Happy Food Revolution Day!

I can’t think of a better post to write today than one involving my Petits Chefs. And since it’s Friday, Dorie Greenspan has to be involved too! And since it’s Food Revolution Day, with the theme of “Cook it. Share it.” what better way to celebrate than to share how to make a Dorie Greenspan recipe with the boys? The French Fridays with Dorie crew are participating in Food Revolution Day too!

Food Revolution Day is a chance for people all over the world to come together and stand up for good food and essential cooking skills. It’s a chance for people to come together in homes, schools, workplaces and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution Day is a global day of action to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone.

My choice of recipe was a little bit dictated by the boys and what I know they like but also guided by necessity. Last night I hosted 19 boys and their family members in my school dining hall – we taught the boys a couple of Jamie Oliver recipes, then they taught their parents, then they sat down to eat together. More on that later (when I have recovered!). Since I felt like three components of the meal was not enough (!) and that we needed something a little sweet to end the meal and I remembered how much the boys last term loved making Thomas Keller’s madeleines so I figured we’d make Dorie’s version together. And because a cooking class involving nearly 70 people didn’t quite seem enough to take on, I hosted regular cooking club right after school yesterday where the boys prepared the madeleines!

Now, I’ve also made madeleines before for French Fridays with Dorie and Tuesdays with Dorie and I even spent an afternoon discussing whether lighter or more golden colour was preferable in one’s madeleines last summer at La Cuisine Paris. They are a pretty easy, yet fancy looking dessert and last time we made them in cooking club, a few of the boys’ mums ended up buying madeleine pans because the boys loved them so much. Once you have the madeleine pan, it’s a simple-to-prepare dessert that everyone seems to love!

In terms of passing on cooking “skills” there’s not much these boys don’t know. So I didn’t think it would be too challenging. Unexpectedly, the greasing and flouring of the pans proved to be something they were quite interested in and took a great deal of time perfecting…

The recipe itself is fairly simple though making 72 madeleines required some math skills…

I knew that a recipe that involved lemon zesting would be popular

I forgot my piping bags at home so the boys learned to fill the madeleine pans with spoons…

et voilà:

We popped these in the fridge for a few hours whilst we went ahead and whipped up, oh, you know, oven baked potato wedges, cruncky garlicky chicken and tossed salads for, you know, 19 families (all the boys’ work!) and then baked them up in time for dessert.

We had a bit of a madeleine pan #fail though – four of the 6 trays we used were perfect and gorgeous, the other two were a little odd – they didn’t have the typical “hump” that a madeleine does, rather, they had a bizarre concave effect and stuck to the pan. With a little persistence, we got them out but the were definitely the ugly ducklings A great lesson to show the boys how differently things can turn out with just one slight change in a recipe though. They still tasted great and, in fact, there were NONE left so, you know they can’t be all that bad. Here’s what the nicer ones looked like:

Madeleines to make Dorie proud Gobbled up by one and by all. I’m pretty sure a few (more) of the mums will be buying madeleine pans soon

All in all, a wonderful success I love showing the boys how easy homemade, from-scratch treats can be and I do hope I inspire even one of those boys to bake something from scratch this coming long-weekend. I always say if you’re going to have a treat, you might as well make it from scratch so you know what’s going into it! I’m sure Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution folks would agree. Well done guys!

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs (though you can find this week’s recipe online here) – we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself then join us here!

* Canadians: Have you entered my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and attachment giveaway yet? Closes May 29th 2013 at 6pm.

**  Hey Canadians, there are some cool prizes to be won over on the Canadian Lentils Love your Lentils site – a blogger, a home chef, and a voter will all win the chance to join Chef Michael Smith in Saskatchewan on June 23, 2013 for a culinary adventure. I have two recipes in the running!

Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter

Photo courtesy Kitchen Aid Canada

Four years ago today, I hit “publish” on my very first blog post.

Who knew what a huge part of my life eat. live. travel. write. would become? Certainly I was not expecting to still be blogging up a storm four years later!

I didn’t want to write one of those retrospective blog birthday posts (you know, most commented post, most views etc…) and I’m crazy busy right now recovering from FBC2013 and gearing up for Food Revolution Day  so instead, I’ll keep this one short and sweet.  This far down the track, though, it’s time to spend my summer taking a long hard look at this blog, really moving towards focussing and improving my writing and photos over the year to come. My long term gift to you, dear readers…

For now, to mark the occasion, I have a little something for my Canadian readers… It’s pretty…

Photo courtesy Kitchen Aid Canada

And, fitting since my very first post was called “A few of my favourite things” it just happens to be one of my most favourite things in the kitchen…

Photo courtesy Kitchen Aid Canada

A (Canadian) Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer Giveaway!

That’s right – thanks to the kind folks at Kitchen Aid Canada, I have ONE Artisan® Series Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Flour Power™ Rating – 9 Cup (2.1L) and one stand mixer attachment of your choice to give away to one lucky Canadian resident!

How to enter:

There are 3 ways to enter (maximum of three entries per person for the duration of the contest).

1. Leave me a comment on this post telling me me the first thing you would “whip up” with your KA stand mixer.
2. Go to the “More than a Mixer” tab on the Kitchen Aid Canada Facebook Page choose the attachment you would want to try out and come back here to leave a comment telling me your which one (and why!).
3. Tweet the following message: “I entered to win a Kitchen Aid stand mixer+ attachment  from @eatlivtravwrite + you can too (Canada only) http://bit.ly/YHzjAw” then come back to leave a comment on this post letting me know you did.

