Goat Cheese and Tomato Quiche

This is my first quiche, and it came out really good. Usually, Eric handles the quiche. I started eating before I remembered to take a picture, but it was seriously good. Plus, if you make this in the US, your guests will think you are so refined because you know how to make quiche. Here, I got, "you've never made quiche before? wierd." Anyway, its easy, tasty, and you can invent your own!
Ingredients:
1 pie crust in dough form
1 log of goat cheese, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp mustard
1 small handful chopped cilantro
dash of salt/pepper
Directions:
1. In a pie tin (ok I didn't have one, so I did it in my lasagna dish) place the dough and attack it a little with a fork. Pop it in the oven for 5 minutes on 380F.
2. Take your pie "crust dough" out of the oven and spread some mustard along the bottom.

3. Lay your tomato and goat cheese slices in some sort of order.
4. In a mixing bowl, whip your eggs and cream, and add your cilantro and dash of salt and pepper.

5. Pour the mixture into your doughy crust and pop into the oven for 20 minutes or so or until it starts to look golden.

Pat yourself on the back, you made QUICHE!
For the record, cilantro was my addition. French are generally unaware of the goodness of cilantro, and how well it mixes with tomato and cheese!

Thai Red Coconut Curry

I love Thai Curry! This one is really good. It can feed 4-5 people, and it has a bunch of veggies in it too. I stole if from the slow cooker Goddess.
Ingredients:
- 1 can coconut milk or coconut cream
- 1 T soy sauce
- 1 T red chili paste
- 1 T fish sauce
- 2 inch chunk fresh ginger, grated
- 1 lb pork in chunks (or 6 skinless chicken thighs)
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1-2 bell pepper in big chunks
- 2-4 zucchinis in big chunks (or an eggplant)
- 1 sweet potato
Garnish:
lemon or lime wedges
chopped cilantro
Directions:
1. Mix the coconut cream, chili paste, fish sauce and soy sauce in the bottom of your crock pot.
2. Add the meat and coat it with your mixture.
3. Put all your chopped veggies on top without mixing them into the sauce.. they will nicely steam without desintegrating and cook on low for 6-7 hours.
4. Serve over rice with chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

You can substitute other veggies or other meat. I personally prefer it with pork, but its good with chicken too.

Veal or Pork Blanquette

This is a typical French dish you can eat at any typical French restaurant. I, however, had never officially eaten one, and there is this cream commercial that comes on all the time where they make this dish and it made my mouth water... and when I read that it is a dish that is supposed to cook on low for a loong time, it made me even happier, because i just threw it all in the crock pot! Well, no, this actually needs a little bit of prep before and after the crock cooking, but still, it's so ridiculously delicious!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs pork or veal meat cut into thick chunks
1 cube (rectangle) dehydrated chicken stock (knorr is good)
5 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 chopped onion
2 cloves pushed into a piece of onion
1 can mushrooms (or use fresh)
1 stick of celery cut into chunks
2 bay leaves
1 piece of rosemary (mine was still on the branch, but use 1-2 tsp)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
Right before serving ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg yolk
juice from 1 lemon
Wow this is a lot of ingredients, and I had all this on hand without purposefully planning ahead? I'm proud of me!
Directions:
1. On the stove, brown your meat in the butter, and then sprinkle flour so that the meat is well coated.
2. Transfer all ingredients (except the cream, egg yolk, and lemon juice) into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. 15 minutes before serving, in a bowl, whisk your heavy cream, egg yolk and lemon juice together, then stir into the crock pot.
4. Taste to see if it needs salt/pepper, and serve over rice or fettuccine!

I used pork instead of veal because I'm a cheapass, and it was really good. I've heard that it is just as good with turkey chunks too. If it is too watery, leave the lid open on the crock for a little while. The heavy cream here has the same consistency as light sour cream, so the sauce came out thicker than it might with a "heavy whipping cream." This meal probably cost me less than 5€ and it was enough to feed 4 very very hungry people..and it ROCKS!

Stuffed Veggies.. again

Ah I love stuffed vegetables!
Btw where is everyone?

I did a variation of my Stuffed Tomatoes recipe. I used ready made meat stuffing that you can't find in the US, and I stuffed a round zucchini and a bell pepper along with my tomatoes. Yum! I wanted to make Jessica's Greek Stuffed Peppers, but I didn't plan ahead enough... and the cucumber prices were too outrageous for me... maybe next time.
I made a couple of flops this week..Indian coconut curry that was tasteless, and I tried for a mexican Caldo de Rez that I remember eating with my Mexifriends. It was good, but it wasn't the real deal...I should have used bone in beef.
I did make the best "Pot au Feu" - French for "Pot on the Fire" that I've ever attempted. The picture looked really gross though, so I won't post it.

