Coq Au Vin

Coq Au Vin
Serves 4

8 Chicken thighs
Extra virgin olive oil
1 cup flour
Salt & pepper
Herbs de Provence
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 onion, minced
1 large shallot, diced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1" pieces
1 bag frozen pearl onions
1 lb cremini mushrooms, wiped clean
1 can Italian stewed tomatoes
1 cup of Cabernet sauvignon
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
Parsley, roughly chopped
Parmesan cheese, grated
Hot buttered egg noodles or rice to serve
Crusty French bread

Preheat oven to 275 degrees
In a shallow dish add the flour, salt, pepper & herbs de Provence and toss together (heavy on the spices).  Dredge chicken in flour & brown in a large dutch oven with a splash of extra virgin olive oil.  Once it has browned remove it from the pan and add another splash of olive oil and the minced onion & shallots.  Saute for about 10 minutes, add the garlic and let it brown, another 2 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, wine & broth.  Bring to a light boil.  Add the chicken to the bottom of the dutch oven and then top with carrots, frozen pearl onions, mushrooms, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, sprinkle of salt & pepper, and cover.  Bake at 275 degrees for two hours.  Remove thyme sprigs & bay leaf.  Serve over noodles or rice with a sprinkle of parsley & Parmesan cheese & French Bread.
Enjoy!!!

Lighter Green Goddess & Parisian Mushroom Soup

I know everyone is trying to be healthier, trying being the operative word.  Sometimes little things come along to help us out.  Why not dress up your veggies with a little yummy dip.  My version is a lighter variety & we have also used it sandwiches and wraps rather than mayo. It takes all of a minute to prepare and kept in a sealed container it can last for at least a week.

Lighter Green Goddess Dressing
1 avocado, pitted and scooped
1 cup light sour cream
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 green onions (green and white), cut into fourths
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp minced garlic
3 sprigs of parsley
Salt & Pepper
Combine all ingredients in the food processor or blender.  Pulse until smooth, place in a sealed container and refrigerate for around 8 hours.  Enjoy!

French Fridays with Dorie
I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the French Fridays cooking club.  The one issue I have is the no recipe sharing.  I have stated before her book is amazing & everyone should own a copy. The dish for the week of January 7th was Paris Mushroom Soup.  This was wonderful and I deviated enough from the recipe that I think I could put the recipe up, but I will save for when this project is complete.

Everything before the broth

Caramelized onion, touch of garlic, butter, Chardonnay, sherry, parsley, rosemary & chicken broth came together to make a wonderful lunch for my friends.  My variations from Dorie's recipe were using cremini mushrooms, 1/3 less chicken broth, the addition of sherry, and I did not blend.  This really was a rustic French perfection.

First Tastes of Christmas and French Friday Cookies

Most weekends in December we start off either Saturday or Sunday with this Sausage and Jalapeno Casserole.  I came across its inspiration in a Southern Living years ago.  There was a large spread on holiday cocktail party ideas which included jalapeno bites (or something like that).  That recipe lead to this recipe & hope you enjoy!

Sausage Jalapeno Casserole
serves 4 or double for 8
6 oz sausage, cooked & crumbled
2 tbs diced jalapenos
3 eggs
1/3 cup 1/2 & 1/2
1/2 cup shredded Jack Cheese or Mexican Blend
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt & Pepper
Salsa & sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a pie plate sprayed with cooking spray add the sausage and jalapenos to the bottom of the dish, toss together and spread evenly.  Whisk together the eggs, 1/2 & 1/2, garlic powder, Salt & Pepper.  Cover the sausage and jalapenos with the egg mixture & top with cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until set. Serve with salsa and sour cream as optional toppings.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie I choose to make Speculoos. 

They are a gingerbread type cookie and they went over very well.  The dough was very fragile, and for some reason I froze it (don't ask).  I did decide to treat these more as a wafer rather than a cookie by cutting the dough into strips and made small rectangle treats (with  my pizza cutter - very easy).  I also topped my version with sparkling white sugar to add a little more sweetness to the spice.  Overall very yummy & perfect coffee or tea treat.

