White Chocolate Strawberry Mousse

I think I've mentioned before that I don't like to bake.   I should honestly add that it goes beyond that; I don't enjoy making desserts.  And since I'm being honest, it's probably because there are not many desserts I like to eat.  

My fellow hosts and hostesses have often admonished me for this failing and they are right.   Presenting a meal that begins; Smoked Salmon with Dill Sauce, Boned and Stuffed Cornish Game Hens, Wild Rice with Mushroom Sauce, Buttered Green Beans with Almonds;  and ends Chips Ahoy Cookies on a fine bone china plate, smacks of carelessness or drug use or both.   I only did it once.  The sliced Snicker bars don't count.  I was young.

So now I usually end with homemade ice cream (I like to make ice cream), buy something from the pastry shop or make White Chocolate Strawberry Mousse.   This is a fairly easy recipe but you have to be careful when you are cooking the custard portion to make sure that you get it to the correct thickness.  If the custard is not thick enough, you will end with a wonderful tasting but soupy mousse.  Also, the advantage of using fresh strawberries is that sliced strawberries on top make for a nice presentation.

WHITE CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY MOUSSE

1/2 cup of milk

4 large egg yolks

3 tbsp of sugar

8 ounces of chopped white chocolate

2 tbsp of Cointreau

1 cup of chilled whipping cream

2 cups of strawberries, fresh or frozen

Make the custard by whisking the milk, yolks and 2 tbsp sugar in a metal bowl.   Cook the custard over a pan of simmering water, whisking constantly until the custard thickens, 6-8 minutes.  The custard is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon.   Remove from over water, add the white chocolate and whisk until smooth.  Refrigerate for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.   Remove the custard from the refrigerator and stir in 1 tbsp of Cointreau.

Beat whipping cream into stiff peaks then fold into custard.

Puree 1 cup of the strawberries with 1 tbsp of sugar.   Add in the remaining whole strawberries, reserving some for topping.  Divide this mixture between 4-6 dessert glasses and spoon mousse over the top.  Cover each glass with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.   Remove, top with strawberries and serve.

Suggestion:   Serve with buttery Gavottes' Crepe Dentelle   

       

  

My New Bento Boxes

Maybe I exaggerated but they were all so cute!  I just had to have them all.   They each come with a soup bowl, a container with a tight fitting top for soup and the bottom container can hold rice, salad or whatever you decide.   The belt that holds the three layers together is very sturdy.  

About 4 -6 years ago, while aimlessly surfing the net, I stumbled upon a website called, "Cooking Cute" and thus began my obsession with bento lunch boxes and their contents.   Bento boxes, no matter the shape, size or color are all very cute.  Probably because they are usually small and are filled with a variety of attractively prepared and arranged, child size portions of food.

When I first prepared a bento lunch box for my husband, he was skeptical and pretty sure that he would be dead from hunger by dinner time.  But after a week, he confessed that the lunches were not only tasty and filling but also entertaining with the heart-shaped eggs, panda picks, Hello Kitty sauce bottles, rice onigiri with funny faces, mini-meatloaves, inarizushi, Japanese rolled omelets, etc.  He did admit that at first it sort of bothered him to be seen with some of the cuter boxes with Japanese cartoon characters and/or the ones in pastel colors.  But when his "real" men and women colleagues started dropping by each day to admire his lunch AND the box, he stopped being bothered.

It looks like Cooking Cute hasn't posted for a while but if you are interested, the site "Just Bento"  has wonderful recipes and ideas for bento lunches.  There are also great links for bento boxes and accessories.

Still no stove.      
    

Three tiered bento box with chopstick case

Assembled chopsticks

So cute!

Top to bottom:  Boiled eggs with onions and peppers, tuna salad with
furikake/stir fried cabbage, salmon cake

Grilled Honey Mustard Salmon

My daughter and I love fish.   I guess any and all kinds because when we both ordered the same dish in a restaurant in France (not really understanding what it was) and it turned out to be fresh water eel, after a slight hesitation, we both consumed it with gusto and agreed that we would order this dish again.  

