Back in 'Business'

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So, I may be starting up the Thursday Night Supper Club again. But it will be on Fridays, since I won't have Friday classes during summer or fall semesters (nice, right?).

I'm excited to get back into the kitchen and start experimenting with new recipes again.

Thursday Night Supper Club--The details and this week's menu

Alright, people. Thursday Night Supper Club is officially on!

This Thursday's menu is:

-Broiled Chicken Provençale
-Quinoa Salad with Dried Apricots
-Lemon Crème Brulée or Chocolate Tuiles with Vanilla Custard

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll get the update there, too. But if not, here are the details:

-If you know me and trust me in the kitchen, you're invited. :) Bring a friend (or spouse, o' course) if you feel so inclined.
-I'll make dinner every Thursday and you bring a few bucks to help pay for ingredients and whatnot.
-The cost will NEVER be more than $8-$10 per person, and I'm hoping to keep it more to the $4-$7 range.
-I'm NOT going to make money off of you--promise. The cost will be evenly divided among everyone who comes to dinner, including me.
-This isn't some weird self-promotional thing and I'm not trying to sell something to you.
-You don't have to participate every week (obviously).

I'll send out the menu every week by Monday, you let me know if you're coming by Tuesday night, and I'll have a seat and a plate for you on Thursday night. :)

Let me know if you want to join in!

If you're not interested this week, let me know if the general idea appeals, and I'll put you on my list of people to include in my weekly menu email.

Woo hoo!

Test Kitchen/Dinner Group

To help me resolve my little recipe problem, I decided to start a weekly dinner group/test kitchen combo.

Basically, I'm going to make at least one recipe from my (ahem) archives each Thursday and invite all of my Orem/Provo peeps for dinner every week.

I was thinking I would send out a weekly email with the plan for the main dish, a side-dish sign-up list with a couple of slots, and then let everyone else know to bring $3-$8 to help pay for ingredients, depending on how exotique the ingredients are. (So... if it's lobster, everyone brings $8-ish. If it's tortilla soup everyone brings $3.)

What do you think? Is it tacky to ask people to bring money? Should I just have them bring ingredients? If it were you, what would you prefer?

Would you participate in something like this if someone else was hosting?

Get Cooking!

I got "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. I think she was the one who said she learned to cook by just cooking her way through his book, and it inspired me.

Not only am I going to learn how to cook "everything," but I am also going to become a creative cook and ingredient-combining guru with the Ingredient Bible, which I bought for myself because it's my birthday.

So, if you would like to be a guinea pig, let me know and I'll invite you over for dinner, lunch, breakfast, or brunch.

Filipino cooking

So, remember waaaay back when my Relief Society in the Paris ward had a Filipino cooking class? Well, before that we had a great Thai cooking class.
Here are the pictures.


This may not look delicious (since it's raw), but the spring roll-y things we made with it were AWESOME.

Chillin' with the Sistas

While in Paris I spent a lot of time with the Sister missionaries. I volunteered to go with them to a teaching appointment one week, and it turned into a standing weekly appointment.

These are the two sisters, Sister R and Sister O, that I started working with. Then Sister O went home, and Sister H was transferred in. (Sister H is the one below eating raclette).

Here we are in front of the Church on rue Saint Merri near the Pompidou Centre.

Sister R, me, Sister O

On the night before I came home, we had one last teaching appointment with E and her two daughters.
The Sisters surprised me with an awesome dinner before we went to teach--raclette!! I had never had raclette before, so it was fun to see how it works. And it was soooooo good!

So, basically you have a raclette pan with spaces for all of these little dishes to sit in. You put a slice of cheese in the dish, slide it under the heating element, and then make a little open-faced sandwich.

This is me with E and her girls on Mother's Day at church. Love them! Miss them.

On my last night, at E's apartment. Love these girls. Aren't they just beautiful. They're little sweethearts, too. Let's just ignore how pasty I look next to their gorgeous skin.

Rue de la Huchette

Rue de la Huchette is a total tourist trap.

And I love every bit of it.

Actually, in the off-season, you'll find just as many French people enjoying lunch there as foreign visitors. There is Greek, Chinese, Indian, Italian, and I don't know what other kinds of food offered on Huchette and the small streets winding off of it.

This street is just off of the Place St-Michel as well. (I'm not lying, it's a great area).

I spent a lot of time in this area because it was right by the school where I took grammar classes 5 days a week.

But I would never get a hotel room on that street. Way too noisy late at night. Just get a hotel nearby, and then you'll have access to the St-Michel Metro and the St-Michel/Notre Dame RER stops. You can pretty much get anywhere from this part of the city.

Les Macarons LeNotre

I, sadly, had never experienced the loveliness of a macaroon until I went to France.

So, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make up for lost time.

