Little Dream Books

What do you think about catalogs?  I think some are like little dream books.  For instance, I find just about everything in the Pottery Barn catalog to be super dreamy for my house, the Nordstrom catalog is dreamy for all things fashion, and then there's the Williams-Sonoma catalog.  The little book of all things dreamy for the kitchen.

I received my dreamy kitchen book just the other day, and as I sipped some coffee and joyfully perused it, I stubbled upon some lovely recipes!  That's where today's recipe is from in fact, the Croque Monsieur Panini.





















I hadn't planned on continuing last week's French food theme into this week, but it just so happens that I am thanks to Williams-Sonoma.  In case le Coq au Vin and the Creme Brulee weren't enough for you, now you have a yummy French sandwich too.  You may also recall that back in April, I made Rach's Croque Madame.  Today, you get the masculine version of that meal...which means it's eggless.  Those funny French!

In the little dream book, this recipe is prepared on a panini press.  Yes, that would indeed be dreamy!  However, I don't own one, so I improvised with what I deemed the next best thing...the George Foreman grill.  It isn't dreamy like the panini press, but it was effective enough and fast!

If you find yourself in a lunch or dinner rut, these "paninis" are OH SO GOOD!!  Enjoy!!

Link to Williams-Sonoma Croque Monsieur Panini Recipe

Creme Brulee

In my last post, I shared with you about our recent French feast.  The Coq au Vin we enjoyed was incredible.  We followed that up with some creme brulee, one of my all time favorite desserts!

A week or two ago, I got a sitter, went and had lunch at a fantastic little restaurant in Dallas with a wonderful friend, and then I found myself with a little time to kill...or enjoy?!  A block or so away from the restaurant, I spied a Crate and Barrel.  It called to me, and I answered.  Going to Crate and Barrel without two small children who could possibly destroy all of the many breakables there, was like an early Christmas.  Even better, I decided to splurge on some kitchen supplies.

To tell you how much fun I had there would be the understatement of the year...

Among my purchases, were some creme brulee dishes.  These dishes are probably the true root of my French feast's inspiration.

When I got home, I googled "creme brulee recipes," and let me tell you there are so many ways you can make this.  I stuck with Marty.  Who knows fancy better than Martha Stewart?  (Her branding has worked on me!)

It was simple enough to make.  The only adjustment I made was to size.  Her recipe yields 8, 5oz. portions.  My dishes are 7 oz.  So, I had to adjust for 6.  Since it was just our famliy, and I'm the only real creme brulee fan, I made half a recipe.

Put ramekins in a pan and fill halfway up the side with boiling water.  Then bake in the oven.

You bake the creme brulee ahead of time, and then put them into the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.  I LOVE that about this recipe.  It gives you the freedom to work in advance, and I love anything that doesn't cause last minute kitchen chaos.

Sprinkling sugar on the chilled brulee and prepping it for the broiler.

To complete this sweet treat, you sprinkle sugar on top and either use a culinary torch to brown it or you may broil it.  I didn't buy the culinary torch when I was at Crate and Barrel.  Rats.  So the broiler was my only bet.  IF you are broiling, put your creme brulee ramekins into the freezer for 15 minutes before broiling.  Marty suggests this, and I forgot to do it.  Mine didn't turn out creme brulee pretty, but they were delicious nonetheless.  If you want them pretty, do remember this freezer step.

 

Broiling.  Remember Marty's tip and freeze a bit before broiling.

Enjoy!

Link to Martha Stewart's Creme Brulee Recipe

Le Coq Au Vin

 

To quote my husband, "this picture just doesn't do that dinner justice!"  Friends, he is a wise, wise man, and once again, he is absolutely correct.  This dinner was a little bit of heaven on a plate. 

What is it?  The French culinary classic Coq au Vin.

I've said it before, but I just love most everything French.  This particular meal reminds me of a fantastic restaurant in downtown Orlando.  It bears the same name as this meal, Le Coq au Vin.  They serve up French cuisine right.  I have wonderful memories there with my husband, my parents, and great friends from our time spent living in Orlando.  I guess that might be what inspired me to prepare a French feast this past Saturday night.

I will get into more of the food from this weekend's feast, but le Coq au Vin was indeed the feast's headliner!  If you know this meal at all, and if your inner Julia Child is trembling with intimidation, please relax.  I'm here to offer you the simplest of solutions...