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Eligibility and contest rules:

• Open to Canadian residents only.
• No purchase of any product necessary for entry.
• Winner will be chosen randomly (using www.random.org) from all qualified entries on Wednesday May 29th 2013 after 6pm EST.
• Winner will be contacted via email on Thursday May 30th 2013.
• Winner must answer a skill-testing question in order to claim the prize.
• The prize consists of of one Artisan® Series Tilt-Head Stand Mixer Flour Power™ Rating – 9 Cup (2.1L) in the colour of your choice and one stand mixer attachment.

*  Did you know – it’s Food Revolution Day on Friday May 17th? Find out how you can get involved and Cook it. Share it. Live it. for #FRD2013 in this post.

**  Hey Canadians, there are some cool prizes to be won over on the Canadian Lentils Love your Lentils site – a blogger, a home chef, and a voter will all win the chance to join Chef Michael Smith in Saskatchewan on June 23, 2013 for a culinary adventure. I have two recipes in the running!

Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter

Did you know that May is Canadian Lentils Love your Lentils month?  Well it’s been a perfect excuse for me to play around with lentils in the kitchen and come up with a couple of entries for the Love your Lentils contest.

When I received the lentils in the swag at FBC2013, I knew immediately that I wanted to work on a soup recipe (especially since the weather here in Toronto has been, shall we say, less than seasonal recently!). I loved Dorie Greenspan’s orange-scented lentil soup and wanted to play with those ingredients as I really enjoyed the combination of oranges and lentils.  Instead of green lentils, I worked with red to create a carrot and lentil soup with notes of cardamon and orange. Perfect for this in-between weather we’ve been having where Mother Nature doesn’t know if it’s spring, summer or winter.

Next up, I was inspired by some puffy pillowy ricotta gnocchi that I made last week. So many people think gnocchi is so complicated but honestly, I whipped these babies up after a long day at work with very little effort at all….

And then I got to thinking, “I wonder if I can incorporate lentils into gnocchi somehow?” I mean, I love pan-fried pumpkin gnocchi (my “go to” recipe is from Steamy Kitchen), so why not switch lentil purée for the pumpkin and give them a bit of a twist?

A little experimenting in the kitchen came up with these:

Lentil-ricotta gnocchi panfried in tumeric butter. Because you really want these flavours to shine, you need to keep the serving simple so I chose to serve this with a mango-mint chutney. Flavours you won’t expect in a gnocchi but ones that will delight your tastebuds

Do you like the look of these two recipes?

Head on over to check them out on the Love your Lentils site. And hey, while you’re there, if you’re so inclined, I’d love a vote! There are some cool prizes to be won – a blogger, a home chef, and a voter will all win the chance to join Chef Michael Smith in Saskatchewan on June 23, 2013 for a culinary adventure.

Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom

Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter

Did you know – it’s Food Revolution Day on Friday May 17th? Find out how you can get involved and Cook it. Share it. Live it. for #FRD2013 in this post.

Tomorrow is Mothers’ Day and for those of you who are still looking for a quick dish to add to a brunch table or even a dessert, I have the perfect thing. Little pots of jam and cream.

That’s right. Jam. And cream.  Cream cheese, to be exact.  I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected as a Real Women of Philadelphia Ambassador for 2013 and my first post is all about recipes inspired by mum.

These little pots of jam and cream might not look like much but they remind me of not only my mum’s cooking but also of the year I lived in Belgium where four lovely ladies took the place of my mum during that time…

These were my attempt to recreate the fromage blanc/ confiture that would appear with great regularity on the breakfast table in Belgium…

The best way I knew how to do this was to find the best quality preserves/ jams I could and layer them with a lightened-up version of my mum’s coeur à la crème (which I make different versions of with great regularity).

Easy and pretty and also, pretty easy to customise depending on what jam flavours people like…

Is it dessert? Is it breakfast? Or is it good for any time of day?

You decide!

Check out the recipe for Little Pots of Jam and Cream over on the Philly Canada website.

And tell me – how has your mum inspired your cooking/ love for food?

Did you know – it’s Food Revolution Day on Friday May 17th? Find out how you can get involved and Cook it. Share it. Live it. for #FRD2013 in this post.

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe (coupétade – baked French toast bread pudding, p 419) was one I think I will have to re-make this weekend for Mothers’ Day. Because guess what? My mum loves bread pudding and guess what? She’s arriving for a quick visit tonight It’s a shame Dad won’t be with her because I think HE loved bread pudding the most, more than anyone!

Of course, I didn’t make a huge pudding – I minified this and made four teeny puddings which I was rather chuffed with. I mean, they are pretty darned cute, right?

I’ve actually made a similar recipe a couple of years ago when I created individual cinnamon-spice French toast pudding with maple caramelized apples for The Egg Farmers of Ontario‘s French Toast Challenge. Now those were pretty tasty but I didn’t make French toast out of the bread – it was more like French toast ingredients in a bread pudding. And whilst that was fantastic, I have to say, making French toast out of the bread first really elevates this dish. It’s SO good.

I used a raisin sourdough bread (no, I didn’t have time to make my own brioche this time but it’s on the cards next time, for sure) and cut the slices into tiny pieces which I dipped in the egg mixture and fried in butter. Mmmm. Butter

I made these in the morning and we had one each for dessert much later on. They were perfect at room temperature. I sent the other two with Neil to work for his lunches two other days this week and since I didn’t hear otherwise, I am going to assume they were just as tasty then too. Of course, I know they are best on the day they are made…

Will I make these again? Most likely I am making these at least once during my mum’s visit. And yes, I’ll minify them again!

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs (though you can find this week’s recipe online here) – we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself then join us here!

Did you know – it’s Food Revolution Day on Friday May 17th? Find out how you can get involved and Cook it. Share it. Live it. for #FRD2013 in this post.

French Fridays with Dorie is participating in Food Revolution Day 2013. See all the details here.