Fave Beans and Fave Pate'

Fresh fave beens are hard to come by in both the US and in France. They have a very short time period they are in season. When I see them in the store I change dinner plans to include them. I have prepared them twice so far on this trip but keep forgetting to take a picture when the dish is done. They take a little time to prepare, opening the pods and then removing a waxy layer on the bean but I believe it is all worth it for the final dish. Calum and I tried to take a little video to show you how to remove the waxy layor but I couldn't figure out how to embed the video into blogger. Here is a picture showing the removal of  the thin layer you want to take off form the large beans. The small ones are just fine with theirs. If any blogger experts want to send info on embedding video in the blog, I would love the help.

Here is the fave bean recipe for the cookbook

Two lbs fave beans in shells, pull all beans out and revmove the waxy layer.

Two Tablespoons Olive Oil

One large shallot minced

Two American pieces of bacon or 6 pieces of pancetta 

One large piece of celery diced or two small pieces, you can use the celery leaves too

One cup homemade stock if you have some on hand or you can use caned beef stock. You can also use a prepared beef bulion cube if you have that on hand. They useally have more salt so you will not need to add any more if you use bullion. 

Pepper and Salt to taste.

Sauté the shallots, bacon and celery in the olive oil for about 5-7 minutes, add the fave beans to the pan and add half of the stock. You will notice the beans start to turn a darker green as they soften. When the liquid is gone, add more stock to keep the beans cooking without burning. Continue until the liquid is gone, about 10 minutes total. Set aside while you prepare the rest of your dinner. Right before you serve you can add a bit more liquid and reheat. They will be tender and super tasty.

Fave pate: 

You can double this recipe if you want and with what is left over from the first meal you can pop into your blender and turn it into a pate that you can serve on none other than the home made crackers or crackers of your choice. You Cana also serve on french bread. If the pate is too dry you can add a tablespoon of olive oil! 

Medievales D'Andilly Fair and Farmers Market

We are finishing a busy weekend of attending a Medieval Fair and Farmers Market. The fair was like a Renaissance  fair but in French. We drove about 25 minutes from our home to a town in the French country side called Andilly. This is the view from the site of the fair.

We saw four shows with magic, jokes, horse riding and jousting. There were hundreds of shops with costumes of the time period and hand made trinkets. I found a spice shop and chose a number of mixtures to try. I also found herb de Provence that I was hoping to find. 

Hadley choose a bow and set of arrows and Calum picked a cross bow. They are in the yard playing with them as I type. (stopping to get their picture) Oh, I can see this could be trouble.

There were lots of people in costume at the fair, it reminded me of the Fair that I use to go to in Marin. Larry and Lissa's costumes would have fit in really well! Here are two really fun costumes and they were even on stilts. And Larry and Lissa too (picture Larry sent me from the fair they attend in Indiana!) They would have fit right in.

Here is a picture of a horse from the show.

Here is one from the joust.

It was a long and fun Saturday. 

Now it is Sunday and we have just returned from a local Farmer's Market in Divonne which is about 10 minutes by car.  We bought duck, bread, tomatoes, cherries, strawberries (that were so good the boys said they tasted like candy flavor). The bread was fresh and you had to wait in line because the French like their bread fresh. They bake three times a day. It was worth the wait. We also found some local ham and salami and olive tapenade, super tasty. Here is Calum and Colin at a bread shop.

We will definitely come back to this market. Tonight I am making Duck a l'orange a first for the boys to try. I hope they will like it.

Scones

Made scones a few days ago. They were super easy and so good. Calum even asked if I could make them for him again the next day. I adapted a recipe that I have from Martha Stewart. I have fave beans in the kitchen too for another one of my favorite recipes (another post soon).

   Here is the simple recipe, one that will go in the family cookbook for sure.

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (although the second batch I left this out and it was just as good)

Mix the dry ingredients then add

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Mix together very lightly and take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a floured surface and gentle gather dough into a mound just until it holds together. Press it into an 8 inch circle about 1/2 inch thick. If you want to top the scones with sugar lightly brush melted butter onto the dough disk and then sprinkle sugar on top. Then cut into 8 wedges. This is what it looks like right before you cut the wedges. You can also add cinnamon to the top.

