A Picnic Lunch

I have two young children. To go to the market means that I strap my 18 pound baby to me and have my toddler ride in the cart. This isn't so bad, until I start lifting water bottles, milk, diapers...it is practically impossible to leave the store without a cart-full. On the other hand, I still prepare a nice lunch and dinner daily for my family. It requires creativity to get essentials once a week and to produce edible and good looking meals each day.

One lunch I checked my pantry and fridge. I was pleased to find boxed couscous (already flavored), a red onion and some frozen shrimp. I added water and onion to my couscous, boiled my shrimp and in the end had an anchor for a delicious lunch! I was so pleased. A baguette and slice of Camembert rounded out my plate.

This salad was easy, refreshing and would also be perfect for any picnic. Now, when it comes to my on-hand items, I am always keeping frozen shrimp around.

Brownies, Frostings and Cupcakes, Oh My!

I really like Barefoot Contessa's recipes. In my search to make potato chips I stumbled on new products by Barefoot Contessa. She is selling brownies, condiments, and other delicious goodies. There is even a cute tote bag! I found these at the Stonewall Kitchen site. If anyone would like to know what I want for Christmas, take a look at the products here! I am hungry just browsing!

So Simple

This salad represents my first "a-ha!" moment as a cook. My mother-in-law prepared it for us one night. I was amazed by its simplicity. I realized that excellent food can be really simple and the key is fresh ingredients.

Tomato Salad:
3 cups of tomatoes (any kind cut into bite sized pieces)
fresh basil (chiffonade about 5 leaves of basil)
red wine vinegar (about 2 tablespoons)
olive oil (also about 2 tablespoons)
salt
pepper
not pictured, but delicious: chopped garlic (1-2 cloves)

stir the vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic to make the vinaigrette . Add the tomatoes and basil. Stir and voila! You have a simple, delicious and healthy salad. Serve before dinner as an entree or with your main dish as a side salad. The vinaigrette is also delicious soaked up with a baguette.

Did Someone Say Madeleines?

Yes, I did. In my last post I said, "madeleines." Now, I am very interested in searching for madeleine baking tins while I am here in France. If I find them I will let you know how the baking goes!

Healthy Snacks

When it comes to snack time the gourmande in me tries to wrestle my health conscience. "Eat a madeleine! Or three!" So to combat the desire to eat entire bags of cookies or whole bars of delicious Swiss chocolate I choose to balance out my snacks. If I eat an apple then I can eat some cookies. The next time around that I am hungry I will eat a banana and then I can have some chocolate. It seems to be working. I feel healthy and satisfied. I do not feel like I have overindulged and instead feel proud because I eat my fruit for the day. When it comes to food I always say that moderation is key.

Carbonara Sans Egg

A lot of my cooking is "pantry" cooking. I figure out which ingredients I've got and what I can whip together to use my leftover or pantry items. Today I used bacon, linguine, Parmesan cheese, cream and nutmeg. I cooked up the bacon and drained the fat. I added the cream and cheese and nutmeg to make the cream sauce. Meanwhile, the pasta cooked for about 9 minutes. In the end, my dish was tasty and filling.

As a side-note, I really like the convenience of cream here in France. The milk and cream is treated by UHT, or ultra-high temperature, to steralize it for packaging. Therefore, the dairy products can stay in cartons on the shelves. So cream is a pantry item for me. I always try to keep some on hand because it can add a richness to a dish. I tried to also do the same in the States. However, it is harder to keep fresh cream for all occasions!