Chicken a' la Diable...a Little Spicy in Hurry!

This is from the Saute', Deglaze and Serve section of The Bonne Femme Cookbook.

It is ready to serve almost as fast as you can read this blog post- hooray!

Chicken a' la Diable over rice, with mixed veggies!

Saute'd chicken

Using the same pan, saute' 1 large shallot, add 1/4 cup
white wine, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp tomato
paste and 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns.
Whisk to loosen brown bits, bring to a boil and reduce
by half.
Add 1/2 cup chicken broth, boil and reduce until sauce
coats the back of a spoon

Whisk in 1 Tbsp parsley and serve sauce over chicken.

Spice but Nice: The peppercorns add spice to the dish; but "the Nice"...it is ready in less than 30 minutes!!!

Great food doesn't have to take hours to make...if it did you might see me picking up more food from the drive-thru.

This dish can handle a spicy red wine like the Brazen Zinfindel. 

Enjoy a great meal on a week night.

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

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Fancy Chicken For Dinner...Ready in Minutes!

Nouvelle Chicken Veronique with mixed veggies.

Season with salt and pepper, dredge in flour and saute 4 chicken breasts. 

Cut 1 cup of red grapes in half.

The sauce: 2 cloves of minced garlic, 3/4 cup chicken broth, 3/4 white wine, 1 Tbsp of Balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp of honey. 

Reduce the sauce by half and stir in grapes.

We served the chicken over rice and topped with the sauce and grapes.

 Delicious!

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

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Chicken Tarragon- A Very French Dish

So the next season of my favorite TV Series (in fact, the only current TV Series I watch) came out last Tuesday: Once Upon A Time! 

Once Upon a Vine- Glass Slipper Sauvignon Blanc goes great with Once watching!

The menu called for something special...something with a unique flavor...Ahhh...Chicken Tarragon!

Peeled and seeded chopped tomatoes.

Saute'd chicken in butter. I flattened mine out and sprinkled a little salt and pepper.

Now, the sauce...use the same pan you just cooked the chicken in, cook tomatoes and shallot;
and then....Deglaze it with White Wine!!! Yay!
I used 3/4 cup of white wine and 1 Tbsp of white wine vinegar.

Reduce the sauce and thicken with more butter. Add FRESH Tarragon!

Viola! Chicken Tarragon over rice and served with mixed veggies!

We grabbed the white wine and hit play!

 This is a quick weeknight meal that is fancy enough to impress guests. You can find the full recipe in The Bonne Femme Cookbook by Wini Moranville.

My favorite show...bottle of white...and a fabulous French dish....

It's La Bonne Vie Y'all!

Vive La Bonne Femme!

So the French cooking had to begin somewhere, and Dennis likes curry (which I never would have guessed was in French cooking, but...here is it), so Curried Chicken Comte' it shall be!

Wini Moranville (the Bonne Femme cookbook author) says that the Franche-Comte' region is located on the eastern side of France. 

This dish comes from that region. Think Chicken Florentine...but French!

I found my shallots near the garlic at Publix. I also opted for Fontina cheese- which was easier to find (see below).

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1.5 lbs total)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 large shallot

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp sweet curry powder

1 cup 2% milk

3/4 cup shredded Comte', Gruyere, Emmental, or Fontina cheese (about 3 oz)

1Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

9 oz of fresh spinach (I used the baby spinach found near the bagged salad.)

Look! Just as the reviews (and the introduction to the cookbook) said: ingredients you can easily find in the grocery store!!!

French Cooking Diary Entry #1: Hooray for easily found ingredients!

Now for the cooking. Would there be complicated steps? Obscure utensils needed???

Nope. Pretty much, I pounded the chicken flat (actually the Hubs did that), and cooked it through in 1 Tbsp of butter. I removed the chicken and kept warm. I added the second Tbsp of butter and cooked the shallot until tender (not brown)...PS- I put a YouTube clip on the La Bonne Vie Facebook page showing the easiest way to mince a shallot- its super-easy!

I then added the flour and curry to form a paste and then cooked until brown.

I added the milk slowly and whisked to combine; brought it to a boil and cooked 2 more minutes- the sauce was thickening.

I added a 1/2 cup of cheese, stirred until it melted and set aside.

 Are you smelling the curry yet? It turned a beautiful yellow and the smell was fantastic!

I had to get to the spinach, so I heated the olive oil in a skillet and added the spinach in 2 batches. It was way too much to try to do in one batch. 

