FFwD: Lyonnaise Garlic and Herb Cheese

This was a super yummy and easy recipe! Put the ricotta in a bowl and in the fridge. Waited a couple hours, chopped up some herbs, shallot, and garlic, mixed it together and back in the fridge!

Close-up of yumminess!

I ate it with some crackers, carrots, and cucumbers. Can't wait to see how it tastes tomorrow after a night of marrying the flavors! I really enjoyed this and plan to make it again, maybe with some different herbs! Happy Memorial Day everyone!

FFwD: Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

This was quite a rich recipe! Pretty easy to whip up though. I decided to do a mix of the Nutella tart and the double banana. I put a layer of Nutella on the bottom, then the caramelized bananas and finally the chocolate ganache. I skipped the bananas on top, just wasn't really feeling them. The tart turned out very good!

Tart dough ready for oven!

If you notice, I made a big tart to take to a BBQ and a little tart for hubby and me to try last night. Well, in my infinite wisdom, I forgot that the little tart would cook quite a bit faster. Yeah, it burned and I ended up throwing it away.

Caramelizing the bananas

These were a great idea in concept, but mine turned into a mushy banana mess of butter and sugar caramely goodness! Totally worked out, just spread it on the bottom!

Ganache

The ganache was really easy to make, I did it all in one pot! It was funny, I was stirring it and eating Swiss Chard chips at the same time hoping that no Swiss Chard fell in the ganache!

Final yummy!

So, we ended up eating slices out of the big tart, luckily the BBQ today is with family and they don't care! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

WokWednesday: Stir-Fryed Garlic Spinach

Hello! This is the first recipe in a new group Wok Wednesdays! Super excited, I have always wanted to learn how to stir-fry and this will be something good to counteract all the butter from my other groups! We will be stir-frying our way through Grace Young's 'Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge'.

 Bought a nice 14 inch flat bottom carbon steel wok and then seasoned it today.

Seasoning with scallions and ginger

I think it worked, stir-fryed the spinach for dinner. Made sure all the ingredients were measured out beforehand (luckily only a couple) and went to wok!

Stir-frying away

Probably went a little long, the spinach was really wilted.

But, it was awesome! It tasted so good!!! We had it with some salmon and red quinoa and called dinner a success. Can't wait to try Cashew Chicken in a couple weeks!

Yummy!

TwD:BwJ: Pecan Sticky Buns

OK, these buns were definitely a labor of love. Without a stand mixer, the brioche dough gave my arms quite a workout! Between the first kneading and then the incorporating of the butter, I kneaded dough for about 35 minutes straight!  They turned out excellent, but I might wait to make them again when I get a stand mixer (fingers crossed for a birthday present)!

Waiting to be kneaded!

After a lot of love!

I kept pretty close to the recipe, only a couple of changes. I doubled the amount of filling and halved the butter in the bottom of the pan.

Yummy filling!

I left a couple of them at home for the hubby and took the rest to work (my coworkers alternately curse me and beg me for stuff!). The buns rose beautifully at room temperature.

Pretty buns!

After a bit in the oven, the came out and I realized that when I halved the butter in the bottom, I probably should have halved the brown sugar also, because there was not a gooey sauce, it was kind of caramelized pecans and chunks!

But, it did not matter, because they were seriously good! I had 3 of them that day, I could not help myself! They were a hit with the coworkers too!

Just times this by 3 and that was breakfast, lunch and snack!

Thanks so much to our hosts this week: Lynn and Nicole!

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!