Ooh-La-La (or: food tastes better if the word “French” is in the name, or: stories are funnier if you read the French guy’s part in a lame French accent.)

I’ve been to France.  More specifically, I’ve been to Paris twice and Versailles once.  Also, I worked as a camp counselor one summer in college with this French chic, Judith.  During another college summer that I spent in England, I had an underage French admirer (read stalker.)   I do a cheesy French accent learned from Pink Panther cartoons.  Lastly, I love French toast.

Let’s start with the French toast.  My dad made a mean batch of French toast with a hint of cinnamon on a Saturday morning with Pepperidge Farms’ or Arnold’s old fashioned white bread.  I like to add a little sugar and vanilla to the egg mixture and sprinkle the grilling toast on one side with a little cinnamon and sugar.  And I can’t abide French toast made with whole wheat bread, no matter how much healthier.  Interestingly, though,  I have an old friend in California who despises any trace of cinnamon on French toast.  I guess to each her own.

About a year ago, I ran across a recipe for Pecan French Toast using slices of French or Italian loaves (the kind you find in the grocery store’s bakery for a dollar or two.)  It has orange juice in the egg mixture along with orange zest on top.  It’s a recipe that you soak the bread with the egg mixture overnight, transfer the bread onto a buttered cookie sheet, top with pecans and zest and bake.  Oh, my goodness!  Or, rather, Ooh-la-la!  To my delight, Jack even loves it.  He must have ‘zee’ French chef in his biological pedigree somewhere!

Before I share the recipe with you, I thought I’d also enrich your lives with three random, short stories of French people.  For your added enjoyment, perhaps, read the italicized statements in your best French accent.

Un

The summer camp I worked at was positioned at least 300 feet up a hill above a lake and was heavily wooded.  At night, sounds carried up from the lake.  One evening, we were all awakened by a strange beeping that really could only be described as UFO noises.  I'm sure it was from a boat, but without being able to see the lake and not really wanting to venture out from my tent, the loud, unrelenting, high-pitched beeps left me expecting to encounter little green men at any moment.  As the counselors exchanged banter such as “what is it?” and “this is strange,” we carefully didn’t get too animated so as not to wake up the campers.  Well, all the counselors except the aforementioned Judith, who, by the way, quite vocally hated camp and the accompanying dirt since day one.  Judith began to repeatedly and loudly lament “I am so a-fraid…I am so a-fraid.”   After several minutes of Judith’s hysteria, my stiff-upper-lip British friend Christine silenced her with a stern and stoic “Judith, we are all afraid!  Now, go to bed!”  Oddly, Judith never returned after our day off following the first camp session.  I hope she wasn’t abducted by aliens.

Deux

The following summer was spent in England, where Karen and I were guests of Christine.  We obtained student work visas and we both worked opposite shifts at a beachside arcade, making change for the tourists.  The walk to work was a half hour, and since the town was reported to be quite safe, I walked home at night after my shift alone in the dark.  One night, a French exchange student (whose name I don’t recall anymore,) clearly still in high school, decided to join me on my walk.  He introduced himself and asked me all about myself, all in quite broken English.  He expressed his desire to go on a date and insisted on following me home so he could visit the next day.  This made me so nervous that I offered up a plan to meet him in town the next day (which I never did) and purposely turned up the wrong street and said goodbye.  I ran into him and his anger later in the week, but he just sulked and left me alone, thank goodness.  The humorous part of the story was one of  his pick-up lines, said with a thick accent:  “But, Lisa, I am so beautiful!”  I tried with all my might not to laugh, but do remember thinking that he had a long way to go on learning his English verb conjugations before he ever had much of a chance on finding an English speaking girlfriend.

Trois

My last, and most colorful, story is borrowed from my friend Brian.  When his sister was vacationing as a young adult on a French beach, this good Mormon girl didn’t care to follow the local custom of topless sun-bathing.  A friendly French male stranger encouraged her to join in on the fun with  “Set them free, they want to be free!"  Such a sentence is never forgotten.

***************************************************

Okay, so maybe these random French people stories aren’t so funny to you-but I have to promise you that all three sayings are deeply imbedded in my conversations and thoughts, always with the accent.   So, now you’re scared of me, but I promise that you have no need to fear this recipe.  Bon appétit!

