Now that it’s starting to get cold, it’s time to get the crockpot out.

I love my crockpot. I went without one for more than a few years, because the French just don’t seem to get the concept of slowcooked electronic goodness, and thus don’t sell crockpots just anywhere. You have to know where to look, as with the procurring of so many other things here in France.

The first crockpot I had in France came to me via the friend of a friend of mine via the US Army.

My friend lives in the same region as me, but her friend, also American, lived in Holland and was married to a man who was half American, half Dutch. He had a brother serving in the American Army, living on an Army base in Germany. The friend based in Holland was coming to visit the friend living in Grenoble (still with me so far?) and passing through Germany on the way (Europe’s a small place). So we both placed orders for crockpots, and Dr Pepper and Cheetos and all sorts of yummy things.

When that crockpot died a year or so later, I had to go without. Until I found a catalog that, believe it or not, actually believes that there are enough people in France who want to buy one, to sell them.*

I am once again with a crockpot, and, as I started out saying at the beginning of this post, it’s crockpot weather.

My favorite thing to make is roast chicken. I also like to make beef stew, and of course, pot roast. (There’s what claims to be a mouthwatering recipe for pot roast on You’ve Got Supper which I’m going to try next week.) One of the best crock-pot recipes is for chili and I’m going to try spaghetti sauce next.

What’s your favorite crockpot recipe?

*Les Trois Suisses, in case anyone’s interested.

**If you haven’t already heard of it, A Year of Slow Cooking is the best source of crockpot recipes.

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I’m a big fan of salads in the summertime, for reasons that all of you understand, I’m sure! And this simple one combines some of my favorite elements of summertime cooking: fresh vegetables, an easy preparation process, and improvement over time. I made this last Sunday, along with a whole bunch of other salads, and have been enjoying it all week.

Cold Marinated Cauliflower

• 1 head fresh cauliflower, or frozen
• Good, strong French mustard
• Olive Oil
• A nice balsalmic vinegar
• Dill
• Parlsey

Chop the cauliflower into biggish pieces, and cook it until it’s almost tender. This will change according to the size of the pieces, the size of the pot, and so on, but I judge tenderness by the stems (a little crispier than I would normally like them to be), which gives the head part the perfect crunch.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix a bit of vinegar and a bit of olive oil with a bit of mustard, until you have a nice salad dressing. Again, the amounts needed will change according to quantity and taste, but you can start with 1 tbsp each of oil and vinegar, and 1 tsp mustard. Mix well, adding a bit more of each, until the taste is perfect.

When the cauliflower is cooked, drain it and let cool. Then toss in the dressing, add the herbs, and let marinate for a few hours. This is a dish that gets better over time, so (if you have any left) you’ll love it even more Friday at lunch than for Sunday dinner!

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There’s a tired old joke that goes like this:

One couple invites another couple over for dinner. “I’ll bring a tarte!”, says the woman. “What’s her name?” asks the husband.

Bah-da-boom!

But this (savory) tarte is easy to make, and impressive to bring, as  it seems both complicated and refined, while managing to be both hearty and child-friendly at the same time. Served with tomato soup it’s perfect in the winter; with a green salad, it’s light and tasty in the summer.

Are your taste buds watering yet? They should be, but I must warn you that this is not for those of you on a diet, as it comes from the ‘the more cream the better’ section of my recipe book!

Potato Leek Tarte

• 4 to 5 smallish potatoes, enough to make 3 cups when diced and cooked
• 3 cups chopped leeks (the white part only)- I use frozen.
• 1 cup chopped bacon
• 1 ready made pie crust (the flaky kind)
• At least one cup (heavy) cream

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Dice and boil the potatoes until tender. While they are cooking, saute the bacon until about half as crispy as you like it to be normally, and then add the chopped leeks. Cook until it’s all tender, bacon and leeks. Then put the cooked potatoes into the pie crust, cover with the leeks and bacon and pour the cream on top. I usually don’t add any other seasonings, as the bacon is salty enough. Bake until crispy on top, about 1/2 hour.

