Honey and chocolate is a combination that I like a lot (who doesn’t – I mean, think Toblerone…) so I wanted to see if I could incorporate both flavours in a cheesecake without it being overly sweet.  I decided to go with chocolate in the crust instead of swirling it in the actual cheesecake mix and was pleased with the contrast of the sweet crust and the slightly tart filling.

And that light coating of chocolate on top? Well, I’ll be honest and say this cracked a little once it had cooled down (next time I will cool this in the oven, turned off, with the door open so it is not so much of a shock to the mix) but this was easily remedied with a very soft dusting of finely grated chocolate. I made individual portions because I am someone who likes to have my own personal dessert, though you could make a bigger one if you like.

I really like not only the look of this but the taste. A winner and honestly, even though it was made with light cream cheese and 0% yogurt, you would never know it’s in any way “light”. (And yes, for those of you who read my blog closely, you’ll notice this crust is the exact same as the one for the double chocolate and banana tart on Friday. When I realised I didn’t have the time to make the pastry for that one, I figured this crust would work too. And it did!)

For more fabulous recipes and to discover their Greek yogurt line, visit Liberté now.

*** It’s my THIRD blog birthday! To celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Wini Moranville’s “Bonne Femme Cookbook” – open to anyone, anywhere.  Contest closes on Tuesday May 22nd at 9pm EST and winner will be announced Wednesday May 23rd. Good luck!

Please forgive me for I have sinned completely changed up the French Fridays with Dorie recipe for Double Chocolate and Banana Tart (pp 467-468). I did plan on making it like it said to in the book, honest. In fact I was going to make it as my own birthday cake. But then a friend said she would bring me a dessert for my birthday party. And then jetlag from 40 hours in the air in the 7 days prior to my birthday struck me. And then – boom – it was Monday. And then it was Tuesday and I was leading a Food Revolution Day cooking class for 60. So, you know, I wasn’t even sure I was going to make any version of this.

On Wednesday, though, I came home and decided that I was just going to get on with it. Not making a giant tart, you realise, but a mini version (for one) as I am wont to do.  But really? Pastry? I didn’t have time for that. (As I said earlier, SO sorry, Dorie). Instead, I made a crust from chocolate “Teddy Grahams” and hazelnuts with a little melted butter. I baked the crust for about 10 minutes at 350˚F.

Then I went to make the ganache. And realised that I didn’t have any whipping cream. And I was too tired to go to the corner store (I know, you, Dorie would have gone to the corner store). Instead, I poured a glass of wine and googled “yogurt ganache” because Greek yogurt is what I had in the fridge. And realised that perhaps all was not lost.

Bananas caramelized and ganache made – FYI – o% Greek yogurt makes FAB ganache (100g semi-sweet chocolate chips melted and slightly cooled mixed with 1/3 cup Greek yogurt), I assembled the tart.  I left it in the fridge, sans banana topping, overnight. Then I garnished with the sliced bananas. But I didn’t glaze them because I thought it looked pretty as it was. Dorie, I am sure you would not serve a tart sans glaze… Sorry!

Considering this was totally not what it was supposed to be, it was pretty darned good. In fact, I will make a version of it again, for sure. Maybe even your version, Dorie! Though I will still only make teeny portion sizes – even with the lightened up crust and the lighter ganache, it was pretty full on rich. But delicious, quand-même.  Dorie, thanks for the inspiration. Great flavours! And next week, I promise to stick to the recipe!

Love, Mardi

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself and join us this year!

Did you know? I am leading a foodie tour of Paris this July! Read all about it here. Only two spots left!!!

Stand up for REAL FOOD with me on May 19th. Find out how here.
*** It’s my THIRD blog birthday! To celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Wini Moranville’s “Bonne Femme Cookbook” – open to anyone, anywhere.  Contest closes on Tuesday May 22nd at 9pm EST and winner will be announced Wednesday May 23rd. Good luck!

“Why is Mlle Michels under the table?” I hear one of the boys asking…  It’s 7.00pm on Tuesday May 15th 2012. I am scrambling about on the floor of the school dining hall, trying to figure out how to connect 20 individual hot plates to a few different circuit breakers so they won’t simultaneously shut down. This is, of course, something that we have practiced earlier in the day. But not for a sustained period of time so of course, once people are at the crucial point of the cooking lesson – you know, the cooking part (!) – the hotplates, one by one, begin to shut down… Strangely, the room of 60 people is actually fairly calm. The only person stressing out, it seems, is me!  This is the price one pays for being overly ambitious.

