This past Saturday I had a  very busy plate: Cooking class at 10 for 12 young ladies and a small order of appetizers for that same afternoon. I could have cooked dinner, but i chose to go for a long run and to play in my kitchen so when it was time for dinner there was nothing to offer. I will tell you that I really was not in the mood to make dinner because I knew that what I wanted to cook would not please my husband, and what he wanted was not going to please me. So what to do??? I did not want to go out for dinner and we did not want to take out. As i opened my fridge for inspiration, i saw two small brie that Lisa had purchased for the cooking class.

My family loves baked Brie and especially Garlic Baked Brie. They were introduced to this yummy appetizer in France and I thought that tonite this easy appetizer would make for a fun dinner option.  Easy, simple, Yummy. ….Yeah i know, not to healthy but it was Saturday night so who cares…

Ingredients for 2-4:

• 2 individual sized brie from President
• 8 garlic cloves peeled and sliced in half
• 2 baguette uncooked from the freezer section of the grocery store or from Costco.

1. Turn the oven to 400.
2. Remove the brie from its box and its wrapping.
3. Place the brie on a cutting board.
4. With a sharp knife, make 8 cuts on the top of the brie all around.
5. Place a half  of a garlic in each slit.
6. Place the brie and the baguette on a silpat and cook for 8 minutes.
7. when the brie is ready, remove it from the oven.
8. Place it on a plate and eat with the sliced bread, and sliced apples. You can also serve a salad to eat along. Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

I love summer because the fruits and vegetables are so yummy, and eating healthy is simple nature, not a task. Right now, here in the South, it is strawberry season. strawberries are sold everywhere, at the corner of intersections, at Farmer Markets, in stores and of course in Strawberry farms. Strawberries are so good and flavorful at this time of the year.  They are so sweet that eating them  by themselves is wonderful.

If you have guests however, presenting  sliced or diced strawberries in a cup can be a bit boring so I suggest that you present them in an eatable cup instead. For this recipe, here, for example, I used the recipe of the Tuiles I presented a few posts ago and I molded them inside the large cupcake.

The ingredients are changing slightly as we want them to be flavored with vanilla instead of almond:

Ingredients for about 12 cups:

• 2 egg whites at room temperature
• 100 gr. or about 1/3 cup and 1 tbsp of white sugar
• 35 gr. or about 2 1/2 tbsp of butter melted but cold
• 35 gr. or about 2 1/2 tbsp. of flour
• 1/2 tsp of of vanilla extract

1. Turn the oven to 330.
2. Place the butter in a microwavable bowl and cook for 30 seconds or until the butter is completely melted. Let it cool.
3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites and the sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved, and the egg whites get a bit foamy.
4. Add the butter, the flour and the vanilla extract and stir well.
5. Place a large silpat on a large perforated sheet.
6. Drop 2 tablespoons of the mixture on the silpat and with the back of the tablespoon spread the mixture out to make a circle of about 4-5  inches.
7. Repeat to make about 4 circles per silpat. Do not make more than 4 per batch or the tuiles will cool off and you will not have time to shape them all if you make them too many
8. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the circles are becoming brown.
9. Remove the perforated sheet from the oven. Wait a few seconds to let the cookie cool a bit or they will tear as you lift them. Do not wait more than a few seconds or they will cool too much and you will not be able to shape them.
10. With the tip of a kitchen knife ( not sharp, You do not want to perfore the silpat), lift the side of the circle and pull it up carefully.
11. Place the circle inside the large cupcake mold and with your fingers press the cookie inside the cup to lay the cookie flat and be careful not to tear it. Let it cool completely before lifting them from cupcake tray
12. Repeat steps 5-10 until you have used the whole batter.
13. Keep the cups in an airtight container to keep them dry and crunchy.

You can use those cups with any fruits, but today I chose to fill them with fresh strawberries.

Ingredients for the Strawberry Salad for 4:

• 1 pint of fresh strawberries diced thinly
• 1 tbsp of fresh Meyer lemon juice
• zest of one Meyer lemon
• 2 tbsp of sugar

1. Clean the strawberries under running water
2. dice them thinly, but cutting them in fourth and then in slices.
3. place them in a bowl
4. add the Meyer Lemon Juice, the zest and the sugar
5. stir well.
6. Decorate the plate by drizzling some strawberry syrup, spoon a bit of the strawberry salad in 4 cups. Sprinkle more lemon zest for decoration and serve right away.

Sunshine on a plate;-) Yum!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

With the sun finally here and temperature rising, I have been wanting to eat food that bring sunshine to my plate and my stomach;-)  colorful salad, fruit salsa, fish tacos, and fruit desserts.

