Stay-At-Home Friday

When it comes to Black Friday, I'm a conscientious objector.

The Friday after Thanksgiving should begin late, after a deep turkey tryptophan induced sleep that makes you sleep in.

Then comes a few cups of coffee and pie as you sit around in your robe a little too long.  Then the kids should spend a lot of time outside and friends stop by to say hello and to eat a little turkey and drink a little wine.

Gana and our friend Sean eating pie directing from the pans on our back porch.
And that's how it's done!

If the Lord opens the door for some do-gooding, you should be busy blessing others, too.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is for living in the afterglow of the gratefulness and contentment we fostered on Thursday.  If you did Thanksgiving right (meaning you focused on all your abundant blessings and how you have more than you deserve and could possibly need and how the Lord has provided so much that your heart is literally overflowing with grace) than I don't see how it's possible to stand in line to fight, elbow, push and swear your way to a 40-inch on sale at a big box electronic store.

Call me crazy.

Leftover Quinoa Stuffing and Pumpkin Dinner Roll for lunch

The Day After Thanksgiving Panini:  Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Arugula, and Fontina

It was a beautiful day.  A perfect Black Stay-At-Home Friday.

French Food, Friends and An Accordion Concert

Back in August we went wine tasting and picnicking with some friends.  Over lunch our Haitian friend, Ed, told us a hilarious tale of how he became a musician and how (among the many instruments he plays) he learned to play the accordion.

The story goes something like this:  Ed was in high school in Haiti and his father wanted to inspire him to do better in school.  So, he told Ed that if he raised his grades to a certain point he could have whatever he wanted.  So, he brought his dad a catalog and said, "I want this."  He pointed to.......an AK47.

His father agreed.  Ed worked hard in school and achieved his father's academic goals.  One day Ed comes home from school and his father gives him a box.  He opens it and finds, not his gun, but an accordion.  His father had decided that an assault weapon was not a good prize and got him an accordion instead.

Quite disappointed, Ed pushed the accordion under his bed and ignored its presence entirely.  After some time he had the following thought: "I'm the only one losing on this deal.  Now I don't have a gun and I don't have an accordion."  So, he pulled it out, got a teacher and learned to play the accordion.

Hearing this story over our picnic, I told him how much I had enjoyed the accordion music in Paris and how no French meal is quite complete without accordion in the background.  I told Ed how much I would love to hear him play.  He said that there was one problem: he didn't have an accordion.  I said that I had access to two!  We have Gana's dad's instrument and my mother has a beautiful accordion.  Unfortunately, none of us play.  He said, "Well, you make me a real French dinner and I'll come play the accordion."

Seizing the moment, I said, "Deal!"  We shook on it, in the presence of our friends as witnesses.  The only stipulation was that those who witnessed the deal also had to be present for the meal.

So, this past Friday we both made good on our promises.

Bouquet Garni for the bouef

My friend KayLee came over early in the day.  We were like two school girls preparing for a tea party!  We rearranged the furniture, set the table properly, cooked up a storm in the kitchen and generally played house.

MENU

L'Apéritif 

Champagne with hibiscus flowers

Hazelnuts

Olives

L'Entrée 

Provencal Tart

Chicken Liver Pate with cornichons 

Baguettes

Red Wine

Le Plat Principal 

Boeuf Bourguignon

Endive salad with roasted beets and goat cheese

More baguettes

Red Wine

Le Fromage

Feta Cheese Puffs

Various Cheeses 

with dried apricots and slivered almonds

More baguettes

White Wine

Le Dessert 

Red Wine Sorbet

Le Café 

Coffee creme 

Chocolate truffles

Le Digestif 

Cognanc

Thank you to Robert and KayLee for the almond champagne
and thank you, Jordan and Kristina for the wild hibiscus flowers in syrup

Provencal Tart, thanks to Kristina
Tomato, olives, roasted peppers, anchovies

Pate and Cornichons
(My first time making pate.  I don't know that I'll ever buy it again.)

Ed, playing his first song of the evening,
between  L'Entrée  and Le Plat Principal 

It just so happened to be a Russian song.
Jordan and I couldn't help it.  We had to dance.

Boeuf Bourguignon

I'm so glad he got an accordion and not a gun.

This was our Valentine's Day celebration a few days late.
What could be more romantic than French food and an accordion serenade.

Even River got a special song!

The rest of the children of the party had a French peasant's picnic upstairs. Homemade French bread, cheese, a little pot of jam, pastries and iced tea. When they had feasted they went downstairs for a movie and popcorn!

Cheese course.  Thank you, Nina for the delicious cheese puffs!

We laughed and told stories.  Dinner lasted about five hours.

Ed and Nina

Robert and River

As if the weather somehow understood our romantic and nostalgic mood, Saturday morning was gorgeous. We sat on the back porch sipping coffee, eating leftover bread and cheese, cuddling the baby and counting our blessings--namely our wonderful friends who know how to have fun!

Special thank you to my mom, whose accordion made it all possible.

Christmas Eats

I actually don't care for a lot of "holiday" food.  

I don't like stuffing--let's be honest folks, it's soggy bread.  

I don't like yams that are full of sugar and covered in marshmallows--if you're gonna eat a yam or a sweet potato, just treat it like a potato!  Don't try to mask its taste with all that extra stuff.

I only like cranberries if they are from fresh berries.  Cannot stand that canned stuff.

I don't like green bean casserole or any other casserole that has a cream-of-X soup in it or is covered with those crispy fried onion bits stuff.