Black Bean Chili

Oh I can't contain myself! First, I "fixed" my stoneware by buying the exact same slowcooker model and returning it within the hour after having switched out the new stoneware...how evil but genious of me! Secondly, I found black beans in France, although in the dry form, and last, I made this black bean chili, which is the same as the White Chicken Chili, but with black beans that I cooked from DRY BEANS!!! It was so good that I wasn't even sad about going to every single store in town looking for green onions and not finding any this weekend. We ate stuffed avocados as appetizers...whaat? you say? Here in France, you cannot invite someone over unless you have planned at least a 5 course meal. You just can't, I think it's in the constitution, and very looked down upon if you don't. During the holidays, it can go up to 7-8.
Course 1: "Aperitif" or Munchies and a cocktail
Course 2: "Entrée" or Appetizer
Course 3: "Plat de Resistance" or Main course
Course 4: "Fromage et Salade" or Salad and Cheese
Course 5: Dessert
This is why I gain weight in France, and lose weight in the USA!
Ingredients
1 lb chicken, cut into small cubes
1 chopped onion
1 cube dehydrated chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 can Corn (drained)
2 chopped bell peppers (mutli-color)
1 tsp red chili paste (no jalapenos here)
1 1/2 cup dry black beans
4 cups water
Garnish:
Shredded Swiss Cheese
Greek Yogurt
Tortilla Strips
Cilantro
Chopped green onions (if you can find them)
Lemon wedges
Julienned Cabbage
Avocado slices
Directions:
1. Wash the beans and cook overnight with the 4 cups of water on low in a slow cooker for at least 10 hours.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 3-5 hours. or until the beans reach desired tenderness.
3. Serve over rice or in a burrito or with rice in a burrito or however you want because it is so delicious you will want to try different things with all your leftovers!!

* remove the cheese and tortilla strips and this is fight food

Chicken Avocado Cabbage Rolls

This has just not been my week! On top of my stoneware cracking, we tried making egg rolls for guests this week as an appetizer before the Pho, and though we've made these before without any problems, this time, we just couldn't roll the darn egg rolls! We didn't have the same wrapping papers that we had found before in the US, and these ones were just too small and too slippery and we gave up and threw them against the wall. Now what was I supposed to do with my arriving guests and plenty of egg roll stuffing? Well, I rolled them in cabbage leaves and popped them into the oven. To my surprise, they came out delicious. I still would like to find a correct version of egg roll papers, but that will be for another time. I got this recipe from Guy Fieri on the Food Network.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup finely minced red onion
• 1/4 cup finely minced red bell peppers
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup sliced bamboo shoots
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 cups chopped chicken breast
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (or GF alternative)
• 1 cup julienned green cabbage
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 6 or 7 cabbage leaves
• 2 avocados, sliced into 24 pieces
• Jarred sweet chili sauce, for dipping

  Directions

  • In a saute pan over high heat, add canola oil. Saute red onions and bell peppers until translucent. Add ginger, garlic, bamboo shoots, celery, chicken, and cook for 5 minutes over medium heat. Deglaze pan with soy sauce. Cool mixture. Then either do them as regular egg rolls, or wrap them in cabbage leaves with some avocado, shredded carrots, and julienned cabbage, and pop in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes!

REMIX Jess' White Chili

I made this for my in laws... everyone loved it! I added tomatoes, and i didn't have enough chicken since it wasn't planned, so i added some pork. Also, Monterey Jack is non existant here in France, so I used Swiss. Everyone was happy! I served with rice and it made 10 servings total. Jess takes way better food pictures than I do.

Phõ

I am a Pho King Queen!! When I lived in SD, everyone was crazy about Pho, but I never felt adventurous enough to try it...I don't know why. But when I saw that even the Crockpot Lady made it and found it delicious, i decided to give it a whirl. The result was a crowd pleaser!!
Ingredients:
--6 cups beef broth or stock
--2 inch chunk of ginger grated
--1 t anise
--1 t ground cinnamon
--2 sliced green onions
--1 lb thin sliced beef (I found a good priced hunk and thin sliced it myself!)
--1 t fish sauce (nuoc nam)
--1/2 t black pepper
--1 t red chili paste
--package of rice noodles
for garnish: bean sprouts (with heads cut off), chopped green onions, lime, cilantro, thai basil (which i could not find)
Directions:
1. Throw everything but the noodles into the crockpot and leave it on low for 4-6 hours. The house will smell funny..not like food, but like licorice. It is normal, its the anise.
2. Boil the rice noodles separately as the instructions on the package say to.
3. To serve, put some noodles in a bowl, ladle the "soup" and garnish with yummy stuff. It wasn't spicy enough for me, so i added crushed red pepper to my bowl.

I've never had restaurant Pho, but this was damn good!

*use low sodium broth and this is fight food

Stuffed Avocados.. and other stuff

I made this because i had no fridge, so i couldn't have any meat in the house.. but luckily, tuna is canned, and so are the mixed vegetables i found. This is really good...we ate it as a meal, but you can easily just eat half of this plate as an appetizer. Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

2 Avocados, cut in half and gutted (keep the guts)

1 small can of mixed veggies, drained

1 can of asparagus

4 eggs soft-hard boiled

1 tbsp mayonaise

1 lemon

1 can of tuna, drained

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix the tuna, avocado guts, mixed veggies, juice from half a lemon, and the mayonaise, and stuff back into the avocado carcasses.

2. to soft-hard boil the eggs, boil them for 6-7 minutes. the yolks will not be runny, but congealed, and better than hardboiled chalky eggs.

3. arrange the plate with the asparagus, stuffed avocados, eggs, and lemon wedges.

Actually quite filling for a makeshift meal! With the extra squeezes of lemon, the taste is very complete. Eric likes more mayonaise, but I prefer lemon.

Jess's Spicey Chili

Ingredients:
2 can kidney beans
1 lb lean ground beef or turkey
2 bell peppers pick 2 colors, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
2 tbs tomato paste
5 chopped cloves of garlic
1 jalepeno
1 chopotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt, pepper to taste

Chopped green onions, shredded cheese and sour cream for garnish

Directions:
Throw in everything except for the bell peppers. Throw those in 1 hour prior to serving so that they aren't mushy.

Cook on low for 3 hours.