Marie-Helene apple cake-FFWDORIE

This is my kind of cake! It takes 5mn to make, and it's full of apple goodness, with a little bit of cake in between.

I made mini cakes for my daughter Halloween party. I replaced the rum by cinamon, cut the apples in smaller chunks, et hop, in the oven for 25mn. This recipe made 12 muffin size cakes. Everyone loved them. This recipe is a keeper.

Hachis Parmentier - FFWDORIE

Today's recipe was hachis parmentier. A French classic; I am French, it should be a piece of cake. I forgot that it was also a full moon. I think I should stay away from the kitchen on full moon days.

First, my ground beef and sausages did not break into small bits, as they usually do. Then, I realized I had bought and cooked the wrong kind of potatoes after I started mashing them. My purée was a biphasic matter, half too soft, with pieces of hard potatoes (do not use Trader Joe's golden potatoes for mashed potato). Yuk. How could I fail my mashed potatoes, and my guests who came for the hachis parmentier were already waiting in the living room, arghhhh.

 

The final hachis parmentier looked ok, and tasted ok too. My guests finished it all.

For the record, I also manage to screw up the chocolate sauce for my poached pears. I am sure this had to do with the full moon.

Other bonne idee: you can use duck confit in place of the steak, it's delicious.

Gerard Mustar Tart - FFWDORIE

Better late than never...

Gougeres - FFWDORIE

I had gougeres for the fist time in SF. My friend had made some for our first Dinner Du Monde (DDM). It was instant success and love. I have made gougeres several times since then, mostly using a recipe from epicurious.

Today, I am using the recipe from Dorie Greenspan new book, which was selected as the first entry for the cooking group French Friday with Dorie. I am very excited to be part of this group, as I have been a long time fan of Dorie's blog. These gougeres look gorgeous, and I had a very hard time resisting the delicious smell of warm cheese and pate a choux that lingered all day in the house. As a new improvement, I used a small cookie dough scoop to shape the gougeres. It made the process some much faster, and cleaner, I love it.

My First Post

This is it. After all this time perusing other people's blogs, and dreaming of having my own, one day...
I am hoping that this blog will be like an electronic cookbook, allowing me to share my favorite recipes online.

Bon Appetit,

Agnes