Fish Stall in Sens Market:  Wednesday

None of that for the men in the family.  Without coming right out and refusing to eat it, there is little enthusiasm when they know the main course will be fish.  Oh they eat tuna, as in sandwich and will generally eat a fried fillet of any mild fish.  And to be fair, they have both been known to savor a whole sole meuniere but so far and no further.  There's just no enthusiasm.    Except when it comes to salmon.

  

I don't know how many of you have heard of Wagamama.   It's a Pan-Asian noodle bar that we were first introduced to on a medivac from Ethiopia to London when our son blew out his Achilles tendon and other important bits with a firecracker.  Long story.  But there he was for two months after surgery, casts on both legs, in a wheelchair as an outpatient.    And there I was too!  Needless to say, we ate around.  Wonderful Turkish kebabs, Indian anything, great British sandwiches, Sunday roasts, Harrod's food court and Wagamama.  Wagamama has a great salmon teriyaki ( light glaze) and some of the best noodle dishes I've ever eaten (except for the street stalls in People's Republic of China).  

About a year after the medivac and a month after the son broke his arm sliding to 2nd base, we were evacuated out of Ethiopia to Ireland because of the war with Eritrea.  Wagamama also had a branch in Dublin!   Our son, cast luckily on left arm, always order the salmon with his noodles.

When the all clear was called in Ethiopia and we returned, I ordered the Wagamama cookbook and learned to make the salmon teriyaki.  Since then, I have branched out.  The family favorite of the moment is Grilled Honey Mustard Glazed Salmon on cedar planks.  Serve this with lightly sauced sesame noodles and maybe steamed broccoli.   If possible, use fresh Japanese noodles.  I like Udon.

HONEY MUSTARD GLAZED SALMON

6 Salmon fillets, skin on

1/2 cup honey

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

Soak 2 cedar planks(you can find these in the grilling section of large supermarkets) overnight.   Don't forget. The soaking prevents the planks from burning.  

Mix the honey, mustard, lemon juice and olive oil in a small bowl.  Place the fillets in a large zip lock bag and pour the glaze on top.   Push the air out of the bag, close it and gently squish the salmon around in the glaze until all surfaces are covered.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Place 3 fillets, skin side down, on each plank.  Fire up the grill.

Gas grill:   Preheat to 400 then turn off the flame on one side, placing the salmon on the side with no flame.  Close the lid and grill for 20 minutes.

Charcoal grill:  When the charcoal turns ash grey, push it to one side and place the salmon on the side without charcoal.  Close the lid and grill for 20 minutes.

Wine suggestion:  Chablis or Aligote       

   

   

                 

                   

Boerewors: A South African Treat

A life spent overseas in underdeveloped countries, while not for everyone, is challenging and rewarding.   At least that's what my husband and I think or thought.  I'm in France now :)   But even though I have taken an early out, I look back on the time spent and am so glad that I had the opportunity to learn about and adapt to so many cultures.

I've always liked to cook and my family has always liked to eat.   "Back in the day" when we first got married and immediately went to live in the Haitian countryside, my husband and I were hungry.   He was thinking Italian, mainly pizza.   I was thinking lasagna.   He agreed because lasagna is thicker than pizza.   Thin guy, big appetite.

Anyway, I have to explain about Les Cayes, Haiti in 1976.   Les Cayes is located in the southern part of Haiti, 196 km west of the capitol of Port Au Prince.   In 1976, it took 12 or more hours to drive from the capitol to Les Cayes over unpaved, washboard roads, fording rivers along the way.  The town itself reminded me of....nothing.  I had never seen or imagined anything like it.  There was one general store that sold everything from pesticides to sandwiches.  There was a post office where you could get a post office box but the clerk still had to hand you your mail because the keys had been lost during the hurricane of 1906 or something like that.

Hold on, I'm getting there.

The general store had a sort of all purpose cheese but no lasagna noodles and no fresh meat.  Meat was brought to town from the country side markets by the meat man on a pack donkey going door to door (I kid you not).  It was silly to ask for ricotta or cottage cheese but I did anyway.  I've always been that way.

An unbaked  lasagna I made here before losing the oven.
See the mini lasagnas in the background.

