Tag Archives: cooking

Irony in Alsace

Posted on 04.01.2011 by Caylena| Leave a comment

During my trip to Alsace (region of France in the north bordering Germany), I experienced an amusing ironic moment.

I found myself having dinner at an Alsacien family’s house with a family from the Midi (southern region). We had soupe de potiron (pumpkin/winter squash soup). We were all eating when the mother of the southern family remarks that the soup has a unique flavor and asks what is in it. The mother of the Alsacien mother responded with an awkward giggle, “Saveur du sud” (flavor of the south).

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Posted in Dream Life, France, Life in General

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Christmas cookies (re: Continued battle with convection oven part 2)

Posted on 26.12.2010 by Caylena| Leave a comment

So, I decided instead of buying gifts for everyone in the French family that I was with for Christmas, that I would continue the cultural exchange and make something that is always a part of Christmas for me: Christmas Sugar Cookies.

The recipe, which I got from my mom, is simple enough:

  • 1 cup (225g) sugar
  • 1 cup (225g) butter or margarine, softened
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 3 cups (330g) flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  1. In large bowl, combine sugar, butter/margarine, milk, vanilla and egg. Blend well. Stir in baking powder, salt and flour. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate 1 hour for easier handling. (I found it works better if you refrigerate overnight, as well as between batches.)
  2. On lightly floured surface, roll out 1/3 of dough to 1/8 inch thickness. (Keep remaining dough refridgerated.) (I had issues with rolling, so I gave up and flattened with my flour-covered hands, and it was much more efficient.) Cut dough with cookie cutters dipped sugar*. Place on ungreased cookie sheets (Can be useful if there is a little flour on the sheet. Also, if you have a convection oven, you can use a metal pie tin, like me, since it is too small to fit a cookie sheet.) 1 inch apart. You can top with sprinkles or candies.
  3. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 9 minutes or until edges are light brown. (175ºC in my convection oven for 9-10 minutes depending on thickness of dough.) Immediately remove from cookie sheets.
    TIP: For ease in cutting, dip cookie cutters in sugar before each cut. (That is a helpful hint for the second round of cutting, as the sugar won’t stick to the cookie cutters if there is not already dough… at least in my experience.)

And now, what better way to tell this store than pictures?! (Click on the picture to expand and see captions. Once expanded you can use your left and right arrow keys to scroll through images.)

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Posted in France, Life in General, Recipes/Cooking

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The Continued Battle with the Convection Oven

Posted on 13.12.2010 by Caylena| 1 Comment

Because I’m an American in France and there are certain American delicacies I just cannot live without, I have been putting my microwave convection oven to the test.

The latest trial: Brownies. Now, it is possible to have brownies in France, but whenever I find them in a boulangerie they have nuts – and if you know me, you know I’m no fan of nuts. You can also find premade boxed brownies in the supermarket.

So, I originally found this recipe online, and since it claimed to be the “ultimate brownie” recipe, I had decided to give it a whirl. Since the first time I used it a few years ago, I’ve never had anything but compliments. Of course I won’t give away my secret touches, but the basic recipe is great too.

The web-site describes it  as a “tall like a cakey-brownie, [that] is dense like a fudgy-brownie.”

So here we go:

  • 8- 1 ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate (225g)
  • 1 cup butter (225g)
  • 5 eggs
  • 3 cups sugar (675g)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1-1/2 cups flour (170g)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2-1/2 cups (here you can add whatever you want – nuts, chocolate chips, m&ms, whatever).

So now we’ve got the ingredients listed. Here are your instructions:

  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF or 190ºC (or I used 175ºC on my convection oven, yet it was just a guess)
  • Grease your baking dish/pan (original calls for 9” x 13” but you can use whatever you want, just adjust your cooking time)
  • Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat; set aside.
  • Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at high speed for 10 minutes.
  • Blend in chocolate mixture, flour and salt until just mixed.
  • Stir in the nuts.
  • Pour into prepared pan.

Then you bake. Original recipe calls for 35-40 minutes, but that really depends on your oven and the pan size.

I made a half batch (which contrary to popular belief is possible, in spite of needing 2.5 eggs. It is quite possible to use half an egg.) in a smaller glass dish, and it turned out fine, though admittedly I should have cooked it longer. It’s always a battle with this convection oven.

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Posted in Culture Shock, Life in General, Recipes/Cooking

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Cooking Time Machine

Posted on 20.11.2010 by Caylena| 2 Comments

Being that I’m American, it’s nearing the end of the fall, and Thanksgiving is next week, I have been craving all things pumpkin. Being that I’m in France… it’s not so simple to find pumpkin desserts or purée.

So, I had the brilliant idea to make my own pumpkin purée using some of the convenient pumpkin slices sold in the store. Basically the store did all the work in cutting and gutting the pumpkin, and all that’s left for me was the cooking and puréeing.

Little did I know this would be an all afternoon/evening affair.

I cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces so that it would steam faster, since I didn’t want to cook them in the microwave/convection oven. And I set them to steam.

That was all well and good, but then when I went to take the cooked pieces and separate the edible part from the skin, it proved more difficult than I had originally thought and took longer.

Well, I thought, that’s ok – the purée will be fine with my hand mixer… Since I don’t have a blender or a food processor.

Well the spinning part on our mixer is not actually bladed, so it did not cut the pumpkin. What did I do?

I ended up leaving it all in a pot over the lowest temperature (so as to not burn it), occasionally adding water, and stirring frequently with my wisk. In the end, it worked, but took a good 5 hours.

homemade pumpkin purée

My sister: It’s like you went in a time machine and have no modern cooking tools. Are you cooking over fire also?? lol jk

Me: lol Actually yes because we have gas burners…

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Posted in France, Life in General, Recipes/Cooking

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