I cooked the spinach until it was slightly wilted, and then placed it in my pretty Southern Living 13 x 9 baking dish. The spinach matches the green in the handles.

I placed the chicken on top of the spinach.

I took the curry sauce and covered each piece of chicken evenly, and then sprinkled it with the remaining cheese.

I placed the baking dish under a pre-heated broiler to allow the cheese to melt.

I served this dish over Moranville's Any Night Rice Bake, but serving over rice or mashed/pureed potatoes would be wonderful!

We enjoyed our first home-cooked French meal with a glass of Lonely Cow Sauvignon Blanc!

So I did it! No difficult steps, no weird kitchen contraptions, no frustrating ingredients...just simple, quick, kitchen-to-table French cooking. Hmmm...so this is what the Bonne Femme cooking style is?

Vive la bonne femme! Long live this cooking style...I think I can handle it!

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

The Idea That Started It All...The Cooking Gauntlet Has Been Thrown!

The Bonne Femme Cookbook- I found mine at Amazon.

So the night I first found out about Mason's passing I knew that I was going to need to start cooking. In my life, when I have faced difficult times, times of stress, times when I felt like I didn't have a clue I go to my kitchen- I slice and dice fresh veggies, I go through cookbooks, I create food (not just tasty, but aesthetically pleasing food). I spend time letting my mind focus on the flavors and smells, on the precision of a cut or the placement of a garnish. I pray. I sing.

As I went to my kitchen I was thinking about the movie Julie and Julia, where Julie decides to cook her way out of her rut in life with a Julia Child's cookbook in hand. A friend from work said, "Julie and Julia! Are you going to try Julia Child?" I knew, instantly, that I'm not on level with Julia Child, and well, let's face it, it's already been done. I had visions the Hubs coming home and finding me with my head half way in the oven, holding a partially baked chicken and crying because I got nervous and drank all the wine that said chicken was supposed to be basted in. No- no complicated French cooking for me.

In complete disclosure- I needed something easier. 

I'm not a fussy cook. In fact, I was not a good cook for years. Practice truly does help! My family has been gracious over the years...and did I mention practice...

I like things that are easy, tasty, and pretty to serve. I like finding short-cuts without short-cutting the taste of the dish. You see- I love entertaining, and I don't want to be stuck in the kitchen. I want to mingle with my guests. I want to look them in the eye and ask them how they're doing without worrying about what needs to come out of the kitchen next. I like finding the ingredients I need in grocery store! Please don't send me to 8 different places to try to find some obscure spice I need for this one recipe...that I will never use again...!

So I went to Amazon. "Easy French Cookbook". 

The result: The Bonne Femme Cookbook! 

It boasted all the things I hoped for: streamlined steps, grocery store-friendly ingredients and recipes that will be kitchen to table quick! 

I placed my order. I waited. I wondered. Was it really going to be able to come through on all it promised...?

At Last It Arrived!!!

And to my surprise...it did deliver! I poured over its pages, looking for the spot that proved too difficult for this modest home-cook...but it seemed possible! Best yet, it told stories and gave insights on French food, dining, ingredients, and instructions on traditional and Bonne Femme cooking techniques. 

It came to me: I Could Do This!

La Bonne Femme means: The Good Wife. It is also the term that the French use for a style of cooking. It is a streamlined, simple approach to putting great food on the French table. Seems like a great idea to me! It also seems very much like Mason. 

Mason did cook, but not much. Her husband did a lot of cooking, and a lot of complicated cooking at that. She made excellent cornbread, a great cheese ball, and wonderful pork chops...but that was about it. Mason enjoyed her guests and the meal they shared together much better than being in the kitchen. While I probably enjoy cooking more than Mason did, I have learned an important lesson from her, in that the time with family and friends is far more valuable than being a perfectionist in the kitchen.

After Mason's passing, I told the Hubs that I wanted to get a cookbook and work my way through it as therapy to help me deal with the loss. I believe the Lord lead me to the perfect cookbook. One that fits the lesson Mason taught so well- make it simple and easy, so that you can enjoy your friends and family. 

But then I thought of all of Mason's encouragement of my writing. She loved for me to come to her house and share my recent work. She always encouraged my efforts in writing. So then I thought: why not write about about the journey...my eating, drinking, cooking, party theming journey. This would pair a great "Tracy-Mason kinda cooking model" with a story.

And that friends, is how it all started. 

Sure the cookbook throws a certain "cooking gauntlet", but it won't be nearly as difficult as Julia Child!

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

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