FFwD: Provencal Olive Fougasse

Wow, what a crazy week! It has been non-stop between trying to put a contract on a new house, work, and the usual running around, I can't believe it was been almost 2 weeks since I blogged! Luckily I had time the past couple days to get some cooking in, yesterday and today have been bread days. Between this recipe and the brioche dough for next weeks TwD:BwJ, it has been a flour covered week. I don't have a stand mixer, so both recipes were made by hand.... Let me tell you, the brioche was a challenge (more on it next week)! This weeks recipe was this wonderful thin olive bread, it was so good and after the brioche, pretty easy to make!!! Seriously my hubby and I could not stop eating it! It was not hard to mix by hand, just a bit sticky, especially after adding the olives and lemon zest. I used pitted kalmata olives and they were a great addition.

Yummy olives, lemon zest, and rosemary!

After overnight resting in the fridge

Rolled out, cut, brushed, sprinkled with salt, and ready to bake

Baked and ready to eat!

So yummy, served it with Dorie's Lazy Person's Chicken and dinner was a success!

TwD:BwJ: Hungarian Shortbread

A Quick Ode to Butter

Oh, butter, you wonderful gorgeous fat

If I could, I would wear you as a hat

You make everything so much better

Even these simple letters

While my thighs and hips want to give you up

The rest of me could eat you by the cup

But, by limiting your beautiful uses

I will have a compromise that won't leave me useless!

I figured between this wonderful recipe and our next recipe, a poem to butter was appropriate! But, off to the main subject: the recipe, we loved it! The rhubarb jam was super easy to make and the shortbread came to together quickly. I ended up baking the first layer for about 15 minutes, then continued with the jam and second layer. While, they were baking, I went to get the confectioner's sugar only to realize I did not have any. Oh, well, they are plenty sweet without the extra sugar! I have to split up the recipe for my hubbie and I to take to work, because if not, the whole pan would be gone...tonight.

Rhubarb jam

Shortbread dough

I shaped my shortbread dough into logs to make them easier to grate, worked out really good!

First layer and jam

The amazing results!

Thanks to our awesome hosts this week: Lynette and Cher!

FFwD: Navarin Printanier

This recipe ended up being an interesting story. I was at the grocery store looking at the lamb, thinking how expensive it was, when I saw some packages that were marked previously frozen and a lot cheaper. I didn't care about the previously frozen, it was going in stew anyway, so into the cart they went. Got home and as I put them in the fridge, re-read the label and realized they were not lamb, but goat. So, we had goat stew, minus the turnip because I could not find one, and with only a couple peas, because the bag of peas I had in my freezer only had about a quarter cup. Anyway, the soup turned out really good! I even told my hubby it was goat and we ate all of it!

veggies in butter and sugar

meat, broth, and spices

yummy stew!

FFwD: Coconut Friands

I am a big fan of coconut; macaroons, pina coladas, pretty much coconut anything. I was really pleased that this weeks recipe not only had coconut, but was super easy! I couldn't find any unsweetened coconut, so I used sweetened and cut the sugar way down.

Batter and muffin tin

The batter came together quickly and these little nuggets of joy were in the oven in about 10 minutes. A little bit later and after some cooling, I had a nice little bite-sized snack before dinner! Hubby even liked them too!

Yummy little coconut nuggets!

The squirrel survived

Actually caught a fire yesterday, first due and first in! I was riding the tower ladder, so it was outside work for me; throwing ladders (trying to set those things in uneven ground is a challenge!), setting up the fans, helping with utilities, etc... After everything stabilized, had some overhaul work to do. There was a save, one of the other companies was looking for fire extension in the attic, opened up the door and a squirrel jumped out and landed on his mask, managed to catch the squirrel and brought him out of the house and he scurried off, no injuries!

TwD:BwJ: Lemon Loaf Cake

I love lemon, so I really wanted to love this recipe. But, I don't, it is OK and my husband loves it, but it just did not hit me as amazing. I followed the recipe as is, but took a cue from the many recipes for tres leche cake that I keep seeing and baked it in a 9x9 pan and made a coating for it. For the coating/glaze I made some lemon curd, it was so amazing and easy, and mixed the lemon curd with heavy cream and evaporated milk. I could live on the coating/glaze, it was so good!

Homemade lemon curd, so yummy!

Ready to go in oven

When it was done baking, I took it out and put a bunch of holes in it with a toothpick.

And put a bunch of holes in it with a toothpick and poured the amazing coating/glaze on it!

Could seriously lick this right off the cake!

Well, after a couple of hours in the fridge and even overnight, it did not really sink into the cake. Might be because it was almost a pound cake and really dense already, but the glaze did solidify on top and make a thick almost frosting.

Thanks to our awesome hosts this week: Truc and Michelle!

FFwD: Sardine Rillettes and other stuff

Before I get into this week's recipe, please forgive a little tangent. It has been an interesting cooking couple of days. I have been very motivated to cook (probably due to the fact that I am finally over the killer cold for the last 2 weeks!), so I have been in the kitchen having adventures. Wednesday was clean out the freezer day, amazing what you find, and Greek inspired chicken wraps. Since all I had in the freezer was a tray of chicken thighs, deboning them was challenging. I saved the meat close to the bones and made chicken soup today. Thursday was steak day, sounds innocent right?

Well, except for the small fire, everything was great! I was using the broiler for the steaks and the smoke detectors were going crazy (not unusual for me and the broiler). I got sick of trying to run back and forth trying to silence them, an interesting feat considering the vaulted ceilings, I had already knocked one off the ceiling and ended up batting at it like a piñata and finally climbing up a ladder and disconnecting it, when I decided to give up on the broiler and finish the steaks on the stove top. Opened the oven door, flames came rolling out, so I quickly closed oven door. Ughhhh....turned off everything, peeked in the oven window, pan still on fire, OK, looked over and found some cake flour on the counter, thought awesome, I can take care of the fire and not ruin the steaks! Opened oven door, pulled out rack, doused pan in flour, and presto! Fire was out. Figured out it was not actually the steaks on fire, but the marinade that was on pan, perfect, scraped flour off steaks, threw them in a skillet and poured myself a big glass of wine. During the whole event, my darling son was playing in his room and it didn't even faze him. Steaks turned out good; hubby said that the flour actually made a gravy that was really tasty.

Luckily today has not been that interesting. Made some lemon curd for a recipe next week, made chicken soup with leftover bones, attempted to put together a Greek pie for dinner, ended up being a Greek quiche (just a pointer, don’t thaw phyllo dough in the microwave no matter what the box says), and made the Sardine Rillettes.

Everything but the sardines and lemon

All ready with some Triscuits!

 I wasn't sure about the Sardines after the first bite, but had a couple more and ended up liking it! Probably won't be a regular on the menu (hubby was not thrilled), but I am definitely less intimidated by them now!