one and we all taste tested.  This is the first time my fingers were crossed that the family WOULDN'T like it :)  But they did.  Luckily, since they will not be getting it anytime in the near future (if ever) they all agreed that the marinade was fabulous and would like to see it on other fish as all.  That, I can do ~

Happy French Friday !

Whole Cherry Clafoutis

Bonjour ! We are back from our lovely trip to the Loire Valley and Nana even managed to knock out this week's recipe.......

Per Nana~
This week's recipe is so simple and easy to make and the variations are endless with

all the fresh summer fruit that is available now. Instead of using the fresh cherries I decided to make my clafoutis with fresh blueberries.

Since I am not a fan of either cherries or blueberries, Hubby gets to enjoy the whole dish. Truthfully, I did taste the pudding and thought it was good. I researched some other recipes for clafoutis and came across many variations, including plum, pears, etc..

I look forward to trying them all.

Per Tricia~
Sorry all, but I am still adjusting to la rentrée and have not finished laundry or my email catch up from work :)  But it was so worth it. I will catch up on this recipe and also share photos but promise not to "photo bomb" the blog. I think I will limit it to a link to shots we took of kitchens from various chateaus. Tons of copper, but not a Vitamix in sight......

PS- We tried to catch up with Mardi but our schedules were not in sync, and for our one day in Paris she ended up in the UK. All the more reason to try for a New York get together for Doristas ????