Ambitious. It’s a word often used to describe some of the projects I take on. I have high standards for myself. I have high standards for my students. And with kids, if you set the bar high, I find they always come up to meet you there. In the classroom and out.  I figure if kids don’t know something is supposed to be difficult, they will not approach it as such and just kind of get on with it. I guess a little of this “can do” attitude has rubbed off on me in the past few years because there are things I take on that I don’t quite think about in terms of how overwhelming they might seem to others until I am in the thick of them and there’s no turning back. Case in point: cooking club each week. I’m often told “I don’t know how you do it” but actually for me, it’s not a stressful part of my week at all – well, maybe trying to get the boys out the door with their Tupperwares in tow by 4.01pm at the latest is a little stressful but on the whole it’s an hour of the week that I really treasure – the part of the week where they can see me as a normal person with a passion for food, not “just the French teacher”.

So when I became a Food Revolution Day Ambassador for Toronto, it was obvious that I would involve the boys in some way (Food Revolution Day is May 19th – which just happens to fall on a long weekend for most of Canada so people were encouraged to host events in the week leading up to the Day). And the more I thought about it, the more a “pass it on” cooking class seemed like a great idea – boys teaching their parents to cook a dish from scratch, then we would all sit down to enjoy it together.  I thought that sounded like a GREAT way to honour this first Food Revolution Day – what better way to consolidate newly-acquired skills than to teach someone else, right? It’s a busy time of year so I wasn’t sure what the turnout would be.  After only a few hours I had a number of families already on board and I moved the “class” out of our regular science lab into the dining hall.  By the time the day rolled around, we had 18 boys signed up, many of them with 2-3 people in tow for a total of around 60 people. Nooooo problem, right? I mean, that’s just a regular cooking club times 4, right? I mean, I had no problem with that.

I enlisted fellow Food Revolution Ambassador, Adell Shneer, to come and be my co-chef. I asked my regular cooking club assistant, Michelle, to come and help out and my student teacher, Kim, was more than happy to help too. A couple of colleagues would be coming with their Petits Chefs – I was all set.  I was fortunate enough to have the full support of my school admin, who also authorised the kitchen to order the ingredients in for me .  We’d make chicken Tikka Masala – a recipe I have made before in cooking club with great success – with some vegetarian options (you know, that famous Indian dish “Chick Pea Tikka Masala” LOL!) and Adell and I would walk the boys through the recipe (including making the paste from scratch!) step by step. After each step the boys would return to their stations to teach their parents how to prepare and cook the ingredients. Easy peasy!

Adell Shneer - calm admist the (organised) chaos!

What unfolded was a very special evening for everyone. The boys were SO excited – I had so many of them lining up to help after school. By the time the parents arrived, we were all set up to go, with some mise en place already taken care of, aprons donned, nametags written and hands washed.  And guess what? Today you get to see the Petits Chefs’ faces – not just their hands! I am so proud of these guys that I asked permission to post their pictures – I figured you would like to see the faces behind the hands   Sadly there are not as many pictures as I would like – but it was definitely an evening to live in the moment, not behind the lens…

So yeah, basically, we came, we cooked, we laughed, we ate. But it was so much more than that.   I am truly overcome by the boys’ and their parents’ kindness, generosity and patience and by everyone’s enthusiasm and resilience in the face of electrical circuits that won’t cooperate. Watching everyone as they worked together to sort out how to cook on less than the ideal number of burners was wonderful and it really hit home to me what this week is all about – food and the community we build around it. Yeah, even when I was crawling around the floor trying to sort out the electrics!

Some thoughts:

The boys are so proud to show their parents what they know. I love that.

The boys were seriously engaged and having fun. And doing a GREAT job!

No-one actually freaked out about the hotplate issue – I think I was the most concerned. Everyone just got on with it and found other places to plug in, or shared pots with other groups. Very matter of factly, like they do this every day.

After I had stacked most of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher in a separate room, I re-entered the dining hall – greeted by the wonderful smell of the ready-to-eat curries. The hungry boys had set the tables – seriously better than any 5 star restaurant.

The food tasted amazing (thanks to the parent who shared with Adell, Michelle, Kim and I). Like, really really good.

Picky eaters – boys (and girls) who “don’t eat anything” (their words, not mine) ate this. Some had more than one serving.  “Nuff said.

One definite highlight for me was watching the families sitting down to eat together. We’re all so busy these days it’s definitely a rarity for many families. Seeing so many mums and dads enjoying a meal with their kids and friends, well it doesn’t get much better than that.

There was so much laughter. So many smiles. And that you can’t fake.

So yeah, whilst there was a minute (ok a few – ok maybe 30) of panic (by me), as I looked around, I slowly realised that this evening was what the Food Revolution is all about. Bringing families together over food. Real food.