So how did I make the lasagna?   Armed with my Fanny Farmer and The Peace Corps Cookbook(I was not a Peace Corps volunteer, it was my husband's old book), I hand rolled the noodles with a rolling pin and  made the cottage cheese from dried milk.   Not trusting the donkey man's meat(I had seen people slaughter a cow that had dropped dead in the middle of the road from God knows what), I drove to one of the local markets, watched them slaughter a cow, bought some of it's meat and took it home and chopped it.  The  canned tomato paste was quite good(gift of the U.S. government) and ubiquitous in the outdoor  markets.   Onions and garlic, no problem.  I found dried basil and oregano in the general store and their all purpose cheese did the job.  The lasagna was fabulous!

Now I said all of that to say this;  for the last maybe 25 years, out of necessity,  we have made our own sausages and ham.   We usually host an annual Octoberfest featuring Bratwurst, Polish, Hot Italian with toppings and home cured mustard glazed ham.  We ask our guests to bring the side dishes and desserts.  I season the meats, my husband grinds and we both stuff the sausages.   The sausage casings are ordered by mail from the Sausage Maker.

Five weeks ahead, I put the fresh ham in a garbage bag with salted brine, onions, garlic and pickling spices, pop it into the vegetable crisper in the fridge, weight it with a brick in a zip lock bag and then forget about it until the day before the party.  

Two years ago, we added Boerewors to our repertoire.   More than anything, I love the spiral shape.

BOEREWORS SAUSAGE



Laid on with crusty bread, assorted cheeses, mustard, Japanese Potato Salad, beer and/or wine, this sausage is the ultimate in casual dining.  Grill it after your guests arrive and have been served their beverage of choice.  The spicy aroma from the grill is an invitation to discussion and technical assistance.

I recommend that you use 2 oven racks, laid directly on the grill to assist in turning the sausage.




I guess I should get to the recipe, huh?

Boerewors Sausage Recipe
3lbs of Pork
3lbs of Beef
1lb of Bacon


1/2 cup of Cider Vinegar
5 large minced Garlic Cloves
4 tbsp of Brandy
2 tbsp of Salt
1 tbsp of Black Pepper
3 tbsp of Ground Coriander
1 tsp of Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp of Ground Thyme
1 tsp of Ground Jamaican Allspice
1/2 tsp of Ground Cloves


Cube the meats and chop the bacon,  mix and then grind, using a medium-coarse plate.   Shake the remaining ingredients in a jar until well blended, then add to the ground meat, mixing well.   Stuff into medium sized casings(32-35 mm).  Wind into a spiral shape.


At this point you can refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight is better, and then grill.  You can also freeze the uncooked sausage on a cookie sheet, carefully transferring it to a really large zip lock bag, when it is partially frozen and holds the shape .  Can be stored frozen for up to 3 months.

To grill, remove the rack from your BBQ pit,  carefully place the (thawed if frozen) sausage spiral between 2 oven racks and place directly on the grill,  flipping it over from time to time to brown and cook.

Enjoy!


Wine suggestion:   Red

En Vrac

      


        

Bacon Explosion

Weave a bacon mat with 2lbs of bacon

Layer 1lb of homemade Italian sausage
on the bacon weave

Spread 1lb of crispy fried bacon on the
sausage layer and top bacon with BBQ Sauce

Tightly roll up the sausage layer
with the crispy bacon inside.

Cute hands.  Tightly roll bacon mat around
sausage layer tucking in ends.  Secure with
toothpicks if necessary 

Grill using indirect heat with top on

Indirect heat on a grill means that you light the charcoal and when the coals are ready, you shove them all to one side, placing the food on the side without coals.  It took about an 1 hr and 15 minutes.   Baste the loaf with BBQ sauce for the last 15 minutes.   Remove the loaf from the fire, let rest and slice.   You can eat this like a regular meatloaf or in a sandwich.

The bacon explosion is a hardcore pork eater's idea of nirvana(mentioning no names).   I liked making it more than eating it.

I had a horrible time formatting these pictures, as you can see.   To avoid a massive stroke, I gave up on the last demonstration picture.  The Blogger formatting system is not user friendly like Word.   I'm going to have to figure it out or change to Wordpress.

