Girls' Night * Happy Birthday, Beth *

* Special Guests: Beth, Kelly, Christine & Libby *

Josh's Review: ~ For the Cake ~ "It's good"


Tomates A La Provencale
(Tomatoes Stuffed with Bread Crumbs, Herbs & Garlic)

This is a great appetizer! It could also be served as a first course for a dinner party in place of a salad. When hosting a party, it always makes it easier to have dishes that can be prepped ahead of time. And these stuffed tomatoes are a perfect example. The tomatoes can be cut and stuffed well before your guests arrive and only cook for about 15 minutes. The stuffing for the tomatoes include basil, parsley, shallots, garlic, olive oil and FRESH bread crumbs (I pulsed the insides of a french baguette in my food processor).  My beautiful guests loved the tomatoes. Fresh Flavors - Guilt Free. 

&
Galettes Au Fromage
(Cheese Wafers)

These cheese wafers can also be prepped ahead of time.

"They may be baked, then frozen, and reheated for 5 minutes or so in a hot oven."

Butter, cheese, and a splash of flour is all you really need. Knead the ingredients together, roll a tablespoon at a time into balls, flatten them and place them on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. Great as an appetizer and would also be fabulous as a soup or salad topper. 

&
Reine De Saba
(Chocolate & Almond Cake)

Yummy! ... And, of course, made ahead of time! 

"Before you begin the cake Preheat the oven, prepare the cake pan as in the following directions and measure out all your ingredients. Then your batter may be prepared and baked in one, continuous operation."

Having everything ready before combining all the ingredients is so helpful and lessens the chances for mistakes and/or confusion when baking. 

"Preparing the cake pan To prepare the pan for the cake batter, rub the entire inner surface with a thin film of softened butter. Then roll flour around in the pan to cover the sides and bottom; knock out excess flour by banging the pan, upside down, on a hard surface. A light dusting of flour should adhere all over the inner surface of the pan; this will make the cake easy to unmold (remove) after baking."

What a difference this makes! I have never prepped a baking pan like this before. After the cake was done baking it popped right out of the pan without leaving behind any residue of cake! I will always prep my pans this way for baking from now on. It takes away any worries.

When I looked over the recipe for the frosting, I was a little hesitate, because it did not call for any additional sugar. Frosting without sugar? Two ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, two tablespoons of coffee and unsalted butter were all the ingredients I needed. And I have to say, that I love this frosting! With the sweetness of the cake and the dark chocolate bitter-like flavor of the frosting, it was a perfect combination.

Add a few bottles of wine and some baileys and you have a lovely girls' night! I'm so glad we could all get together - something we should definitely do more often!

Bifteck Saute Au Beurre

(Pan-Broiled Steak)
&
Gratin Dauphinois
(Scalloped Potatoes With Milk, Cheese, & a Pinch of Garlic)


Josh's Review: "It's Good."

* Every night, I ask Josh, "How is everything?" and his standard answer is, "Good." Good, is not what I like to hear, which is why I have noticed that this is typically all he says about the food! So I have decided in each post I will have a section called "Josh's Review" and I will state what Josh had to say about the meal. I haven't told him about this, because I know if I do, he will start to exaggerate his responses.


Last night's dinner ~ Beef & Potatoes! Yummy - very simple and super flavorful.

"Pan-broiled steak is very French... None of the juice essences are lost, and it is easy to tell when the steak is done."

For the steak, I dried the meat completely with paper towels: "It will not brown if it is moist." I was surprised that in the instructions, the steak is not seasoned with salt and pepper until after it is taken off the heat. The steak browned beautifully, but I think I will definitely season the meat before cooking next time.

"Trim off excess fat. Cut small incisions around the circumference of the steak wherever there is a layer of gristle, usually between the fat and the meat. This will prevent the steak from curling as it cooks."

"The steak is done to a medium rare the moment you observe a little pearling of red juice beginning to ooze at the surface of the streak"

For the sauce, I made a red wine reduction. I boiled down the wine and added butter off the heat.

Bifteck Saute Au Beurre (Pan-Broiled Steak)

I've made scalloped potatoes before, and I am a huge fan! The preparation was a little different, but nothing difficult. I rubbed half a garlic clove on the bottom of my baking dish, followed by butter. I then stacked half of the potato slices, then s&p, cheese and butter. Added the other half of the potatoes, s&p, cheese and butter and topped it off with boiling milk. It cooked in a 425 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

* A peak at the potatoes cooking in the oven *

Gratin Dauphinois

(Scalloped Potatoes With Milk, Cheese, & a Pinch of Garlic)

We both wanted more potatoes! This is the master recipe. The cookbook includes other scalloped potatoes that I will most definitely try!

* The Complete Meal *

Supremes De Volaille A Blanc

(Breast Of Chicken With Cream)
&
Asperges Au Naturel
(Boiled Asparagus)
&
Risotto-Pilaf-Pilau
(Risotto - Braised Rice)

Last night I found another chicken breast recipe!

For the vegetable, I decided on asparagus. The recipe called for me to peel the asparagus with a paring knife to remove the outer skin and scales. This was more difficult than I thought it would be.

"You will find that a vegetable peeler is not useful for this operation because it does not go deep enough. Asparagus is peeled not just to remove the skin, but to shave off enough of the tough outer flesh (particularly around the lower part of the spear) to make just about the whole cooked spear edible. Peeling is therefore economical."

 * Asparagus Before Peeling *

 * Asparagus After Peeling *

You have to gradually peel less off the closer you get to the tip. With the drawings of the process in front of me and Josh in my ear talking about our trip, I felt a little overwhelmed. I kept cutting too deep near the tip causing the tips to pop off. It was a frustrating process to say the least. (No worries! A bottle of wine was being opened and a glass was poured) I went with the simplest way of cooking asparagus - blanched. I decided to go with a healthy, less buttered, meal.

For the other side, I wanted to try to make risotto. I imagined risotto to be a very creamy dish. However, Julia's version is much different ....Or maybe I just screwed it up? It took me two tries to get the rice cooked without browning. The first round I definitely had the heat up too high.

* Fail *

I did not make that mistake the second time. From what other people have told me, the liquid should be added slowly, and stirred constantly. This recipe called for the boiling liquid (chicken stock/ white wine) to be added all at once, an herb bouquet added, stirred once, covered, and put in the oven for about 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, I let it sit out of the oven for 5 minutes. It turned out to be flavored rice - not creamy and not what I was expecting.

The chicken breasts were simply seasoned with s&p and lemon juice. I melted butter in a glass pyrex dish in the oven. When the butter was melted, I rolled both chicken breasts in the melted butter, covered them with wax paper (one side buttered) butter-side down, covered the pyrex dish with aluminum foil and cooked them in a 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes. Apparently, I subconsciously didn't feel that this meal was difficult or frustrating enough, so this is when the bloody nose started. Awesome! After the chicken was done (tissue inserted and hanging out of my nose ~ appetizing, right?) I poured the juices into a pot, added stock, wine & cream and cooked the sauce down. Adding a little s&p and lemon juice, the sauce was perfection - oh so good! The sauce was most definitely the best part of the meal.

Asperges Au Naturel (Boiled Asparagus)

Risotto-Pilaf-Pilau (Risotto - Braised Rice)

Supremes De Volaille A Blanc
(Breast of Chicken with Cream)

 *The Complete Meal *