 

Baked Pecan French Toast

4 large eggs

2/3 cup orange juice

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 loaf Italian bread-cut into 8 1 inch slices (if your bread is smaller, just cut enough slices to squeeze into a 9x13 pan)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tbsp grated orange zest

In a large bowl, beat eggs with orange juice, milk, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt.  Place the bread slices flat and side-by-side in a wide baking pan.  Pour egg mixture over bread, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning…preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a rimmed baking sheet with the softened butter.  Place the soaked pieces of bread apart from each other on the baking sheet.  Sprinkle evenly with pecans and orange zest.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.  Serve with butter and warmed syrup.  Makes 4 servings.

When Root Beer Becomes a Problem

I have been trying (with mixed success) not to have too many treats in the house, since I’m working hard on keeping my blood sugar levels good.  And I’m happy to report they are, mainly to walking daily with a newfound friend.  So, yeah!

Yesterday, though, Jack had a new friend over after school to play.  In my mind, a good June Cleaver-type mom, if at all possible, makes a homemade treat for such an occasion.  So, I took the opportunity to try out a new recipe I found on the internet for Root Beer cookies.

Don’t get me started on why they intrigued me!  Suffice it to say someone kept talking about theirs but ignored my request for the recipe.  (You know how that makes me behave!)  So, I, of course, took matters into my own hands and found several versions of it on the internet, and decided the ones with chopped pecans sounded the best.

I thought they were terrific!  (Probably too much so.)  Curt thought they were on the dry side.  But since he doesn’t drink milk at all, let alone with his cookies,  I tend not to worry.  Plus, he tends to be a one cookie man (ie, chocolate chip cookies.)   Jack, who doesn’t ever drink root beer because he hates carbonation, loved them too!  I think overall, then, it was a success.

If you’re wondering what they’re like, they have two components.  The base, has a root beer concentrate* flavored dough with finely chopped pecans, like a “sandie” cookie.  The cookie bakes and has a springiness similar to a pumpkin cookie.  Then, the cookie is topped with a butter cream icing flavored with root beer concentrate, which really makes it taste like a root beer float.  Next time, though, I will only make half of the icing, since I had a lot left over.  But for those who like a lot of icing, the recipe is probably just right.

One final note, since I found these so addictive and therefore troublesome, I will only make these again when I have an occasion to bring them,  like to a party or picnic.

 

the unfrosted cookies cooling

 the finished cookies

Root Beer Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (I substituted sour milk**)

3/4 tsp root beer concentrate

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans

Frosting:

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cups butter, softened

3 tbsp water

1 1/4 tsp root beer concentrate

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.  Beat in buttermilk and root beer concentrate.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and add to wet mixture 1 cup at a time.  Stir in pecans. 

Drop by tablespoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on wire racks.

 

In small bowl, combine frosting ingredients, beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cookies.  Makes 4 dozen.

 

*I had to look around, but did find the concentrate at Wal-Mart, alongside the vanilla and other extracts.  It costs between $3 and $4.

** I make sour milk by adding milk to 1 tbsp of white vinegar to measure one cup total.

I Love Carbs and Other (New) News

As any of you may have noticed, my blog has been terribly neglected as of late.  Don’t worry, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, or taken to eating out three meals a day, or even tired of this cool new world of blogging.  But I did have blood work taken in conjunction with a doctor’s appointment.

And, alas, I learned that I have developed type 2 diabetes.  Funny story about that doctor’s appointment, by the way.  Jack had pinkeye (for those not on facebook, see the pirate patch footnote below) and had to accompany me to the appointment.  Normally, I think I would have been emotional (when am I not?) with the news, but I was conscious of Jack’s presence and didn’t want to alarm him.  So I held it together and asked questions but  looked like I’d seen a ghost, probably.  I couldn’t tell anyone but my husband for a month, because I felt guilt and shame and fear.

I was given a prescription for one of those blood sugar monitors and encouraged to lose weight and exercise.  I went on the American Diabetes website and read vague information about blood sugar rates, without knowing what else to do and not understanding why my readings were all over the place.  I reminisced about my grandmother, dipping donuts into her saccharin sweetened coffee because of “her sugar.”  I was totally living inside my little mind bubble.  I certainly didn’t want to blog about food.  Finally, the day came for me to attend the hospital’s education class as arranged by my doctor.