Photography:   Brian         

New Zealand Lamb

I wish I'd "set the scene" for these pictures.  This was a beautiful roast but my numerous cutting boards and the plastic veneer kitchen cabinets are just...well, anyway.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to read the instructions that came with my camera which will instantly turn my pictures into professionally photographed , edible, food porn.  I hope.





I love lamb.   I love New Zealand lamb.  American lamb has a cereal like taste and the French lamb, while possessing the necessary gamey tang of superior quality lamb,  still gets "smoked" by the sweet, grassy taste of the woolies from New Zealand.  In addition, imported New Zealand lamb is cheaper than the local French lamb which is fine by me!  Of course, my neighbor M. Parret says that I lack a "palate",  citing my refusal to prefer Millesime or vintage Champagnes to the pale, younger and less potent Champagnes.  He says it's because I'm an American.   Well.

Every summer the Sens supermarkets bring in a huge shipment of New Zealand lamb; lamb legs, lamb chops, racks of lamb.   The lamb legs are sold whole or cut into steaks.  These steaks are one of my favorite discoveries since coming to France.  Grilled with summer vegetables and served with a fresh pesto sauce and a glass of Rose, these babies are fiendish!  That's why I needed an American refrigerator so that I can stock up for the winter.

Mutton, the ugly step-parents of lamb is such a tragedy.  It tastes old, it's fatty and has the texture of indifferently prepared Togolese bush rat(yes, I tried it).  Goat, when stuffed with onions, garlic and herbs and  roasted in a slow oven, can almost be mistaken for lamb, in a Mediterranean  type way.  While mutton, refusing to acknowledge it's shortcomings, remains mutton whether boiled, fried, roasted or grilled.  In the last 30 years, I must have attended hundreds, if not thousands of mutton Mechouis( West African birth/marriage/welcome/farewell celebration with spit roasted mutton), never feeling hungry nor satisfied.

PESTO LEG OF LAMB

7-9 lbs New Zealand Leg of Lamb

Pesto
2 cups of fresh basil leaves
5 large cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of pine nuts
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Pick the basil leaves from the stems, wash and set aside to drain.  Add the garlic, pine nuts and olive oil to a blender or food processor and chop.  Add the basil in batches and continue chopping until a thick paste is formed.   Blend in the Parmesan.   Salt and pepper.

Massage 1 cup of the pesto into the lamb leg.  Put the marinated lamb in an enormous zip lock bag or cover with saran wrap and refrigerate over night.  Refrigerate the remaining pesto.

Remove the lamb from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.  Preheat oven to 450.  Thickly spread the reserved pesto on the lamb leg and sear in the 450 oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and continue to cook 8 minutes per pound for medium rare or 10 minutes per pound for medium.  

Okay, okay.   Well done is 18 minutes per pound, if you are absolutely sure you want it that way.

Remove the roast from the oven, let it rest for about 20 minutes, slice and enjoy.

Wine suggestion:   St. Emilion or another Bordeaux          
 


              

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Our son, who has decided to practice parenting on me, thinks that irregardless of the imminent arrival of the  Lacanche oven that I should cook and post recipes to the blog, NOW.   It's just his hunger speaking so I've decided to compromise and post these photos and recipe from my cooking past.
   

I'm not much of a baker.  It's not because I can't, it's just because I lack enthusiasm for baked goods.  This means that I don't put my heart and soul into baking and consequently the results are half-baked.  Ha, ha, ha.  It is the art and joy of cooking that makes a cook a cook.  


My husband, who adores cakes, cookies, pies, sugar sprinkled paper and muffins, has always been disappointed in my attitude and so lives for the days when we're hosting a party and I am forced to bake something. 



We hosted a Gospel Brunch for 40 earlier this year in Senegal.  The interesting part of the menu was:


Bloody Marys
Screw Drivers
Mimosas


Deviled Eggs
French Baked Ham
Rare Roast Beef
Vegetable Strata
Sausage and Cheese Strata
Oven Roasted Potatoes, 
Green Bean Casserole
Tropical Fruit Salad


I save all my menus.  


I baked 2 kinds of muffins (one was cranberry and the other was Lemon Poppy Seed), pound cake and cinnamon roll cupcakes.   The muffins and pound cake were boringly predictable but I liked the way the cinnamon roll cupcakes looked.