And this morning, it is was not any different. As I awoke, I started thinking about what I would like to eat this evening and I thought of making tacos. I felt like eating a taco with a fresh guacamole salsa but the store that I went to only offered avocados that were as hard as stone so i grabbed a few bell pepper instead not really knowing what I would do. But they looked so appetizing:-).

Salmon with the sweet and red pepper sauce is one of my favorite recipe, so I decided that i could do the same to accompany my fish.

Ingredients for 4

• 2 large Tilapia
• 1 small purple onion sliced very thinly
• 1 red bell pepper sliced very thinly
• 1 yellow bell pepper sliced very thinly as well
• 1/2 cup of white wine or broth if you do not use alcohol
• 1-2 tbsp of brown sugar
• salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp of Mexican Hot Chili Pepper POwder
• salt
• Pepper
• 1/8 red pepper flakes Optional

1. Turn the oven to 425.
2. In a large saute pan, warm up 2 tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the onion and saute them.
3. Then add the bell peppers and saute them as well.
4. Add the white wine or broth, the brown sugar, stir and bring this mixture to boil.
5. When the mixture has come to boil, turn the heat down to low. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 5-10 minutes. If you want more heat, add red pepper flakes.
6. Meanwhile, pat the filet dry and place them onto a deep flexipan or a medium silpat that you would have placed on a medium perforated sheet.
7. With a pastry brush, brush the filet with olive oil.
8. Sprinkle salt, pepper and Mexican Hot Chili Pepper and place the pan into the oven.
9. Cook the filet for 12 minutes or until the fish is cooked but still moist. ( I cannot believe how huge those filets were, those filets were so huge that they almost weight a pound each- I had never seen tilapia filet that thick but they were awesome).
10. Place 4 tortillas on a plate. Place the octogonal over the tortillas and cook for 30 seconds to warm them up.
11. To serve, place some of the fish inside the tortilla. Spoon a bit of piperade over the fish.
12. Roll the tortilla close and eat up. Yum!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

My grandmother that I called Mamy was an accomplished baker and pastry maker. She loved to cook and bake and I love to go and visit her because there would always be some great food there. When we would come to visit, she would make tuiles, macarons, crepes, gaufres. She often was the one who helped my mom make our birthday cake: Un Mocha ( double layer cake with coffee buttercream..Yum!!!)

Unlike my mom, was grandmother was not as concerned of her weight. In fact, her motto was; ” Use butter and cream, it is better for you”.

I think that the reason that she always had butter, or chocolate in her house was because of the war. She had starved so much in the working camp of germany and now she was free, she was going to enjoy her life and food;-) I certainly admire her for that!!!

Growing up, I was happy to bake with her, but never thought to gather her recipes… You just don’t think about that when you grow up. Now I wish I had them… though I am not sure I would have been able to read them as she may have written them in Russian , as it was her nationality.

The reason why I talk about her today is because I wanted to make Tuiles last night. For those of you who may not know what Tuiles are, it is a French biscuit that is often served to decorate or even to serve desserts. It is called Tuiles because this delicate paper thin cookie is shaped into a U and looks like the tiles that are on French roof.

I did not have a recipe for Tuiles, and of course at that point I wished I had my grandma because her tuiles were always perfect and so yummy. So I searched for a good recipe. There are millions of recipes out there and I will tell you that i was a bit at a loss trying the find the right one. Well after trying a few, tweeking a few things here and there and staying up till 2 am to find the right one, here is my recipe. It is not my grandma’s recipe, but it is pretty good;-)

Ingredients to make about 2 dozens tuiles:

• 2 egg whites at room temperature
• 100 gr. or about 1/3 cup and 1 tbsp of white sugar
• 50 gr. or about 3 tbsp of almonds sliced
• 35 gr. or about 2 1/2 tbsp of butter melted but cool to touch.
• 35 gr. or about 2 1/2 tbsp of flour
• 1/2 tsp of of almond flavor
• Turn the oven to 330.

1. Place the butter in a microwavable bowl and cook for 30 seconds or until the butter is completly melted. Let it cool.
2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites and the sugar until the sugar is completly dissolved, and the egg whites get a bit foamy.
3. Add the butter, the flour and the almond flavor and stir well.
4. Place a large silpat on a large perforated sheet.
5. Drop 1 tablespoon of the mixture on the silpat and with the back of the tablespoon spread the mixture out to make a circle of about 2 to 2 1/2 inches.
6. Repeat to make about 8 circles per silpat. Do not make more than 8 per batch or the tuiles will cool off and you will not have time to shape them all if you make them too many
7. Sprinkle a few almond slices per tuiles for decoration.
8. Cook for 8 minutes or until the edges of the circles are becoming brown.
9. Remove the perforated sheet from the oven. Wait a few seconds to let the tuiles cool a bit or they will tear as you lift them. Do not wait more than a few seconds or they will cool too much and you will not be able to shape them.
10. With the tip of a kitchen knife ( not sharp, You do not want to perfore the silpat), lift the side of the circle and pull it up carefully.
11. Place the circle on the rolling pin to make the tuile. Let it cool completly before lifting them from the rolling pin.
12. Repeat steps 5-10 until you have used the whole batter.
13. Keep the tuiles in a airtight container to keep them dry and crunchy. Yum!!!
14. Serve them as a treat with coffee or to decorate your desserts.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