At this point I am almost completely decorated for Christmas.  We do multiple trees around here - 2 real and several fakes.  Here is a little tour of how things are looking so far...

Family Room

Family Room at night

Dining Room

Living Room

Our bedroom & our watch dogs

Breakfast Room Tree

Tree Trimming on a French Friday

Sweet & Spicy Cocktail Pecans

Especially this time of year I love to have tasty treats before dinner, it seems as if we always have a little something to do before. Tonight it was testing the lights for the big tree in our den.  Lights for this tree are always a bit of a conversation. Color & bulb size are discussed beyond reason - so long story short we are trying something different this year - warm white C5 bulbs with strands of C3 green and C3 red (if you even understand the bulb size lingo you are my friend for life).  For a little tree trimming inspiration I whipped up a batch of Christmas Princes (not to be confused with Christmas Princesses) and French Fridays with Dorie's sweet and spicy nuts.  I choose pecans and they turned out very yummy.  The kitchen smelled wonderful - so I would definitely recommend throwing these together right before guests arrive.  The recipe is very similar to the Ritz Carlton's Spiced Pecans I posted in October.  Both would be wonderful hostess gifts. 

Another holiday Champagne treat...

Christmas Prince
1 bottle Champagne
3 cups Grapefruit Juice
1 cup Ginger ale
1 cup fresh raspberries

In a pitcher add the champagne, then juice, and finally ginger ale, allowing each layer to sit for a minute before adding the next.  Top off with raspberries.  You can also mix up individually & these make nice brunch drinks.

This treat came about on one of my favorite Christmas Eve's - it was my nephew's first Christmas. My husband & I had been asked to help his parents get ready for Santa's first visit after a big dinner at my parents.  My husband through together a punch and hence we have the Christmas Prince (the names are just silly & meant to be so).  Champagne cocktails are so versatile & many of our creations have literally come from throwing together what was in the fridge.  
Side note the Christmas Princess was named such because she is definitely a lighter cocktail due to the type of juices.  Hope you enjoy!!!

Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux on French Fridays

This week's selection for the French Fridays with Dorie cooking club was the roast chicken for les paresseux (roasted chicken for lazy people).  It was a perfect Tuesday night supper.  The thing about this recipe is it is so simple, you prep the chicken (all of ten minutes) and then put it in the over for 90 minutes.  It is so simple that I felt weird. 

I did add a quartered lemon & some flat leaf parsley to the cavity.  The really unique thing about this dish is that the bird is roasted on top of slices of bread. I took half of a baguette & sliced it long ways.  I rested the breast portion over the thickest portion of the bread.  Oh wow - the bread really is the chef's treat.  Crunchy and delicious.  I even made it lazier and skipped adding the veggies to the pot and fixed fingerling potatoes with thyme & reheated our left over peas with pancetta.  

Peas with Pancetta & First French Friday with Dorie

I have joined the French Fridays with Dorie cooking group.  Every month four recipes from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table are chosen, you prep them, blog about your results on Friday (hopefully this is the only time I break the rules) and read the results of others.  One stipulation is that you can not post the recipe; however after going through this book several times I can honestly say buy a copy - it is amazing. This week I choose Dorie's potato gratin.  It is sinfully delicious!!!

Dorie's Potato Gratin with Swiss cheese & thyme crust

We enjoyed the gratin with grilled fillets, Bearnaise sauce and peas with pancetta.  The peas are inspired by Ina Garten's recipe from her new cookbook. I  took it in another direction - hope you enjoy.

Peas with Pancetta
1 pound snap peas or snow peas
1/4 pound pancetta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Champagne Vinegar
Pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Slice pancetta and brown in saute pan with a tablespoon of water.  When done transfer to plate with paper towels to absorb grease, cool, crumble and set aside.  Remove the strings from the beans.  I used a mix of sugar snaps and Chinese snow.  Saute peas with oil and vinegar over medium low heat for about 25 minutes.  Taste for doneness (trust me you will know).  Add pancetta and pepper, toss well and allow pancetta to warm up.  Add Parmesan cheese and serve 
The peas will turn more of a brownie green, but they are delicious. My picky husband loved them & the gratin!  I think I am going to see what the gratin tastes like cold...