We were lucky to have a professional gospel singer  working at the Embassy as administrative assistant to the Deputy Chief of Mission.  In her spare time, she works with a Senegalese choir  from one of the local churches, teaching them everything from spirituals to urban gospel.  The joint was jumping!   The crowd was a mix of Americans, Senegalese and third-country nationals.   Everyone enjoyed the music which was inspirational, in a secular, gospel-like way.   Whatever I mean.  


The cupcakes.  Just for you, my son.


CINNAMON ROLL CUPCAKES (lafujimama.com)


2 1/4 tsp. or 1 packet (1/4 oz./7 g) dry active yeast

1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 cup warm milk (approximately 110 degrees Fahrenheit)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1. Dissolve the yeast and 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar in the warm milk in a large bowl and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy.

2. Mix in the eggs, butter, salt, and other 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Add flour and mix until well blended and the dough forms a ball. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about one hour).

3. After the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners (I like to double them up because these cinnamon rolls are so moist), and lightly spray over the top of them with cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into a 12×22 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 24 rolls (I use a length of dental floss–works like a charm!).

5. Place each roll in a cupcake liner. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Let rolls cool completely before frosting (or else the frosting will melt and slide off).

Frosting
2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Lacanche, Piano Gastronome

Well, it was quite a weekend.   I spent the two days cleaning the house; putting things in the new cabinets, shoving the old refrigerator into the garden and clearing away the construction dust and cobwebs.  It was quite an undertaking but very satisfying.  I brought in the carpets from the garage and laid them out.  The carpets provide a little bit more insulation on the tiles.

Snow is coming maybe as early as Thursday and we're already in hats and gloves. The cats' paws are freezing!  I know this because the kitten, Bandit, jumps in the bed with me after coming in at night.  This behavior is under discussion. 

I'm really excited about my stove that is arriving next week.  It is a Lacanche, the Aga of France.   It will be blue, unlike the picture, and will have a matching exhaust hood.   They are called the "Les Piano gastronomes".  I love that.   It has four burners,  left and right and a large mega burner in the center that's covered.  I ordered the model with 3 ovens; gas, electric and a smaller oven with a broiler.

It was quite a struggle choosing between the Lacanche and the Godin, another premium oven made in France.  On one hand, the Godin has an option to have an extra oven that simmers, freeing up a burner for slow cooking. On the other hand, the Godin that I would have chosen is twice the price of the Lacanche.  Two people I know have Lacanche, I've got a slow cooker, my husband's face looked funny, case closed.  Anyway, I'm buying locally.  Lacanche is a village in Burgundy that was once noted for it's ironworks.  These ironworks evolved into a production center for high end range cookers.  Lacanche is located about 30 km from Beaune, capitol of the famous Burgundy wines.  It all makes sense; wine, farms, snails, mustard, stove.  And guys!  Chablis is in Burgundy as is Bailly, the home of the celebrated cremants of Burgundy.

Cremant is a type of a sparkling wine made in France.   According to French law, wines must be labeled according to region.  For example, sparkling wines produced in Champagne are the only ones that can legally be labeled Champagne.   All others must call themselves cremant or mousseux or whatever, but cannot call themselves champagne.  

Bailly is on the border of Champagne, separated by a river that runs into the Seine.  The underground cave is located in an old stone quarry that used to supply stone blocks for building construction in Paris.  The stone blocks were transported up the river in barges.  

Wine producers in both Bailly and Champagne use the same water, the same grapes, the same method of production and ageing.  Veuve Clicquot costs 32 Euros, while the best Chardonnay cremant costs 7 Euros.   Hello!   The results of a blind folded taste test on our French neighbors, using Veuve Clicquot Champagne and Bailly Cremant, resulted in a unanimous ruling for the cremant!  So, not wanting to out French the French......

This blog is really going to be about cooking and recipes, I'm just waiting for the Lacanche.            

   

The American Refrigerator

Here is Nicolas pretending not to understand me.   "Where is the fri-gi-daire American", I say.  "What, what", says he, trying to pretend that he's heading into heart surgery instead of retrieving some of his tools through the window.