PLEASE don't look at that bottle and say, "store bought sauce."  Stonewall Kitchen products are anything but.  They are a fantastic company, and I've never had anything from there that wasn't amazing!  I bought this sauce for $11.95 a bottle, which I realize may have just caused you to lose your breath for a moment, but look at it this way.  To make this meal from scratch, you would have spent at least 10 bucks on a bottle of wine, so is $1.95 really that much for an end result of an AMAZING dinner?  

It really does end up that easy.  Brown your chicken, then simmer in sauce, and knock over your family with amazement at your culinary sass.  I certainly wouldn't expect this to be dinner for a random weeknight.  This is a show stopper.  It's a dining event!  I paired this with some mashed potatoes with herb d'provence seasoning and some roasted asparagus.  We began the feast with french bread, brie, and strawberry jam.  What we ended it with will come later this week in another post.

This meal was extraordinary!  Even the little princesses LOVED it!  The hubby told me repeatedly what a "really, really, really, really" good dinner it was.  Now who doesn't love some culinary praise?

One jar of sauce is used for 4 lb. of chicken.  Since it was just my family, I used half of the sauce with 2 lb. of chicken.  Again another thing about it being in a jar, I just sealed it and put it away for another day...which will be coming soon...where we can sit back and enjoy this awesome meal again!  I hope you enjoy!!

I promise, Stonewall Kitchen is not paying or asking me to do ANY of this, I just truly loved this meal and wanted to share it with you.  I was able to find the Stonewall Kitchen Coq au Vin Simmering Sauce online, so I included it in this email.  Do let me know if you make this.  I KNOW you'll  love it!

Link to Stonewall Kitchen Coq Au Vin Simmering Sauce

Lazy Breakfast

Next month, the Tiny Teen starts Kindergarten.  The reality is starting to set in, but I haven't fully grasped it yet.  My head understands that she'll be in school 5 days a week, but my heart doesn't know yet what that will feel like.  Our whole family paradigm will need to shift.  You see, my husband is home every morning.  That's our family time.  Once the Tiny Teen is in school her "daddy time" will shrink dramatically.  This will be rough on ALL of us...especially the Tiny Teen and her daddy.

As it appears, all of these changes are just on the horizon.  The days are passing faster than ever, and the first day of "big kid" school will arrive before I know it.  I guess that's why I'm relieved that we have nothing to do until then.  No more summer travel, very little commitments, and just big, wide open schedule of "ahhhhh."  

The benefit of having loads of time on our hands is that we also have time to sit back and enjoy a lazy breakfast...

The other day we enjoyed some dreamy Blueberry Pancakes with a Lemon Glaze.  Dreamy...

 
To make these, I just started with a basic pancake recipe.  I get mine from my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  It's a kind of a big book of everything when it comes to cooking, as well as my first real grown-up cookbook.  (I had the Jr. version as a kid).

Basic Pancakes (Yields 8 regular size pancakes)
Ingredients

• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Combine dry ingredients.  Set aside.   Combine egg, milk, and oil.  Make a well in the bowl of dry ingredients, then pour the egg mixture into the well.  Stir until just moistened.

To this basic pancake recipe, I added literally a pinch of lemon zest.  Then when I poured the batter onto the griddle, I plopped the blueberries in by hand.

While the pancakes cooked, I made my lemon glaze.  Similar to the orange glaze from the previous post, I made a lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth.  If necessary, add more sugar to thicken or more juice to thin the glaze.  Use immediately.

After the pancakes were cooked, I piled them up with a very thin layer of glaze between each one.  I saved the majority of the glaze to pour on top.  I didn't use any butter or anything other than the lemon glaze.  Lastly, I sprinkled some fresh blueberries on top.

It's was the BEST!  I love the combination of lemon and blueberries and enjoying them with a pancake was even better!  I hope you like them too.  Enjoy!

Farm Livin'

Yes, that's the two princesses on the farm looking like...well...princesses.  You could almost say that the yellow straw hat could be considered farm attire until I tell you that it's the Tiny Teen's fedora from Ann Taylor LOFT.   I was dressed in a J. Crew sundress, so no...we were SO not dressed for farm fun.

Dressed inappropriately though we were, we sure loved spending some time at the farm.  We were visiting my husband's family in Ohio, and this is a picture from the beloved family farm.