The best macaroons I had were from LeNotre. Wow. They were so good. I don't remember what the flavors were, but believe me when I say they were a-ma-zing. And pretty, too.

Filipino Recipes

Last Saturday a Filipino couple in my ward taught an international cooking class to the Relief Society (we had a Thai class a few weeks before that).

Here are the recipes we tried (they were all delicious!).

Beef Afritada
Ingredients:
-1 kilo beef
-1 medium to large carrot
-3 potatoes
-1 green bell pepper
-1 can green peas (or the equivalent in thawed frozen or fresh peas)
-5 cloves garlic
-1 onion
-1 cup grated cheddar cheese
-beef broth as needed

I don't have the directions, so I'm guessing it goes something like this: Brown the garlic and onions. Add the potatoes. Add the carrots. Add everything else. Cook. Enjoy. (Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on this...) I do remember, though, that they boiled the beef separately before cooking, and then they just added it towards the end so it could soak up some of the flavors. That way it is much more tender.

Chicken Adobo
Ingredients:
-1 kilo of medium-sized bone-in chicken parts (legs, thighs, wings, whatevah)
-5 cloves garlic
-1 onion
-1/2 cup special filipino soy sauce (you can use regular soy sauce if you don't have a store where you can find filipino products)
-1/4 cup vinegar (any kind except basalmic, I think they said. I think they used red wine vinegar)
-1 tsp. pepper

Brown garlic and onion. Add everything else, cook until done.

Chicken Curry
Ingredients:
-1 kilo chicken, sliced into 1 by 2 inch strips (roughly)
-grated ginger (maybe 1/3 cup? they didn't write how much down as a part of the recipe)
-1 onion
-1 can coconut milk
-1 cup chicken broth
-1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
-1 tsp. cumin
-1 tsp. turmeric
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. pepper
-1 tsp. chili oil or hot sauce
-1 tsp. ground cinnamon
-1 tsp. dry mustard (yellow)

Brown onion, add ginger. Add everything else, cook until done.

I know. It's very precise. Regardless, they were ALL really delicious, so if any of them sound good to you, maybe try searching for more exact recipes on a recipe database site. Or just Google "Chicken Adobo."

Enjoy. 'Cause I sure did. Yum.

Yum.

I ate this at the Jardin de Luxembourg.

By this fountain.

That's one thing I'll definitely miss--grabbing a bite to eat and enjoying one of many great parks in Paris.

Right Now...

I'm probably eating Cafe Rio.

And panicking that I'm going to have to start driving my car again. I'm afraid I'm going to run over someone by accident. Is that weird?

Meow

Hello Kitty strawberry ice cream, anyone?

I know. You can make fun of me. It's okay. It was actually pretty good.

38/101 - Cooking Terms, Tips, and Tools

#38 on my list of 101 Things to do before December 6, 2011 is:

Learn 100 new cooking terms/tips/tools.

I learned a new term/process yesterday. It's a bain-marie. Which I guess can either be a double-boiler-type item, or just a simple process of dumping a container filled with food into water to be boiled and therefore cooking whatever the contents are without actually exposing them to the water.

This is how I heated a package of pre-cooked quinoa, spelt, lentils, and red beans I bought at a health food store by the Hotel de Ville. On the package it said to cook by bain marie, and showed a pot of boiling water with the pouch floating inside.

So. There's one term. Only 99 to go.

So, how about some help. What is your favorite cooking word, helpful tip, or appliance/utensil that you would hate to live without?

American Food in Paris

So, sometimes during my stay in Paris I just felt like it was time for some food that didn't require me to think too hard or translate the menu too much. I wanted something familiar, easy, and laid back.

Enter Happy Days Diner.

Just behind the Place Saint Michel on rue Francisque Gay, it's a 50's-style diner offering American classics like burgers, fries, onion rings, and sundaes. And a bottle of Heinz 57 on each and every table.

The food is similar to what you might find at Iceberg drive-in in Utah. No one's throwing awards around, but it's tasty enough if you've got kids who are looking for something "normal" to eat in Paris, but you just can't bring yourself to go to McDonald's.

I also really love the decor.

Yep. That was a Coke with lemon.

Great News

The investigator I have been teaching with the sister missionaries (and whose kids I've been corralling at church for the past month or so) is getting baptized!

She is getting baptized a week after I get home, on June 27, and I couldn't be happier for her.

She is from the Ivory Coast, and she is incredible. I can't even tell you what a difference I have seen in her over the last couple of months. I love that the Gospel has such a big impact on people that you can literally see the change in their faces.

I will be so sad to leave them behind. Her daughters (3 and 1) are the sweetest little girls, and the 3 year old has taken a particular liking to me. She loves to say "Amen!" at the end of prayers, talks, and testimonies during Sacrament Meeting. So cute.