An American refrigerator in France doesn't necessarily mean an American brand.  It's just a normal sized refrigerator.  An American refrigerator can hold at least a week's worth of food in the refrigerator section and about 2 weeks in the freezer section.  A French refrigerator is sized to conserve energy, period.   The only real reason that I can see that the French decided to go for refrigeration is that it added a bit of modernity to their decor.  Heck, they shop about every day and never have any left overs because they only buy exactly what they need!   Boy Howdy.  It's un-American!

Anyway......The French refrigerator is narrow.   This is a good thing because it can fit into the teeny, tiny little spaces that would normally contain a potted plant.   The French refrigerator can hold a day and a half's worth of food.  This actually works out because the market days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.  People usually have a big family meal on Sunday; croissants,  baguette and coffee on Monday morning and then stampede to the market, because there are no leftovers.

Oh!  There's the dog, but we'll talk about her later.

The American refrigerator is at the warehouse waiting for Nicolas to build a really cool box for it.   The box recesses it, hiding the sides so that all you see is the door; the door which has an ice maker and a water dispenser.   Since I don't have a stand alone freezer, the ice maker is absolutely necessary for the ice needs of our family.  A drink with ice here means one marble sized piece of ice; again it's because of the size of the refrigerators.   If they made more than one tray of ice, that could take up half a day's food space and somebody, God forbid, might have to go to the supermarket where everything is not farm grown, handpicked, cut when ordered, still furry and un-plucked.

Today is Friday so I'm heading to the market.   The market is a covered, indoor market and  is about 4 minutes walk from my house, situated on the town square, opposite the cathedral that was built in 1140.   Cafes, bars and restaurants line the sides and in the summer, chairs and tables fill the square.  The market has several butchers(pork, beef, game, offal, lamb and horse), 2 fish stalls, numerous fruit and vegetable stalls, fresh eggs, charcuterie(sausage, ham, pate), cheese, bread, pastries and more.   I'm going to the Vietnamese lady's stall today.  She makes Asian specialties at her home and sells them in the market, along with soy sauces, spices and noodles.  I saw her this morning when walking the dog, her house is about a minute away from mine, and she told me that she made crispy pork belly so I'm going to swing by.  Chablis tonight.              
 

Why?

I just moved permanently to Sens, France in July.   Before that, since 1976, I had been living in underdeveloped countries; Burkina Faso, Niger, Haiti, Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Senegal, "following to join" my husband, an international aid expert.  

Several years ago we bought a townhouse in  the Burgundy region of France and had been using it as a vacation home for the summers and Christmas.   Feeling "too old to travel", I decided to abandon my husband in Senegal, taking my 13 year old daughter, the dog, the cat, some paintings and all the "good" kitchen equipment.   It didn't hurt that our son is living in Paris about 55 minutes away :)

So anyway, I decided to redo the kitchen.  Cute but, it was dark, it was cramped and the refrigerator was jammed at the entrance, seated half on and half off the steps.  But most of all, it was impossible to cook with my husband standing in the kitchen, as he always does.

So, I called Nicolas.   Nicolas, a polyvalent or multi-skilled worker, is a gifted craftsman with a twisted sense of humor and the social skills of a hermit; he works alone.  I chose a kitchen from the company he is associated with and he began to trash, not only the kitchen, but the whole downstairs with enthusiasm.

"3 weeks" he said and made a makeshift island for me on top of the dishwasher, covered with a board from the old kitchen,  composed of a coffee maker, a microwave and a 1 element induction hotplate and I've been "cooking ugly" ever since.   I've made Chicken Seafood Gumbo, Potato Soup, Pork and Garbanzo Stew and a Muffuletta Sandwich.  It's too cold and inclement to grill and well into week 4, I'm bored, impatient and vaguely panicky.  House guests will be arriving in the middle of December, the house is cobwebby, construction dust is everywhere, the kitchen equipment and Christmas decorations are in boxes in the garage and the little garden looks like a junkyard.  I've exhausted my escapist literature ( Jane Austen, Shogun, Grandmaster, etc.), I've hit a brick wall in my genealogy research and I think it's against the law to beat Nicolas.  So.......I'm doing this blog.

This blog is dedicated to food, drink and the kitchen.