Week 1 : Disaster Averted

Week 1: Epiphany Menu
Participants: David(Me), Celine(Girlfriend), Nanou(Girlfriend's friend), Yudi(Girlfriend's friend's roommate)

I start this adventure with the first week's menu from my book. We decided to set the date for the meal to be the first Saturday of the new year. After going over the meal in the morning, we decided to set our shopping time for 4 pm and our cooking time for 5 pm. As 4 pm came, we headed to the car to begin our shopping. Upon reaching the car, I noticed that one of the tires on the car was completely flat. In an hour and a half we were able to get air in the tire from AAA, and then two new tires from Les Schwab. Frazzled and slightly shaken we were undeterred on our mission to find food. We bought everything except the fish at WinCo, it turns out they keep sole in stock, which we ended up buying at Market of Choice.

After our 2 hour delay, we started to rush home. We had scheduled the dinner at 7, and it was was closing in on 6:30! When we got there I rushed to kitchen and started in on the meal.

Entree: Coleslaw

I have never had a very high opinion of Coleslaw, but to be fair I haven't ever had that much exposure to it. Most of my memories from it, is it as a side on the KFC family meal or as being served as side in most pick-nicks. It turned out that making coleslaw is not to difficult. The recipe that included chopped pecans to go on the coleslaw, which sounds a little strange to me, but after trying it I have to say that it is a must. The flavors complement each other wonderfully, the creamy vegetable flavor of the coleslaw with the nutty pecan was delicious. The entree started the dinner well.

Side: Parsnip Patties

Before this meal I had never heard of or seen a parsnip. Apparently it is a winter vegetable that looks like a carrot but tastes like a potato. This recipe involved grating it, and then combining it with sauce consisting of eggs and sour cream. The eggs and cream keep the shredded parsnip together as you brown it in butter. After browning it goes in the oven for a few minutes, and then comes out looking very similar to a potato pattie. After eating a piece of it, I would say the taste is extremely distinct. I haven't tried anything to like that before.

It had the flavor of sweet potatoes and needed some salt, but I also thought that this dish turned out very well.

Main: Filet de Sole a l'Orange

The main course for this meal was cooked by Celine, as I was still working on the parsnip patties. The filets of sole were rolled up and then cooked in butter and white wine. After they were finished cooking, the liquid they were cooked in was reduced and then added with orange to make the sauce. It turned out alright, but unfortunately the fish went cold as we cooking the sauce.

Dessert: Lemon Cupcakes

Celine also cooked the dessert which was lemon cupcakes. This was one of my favorite parts of the meal. The cupcakes were good and had a creamy lemon flavor.

So the first meal is over. Thankfully my blog post is over as well, it looks like writing this will be quite a challenge for me. Here is to a longer post next week, and one that is a little easier and more fun for me.

Prologue: The Gift

For the first time in several Christmas I received more presents than I can remember. My brothers graciously bestowed upon me a watch and store bought sushi(my older brother's idea of a joke). My parents gave to me two cookbooks: a thai cookbook(I can't remember the title) and French home cooking. This blog will center mostly around the gift from my girlfriend's family, a cookbook entitled, "En Cuisine avec Sophie: 52 semaines, 52 menus" roughly translated "Cooking with Sophie, 52 weeks, 52 menus.

This book offers a 4 course meal every week, for all 52 weeks of the year. My goal will be to cook each and every recipe/meal in this cook as listed. Since the book is printed in French, I expect this to be my greatest challenge(translating it from French to English), and also converting the metric measurements to English ones.