A Supremely-Easy Summer Salad & A Cat That Loves Lettuce.

So tonight I'm feeling very accomplished. I made my own dressing. I'm eating fresh goat cheese drizzled with honey. I toasted pine nuts!!!

I went back into the Bonne Femme Cookbook and poured over the salad section. The author, Wini Moranville praises La Bonne Femmes for making all of their dressings fresh (and often table side). For whatever reason, over the years I have stayed away from homemade dressings. I don't really know why. Maybe I was worried that I would get carried away with the olive oil- that things would just turn out way too...oily.

Never fear- Vive La Bonne Femme! C'est Facile! It's Easy!

Truthfully, today was a bit stressful. I was looking forward to coming home and cooking; but I think if I had encountered something supremely difficult the Hubs might have come home from work to find me in the floor eating the goat cheese and drinking Pinot Grigio.

Pine nuts toasting in a little skillet. 

I used 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 1 clove of garlic minced, salt and pepper to taste.

I toasted baguette slices and topped with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil.

And here is the amusing part...my cat Pumpkin LOVES salad. 

Pumpkin begging for lettuce.

He recognizes the salad container. I go to get the 50/50 Spring Mix/Spinach salad mix out of the fridge and he runs to my feet...meowing. His little lettuce eating activity has become a sort of party trick. When guests come over and I'm fixing salad he gets a tiny piece and everyone laughs. 

So the sun is setting and I toss my salad mix in my homemade (not too oily) dressing and top it with the toasted pine nuts. My toasted baguettes receive a topping of melted goat cheese drizzled with honey.

To add some protein, I poached some eggs. 

Here is the delicious "Pumpkin envying" salad with poached eggs.

You can leave the eggs off- there is plenty of
protein in the pine nuts and goat cheese.

This was delicious! 

The dressing is very garlicky, but the whole meal was light for a perfect summer night. Not too heavy, and definitely not too oily- it was just right. 

If I ever wanted to do this as a side salad (not the main entree') it would yield 4 side salads.

The Hubs and I sat on the back porch listening to the French Cafe' Pandora Radio Station, ate our Melty Goat Cheese Salad with Honey and Pine Nuts, and sipped our Pinot Grigio.

Pumpkin, meanwhile, had his cat food.

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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