Cooking Fun

As I mentioned last week, I recently re-read French Women Don't Get Fat in an effort to make eating more appealing. It has actually been working pretty well. As long as I get a decent amount of sleep, I am feeling good enough to eat more and more things. I've been trying some of her easier recipes too.

One of my new favorites is Celery Root Remoulade. This is kind of like cole slaw, but I think I like it even better - it's less mushy. It makes a great first course for all kinds of meals, especially sandwiches. She says it is classic bistro fare.

Another favorite - I've already made it three times - is her Tagliatelle with Lemon. I couldn't find tagliatelle at the store and didn't feel like making it (I'm not THAT well yet), so I did linguine. This is mild but tasty. I'm still not up to garlic, onions or tomatoes, so this is a good way to have flavorful pasta without them.

I'm planning to do her Homemade Croissants again this weekend. They are AMAZING! I made them at least three years ago and my husband is still talking about them. (Definitely should have done this sooner.)

I also decided we would have egg salad sandwiches, in an effort to eat more protein. I needed to check how long to cook the eggs, since it had been a while since I had done this. I not only found out how long to cook them, I figured out why my mom's hard boiled eggs were always grayish and mine too! Now I can do it the right way - they came out beautiful and delicious. I can't find the site I read, but basically the trick is not to let them boil. Bring them to a boil, then remove from the heat and let sit for approximately 15 minutes. After that, place in cold water to stop the cooking. I just chop up the eggs, throw in some really good mustard and mayonaise and mix. This, on homemade bread (read on) with some leftover arugula is a very deluxe egg salad sandwich.

I also learned the EASIEST homemade bread ever. I was on the waiting list at the library for the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking - in fact I'm still waiting. It sounded like a great idea, so I was excited when Hannah did this post, which included a video of the process and her filling in of any missing details. I tried it and it is fabulous. I'm making up another batch today. I have realized that when I have a big baking day and freeze bread, it often goes to waste because we just don't like it as much frozen. With this method, it takes very little work to make a fresh loaf of any size at any time. I think this is going to a permanent fixture here - I never imagined bread could be so quick and easy. I'm still looking forward to getting the book and learning whatever variations they have come up with.

I am SO happy to be cooking again. I love the process and it is a million times better than takeout!