Best hubby ever

Tonight my hubby took to the kitchen! We picked up some cauliflower at the farmer's market this morning, and this evening hubby made the best cauliflower gratin in the world. We threw some shake-n-bake on chicken breasts to go with it, and hubby made apple crisp for dessert that just came out of the oven. What a great Saturday dinner. Seriously, you should make this cauliflower dish. And eat it all.

ffwd - apple cake

Originally, I tried to post the photo from my phone, but it looks like that didn't work at all. Boo.

I made two Dorie apple cakes this week - her Double Apple Cake from BFMHTY and the French Fridays' recipe for the week - Marie-Helene's Apple Cake. It was a great excuse to use up some apples that a friend picked. I preferred the Double Apple Cake, and hubby preferred Marie-Helene's. Both of us enjoyed both thoroughly!

I was able to use an 8" springform for the first time on Marie-Helene's cake. I bought a set of three to get the 10" for a Martha Stewart cheesecake several years ago, and the 8" has been sadly neglected since then. My apples were smaller, and the receipe called for larger apples, so I added an extra apple, and it seemed to work out nicely. Look at that pretty browning!


I had to buy a bundt cake pan. A couple of years ago I had a fit and threw out any bundts I had because I couldn't convince a cake to come out cleanly. Given my prior fits, I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out! Maybe I can face bundts again.

ebelskivers

I have ther greatest friends! We received an ebelskiver pan and then mix and turners for it as wedding presents. Today is hubby's birthday, and that seemed like the perfect excuse to try out ebelskivers.
I had never tried them before, so I tried out a ton of different fillings (things already lying around the house). I expected hubby to prefer the jams, but he was with me on the sweeter fillings. Our favorite was the kisses. The caramel, unfortunately, just kinda flavored the pancake instead of remaining a separate filling. The peanut butter and pie fillings were great runners-up. Next time we'll try out the chocolate mix and pick up some nutella to try as a filling... and maybe some small resses cups?

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ffwd- hachis permetier

This week I was a dutiful blogger and made the delicious selection for frenchfridayswithdorie.com on time! I am so glad I did. This dish is essentially french shephards pie, and it was the perfect comfort food for the cooler fall weather we have had around here.

I broke up the preparation into two days and that worked out well. All of the preparation was worth it to me. I loved this dish, and with only two of us there was enough left to freeze for dinner again later. I'm already looking forward to it. The potatoes are perfect in this recipe - I love the texture of potatoes run through the ricer. They just seem perfectly airy. And I love all the flavor the meat gets from this preparation.

Next time, I think I'll add some veggies to add a little more flavor and so that I can feel a little less guilty. I was glad I stuck to the recipe the first time around though.

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French Fridays with Dorie

I have been very disappointed in my own absence from the kitchen and greater absence from blogging. I thought that a new Dorie Greenspan challenge was just the thing to get me motivated again. I that each of her recipes will be a pleasant surprise, as every recipe I've tried of hers has been so far. Frankly, I worry that my husband is a bit jealous of my love for Dorie.

The challenge (French Fridays with Dorie) is in its third week, and I finally started. Although i also have the ingredients (except for the all-imporant eggs) ready to go for week 1's recipe (finally), tonight I made the recipe chosen for week 2 by Dorie herself: a mustard tart! I'm hoping that next week I can do some catching up and actually post my results on the apropriate week.

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