For the beautiful ladies how there who do so much for everyone, I want to wish you a wonderful Happy Mother’s Day. I hope that today will be a special day and that you will be pampered the same way you pamper your family all year-long. I send you all the best, and hope that you will have a great day in company of your loved ones. Bonne Fete.

Cecile

Tomorrow being Mother’s Day, we will have brunch with the whole family. This means eating small bite-sized food and eating an array of lunch and breakfast items. I love brunches because you can make some really fun and beautiful food. What will you do? I would have loved to fix brunch at my house but my husband forbid me to do so saying that it was my day, and as my day I was not allowed to go into the kitchen. Well if you can cook and looking for fun things to do, here is a fun dessert bite that is very very easy to do.

Ingredients for 48 mini cups:

• a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips ( i prefer ghiradhelli)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla 
• 48 raspberry ( about 2 boxes )

1. Place half of the chocolate into a microwavable bowl and cook in the microwave for 90 seconds. Stir and cook for another 30 seconds. The chocolate should be liquid, and free of lumps. If it is not microwave it again for another 30 seconds.
2. Place the petit four tray on top of the medium perforated sheet and with a pastry brush, brush the inside of each cups.
3. When finished, place the tray in the freezer or in the fridge for 5 minutes to cure the chocolate.
4. Remove the tray from the freezer and brush the chocolate cups again to make them stronger. At this point, you may need to melt more chocolate.
5. Place the tray back into the freezer or fridge.
6. Meanwhile, place the heavy cream, with the vanilla and the sugar into a bowl and with a whisk beat the cream until the cream makes hard peaks. ( if you have a kitchen mixer, it is faster so you use it).
7. Place the tray on the counter. Fill the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe the cream into each cup.
8. Place a raspberry on top of the whipped cream.
9. This dessert will stay good for 1-2 hours in the fridge ( make sure to whip the cream into hard peaks or it will fall and the whipped cream will run).
10. Only display this dessert when your guests are ready for desserts or the chocolate will soften and those cups will be difficult to pick up.
11. Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Pardon my absence. It is not the lack of cooking but the lack of time that has kept me away from my blog. I hope that you guys are doing well.
Today I will present you with a very quick recipe that I love. It is very easy to fix and it changes from the regular steamed corn.

Corn at this time of the year is so delicious that i would eat it everyday, and now that i am using my round mold to cook it in 5 minutes, we eat much more of it that we used to. Sometimes though it is nice to eat in a different way.

I saw this recipe many months ago on TV and tried it right away because it was so easy and fast. I hope that you will enjoy this as much as I am.

Ingredients for 4: 

• 4 ears of corn
• 8 tbsp of Mayonnaise 
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan
• 4 tsp of Paprika or chili pepper or even cayenne pepper. 

1. Place all 4 ears in the round mold and cover the round mold with the octogonal silpat.
2. Microwave for 3 minutes. The corn will not be thoroughly cooked but it will cook longer in the oven.
3. With a sharp knife, and being very careful to not hurt yourself, slice the corn ear in half.
4. Place the corn face up on a plate and with a knife, spread the mayonnaise.
5. Then sprinkle Parmesan and the spice that you wish.  Or mix the spice of your choice with the Parmesan in a large bowl and dip the corn into the mixture making sure to cover the corn entirely with the mixture.
6. Lay the corn face up on the silpat that would have been placed on a perforated sheet.
7. Cook at 450 for 5/7 minutes.
8. Accompany this wonderful corn with a meat of your choice and enjoy!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

We work all week long and when we have time, it is raining, even pouring. It is so upsetting. I hate rain. I can’t go outside and go for my jog and it puts a damper on my mood.

So what to do when it is raining??? In my house, we watched TV and do a lot of nothing;-) Me, I cook. So today I cooked a yummy onion soup for our lunch, and I fixed some Sable Breton.

This evening I wanted to add a bit of sunshine to my plate so I prepared Seared Scallops on a bed of corn and red onion.

