Thyme For Cooking, the Blog

Venison Filet Mignon; are you tired?

2012-01-27T20:39:36+01:00

What makes you tired? The kind of tired that makes your mind go blank and you lose the will to move.... Unless it's to move chocolate to the lips. For me there are two kinds of tired - the good kind and the exhausting kind. The good kind of tired is how I feel after a brisk four-hour walk, uphill all the way or an all day bicycle ride along the back roads or even after a good ride on...

Butternut Squash and Polenta Gratin

2012-01-25T21:41:59+01:00

My search for butternut squash recipes continues. A few weeks ago an email came across my screen that caught my interest. To be honest, I get so many, and most are not worth the effort to hit the delete button... I tucked it away, without reading, of course, to make another day. The day came. I found the recipe, grabbed a pen to jot down notes and actually read it. First, it fed 12. As a main course. Turns out...

Beef and Filo Cigars; the update

2012-01-23T20:24:08+01:00

We're perilously close to having another room done. All that's left is the trim (always the trim) around the floor and window. And then.... Then..... The hall is next in line to be finished. And part of finishing the hall is to build book cases lining one wall. When the book cases are done..... I can, finally, unpack the rest of my books. I have about 20 boxes of books that have not been opened in almost 4 years. Yes,...

Chicken Breasts Duxelles; the sauces

2012-01-22T20:45:24+01:00

Last week I gave a brief primer on 'styles' in food. This week it's sauces. Sauces are a bit more simple. Note I did not say sauces were simple. Like anything in the kitchen, there are the basic sauces and the modifications made by the person wielding the spoon. The well-known: allioli - garlic mayonnaise mayonnaise - egg yolks, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil hollandaise - egg yolks, lemon juice and butter béarnaise - egg yolks, vinegar, white wine, tarragon,...

Tomato Flan with Couscous Salad

2012-01-20T20:38:48+01:00

I'm in love! Assuming one can be in love with a store. During my search for cranberries before Christmas, my neighbor mentioned a 'vegetable market' across from a DIY store in Bergerac that had an amazing variety of produce. In my mind I saw a warehouse-type building filled with crates of vegetables. I was wrong (and so early in the year!) Le Grand Frais - The Big Fresh (?) It was huge; it was modern; it was cold. Around the...

Bread Baking Babes do speed-baking: Cuban Bread

2012-01-19T21:34:14+01:00

Cuban Bread Ilva, of Lucullian Delights, the Babes' Host Kitchen of the Month, decided that the Babes needed something easy to start the New Year. She also decided that the Babes needed something delicious to start the New Year. This bread goes from mind to mouth (almost) in just 2 hours and starts in a cold oven. Yes, you read that correctly, a cold oven. Intrigued? Visit her blog for the complete recipe and details on becoming a Bread Baking...