I serve this both hot and cold, and have lately found it to be a great picnic food!

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I started thinking about tonight’s dinner this morning at 10am, and then I didn’t think about it at all until about ten ’til 7.

This morning I marinated two chicken breasts in one tub of nonfat plain yogurt, a teeny bit of olive oil, salt, and some chopped green herbs and garlic. I did the same with some chicken thighs as well, as I had been intending on baking them. But when time ran out, I knew I needed to rethink my plan of action.

So I chopped the chicken breasts, and tossed them in a pan with a couple of cups of frozen peas and sauteed them until they were done. At the same time, I was cooking some small shelled pasta, and once the pasta was ready and the chicken was almost done, I added some of the pasta water (about 1/2 cup) to the chicken. Then I drained the pasta, tossed it in the pan, and stirred it all to combine.

Delicious! (and while all this was going on, and during dinner, the chicken thighs were baking for my husband’s lunch).

How do you best like chicken?

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What a perfect summer dessert! Frozen strawberry cream, on an oreo cookie crust, with sliced strawberries on top.

• 4 cups fresh strawberries, divided
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 cups fresh whipped cream (it’s easier than you think to whip cream!)
• 1 cup oreos, crushed
• 2 tsps melted butter

Line a bread pan with plastic wrap. Mash two cups of the strawberries, mix with the lemon juice and condensed milk, then gently fold in 2 cups of whipped cream. Pour into the pan, then top with the cookies and butter mixed together. Freeze at least 6 hours. To serve, invert onto a plate, slice and serve with the remaining sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Adapted from a CoolWhip recipe found in Family Circle.

What’s your favorite way to eat strawberries in the summer?

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I went grocery shopping yesterday, and even though I spent what seems like an exorbitant amount of money at the grocery store (is it just me or is food getting really expensive?) I got a lot of inexpensive and healthy food for the next two weeks. As ever, I planned our menus after I went shopping. Here’s what we’re going to eat for dinner over the next two weeks (lunches are leftovers).

• Spaghetti with spinach tomato sauce
• ‘Asian’ noodles with chicken and julienned vegetables (I use spaghetti, and cooked the julienned veggies with it. Then I toss the drained noodles with soy sauce, and a bit of peanut butter, and add the cooked chicken.)
• Chicken in molé sauce, over corn and red pepper cornbread
• Baked salmon, with rice and peas
• Chicken noodle soup (there’s a lot of chicken on the menu because I got a good deal on two whole chickens. I’m roasting them in the crockpot and will use the meat for a variety of dishes.)
• Rice and Beans
• Vegetable soup, with cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes etc
• Zucchini in peanut sauce, served over sticky rice
• Quenelles Luckily I can find them already prepared- if I had to make them myself, I would never cook them!
• Hamburger patties with homemade coleslaw and potato salad
• Tuna noodle casserole
• Baked salmon patties, using leftover potato salad for filler
• Potato leek pie, with homemade tomato soup
• Veggie curry and fake samosas

What’s on your menu for dinner?

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My daughter is now 15 months old and entering into that very independent stage where she wants to do it all herself, her way, with no help whatsoever. This involves food as well!

She wants to feed herself with her own bowl and her own spoon, which is great… but messy. Another issue with toddlers is that when they’re hungry, they’re hungry. They haven’t quite learned how to wait for a full meal to be cooked- they want to eat now.

Ready made baby or toddler meals are very expensive, but it’s often hard for my daughter to wait while I cook for her. Instead, I keep filling and frugal food on hand and ready to go, which helps her wait for dinner.

The key is preparing everything in advance, so that it can be quickly heated if necessary and served in a flash. I also try to avoid things that are too messy, so she can feel good about feeding herself and I don’t have to give her a second bath!

Here are some of the frugal finger foods I give my toddler.

