La Cuisine

I picked up a French cookbook La Cuisine at a Borders in Bakersfield that was going out of business. After watching "Julie and Julia" I decided Mastering the Art of French Cooking was not for me. I don't think I'm a Julia Childs type of person. As much as I'd like to say that I'm going to take on an adventure like the one in the book or movie, there's just no way. Especially with French cooking. I was looking for a simple French cookbook until I realized what an oxymoron that was and picked this one because it claims I can make this stuff at home... as opposed to a high class French restaurant?

I'm excited to report that eggs baked in ramekins (oeufs cocotte) are absolutely amazing. What thrills me even more is the fact that the French have a higher life expectancy than we do (as do most countries not located in Africa or the Middle East- ponder that for a moment) and yet their cooking calls for copious amounts of butter and cream. And alcohol. Yes! So I've purchased cognac for a flambe, but that's for in a couple days. Tonight it's garlicky pork chops with tomato (cotes de porc a la tomate). I've been excessively tired lately and can only guess it's the weather, so I've got to give myself a little kick in the pants.

To get me motivated and in the culinary mood, I've put on my Tango Around the World cd that I bought in Oaxaca, Mexico. You can't go wrong dancing around the kitchen with some tomato paste, garlic and tangoes from around the world, glass of wine in hand: Spanish red.

With my cotes de porc simmering in my sauce a la tomate, I pour another glass of wine, break out the cheese and crackers and put the brussel sprouts (from Brussels perhaps?) a la butter in the microwave and switch the cd to Gypsy Kings: Cantos de Amor.

I've come to the conclusion that I need a much larger skillet, one that comes with a cover and can fit 4 pork chops and 2 onions in it at a time. I've got it in a wok (very multi-cultural) which of course does not come with a cover, so instead of simmering it on low covered, I'm simmering it on medium low uncovered. Looks rich and tasty anyway.

The cotes de porc turned out quite well, very flavorful. It's so unfortunate that I decided against buying the French chocolate truffles I saw the other day. Maybe I should learn to make some. The recipe is in here. My next recipe will be Cognac-Flamed Chicken with Creamy Tarragon Sauce (poulet flambe a l'estragon). I'm a little nervous. I've lit things on fire before but never indoors in my own kitchen. Ok that's not true. I haven't purposely lit things on fire in my kitchen before.

I'm considering learning to make the desserts, after all, isn't that the best part of French food? I would have to bring it to work though because I can't be trusted with desserts in my house. I know most of you think I have a plethora of self control but it just isn't so. I have to practice control when it comes to introducing it to my environment. Once it's there, I'll eat it. So generally speaking, I do no baking. Baking is bad. Baking can lead to late nights in front of the tv watching a ga-zillion episodes of Fringe that I rented from Netflix only to realize it's midnight and I've got to be up at 0515 to go to the gym. Which would usually lead to me not going to the gym and after eating an entire chocolate marble pound cake, it would just be castastrophic.