I don't like ham a lot of time--unless it's a really expensive kind.  If it's the kind from the regular market it's just got a strange texture and squeaks on my teeth.  

But, I LOVE the holidays.  So I have to do my own thing.  One thing I adore is Christmas breakfast.  I love breakfast in general, which is not cereal.  Cereal is a great snack.  Breakfast is warm and buttery and requires a fork.  Christmas breakfast especially.  The oven must be turned on.  And it should take a good long time to eat it, while we sip coffee or tea and watch the sun move across the window.

Christmas Breakfast

Fruit Parfait (fruit, angel food cake, fruit dip)
Cinnamon Toast (from Trader Joe's)
Baked Egg in Ham Cup with Fontina and Dill

Baked Eggs

Christmas Dinner

Beef Wellington with Red Wine Sauce
(Gana and I had a good cut of meat,
but the kids' I made with ground beef.)
Mashed Potatoes
Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Served up with a Cabernet Sauvignon

Eggnog Shortbread Trifle, AKA a little bit o' heaven

Summer Eating

Round about October when the Autumn weather turns a tad chillier I'm in the mood for stews and thick soups and things that bubble in the crockpot all day.  By the time Winter is in full swing I want to put everything in the oven, cover it with cheese and bread crumbs.  I enjoy things roasted and toasted and served with something deep and rich to drink like a hearty red wine.

Awwww........but in the Summer it's a different story.  I want to eat things full of color, crisp and vibrant.  If it can be cooked on the grill outside it will be.  Whenever possible we pluck a few things from the garden, just minutes before we prepare the food.  The meals are lighter, but we linger over them.  We often eat outside.

Homemade pizza on a whole wheat crust.
Goat cheese with tomatoes and basil straight from the garden.

Homemade pizza on a whole wheat crust.
Goat cheese with fresh grilled corn and jalapenos.

I make a lot of pie in the summer. 
Here's an unbaked blueberry and strawberry pie
with a crumb topping.

Grilled lamb steaks.
Millet Salad
(millet, yellow bell peppers, green onions,
cucumbers, and feta with a lemon and basil dressing).

What to eat after church when everyone is so hungry
and you only have a few minutes to throw it together?

Caesar Salad (romaine, anchovies, kalamata olives,
artichoke hearts and Parmesan Romano cheese)

Cheese toasts

Am I the only mother whose children beg her to buy brussel sprouts?

Served with grilled dill salmon

Most people I know who hate brussel sprouts have only had some strange version of frozen or canned and reheated.  I wouldn't like them either in that case.  We eat them a variety of ways, but here is a simply way that I bet you'll like:

Lightly steam the brussel sprouts until they are a vibrant color, but not soft.  Heat oil in a wok or large skillet until quite hot.  Carefully, dump the hot steamed sprouts all at once into the oil and toss until they are all dark and toasty on the outside.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

My most recent obsession: Jalapeno Poppers. 
Seriously, I've been eating these several times a week!

These are stuffed with Port Salut and wrapped in uncured applewood smoked bacon.

Puttanesca and Herb Green Salad

If you've never tried Puttanesca, I highly recommend it. A welcomed break from marinara and alfredo, which seem to be the only two pasta sauces with which Americans are familiar.  Although it does have tomatoes in it, it is really nothing like a marinara, which is sweet and heavy.  Puttanesca is bitter and briny and wonderful.  Quite oily and perfect with a crusty bread!  Gana much prefers it to other tomato based sauces.  There is a very decent recipe here: Puttanesca I.

Comfort Food

My Grandfather recently passed away.  Not living in the same town anymore I wasn't able to help much with funeral preparations.  So, I volunteered to cook.  It was an act of love for my Grandpa whom I love and miss dearly (he loved to eat), for my Grandma, and for my Mom.  And, to be honest, it was something I did for myself.  I needed some good comfort food and cooking is therapeutic for me.

I had some lovely help the day before with prep, namely my cousin Liz and my Aunt Becky.  Several ladies of my parents church pitched in and made dozens and dozens of delicious cookies and served the day of the funeral.  I cannot thank them enough.

Feta Olive Tarts with Rosemary

Antipasti

Breadsticks (from Trader Joes) with roasted garlic

Layered Salad

Baked Ziti

Homemade french bread with whipped butter and herbs

Cookies, lovingly made by the women of The Revival Center

Cheesecake and fruit

 "I sometimes think the chef end of cooking is not the real end of cooking.  Cooking is all about homes and gardens, it doesn't happen in restaurants."  --Delia Smith

Food has a way of bringing people together.  Diners let their guards down over the appetizer.  Over the main course cares ease and the mind starts to be refreshed.  Over dessert and coffee people bond and heal and share their lives.  Sometimes it feels as if one had the right menu we could reconcile the world.

Recent Meals In Our Home

Chicken Broccoli Soup topped with a poached egg and Parmesan cheese

Curry Chicken Salad served on a bed of greens from our garden
and with slices of papaya

Garbanzo Beans topped with Gouda,
Served with Cornbread

Homemade Noodles (Tutorial here.)
Sausage, peppers and onions

Christmas Eats

Now you will see where I get my intense foodiness.  This is the feast my mother prepared on Christmas!

Salad with pears, pomegranate seeds, and candied walnuts

Rustique Bread

Burgundy Mushrooms





New potatoes with parsley and tons of butter

Beef Wellington

Yule Log, a family favorite. 
It would not feel like Christmas dinner was complete
without a slice of this and a cup of tea!



We like my Mom's Yule Log so much, she has to make three!