P.S., this investigator is also an amazing cook. When I asked her if she uses recipes, she and another African lady who was at our last teaching appointment-turned-awesome African dinner burst out laughing. The other lady, who is in my ward, said, "Sarah, most of the people where we come from can't even read. How would they know what to do with a recipe? Cooking is just something you learn from doing it all the time."
P.P.S. Our delicious african meal included eating amazing chicken in a spicy--as in, lots of different spices, almost like a curry--sauce; fish; a carrot, tomato, and onion salad; and fried bananas with our hands! Forks are for the faint of heart... but the food was all incredible.

Quinoa

Denise asked what quinoa is, and to be honest I wouldn't know, either, unless someone had made it as part of our community dinner a few years ago in the Foreign Language Student Residence at BYU.

Here is a brief excerpt from the Wikipedia page about quinoa. There's information about it's use and cultivation, etc. which is interesting as well, but I thought I would just include the information about the nutritional aspect of quinoa, which is really what interests me.

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Quinoa was of great nutritional importance in pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, being secondary only to the potato, and was followed in importance by maize. In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthful choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source.[3] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned spaceflights.[3]

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The orange text is what I think is so great, in addition to the fact that quinoa tastes great and seems very versatile. (I haven't ever cooked it myself, I've only enjoyed it in pre-cooked meals or meals made by others, but I've liked it every time.)

I had a great quinoa and coral lentil salad last week that I bought at Monop' across from the Centre Pompidou (along with an awesome bulgur wheat salad), and then Black*Eiffel posted about it, which lead to me getting the recipe I mentioned from one of the people who commented.

Do you guys ever use quinoa? Have any recipes you especially like?

The one I'm going to make for my family reunion is here.

What is Your Favorite

vegetarian or vegan recipe?

Mine is currently tabouleh. Can't get enough of it. Good thing there are a bazillion Lebanese places in Paris.

But I have to admit, I also really love fresh (not fried) veggie spring rolls for a light lunch. (I like the fried ones, too... but let's be honest. They may be vegetarian, but that doesn't make them healthy...)

And I just got the most amazing recipe for quinoa apple curry salad. Hello! Doesn't that sound good?

Any big favorites you're inclined to share?

101 Things - Item 60

Eat dinner (or dessert) in every arrondissement in Paris.

For the time being, I have 7 arrondissements left to eat in. Today I spent some time on a restaurant review website (which I can't seem to find anymore, annoyingly enough) (update: found it.), and I found several restaurants I think I'm going to try to cover the remaining arrondissements.

My goal is to try a different type of cuisine in each of the remaining arrondissements I visit.

Some of the options:
-French
-Fusion
-Japanese
-Turkish
-Kurd
-Ethiopian
-Mauritian (from the island nation)
-Senegalese
-Marocain... er, Moroccan. Or however you spell it in English.
-general African
-Tex-Mex (though I don't know if I'm going to mess with it. I'll be eating Cafe Rio soon enough anyway)

One of the restaurants is on an island, in the middle of a lake, in the middle of a huge park right outside the city. I'm still counting it, since the park starts in one of the arrondissements and leads out into the suburbs.

I don't really even know what fusion cuisine is all about, but the menu items they listed sounded really interesting. And several of these cuisines are going to be brand new. Like Ethiopian and Mauritian (and Turkish, and Kurd). Can't wait.

5-Cheese dinner

Tonight I enjoyed 4-cheese ravioli for dinner, followed by 'dessert' of apricot applesauce and half a small disk of Munster Gerome with traditional artisan bread.

Yum. Stinky cheese is awesome.

And by the way, real munster (the kind of cheese that is 'officially' called Munster) is pictured above. It's not a solid block cheese like cheddar, it's a very soft cheese, like a super-soft brie that's got way more flavor.

Also, I talked here about how much I love my apricot applesauce. So, at the store yesterday I saw mango applesauce, and I thought it sounded lovely.

Hm. It sounded lovely, indeed. But what I didn't realize was that it was applesauce with mango CHUNKS in it. Sick.

Those of you who know me VERY VERY well understand that I don't do desserts that consist of chunky-chewy bits of anything (tapioca, rice) in what is otherwise supposed to be smooth and/or creamy dessert item. Don't do tapioca pudding. Don't do rice pudding. Don't do fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt (ew. dry-heaving just thinking about that one). Last week I did eat tapioca, but it was in coconut milk, not a thicker creamy substance, and I'm pretty sure each serving had like a pound of brown sugar in it. When it was served I only ate it to be polite, but I'm pretty sure that pound of sugar had something to do with how much I liked it. I would eat it again.

I do, however, enjoy a great shake with crunchy bits.

End of rant.

Salmon and Sauteed Veggies with Fines Herbes Tofu...

... is what I'm eating for lunch. Right. This. Second.

It's really good.

Hope you had a great holiday weekend!