Bake the scones at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Then serve to anyone but especially Calum! 

Crackers

Planing to try cheeses while we are here and so I finally have a really good reason to make homemade crackers. I have wanted to do this after reading about Ina Gartners recipes (which if someone could email me her recipe I would like to give hers a try too).  Not having hers I went on line and found this receipe for fladbread crackers and they were super tasty. http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipes/parchment-flatbread-crackers/13325/ They looked really amazing too (if I may say so).  Here is before baking.

And here they are ready to eat. I served them with lentles with shallots and thyme and soft herbed cheeses. You can't really tell in the picture but they have seamse seeds on them too.  Not a big hit with the boys but Colin and I really loved them. I will be making these again this summer.

Water Color

Today we pulled out the art supplies and painted. Hadley captured a stormy feel, Calum a dragon and myself an attempt at the same tree and one of the cats that walk through in the back yard. It has been a long time since I painted. Very relaxing. This is the willow tree in our back yard. In summer you can eat your meal under the branches. Much to look forward to.  

Calum's Quiche and Pie Crust Recipe

Calum though it would be fun to make a quiche however he failed to calculate what it would taste like. He doesn't really like eggs and they are the main ingreident. We added bacon, onion and cheese so I was hopeful he would give it at try but no such luck. Well at least he tried. Hadley on the other hand loved it! The inspiration was a book they were reading called The Bone Handbook by Jeff Smith. I made the quiche with a crust recipe I have been using for year with a trick i leatd

ned from a friend Cherly. The trick in to use a cheese grater for the butter and then add the flour. With all the extra surface space the mixing takes no time, leaving you with a very flaky crust. 

Super Flakey Crust for Pies or Quiche

3/4 cup Butter (add 1 tsp salt if unsalted) 

2 cups Flour 

6 Tablespoons Iced Water

MIx Butter and Flour into a fine mixture then add the water to make two balls. Wrap and set in the frig for 30 minutes before rolling out for crust. Makes two. You can freeze and take out before you want to use it. 

Today we drove in to Geneva. We took a long walk around the down town area on the edge of the lake and the boys tried out their camara and the new benoculars that Uncle Ben gave Hadley for Christmas. It was super windy and starting to warm up, about 60 degrees.

 

Taking and Making Stock

I have wanted to put together a cookbook for many years, mostly to gather recipes that we eat most often so I can remember dishes that out famils likes most. I have been collecting recipes in a red hardbound notebook from my 17 years living in Berkeley, California (1986-2003). That was when I first started cooking. When my husband and I moved to Indiana (2004-present) I started filling a three-ring notebook with recipes found on the Internet and from cookbooks. I have even made up a few recipes of my own, mostly slight variations of others recipes but family creations nun-the-less.

Soon after the birth of my first son I joined my first my first writing group. At that time everyone was giving blogging a try and I posted a recipe with pictures of one cooking creation. Writing was already hard to save time for and blogging just took all that time so that project sat on line for years with no new entries. Now I find myself on a three month trip to France and Switzerland and hopefully with time to really slow down and take stock of my life and my years of my cooking.  I love to cook and joke with my husband that, “when I retire I want to be a chef!” Of course I also tell him I want to be a yoga instructor so I guess I have quite a lot planned for retirement.  

The reality is cooking is a fun hobby for me. I cook most days and really enjoy it when I am not too busy with my work and my boys Hadley and Calum. I am planning for project cookbook to be a work in progress, and am ready to get something written down. Then, in the end I will have something with a personal touch to share with my family and friends.

Lots of Cooking Is All In The Stock

I love to make my own stock and I am sure that fresh stock can be a secret too much better tasting food. I also tell myself it must be better for me if I make this rather than buy it; less salt, less additives, and added spices that fit my taste. Homemade maybe even cheaper.  So no matter what I am cooking I am always thinking about my next batch of stock. This might sound a bit obsessive and maybe it is but it works and I end up using anything that I can from other cooking projects for stock. Stock is the bace in soups, rice, and many other dishes like quinoa or sauces so keeping some on hand all the time is really helpful. Stock is kind of my guiding ingredient and if you get into this too you will never go back to store bought. So here is how it works. 

