Playing with Dough

Mediterranean Bread Class is looming next week. The ovens have been cleaned, the windows are washed.....the ladies are coming!
It is also time for me to play with dough! My favorite part, really!

I've used a simple Baguette Dough and shaped it into a Fougasse. The Fougasse is a French bread, shaped like a leaf and studded with olives, lardons or with what ever. The region speciality dictates what the Fougasse will have on it. Clay and I had a fantastic Fougasse in the Vosges Mountains near Strasbourg, this one was laden with Munster Cheese and lardons.....delicious! The one I made has green olives (no black olives in the pantry) and some of my Brushcetta spice mix.

I've also shaped some hamburger buns (turkey burgers for dinner) and made a Calzone-style bread. This guy is stuffed with some mozzarella and folded the dough over, and baked for lunch.

The breads above are on the final rise before the oven.

I have brushed them with olive oil and will pull out about 6 minutes into the baking, turn the baking sheets and brush again. The buns, when cooled will be put into a ziplock bag with a cotton tea towel to sweat and soften a bit.

Finished Fougasse and oozing cheese bread, yum!

Chocolate Sauce........just because!

I'm not a fan of cooking with chocolate. I do love to eat chocolate! This little recipe (very simple, I might add) can be eaten out of the jar with a spoon -GUILTY- or with restraint, it can be spread on crêpes, could be spooned on ice cream. You get the picture? Keep this in the fridge and see how long it will last!




If this isn't rich enough, look at that sweetened condensed milk being slowly mixed in! Stir, but don't let it get too hot or you will break this sauce. (yeah.....I did just that, with the last batch, it went grainy!)
Pour into your sterilized jar, cool and stick in the fridge and listen to it call out to you when you are weak and need chocolate.

Don't forget to let the sauce come to room temperature before you eat, it will be solid!

250g good quality chocolate
250g butter
pinch of sea salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk

The Big Fried Fritter!

Le Rentrée is upon us, gone are the quiet days of August in Paris! Clay's school starts Tuesday, my cooking classes start on the 7th, with a Pizza Class!
Time to get my groove on! Nothing gets you back into the swing of things like a good old Food Blog Event! The theme is near and dear to my heart (clogged arteries?).....Fried Food! Compliments of a great blog called, At Our Table. Of course we can't forget that this is a IMBB event, and they are getting ready to launch their new web page on September 1st, stay tuned!

This is a last minute idea, to join in the fun of the blog-event. Why last minute? The husband, is arriving home today, after a month in the UK, he is bringing much 'stuff' from M&S (Tee-shirts, Cheddar) and Tesco's (Demerara sugar, Cumberland sausages, Spicy red peppers), so I need to meet the aircraft as a show of support and provide extra trunk space!

My entry is a Spicy Pineapple Fritter. Doing a little store cupboard spying around, I have a pineapple that is ready to be a little toooo ripe, I also have my beloved red peppers from my trip to the UK. The good news is you chop ingredients up, you make the batter and let it rest for 4 hours! This gives me time to drive out to Le Bourget to fetch 'the Hub' and my British booty! Then last minute combination and fire up some cooking oil.....


Easy recipe, just don't forget to season the batter.
These need to be served cold. These fritters would have really shown if they had a nice chutney accompanimentt. Plus, between you and me, I could have added a little bit more red pepper, the end result needed a bit more heat!

Sometimes, I'm my own worst critic!

Sometimes......it's the simple things!

No brainer here!
Take these three ingredients, add some crushed ice, blend......enjoy!

Don't you love summer?

Every dog needs a bone!

Back from vacation! And let me tell you, Paris in August is GREAT! Nevermind if your favorite butcher is closed for Vacances, you can find another! You are guaranteed that there is always ONE Boulangerie open in each town, by law, I think! I'm afraid this week, my bliss will be over, they will start to trickle in for La Rentrée, which will begin in September. It is just wonderful to get on the Autoroute and have it all to yourself, it is joyous to be the only person in line at the grocery!

Now that I've returned home, I've been dying to get back into the kitchen. The weather is wonderful, sunny & cool. Clay and I were lured by some 'copper-esque' bone shaped cookie cutters while in the states. Perfect for the hound who has been in the 'dog hotel' (prison).

I dug-up a Peanut Butter Dog Biscuit recipe and gave it a whirl.
I'm not a cookie-baker (ask my Blog By Mail buddy--she got sea-salt and tea), but I thought this recipe sounded easy. Max, like most dogs, eats everything!

He looks pretty satisfied!

Do you think that if Max didn't like these biscuits I could have passed them off to the family as peanut butter cookies?
I'm thinkin' maybe!!