It was quick, easy to do, yummy to my stomach and it really brightened my morose day;-)

Ingredients for 2:

• 6 to 8 fresh scallops
• 3 ears of corn
• 1/2 red onion sliced and diced
• 4 scallions
• 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp of Grill Mates Smokehouse Maple
• 1 tsbp of  butter
• Salt and Pepper

1. Place the corn inside the large round mold and cover the mold with the octogonal silpat.
2. Microwave for 4 minutes.
3. With a sharp knife, cut the corn off the ear, and set aside.
4. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a frying pan, and when the butter is sizzling, add the diced onion and saute it until it turns golden.
5. Then add the corn and saute it as well.
6. Add the chopped scallions and saute it.
7. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and stir.
8. Empty the content of the pan into a plate and cover it so that it will not cool down.
9. Rinse the scallops over running water. With a paper towel, pat them dry.
10. Spread the Smokehouse Maple seasoning over a plate or in a bowl and dip each scallops into the seasoning to coat them with that seasoning. Set aside.
11. In a large frying pan, melt 1/2 tsp of butter. When the butter is sizzling, sear the scallops for 1-2 minutes.
12. Turn them and sear them the other side.
13. Spoon some of the corn on each plate and place the seared scallops on top. Serve and Enjoy!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

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Yesterday, I had a millions of things to do and I knew that I could not spend too much time in the kitchen so I decided to swing by the fresh market to pick up some sirloin steaks.
I knew I was not going to eat that ( I am not a red meat fan), but I still had not a idea of what I would eat when entering the store. I was not worried because I can always find something;-)

Well as soon as I walked in, I saw a beautiful display of bull tomatoes.

Tomatoes, unlike fruit never really picked my interest but those were so pretty that they looked that they would make a great dinner;-) Those tomatoes came in so many colors that I thought it would be fun to have a colorful salad for a change:-)

But what to eat with it???? Fish?? maybe.. as I looked into the fish display I saw some beautiful tuna steaks.
Tina sashimi had been so rare to find this past year that I decided that they too would become my dinner.

Dinner for me was set: Tuna and tomato salad:-)

Ingredients for 2:

• 1 red bull tomato
• 1 green bull tomato
• 1 yellow
• 1 tsp of chopped fresh basil
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/8 tsp of pepper
• 1 tsp of Dijon mustard
• olive oil or 1/2 tsp of butter

1. Rinse the tomatoes very well.
2. Cut them in their width and again in their length to make cubes. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix the mustard, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix well.
4. Add the tomatoes and the fresh basil and stir. Set aside.
5. In a small frying pan, warm up the 1/2 tsp of butter. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on both sides of the tuna steak.
6. When the butter is sizzling, add the tuna steak and sear it for 1 minute. Turn it and sear it for another minute. Cook it longer if you want it more done (I like mine rare).
7. Slice the steak in cubes and mix those with the tomato salad. Et voila!

If you like to eat your steak warm, you may add the tomato salad as a side. It is up to you;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

It had been a while since I made some brownies. Not because I don’t like them, but because if I make them i will eat them, and I do not, do not need to eat them.

Well this past Wednesday we had a faculty meeting at our school, and many times teachers are asked to bring a snack to serve at those meetings. This time was my turn. After thinking what to cook, I decided on something chocolate. Who does not like chocolate???Brownies are also so easy to make that I decided to make a batch. Of course, it is more fun to try a new recipe than to use an old one so I used a new one from “Chocolate” by Better Homes and Garden 2012.

Ingredients for about 40 small brownies:

• 3 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 tbsp of butter softened
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1  1/4 cup of flour and 1 tbsp of flour
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 6 oz. of chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup of butter
• 2 1/4 cup of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tsp of almond extract

1. Turn the oven to 375. Place the flexipat on a medium perforated sheet. Place the metal frame inside the flexipat.
2. In a bowl, stir 1 1/4 cup of flour, baking powder, sat and set aside.
3. In a bowl, place the chocolate and 1 stick and 1/2 of butter and microwave for 90 seconds or until they are both completely melted.
4. Add 2 1/4 cup of sugar to the chocolate mixture while beating on low-speed.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beating well each time.
6. Add the milk, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.
7. Add the flour and mix well.
8. Spread this mixture into the flexipan. Shake the pan by hitting the end against your counter to make the batter spread evenly out.
9. Set aside.
10. In a small mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese and 2 tbsp of butter until it is becoming creamy.
11. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and mix well.
12. Add the egg and mix. Then add 1 tbsp of flour and combine.
13. Pour this mixture over the batter into lines.
14. With a knife, go from left to right to make zizzag pattern into brownie.
15. Bake for 30 minutes.
16. Cool in the pan completely before unmolding the cake and cutting it into squares.

Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!