It was the best thing that’s happened to me in a long while!  I learned so much about the disease, that it catches up to most people in their 40’s, what affects your blood sugar, why, if not treated, it erodes your health, and exactly how exercise and weight loss helps.  I also received a food plan, similar to weight watchers, for my particular height and current weight.  The shocker was what was a carb and how important it was to limit them in each meal.  Milk and fruit are just as naughty for me when overeaten as what we typically think of as a carbohydrate.  During the class, I realized that I would be seriously restricting all the things I love in the food arena, not just the anticipated sweets.

A week or so into the new food plan, I was having a bad evening.  I complained to Curt about it and then had to apologize for being such a whiner.  Then I realized, and admitted aloud that it would be hard to deal with emotions now, because “I didn’t have food anymore!” 

And there it is.  I have a great opportunity to redo things and find better ways to cope, without relying on food as an escape.  But with this opportunity, I will probably be nuttier than usual.  Nuttier but excited, too.  So, that’s why I decided to start a new blog to just write random thoughts and stories and post a few photos of my family.  I will occasionally post new recipes on this cooking blog, but I wanted a new start that is not solely based on food and cooking.  We’ll see how this blogging develops, just like we’ll see what’s in the future for me!

So, here’s the link: 

http://becominglisaann.blogspot.com/

Pirate Patch Footnote:  The morning Jack was discovered to have pinkeye, he was desperate to attend school because he had already been home for 2 days with a cold.  When I informed him that kids with pinkeye can’t attend school, he ran to find his plastic pirate patch “so they won’t know.”  I had to stifle the laughs at the thought of his innocent problem-solving.

Decadent, Schmeckadent

Don’t you love company?  And the chance having people over for a meal gives to cook something you wouldn’t normally cook?   Also, the excuse you have to get the troops assembled to tidy up when they would normally ignore the mess?  I love all of it.  Afterwards, I always remark to myself that dinner guests should be invited over more often.

This past Sunday we had new friends over and I made something exciting.  I tried a new recipe for cheesecake.  I had two packages of cream cheese left over from Christmas baking and knew I would have difficulty finding a use for them.  So, making a cheesecake was the perfect solution because it’s a rare exception to the cream cheese baking ban in our home.

 

My inspiration came from the Hershey’s 100th Anniversary cookbook in a dessert named “Chocolate Lover’s Cheesecake.”  It featured a chocolate cheesecake center combined with crunchy semi-sweet chocolate chips.  On the top was a sour cream layer.  I did alter the crust by adding 1/3 cup of finely chopped pecans.  So, if you don’t care for pecans, you can omit them without worry.  We really enjoyed it, although I found the chocolate chips a bit too plentiful.  When I mentioned this to my husband, he assured me that they were “just right” for him.  It was a delicious, decadent dessert meant for sharing and not eating all by yourself!

Because of  the above mentioned benefits to this aspiring cook, then, (and because Curt rarely reads my blog,) I’ll go ahead and boldly make an invitation to dinner to any of you living in our area (or who are willing to make the trip!)  It’ll help me keep the house cleaner and the cuisine far more interesting! 

Chocolate Lover’s Cheesecake  from Hershey’s 100th Anniversary cookbook

Graham Crust (recipe follows)

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/2 cup cocoa

2 tsp vanilla, divided

2 eggs

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup sour cream

Prepare graham crust.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large mixer bowl on medium speed, beat cream cheese, 3/4 cups sugar, cocoa and 1 tsp vanilla until smooth.  Add eggs; beat until blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour into prepared crust.  Bake 20 minutes.  Remove from oven to wire rack; cool 15 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees.  In small bowl, stir together sour cream, remaining 2 tbsp sugar and remaining 1 tsp vanilla; stir until smooth.  Spread over baked filling.  Bake 10 minutes.  Remove from oven to wire rack.  With a knife, immediately loosen the cake from side of pan.  Cool completely; remove side of pan.  Refrigerate several hours or until cold.  Cover, refrigerate leftover cheesecake.  10 to 12 servings.

Graham Crust adapted from crust in Hershey’s 100th Anniversary cookbook

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

1/3 cup butter, melted

In medium bowl, stir together ingredients.  Press mixture onto bottom and halfway up side of 9-inch springform pan.

