It’s feeling a bit unbalanced around here–we need more from the back of the book. Here’s one from a brand new group: Pies & Cakes. Just in time for the cooler weather, we have 16-47: Orange-Almond Pie.
This came out really well: it tasted great, and you can make it in a toaster oven!
In 13-10: Zucchini Piccata, I had mentioned that I ended up with more zucchini than I could use in that recipe. Here’s what I did with the rest: I made 4-22: Zucchini Pancakes. I’ve made recipes similar to this before, but this one’s pretty standard.
These things are pretty good even if you’re not that into vegetables. Think of it as a healthier version of 4-17: Crispy Potato Pancakes.
4-17: Crispy Potato Pancakes is one of the last recipes I cooked in the kitchen with the blue tile counters and yellow walls–-our travels have taken us elsewhere. However, even though the backgrounds will change, the project lives on.
These are essentially latkes. Very delicious latkes, I may add. If you have a food processor, these are a breeze.
The long-awaited 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes. I finally solved my ingredient issues and it was crêpe-time. The only thing is…I’ve never done this before.
Confession time: In all of my time cooking (which is most of my life), I have NEVER made crêpes. I have made many pancakes (as you could imagine), but never a crêpe. This was a first for me and as you will see, I learned many lessons from this attempt.
This was supposed to be 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but ingredient shortages persist. A trip to the market tomorrow should resolve it, but for now, we’ll have to make do with an old classic, 5-7: Quiche Lorraine.
This one I have made in the past, several times. Two past memorable occasions:
– When my boyfriend (now husband) and I officially moved into our first apartment together a few years ago, we threw a 1970s-themed housewarming party. This along with another quiche, some rumaki, fondue, and other 1970s goodness made up the menu.
– When I was in 7th grade, I had to do some sort of project on France/French culture in my English class (I have no idea why). My project partner and I made this recipe at her house and also bought a Celine Dion CD (where she sings in French) to play while the class ate our quiche. I think her mom returned the CD to Target the next day. That was our lazy, late-90s attempt at French culture. 🇫🇷
Soup is technically easy to make, but can still quickly go wrong. Our CSA box came with 2 lbs. of white sweet potatoes this week, and it was time for something else besides sweet potato fries. The trusty interwebs told me that white sweet potatoes were pretty similar to regular ones, so I thought I’d give 3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise a whirl.
Vichyssoise is originally a French-American creation. This version is definitely more of an autumn/Thanksgiving-type of flavor, but it was still easy to make and pretty good. Obviously the recipe card depicts the use of an orange sweet potato, but white sweet potatoes work pretty well also.
Soup’s on!
We start our journey in Book 1, Group 1: Appetizers & Starters with 2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad. Got that? It’s further broken down into subgroups, depending on different classifications. I see now where I get my classification aptitude.
We start here due to yesterday’s CSA box delivery brimming with already-ripe avocados (a rarity). As avocados are a fickle beast, it was imperative to consume them in the near future.