What you don't see is the sheep hiding in the barn that the Tiny Teen repeatedly "baaaaaa'd" at, or the barn cats that she "meowed" at constantly.  The poor barn critters never even saw her coming.  Although, she is mighty proud of herself!  That sweet Tiny Teen firmly believes that she can fluently speak to all kinds of farm animals.  I jokingly said, "we should get you a cable show."  She now is awaiting that call and so very ready to share her animal whispering talent with the world.

In keeping with that rustic farm spirit, we also whipped up some treats.  We channeled our inner Marty (a.k.a.-Martha Stewart), and whipped up a batch of homemade tea cakes.

The tea cake batter has orange zest in it giving it a refreshing orange flavor, and then in the middle of the tea cake you place some strawberry jam.  My mother-in-law had just made a delicious batch of strawberry jam, so we used that to make these delicious tea cakes.  After letting them cool, you whip up a batch of orange glaze, and generously drizzle it on top...and YUM, an all day treat!  We chose to call them breakfast, but feel free to enjoy them whenever you like.  Enjoy!

Link to Martha Stewart Strawberry Jam Tea Cakes Recipe

The above link doesn't give the orange glaze recipe (also from Martha Stewart), so here it is:

• 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth.  If necessary, add more sugar to thicken or more juice to thin the glaze.  Use immediately.

All American Goodness

 You know the phrase "as American as apple pie," well I think that there are a few other sweet treats that can be easily classified as "all-American."  How about chocolate chip cookies? brownies? Oreos?! What if all of these wonderful classic American treats came together to form one dessert super power?

It has happened...

So I say, Happy 4th of July, let freedom ring, and let's add to our celebration with a tasty all-American, all-YUM dessert!

Feast your eyes on that little number, eh?  That's a chocolate chip cookie base, Double Stuf Oreo middle, and a brownie topper. Y.U.M.M.Y!!!!  I found this recipe on my sis-in-law's blog, and I don't know what took me so long to try it.  Probably when I thought of all the calories...

Oh well, a holiday is no time to be thinking about calories, so dig right in!

I made this for a friend last week, and she LOVED it!  She made it for another friend, and so goes the ripple effect of this wonderful ball of goodness! (See below for recipe link)

The Tiny Teen and the Texas Tornado living it up at the splash pad!

I wish you a HAPPY and WONDERFUL 4th of July!!  God Bless America!!  Enjoy!

Link to Chocolate Chip Cookie, Oreo, Brownie Fun!

It's July? Really?

How is it July already?  Can anyone answer this for me??  June was the fastest month ever around here.  The Tiny Teen was in camp, the Texas Tornado had an icky cold, my parents visited, and the hubby and I saw Coldplay.  AMAZING!!  Oh, and I went to Chuck E. Cheese.  Twice.  Can't forget that.  Twice in one month is some kind of milestone for sure.

Yet here we are on July 1st.  The 4th will be here in an instant, and then I'll be scrambling for a festive 4th of July food.  For those of you still trying to figure out a menu, I offer up two recipes.  One is the festive fruit salad I made for Memorial Day, and the other is shortcake.

The above picture is a Cherry Shortcake from Rach and me.  It is a twist on your typical Strawberry Shortcake.  When I saw it in the current edition of her mag, I was like "Oooo" and "Ahhh."  Knowing that my hubby and cherries aren't besties, I shared it with a neighbor who is a cherry fan.

Here are my thoughts...

• Hands down that is a TASTY shortcake.  Divine!  
• The homemade whip cream goes perfectly with it.  
• The combination of the whip cream and shortcake together with a cup of hot tea around 3pm made me feel like a British princess.
• The cherries weren't so great.
• Strawberries were SO much better.

Yeah, I have no idea why I bullet pointed those thoughts, but yes, those are my thoughts.  

The cherries were a weird texture in my opinion with the shortcake and the whip cream.  I feel that if they had been softened a bit on the stove, that they would have been tastier.  I tried this recipe a second time with strawberries.  Infinitely better!!  That is probably why Strawberry Shortcake is the staple, and Cherry Shortcake isn't.

If you want to avoid the fruit all together, I say just make the shortcakes!  Served them up with some mid-day hot tea, or call it breakfast if you like.  The shortcakes are fantastic!  FANTASTIC!  

If you are looking for a patriotic treat, try these shortcakes.  Perhaps with some blueberries mixed in, you'll have just the 4th of July treat you desire!  Enjoy!!

Link to Every Day with Rachael Ray's Cherry Shortcakes Recipe