Ever since I was introduced to Julia Child, I've had an item on my bucket list - to cook an entire dinner party from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Everything from appetizers to desserts. I was able to check it off my list this month when we had a few friends over for a Christmas feast. (Excuse the poor phone photos - way too busy that day to break out the good camera.)
The first course was French onion soup (Soupe a l’Oignon Gratinee). The soup was really simple to make, though it takes awhile, since the onions cook low and slow, releasing the most amazing flavors. Once it's finished, it's topped with swiss cheese, toasted baguette and a bit of olive oil drizzle and set in the oven to brown and melt. We ate every drop.
The main course was beef stew with red wine (Boeuf a la Bourguignonne) over parsley potatoes with buttered green peas with shallots (Petits Pois Etuves au Beurre). The stew was so tender and flavorful - unlike any crock pot stew I've ever made. I don't know if it was the ingredients or the method or a combination of both, but the stew was also worth its effort. I made enough potatoes to feed an army (I overestimate how many will be needed every single time I make potatoes), but they paired well with the richness of the stew. The peas were also a hit, even with a few guests who only took the peas to be polite, but ended up really liking them. (That's always the mark of a great dish - when people who ordinarily would pass it up find it delicious.)
The French bread (Pain Francais)
was something I had been wanting to make for a long time, having never
made bread only from my hands before. (I've always relied on the dough
hook of my mixer for kneading, the few times I've made homemade bread.)
Jacking up the heat in our house that morning really helped the dough
rise, since usually we keep it pretty low in the winter. I'm glad I
thought to do that and followed Julia's recommendations on temperature.
After hours of kneading and rising cycles, the payoff was worth the
effort: crusty on the outside, soft on the inside loaves that rang
hollow when you thumped them - Julia's indication that they are done. We
ate all three loaves in a matter of minutes and they were so delicious
in and of themselves that we didn't even need the honey butter!
For dessert, it was a chocolate almond cake (Reine de Saba) and upside-down apple tart (Le Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin). Somehow I only took a photo of the apple tart when it was still upside down (crust on top) in the frying pan. At first I was skeptical that the cake recipe could really feed 8 people, especially when I saw that the frosting was nothing but a few tablespoons of butter and an ounce of chocolate. But it was so rich and creamy, we had leftovers - a little goes a long way. I should know by now not to doubt these recipes. I'm glad I didn't do the American thing and slather the cake in 50 pounds of icing and make 6 more layers. It was perfect the way it was. And adorable on a cake stand, too.
The apple tart was tricky, and I was nervous about burning the apples, so it was a little less caramelized than I'd like, but it worked out fine. It was also rich and very heavy on the sugar, so a little piece went very far. Perhaps that's the theme of these French recipes - a little goes a very long way.
My friend Anthony chose some fantastic wines to pair with the food, according to Julia's recommendations in the cookbook. Even people who aren't usually wine people were impressed - it was like the wines were made for this specific menu!
Though the meal took 13 hours from start to finish and required assistance from other people (greatly appreciated), it was worth it. I feel like even through the busy, frenzied prep (and the fact that I needed this white board to keep track of where everything was in the process), I could find the joy in cooking these recipes and realize the painstaking care that was made in writing them.
I could hear Julia's voice in the text and knowing that the hands in the bread making photos were hers makes it all the more special - and really makes it stand out from other cookbooks of today. Ghost writers abound in today's celebrity cookbooks, so knowing that Julia wrote and developed these recipes and their specific methods was having a connection with an author of a cookbook that I haven't experienced before. And to have people linger over a meal at the table for three hours blissfully full and content? Probably just how Julia intended.
For more on my obsession with Julia, check out these posts on watching The French Chef and a book review on her biography, Dearie.
There are so many deserving charities that need help this time of year, especially with the demand of the holidays. While there are many good causes to support, I have a soft spot in my heart for hunger relief agencies, as evidenced by my desire to run for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank in May for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.
Also, I'm a lurker/follower of a great local blog called IheartPGH, which is exactly what it seems from the title - a blog about this great city and its people.
And I read this week that she's raising money for CHS, an organization that provides many needed services - mental health, homeless assistance, housing assistance, and today I found out - a food pantry. In cooperation with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, they serve as many people as they can in the Oakland area. And many in our city need food more than they need a fun Christmas present, as great as that is.
Not only is she raising money, but she's holding giveaways as well, and donating and spreading the word helps you win entries to walk away with some great prizes. Helping others have enough food to eat and spend Christmas with a roof over their head and a full belly while also getting to enter for great prizes and use the awesome hashtag #pghsavesXmas? Sounds good to me. Makes me feel like Pittsburgh's a super hero, and that let's me geek out a little bit too. Win.
Visit IheartPGH to check out the giveaways and ways to donate! (And follow her blog while you're at it - you'll learn so much more about Pittsburgh that you'll wish you had three extra days in the week to fit in more cool stuff.)
The first Christmas Mark and I were together, we combined our baking super powers to make assorted holiday cookie/treat boxes for friends and family. The tradition grew over the next few years, each year upping the ante and making the box bigger and badder. Last year, because of Maggie's surgery and its associated expense, we had to forego the cookie boxes. This year, we prepared to resurrect the tradition and got our plans together, including the necessary three days off of work it requires. And then Maggie passed away the morning we were supposed to start.
We decided there would be no better way to work through our sadness than to spread some cheer and joy, so we forged ahead. Two and a half days later, we had 16 cookie packages ready to be sent across the country and hand delivered to family and friends. And our dining room looked like Santa's workshop exploded.
Mark has a family recipe for fruitcake that actually tastes good. It's such an intense job to make that it has to be mixed in a food grade bucket, but it's worth it.
My grandma Taylor was known for her cookies, and the molasses cookies she always made came from her mother's recipe. They are amazing chilled in the freezer, dipped in hot coffee.
I am slowly becoming a biscotti fan, and after I made chocolate peppermint biscotti with candy canes and white chocolate for our 2011 boxes, I had to repeat it this year.
I also experimented a few years ago with homemade marshmallows, and they made an appearance as well. This recipe is even good as they dry out, and they go great over a mug of cocoa.
Mark made batches of a classic favorite - white chocolate cranberry oatmeal.
Shortbread is one of my favorites, so I tried a new recipe for vanilla sables, which was delicious (and also didn't crumble like a lot of shortbread does).
Mark made eggnog fudge, which was a hit even with people (like me) who don't like traditional eggnog.
I can't bake anything without considering at least one item that includes peanut butter, so I tried a classic Good Housekeeping recipe for toffee peanut butter rounds. Not the prettiest cookies in the world, but definitely the kind where you can eat 4 without even thinking.
Two boxes got a special addition, due to these particular family members having an affinity for them - vanilla coconut macaroons.
And last but not least are my favorites each year - sci fi gingerbread. Being geeks to the core, we love our Star Wars and Star Trek cookie cutters. (The Star Wars once are from Williams Sonoma and the Star Trek ones were custom-made for me by an Etsy seller, though Think Geek sells some now.)
In the interest of time, we used white royal icing and colored sugar instead of coloring all of the icing and filling in the cookie details. But they still turned out awesome and close to the right colors (Chewy got close with orange).
I particularly love the red symbol of the Klingon empire. The warrior's cookie of choice.
Star Trek: Delta shield, Vulcan salute, Klingon empire
Star Wars (light side): R2D2, Yoda, C3PO and Chewbacca
Star Wars (dark side): Darth Vader, Storm Trooper, Boba Fett, Death Star
We even had enough grape jelly that we could share a half pint in each box!
