cheese-topped french onion soup: French Fridays with Dorie (for real)

This is what the real post should have looked like.  A trip to the beach was nice, but mobile posting is now to be learned - not just "winging it!"

Darn, I cut this recipe in half because I only had 2 pounds of sweet onions.  And I say darn, because it was so darn good!  And I took half of the soup to my daughter and granddaughter - not the next door ones, but the one that lives 4 miles away.  They enjoyed it.  I will make this again - with 4 lbs.!

 Getting friendly in the pot.  With good intentions to let the onions go mahogany.

Alas, I could only last through light brown.

Which got even lighter looking with the addition of chicken broth.

But in the right light, with enough bread and cheese on top it looks good.  Going into broiler...

Yes, another keeper recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Kitchen.  To see others' results this week, click here.

Cheese-topped French onion soup

I need a course on mobile posting. Will update in a few days!

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets: Tuesdays with Dorie

Yes, it's good warm from the oven.  Yes, it's good the next morning, cold from the refrigerator.  And I have one in the freezer, so ___, it's good from the freezer.  (I'm guessing yes right now!)

The tart dough is almost foolproof.  Even for the fool that forgot to butter the tartlet forms (notice the shinyness of the tartlet form)!  Luckily, I remembered this step after the dough was in the forms in the refrigerator, but before baking them.  So I just popped the dough out of the forms, buttered the forms, popped the dough back in and plunged back into the recipe.  Whew!

The baked tartlet crusts, ready for the batter mix.

This is a very rich dessert.  In addition to the cocoa powder in the dough and the bittersweet chocolate in the batter, this platter holds the next ingredients:  chopped white chocolate, milk chocolate and biscotti.  Did I mention the 8 egg yolks and butter?

Platter goodies mixed into the batter.

Fresh out of the oven, cooling off for the 20  15 minutes (no, I couldn't wait).  This is a recipe that you can't use a toothpick to check for doneness.  There are so many chunks of chocolate inside that all you get with a toothpick is melted chocolate.  To check for doneness, just press down on top with your finger (quickly, they're hot!), and it if pushes in, it's not done yet. Springy, but firm = done!

See the chunks?  Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Would I make this again?  You bet ya!  It's a little pricey, but makes a delicious and showy dessert for a special occasion.  This is the second recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie - Baking with Julia.  To see other members' results, click here.

mussels and chorizo with or without pasta: French Fridays with Dorie

This recipe provided something for everyone.  My daughter is eating paleo, so she loved the recipe "without pasta."  The grandkids wouldn't go near the mussels so they had the pasta "without mussels."  My son-in-law and I loved it "with pasta."

The mussels starting to open up, with the sauce bubbling underneath.  

Plated for dinner, right after cooking.  Very good flavor and fun to eat.  

Leftover lunch the next day.  Removed the mussels from the shells, threw in the leftover baked asparagus and liked it just as well as last night's dinner.  The sauce soaked into the pasta....yummmm.

Lessons learned from this recipe:  

1.  Leave yourself plenty of time to clean and debeard the mussels. 

2.  Keep mussels in enough ice water while said cleaning and debearding is going on.  I lost a few that didn't get submerged enough during this process, so had to pitch them.  

3.  If using an enameled cast iron dutch oven, cook the mussels longer.  I didn't take into account the extra time to raise the temperature high enough to get the mussels to open up in the time allotted.  Plus stirring to check the bottom layer of mussels is a really good idea.  I ended up pitching some mussles that didn't open during cooking, but it's probably because I didn't cook them long enough.  But with mussels, better to be safe than sorry.

Yes, I would make this recipe again.  Yummy and healthy.  To see what others' did with the recipe this week, visit French Fridays with Dorie.

nutella tartine - French Fridays with Dorie

A nice dessert or breakfast treat - even a yummy high tea nibble.....

I was carrying a plate of these delicious treats next door to my daughter's house (yes, I'm the luckiest Nana in the world!) and the sun popped out of the clouds.  It lit up the orange marmalade, so I had to stop and take a picture right then and there!

Lesson learned from this recipe:  when dribbling warmed nutella with fork tines it helps to hold the fork horizontal.  At first I was dribbling nutella with the tines pointed down and I was getting cute little chocolate circles.  When I  filled up the fork with the nutella and held it horizontally, my tartines started to look more like Dorie's.

I chose challah as the base for this recipe...Dorie says to use challah or brioche bread.  I made the recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.  It turned out great.

I loved the Nutella Tartine with cafe au lait.  To see others' creations this week, you can visit French Fridays with Dorie.

White Loaves: Tuesdays with Dorie

What a great FIRST recipe for Baking with Julia - Tuesdays with Dorie.  

So glad to find an easy recipe for "sticky white bread" - the grandkids love it.  And now I don't have to buy sliced sandwich bread anymore because this freezes nicely (I just slice each bread in 1/2 and wrap in foil).

From ingredients through first rise... the dough turned out beautifully, even though I forgot to turn the dough in the greased bowl to cover the entire surface with butter.

Into the bread pans and second rise - smooth sailing from here on out...no more mistakes!

First time I used a thermometer to check if the bread is done!  Dorie was right on...200 degrees F.

Easy to slice, very good crumb and taste.  

There will be posts about 2 recipes a month on Tuesdays with Dorie while we cook through Dorie Greenspan's Baking with Julia.  So far there are 300 participants - to see others' results and comments go here.

gorgonzola-apple quiche: FFwD

Yummy ... pretty ... scrumptious ... elegant, and yet sturdy enough to revive last night's leftover salad!

Ah, but first the tart crust must be made...and as a recent joiner, I hadn't made the tart dough recipe before.  It was easy enough, but kind of hard to roll out...I now understand the comment Dorie made about making sure the wax paper doesn't roll into the dough! Pay no attention to the creases in the tart dough pictures above...

I'm usually direction challenged, especially when it comes to size determination...you know, what is a small onion, a small apple (or even 1/2 a small apple), and even...duh, a small skillet.  But this small onion and small skillet worked well.

And even, what's a cube, or a small dice??? 

But with the egg/cream bath the pieces seemed to swim together nicely. Pop in the oven time!

This is another keeper recipe from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  To see what others did with this recipe this week visit French Fridays with Dorie.  Bonne journée!