Fête de Dîner et mes amis francais!

I loved my time spent abroad in France. I loved the food I ate. I loved the things I saw and learned and the ways that I grew. But most importantly, I love the people I got to spend my time with! And our group has been pretty good about staying in touch throughout this year. We periodically have French dinners where we all get together and have a French spread and reminisce about our days abroad, occasionally speaking a phrase or two of French.

We each take a specific course or portion of the meal - salad/soup, main dish, bread and cheese, and dessert. Lauren has been gracious enough to host us almost every single time in her lovely, homey apartment. (She always has decorations for whatever holiday is coming up!)


Lauren also agreed to make our main dish this time - cassoulet! Man, was it yummy! We all have fond memories of eating cassoulet during our "spring break" in the Languedoc region of France. (Let me just say, I ate more duck than I think I will EVER consume again during this trip, since Languedoc is known for it's duck dishes.) We ate cassoulet on two occasions - one at our professors' home and once at our lovely hotel. Anyway, cassoulet is a slow-cooked stew composed of meat and white beans. It is slowly simmered until the meat is tender and the beans are kind of mushy and wonderful. In France the dish had a LOT of meat with bones. Lauren cooked a huge pot that included andouille sausage, pork, and beans. It was delish! And, man, was it a HUMONGOUS pot!

Here's a pic of my plate loaded down with French-yummyness! We talked away the evening and just enjoyed each other's company, fabulous food, and a comfortable atmosphere. Very relaxed and lassez-faire, si tu veux...


Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the dessert I made... We got so caught up in conversation, the tranquil atmosphere, and enjoying our moment of peacefulness, that, well, I plum forgot to photograph them. But they were a big hit! Super rich... No one could finish them, even. I found them over at this blog: Tartelette. I made her heavenly Creme au Nutella as a tribute to one of our favorite French (well, European) food items. I think we all had a jar at one point or another. Some of us, I won't point fingers, had a jar we carried around in a backpack so as to never be without that famous Nutella. Nutella even played a starring role on our trips as we inserted "Nutella" into in and every song to pass the time (and speak in English, hehe.) I'll never forget the famed "Under My Nutella... ella... ella" rendition that we all belted out during our Spring Break car rides. So thanks guys for being great friends! I'm so glad we went to France together and have made our friendships priorities. Je vous aime!!! (Et toute la nourriture!!!)


Creme Au Nutella:

Serves 6

200 gr. dark chocolate (bittersweet)
1/4 cup Nutella

3 egg yolks
100 gr. sugar
3 cups heavy cream, divided
50 gr. powdered sugar

In a heavy saucepan, heat 2 cups of cream to boiling point. Remove from heat and stir the chocolate and Nutella. Let stand for a couple of minute. Stir until fully incorporated (like a ganache).
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale. Slowly stir the chocolate mixture whith the yolks and sugar. Return to the saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, about 5 - 8 minutes, much like a pudding. Do not let this boil.Pour the cream in glasses or dishes and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
When ready to serve, whip the remaining cup of cream with the powdered sugar until soft peaks form and divide among the glasses.

Chapel Dinners

Have you ever walked to the pantry, full of dread, knowing that when you fling the door open, you'll find nothing appetizing for dinner? This was the case for me yesterday. I knew I had to be at work by 5pm, which makes dinner an on-the-go thing on Mondays. If I have time. I pick up dinner from the Pden or DH, but yesterday I had no free moments. So I bravely stepped up and went pantry-diving to find something edible and substantial (that meant the rice cakes, fudgee-o's and marshmallows were out.) After about two minutes, I was getting rather impatient. "Why is there NEVER anything to eat in here!?" I thought. But upon closer inspection, there was. A box of cous cous sparked my interest. Then I remembered how we always keep a few cans of beans handy in order to make our standard go-to Rice and Beans. I also remembered a meal I had thrown together in January when Laura and I were headed to Montreat. Eureka! Cous Cous and Chickpeas! Sure it's not the most elegant meal, but it sure hits the spot! It really is the ideal college meal - fast, simple, cheap, filling. So I toted off my supplies and headed to the chapel for work.


In the chapel, there is a full kitchen. We put this kitchen to great use. Laura made a full birthday dinner for me there this year. Last year we cooked suprises and treats for the girls on our hall. I even made vegetable stock and soup one night when I got rather ambitious. Thus, we're no strangers to using our time at work as a time to explore the culinary world also. (Multitasking, I'm a BIG fan!)



So this is a glimpse not only into the meals of a college student on the run but also a look at how I live my days. I hope you enjoy this wonderful little meal!




Cous Cous with Chickpeas

1 box cous cous (I really like Near East's cous cous with pine nuts!)
2 tbsp oil or butter
1 1/4 cup water
1 can chickpeas (or garbonzo beans)

1) Follow the instructions on the back of the cous cous box for boil the water, spice packet, and oil/butter.
2) Stir in the cous cous, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
3) Fluff the cous cous and add in the chickpeas.
4) Enjoy!

P.S. Don't forget to bring some tupperware to put the extras in for later in the week!

Banana Chips Optional

Wouldn't you know my first actual food post is not something I actually had to cook, bake, sautee, steam, or roast. In fact, absolutely no prep work, chopping, or preheating went in to making this delectable treat. We just made a heaping container of yummy trail mix!


Also, my first guest appearances start here in this inaugural post. My lovely roommate Laura had a hankerin' for good old trail mix, so she and I created a special blend called Banana Chips Optional because that's just what it is. She enjoys banana chips, and I find them overpowering. So to make us both happy, we keep the banana chips on the side as an optional add-in.

Then, after we had finished the layering process (and, yes, we did take turns layering the ingredients in the same order), I caught this little thief (j/k!) sneaking morsels from the trail mix container. Actually, that's another one of my roommates, Elizabeth (guest appearance #2, score!) Hopefully, we'll all enjoy and share the trail mix together throughout this next week to get back in the school groove. Yum!


Banana Chips Optional Trail Mix:

1 box Quaker Oatmeal Squares
1 pouch craisins
1 pouch dried pineapples
1 pound dried apricots
3 boxes of raisins
1 cup almonds
2/3 pumpkin seeds
1 pouch banana chips (optional)

1. Layer even parts of all the items in an air-tight container. Mix and match your own favorite additions to create as simple or as complex a mixture as you'd like! Enjoy!

Suggested add-ins: coconut flakes, chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, m&m's, dried cherries, pistachios, etc.

Unsteady Feet

It's with unsteady feet and unsure steps that I approach this blog. Recently an uncontrollable urge to create a food blog has come over me. Now I know I can't even begin to compare to food blog greats like Cannelle et Vanille, Tartelette, Orangette, David Lebovitz, and the Amateur Gourmet, but they have been my inspiration. So it's with a humble thank you to these blogosphere gods and goddesses that I begin my humble attempt at food blogging. I can't promise that it will be often updated (I do have a full college class load, family, friends, and a boyfriend I want to keep in touch with), incredibly inspiring, full of fresh recipes, funny, witty, or always about food and cooking, but I can promise I will give it my best shot.

I'll apologize now, once again, for not updating enough and messing up my fair share of recipes or being disappointed with the things I make. You'll come to learn it's part of my nature to get really excited about making something, mess up one aspect, and kick myself for a while because it didn't come out exactly as perfectly as I thought it would. However, I promise to post about the mishaps as much as the triumphs (unless it's something totally abysmal!) So here goes nothing...

Welcome to My Humble College Kitchen!