Donde esta Susana?

Esta en la cocina.  

You’ve just read some of the weighty banter in the dialogs of my early Spanish classes.  I took Spanish from 6th grade all the way through high school and ended up with it as a Minor at BYU.  And as many of you know very well, I grew up in a suburb of New York City, Norwalk, Connecticut.  There,  the highlight of each year in Spanish class was the obligatory trip to a Mexican restaurant.  Which was slightly off because back East, at the time (the 1970’s) at least, the curriculum emphasized the Castellano language.  Meaning Spanish from Spain.  I distinctly remember that our choice of restaurants hailed from nearby Westport.  And they had Mexican cuisine, not Spanish.  There, and certainly not at home, I was introduced to Mexican food. 

Most international foods weren’t tolerated in our house.  So, I had to move to Provo, Utah as a college freshman to experience a more regular diet of Mexican cuisine.   But it wasn’t really as authentic as it was ‘Southwestern,’ which is code for lots of cheese and mildly hot spices.  But, hey, I’m not ‘dissing’ the Mexican food west of the Continental Divide!  Quite the opposite, really.  I enjoy making my enchilada casseroles and tacos.  They are tasty, comforting and generally easy.  Plus, there’s cheese! 

Although I haven’t been back home for several years, I do remember the first Taco Bell arrival in the late 80s early 90s.  I believe there are now even more in the area.  So, in addition to those fancy authentic Mexican eateries, Norwalkers can enjoy Southwestern food from the ‘Taco Hell,’ just like I can here in the West.  

For you cooks, however, here’s one of my favorite, and easy, dinner recipe finds.  It  is my taco casserole, adapted from the box and can label recipe book I’ve mentioned previously.

So, now that we’re sharing regional menus all across the nation, I wonder why our country is reported to be so polarized these days?  Mexican/Southwestern food just might bring us all together.  I just want to know from the people back home, though, are there churros at your Costco food courts, too? 

Lisa’s Silverado Taco Casserole

4 cups Tostitos strip style chips, separated in half

1 lb ground beef

Taco seasoning, below, or 1 packet of your favorite

1/2 cup water

8 oz can tomato sauce

2 tbsp dried onion

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef, drain.  Return to pan with water and taco seasoning.  Simmer 8-10 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in tomato sauce and onion.

Spray sides and bottom of deep casserole dish with Pam.  Layer with half of chips, meat mixture, 1 1/2 cups of cheese, remaining chips, remaining cheese.  Garnish top with olive or tomato slices, if desired.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Taco Seasoning adapted from Make A Mix

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp crushed dried red pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Mix together and use in place of 1 packet of taco seasoning.  2 tsps dried onion may be added if onion is not already in browned meat or in recipe.

layering the ingredients

before the oven

the finished product 

Bug Juice

That’s what my husband calls soy sauce.  There’s some sick family joke about it, and I don’t really want to know.  But he also told me that when he served a mission for our church in the Philippines in the early 80’s, some of the locals used way too much of it in their cooking.  Maybe it’s like Americans using salt.  If the food isn’t particularly appetizing, salt makes a good elixir.  The more the better for some people, apparently.

terraced rice farming in the Philippines

So, then, for various and some unmentionable reasons, Curt doesn’t like to hear that it is used in a recipe and certainly doesn’t want to see it placed on the dinner table as a condiment.  But I still add soy sauce to some of my Asian dishes, but I do it stealth like, returning the jar to the pantry within seconds.  It’s the same with cream cheese.  I CAN make a dessert with cream cheese, but “someone” better not taste it outright.  Cream cheese icing, that is a no-go.  But, a complicated Jell-O pie with plenty of other flavors going on, maybe.  My son’s taboo ingredient is my beloved onion.  If he notices it within his meal, there’s a registered complaint.  If he doesn’t see it, however, he is a happy camper.

I guess the moral of the story is that “ignorance is bliss.”  “Out of sight, out of mind.”  “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”   “HIDE THE BUG JUICE!”

(Quick disclaimer:  this does not ever apply in the case of food allergies.)