           Keep a freezer bag or freezer safe container in the freezer at all times. Any time you cut onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, leeks, shallots, parsley, or fennel, keep the ends that you are not using in your freezer container. I can usually fill a bag in a week or two and then I have it ready for stock day. Other things I add are any herbs or veggies that are on there way out. I would rather freeze them than toss them.  I will add fresh veggies but I don’t need to add as many if I use what I have saved from the week.

The other main ingredient for the stock is chicken or chicken bones. We usually buy one or two chickens from our local farmers market each week. The day we cook the first one I use the back and all the bones for the stock. Sometimes I will buy extra chicken back bones from the market to give the stock more chicken flavor. Your butcher will usually have them if you ask and they are inexpensive.  If you are not in the mood to make stock you can also freeze the chicken back and pull it out when you are ready.

So here is the actually recipe in case you just want to make it without saving and freezing. I add fresh vegetables to my frozen stash to get as close to this recipe as I can.

Chicken Stock

           Place your stock ingreidents into a large soup pot and then fill the pot with water. Boil for 1-2 hours. The longer you boil the more of the bones and veggies will be released into the stock. Let it cool and then strain your vegetables out from the liquid. You can keep your stock for a few days in the refrigerator and then freeze what you are not ready to use. This recipe will make at 2 -4 quarts depending on the size of your pot. You can always double the recipe if you have a larger pot. You can also add more water to the stock if it is boiled down and full of flavor. 

          If you decide to cook longer the stock can take on a thicken appearnace when it is cook. THis is due to the bones. When you heat it back up it will be thin again and you can always add water if it is still thicker that you need. It will taste really good.

 For your stock you will need:

2-3 large carrots chopped

2 onions halved with skin on

2-3 celery stalks

Large hand full of parsley

Other herbs if you like (dill, sage, thyme)

10-15 whole peppercorns

2-3 chicken backs or one back and all the bones from the cooked chicken

 

Other add-ons:

2 parsnips chopped (Optional if you don’t cook with parsnips but they make the stock taste great.)

1-2 leeks

Head of garlic

1-2 Fennel bulb

2-3 shallots

Each of these will give the stock a slightly different flavor. Think of them as an herb; you wouldn’t add them all but you might try one to give the stock a different flavor.

 

 

Hiking the Jura Mountain

First Sunday of the trip and we headed out to hike the Jura Mountain. Sauverny where we are staying is at the bace of the Jura and about 20 minutes drive to Geneva. So we could take a 20 -30 minutes drive to hiking trails. Most of the hike was strait up the mountain which didn't please Hadley but he soldered on and made it to the top.

Other exciting details, Hadley has his Swiss Army knife and is working on a walking stick. Calum is really hoping he gets one for his 8th birthday because he knows that Hadley received his for his 8th birthday. 

I am still working on how to upload my stock recipe into the blog. Maybe tomorrow. Hiking has made me pretty tired. WIll need to do some yoga tomorrow.

Start of our Trip

We arrived in France the morning of May 21, 2015. All flights went well and we are just a bit tired from the trip. The house is really nice and it is surrounded by the French country side. Here is what it looks like out our kitchen window. Brinda Watchs is the home owner who, would you believe lived in California years ago and went to Redwood High School as well as Berkeley. I found her home on Air B&B. Such a small world. Her home is now ours for three months while we explore France and the area around it. We have lots of adventures ahead and my hope it to keep track of our trip here in the blog as well as reflect on life. This is where the name Taking Stock comes from. Taking stock of life, and if I can I hope to gather family recipes that I have been collecting over the years and type them up with the free time I will have while we are here. How to make stock will be the first recipe (since I typed it up before we left). Stock making is key to much that I love to cook so it is a good start for this too. So not only will you hear about the trip but the goodies we will be eating along the way. 

So for todays adventure, there is a local farm walking distance from the house where we can buy meats, cheeses, veggies and even local wine. Hadley and Calum and I are going to look for it today to see what will inspire us for dinner. 

We have another cooking idea too. The boys are reading a book called The Bone Handbook and found a quiche recipe that the want to try for dinner. It has bacon and cheese in it so it should be tasty.  Last night the boys had pizza and Colin and I had veal and zucchini with shallots and parsley. I will try to type up these recipes too.