• Chopped ham or chicken breast
• Chunks of tuna
• Cheese, cubed in advance
• Sauteed zucchini
• Cooked cubed carrots or potatoes
• Diced beets
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Green beans
• Garbanzo or kidney beans
• hot dogs or sausage

What do you feed your toddler?

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Kitchen gadgets are lots of fun, otherwise why would show every show kitchen have rows of copper bottom pots hanging from the ceiling? But they can be pricy (and take up lots of room) so it’s important for the frugal cook to carefully consider her (or his) tools when preparing to cook.

Here are my three favorite kitchen gadgets, frugal and practical tools that I use over and over again. They last forever, don’t take up a lot of room and are endlessly useful.

A wooden spoon. Perhaps the most basic tool in your kitchen, the humble wooden spoon is endlessly useful. Try using it instead of a rubber or silicone spatula when scraping bowls. Nor will it scratch your non stick pans. You can even give it to your toddler as an impromptu drumstick!

A dutch oven. This link goes to a 5 quart, cherry-red Le Creuset dutch oven on Amazon, priced at about $200. Follow it to see exactly what I’m talking about, but don’t even think about spending that kind of money on what is basically a very fancy pot! I have one that I picked up from a thrift store a few years ago for €5. Sure, the paint is not quite as shiny as the pretty red one pictured, but it is still just as serviceable, in spite of its age.

What I love about dutch ovens is that they are endlessly serviceable- they go from fridge, to oven, to table and back to the fridge again. You can cook soup or stew on the stove or bake casseroles in the oven. While it won’t be the only pot in your cupboard, it truly is a pot of many trades.

A hand mixer and blender set. My husband bought me one for our wedding anniversary a few years ago (and yes, we’re still married!) and I love it. I use it almost daily, in many different ways. I love how small it is, fitting just in a drawer, which is endlessly practical!

What are your favorite, frugal kitchen tools?

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I love spinach salad, or any salad really with fresh, dark greens. But spinach is especially suited to wintertime salads, as there is something richer and more substantial about the leaves. Here are six ways I like to eat it.

• With chopped hard boiled eggs, thinly sliced red onions and crumbled bacon, in a mayonnaise vinaigrette.
• With oranges and avocado (OK, more of a summertime variation!) in a honey mustard sauce.
• With chunks of tuna, tomatoes and garbanzo beans, with a lemon dill dressing.
• As a sort of Greek Salad (although aren’t all salads made in Greece, Greek Salads?), with feta cheese, black olives, tomatoes.
• With cooled boiled potatoes, shavings of Parmesan cheese and chunks of chicken, in Cesar salad dressing.
• With white beans, tuna and thinly sliced fennel.

How do you like your spinach salad?

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Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and has been since I was a kid. It is flavorful on its own, tasty in other dishes, and can be disgused in endless ways to fool children into thinking their eating junk food. Not to mention that it’s cheap and laden with vitamins, which makes it a fantastic frugal food. Here are some of the ways I like it best:

As an ingrediant in vegetable curry, steam first, then mix with steamed carrots, chopped tomatoes and garbanzo beans and your favorite Indian sauce (I like Pataks). Serve with cool yogurt sauce.

Roasted, à la Mandajuice. Yum.

In cauliflower cream soup; a creamy mix of cauliflower, onion, cream cheese and horseradish. I promise to publish the recipe before winter’s up!

As a secret ingredient in mashed potatoes.

As a secret ingredient in chili. Yes, chili! I oversalted the pinto beans, and in an effort to save the batch, I added steamed pureed cauliflower while I was cooking the chil. You couldn’t taste it, but it added a touch of creaminess and yes, absorbed the salt.

Steamed, then served cold, with a nice vinagrette, as the French do.

Or, in a gratin, a creamed casserole. Steam, then place in a buttered bakin pan. Smother in white sauce, then sprinkle with grated cheese; cheddar or jack are best.

How do you like your cauliflower?

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