With leftover ham after Christmas, I sometimes make ham fried rice.  It’s a big hit in our house, especially since Curt has developed quite a love of rice after two years straight of eating it for three meals a day.  The key to making it is to have rice premade (leftover rice works great) and cold in the fridge.  Cold rice fries much better.  Feel free to add whatever veggies that sound good to you.  I like a third cup or so of frozen peas along with almost the same amount of chopped onion.  And, yes, I do add “bug juice” to this dish!

Lisa’s Fried Rice

3 tablespoons of oil, separated

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups cooked rice, cold

1  cup cooked chopped ham (pork or chicken would work, too)

1/4 tsp dried ginger

2 tsps  reduced sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup chopped onion

have the ingredients all ready to go before starting to cook

Heat 1 tbsp oil over high heat in non-stick wok or large frying pan.  Add eggs and salt all at once and cook, stirring constantly.  Remove cooked egg and keep warm.  Add remaining oil to the same wok and heat on high-medium until hot.  Add rice and ham and cook, stirring frequently until heated through.  Add ginger and soy sauce, mix well.  Mix in vegetables and cooked eggs in gently and cook until heated through.   Serve immediately.

the soy sauce adds flavor and also darkens the rice

Added note:  Tonight, for dinner, Jack, true to form, complained about the onion.  I might have been able to fool him by sautéing the onion a bit before adding.  Since I like the crunchiness, though, next time I’ll probably dish his plate out before adding onion.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Although I have never actually bought an Alanis Morissette album, it’s astounding to me that the lyrics of one of her songs are etched so deeply in my mind, similar to several other songs I have referenced in my short blogging career.  In fact, when thinking about my next recipe review, I could immediately hear her grating, jaded refrain along with full accompaniment.

“And isn't it ironic...don't you think
A little too ironic...and, yeah, I really do think...

It's like rain on your wedding day…”

But we’ll get to that recipe in a bit.

Meanwhile, here are a few other ironies that have struck me lately:

-Everyone in my house, including me, hates turning the Christmas tree lights on past December 26th.

-I had grand plans of sharing all my favorite Christmas recipes but forgot how busy the holiday season is.  So, forget about blogging before the big day!

-Santa forgets to leave anything really special in Mom’s stocking, perhaps thinking he won’t get any credit from that particular placement.

-While outwardly jeering at all those long, informative Christmas letters we get, I always pour through them intently as if they contain hidden messages from Nostradamus himself.

-My Christmas treat distribution list dwindles proportionately to the amount of hours I spend baking and candy making.

-Hearing other women’s husbands ask my husband if we’re “all ready for Christmas” on December 10th or so seems to mysteriously raise my blood pressure as I wait for his stress-free reply. 

-All those Christmas movies on Lifetime and Hallmark suddenly become inane on December 26th (for another 11 months.)

-All my years of being single left me a romanticized expectation of New Year’s Eve.  After 12 years of marriage, however, my sole hope is that we both stay awake until midnight.

If you have any holiday ironies to add, I’d love to hear them.   Now, back to that recipe.

 

My family has always enjoyed this particular cookie that I found in a Hershey’s chocolate advertisement.   On my recipe card, I recorded the official name as “Hershey’s ‘Perfectly Chocolate’ Chocolate Chip Cookies.”  The last time I made them, though, I did two things differently.  First, I chilled the dough for an hour or so because time ran short and I needed to run an errand.  Second, when shopping for a new canister of cocoa, I was annoyed that the Hershey’s brand was so darn expensive in my supermarket, so I talked myself into buying this brand instead. 

 Premium Cocoa from SA CO

It’s a blend of regular and Dutch processed cocoa. When my husband tried a cookie after work, he said, to my utter amazement, “Now, that’s what I call a cookie!”  This new cocoa turned the cookie into a superstar!  It is the BEST cocoa to bake with at a fraction of the cost of Hershey’s.  So, while I credit Hershey’s for providing the recipe, remember me and my new cocoa find with a knowing wink, okay?

Hershey’s ‘Perfectly Chocolate’ Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chips*

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy, blend in eggs and vanilla well.  Gradually add dry ingredients, beating well.  Stir in chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  Makes 4-5 dozen.

(The cookies pictured were rounded tablespoons baked for 10 minutes, which made 3 dozen.)

*You can experiment with peanut butter chips instead of white, or just go 100% chocolate chips.  My family likes the chocolate/white combo.

Happy New Year!!!