With great thanks to Steve, Catherine, Karen, Corey and the kitchen staff, Carlos, Richard, Jaime and all the maintenance staff, Michelle, Kim, Janet, Anna, Adell and all of the Petits Chefs and their parents. Go team!

* Food Revolution Day is May 19th – What are YOU doing to stand up for REAL FOOD? Check out the Food Revolution Day website here.

** You might like to read: Learning life skills in an afterschool cooking club and Do kids need their own cookbooks? – two articles I wrote for Jamie Oliver.com

*** It’s my THIRD blog birthday! To celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Wini Moranville’s “Bonne Femme Cookbook” – open to anyone, anywhere.  Contest closes on Tuesday May 22nd at 9pm EST and winner will be announced Wednesday May 23rd. Good luck!

Image: Harvard Common Press

The book, the brainchild of Wini Moranville of Chez Bonne Femme, is “authentic French cooking without fuss or fear, the way real French families eat today. Now that the typical French woman, the bonne femme of the title, works outside of the home just like her American counterpart (and now that French men, like their American frères, are often in charge of getting dinner on the table), the emphasis is on easy techniques and speedy preparation.”

It’s a user-friendly (though I missed illustrations or pictures of the dishes, to be honest) manual of up-to-date French classic recipes, demystified for today’s busy cook which includes a ton of time-saving tips.  The over 250 recipes are short and sweet – not intimidating at all – and just about every page contains a recipe I want to try. Ahem.  Moranville’s writing is lighthearted and conversational – it’s kind of like having her in your kitchen chatting as you cook – a lovely trait for a food writer to have!  You can read more about the book here.

For my little “apéro“, I made delicious “Croques Jeune Homme Amuses Bouches” – ham and cheese in buttery puff pastry. Mmmmm… So much easier than a croque monsieur and so much easier to handle at a cocktail party!

Also, continuing in the buttery puff pastry theme – Flaky Green Olive and Cheese Spirals… (though I used black olive tapenade but you get the idea!!)

And last but not least, Frenchified wings – Lemon Saffron Rosemary Wings to be exact!  These were delightful – unlike most “Buffalo” wings that you get here in North America. Fresh and elegant tasting – well as elegant as finger food can be!

I whipped up these three dishes in around an hour – not bad for three different cocktail snacks! I can’t wait to try more of the recipes from the other chapters in the Bonne Femme Cookbook!

And hey, what’s a party without presents?  Well thanks to Harvard Common Press, I have one copy of the Bonne Femme Cookbook to giveaway to one lucky reader anywhere in the world.  HCP will cover the shipping within Canada and North America but if you happen to win and you live elsewhere, I will pick up the tab for the remainder of the shipping. Just my way of saying “thanks” for reading over the past three years – I hope you will stick around!

To enter? Simply leave me a comment telling me what your favourite cocktail snack is.

Bonus entry? Tweet the following message:

Celebrate @eatlivtravwrite ‘s blog birthday and win a copy of @winimoranville ‘s cookbook http://bit.ly/Kb6VL4 Open to anyone/anywhere!

Then come back to leave me a separate comment telling me you did.

Contest closes on Tuesday May 22nd at 9pm EST and winner will be announced Wednesday May 23rd. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with a complimentary review copy of the Bonne Femme Cookbook by Harvard Common Press. I was not otherwise compensated and was not obligated to write a post about it. HCP will provide one (1) copy of the Bonne Femme Cookbook as a giveaway prize and will cover shipping costs in North America and Canada. Should the winner be from elsewhere, I will cover the remainder of the shipping costs myself.

A panel of culinary luminaries, including celebrity chef Thomas Keller, former restaurant critic of The New York Times Ruth Reichl, and food writer Amanda Hesser, has selected their most beloved 100 Julia Child recipes.  Each Monday, in the 100 days leading up to Julia’s birthday (starting May 7th), I’ll be receiving one special JC100 recipe to bake/ cook if I choose. I am only obliged to make one but hope to participate a few times in the next 100 days.

For Julia, a simple lunch of sole meunière – her first meal in Paris — was life changing and inspired her 40-year love affair with food and the start of a cooking revolution in America.  The first recipe of the JC100 is Julia’s classic Omelette Roulée (Rolled Omelette) — “dinner in half a minute,” as she described it on “The French Chef.”  This one’s all about technique, but the opportunities for garnishes and fillings are limitless.

Having just returned from a whirlwind trip to Bangkok (there and back – that’s TWO 20 hour flights! – in 7 days) I chose to go simple and yesterday morning, having had a weird night’s sleep, woke up needing something a little substantial for breakfast. True to the recipe, this was, indeed a quick meal – less than 5 minutes’ from rolling into the kitchen to sitting down to eat. And yes, it took me a couple of goes to get this right. The “mistakes” were chopped up and went into some fried rice

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