French Cooking with Love

Recently I've been thinking of Julia Child and her work to help the average American see that good cooking, (French cooking in particular) was really within their ability to create. That got me thinking of another talented cook... Sarah.

This was early last fall when Sarah did some French cooking for a school project. She picked the tomatoes, zucchini and crooked neck squash.

She chopped the onions and squash and sauteed them in olive oil. Then she added some minced garlic and gave it another stir. She cut up a lot of tomatoes and threw those in the pot too. Gave it some salt and pepper, put the lid on and let it simmer.

After about 45 minutes, she dished it up, put some parmesan cheese on top and served it with the braided bread she made. (She learned how to make the bread at activity days. Thank you activity day leaders... we love you!) Ratatouille and warm bread. Very nice.

A while later she made potage, which is just a French word for soup. For us, it means the yummy kind of soup you make with zucchini, cooked and then pureed with garlic, salt and pepper and some milk. Extra yummy with a shot of cream! We also grate swiss cheese and sprinkle that on top. The girls like it with some parmesan cheese too.

This is what Sarah made on New Year's Eve. Its called Coquilles St. Jacques. Shrimp and scallops in a heavenly cream sauce with swiss cheese and a few spices. Browned beautifully under the broiler till you nearly weep with joy. What a sinful way to ring in the new year. Thanks Sarah!

All of these dishes are ones that our family enjoyed eating at Grandma Marcelle's table. Sarah hadn't started cooking before Grandma got sick, but Rich's Mom taught me how to make these along with her delicious quiche and her chou a la creme (creme puffs). Not every girl gets a mother in law who really is a good French cook! Now Sarah is learning.

On New Year's Eve as Sarah was getting ready to serve her Coquilles St. Jacques, my mom gave Sarah this book. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.

"To Sarah because she is certain to be a wonderful cook. Be sure you always enjoy your time in the kitchen and you will make others happy with your efforts as well as yourself. With all my love, Grandma

...and in fond memory of your Grandma Marcelle"

My daughters were blessed to have lovely and talented grandmothers whose combined efforts represent an impressive repertoire of delicious food and an even more impressive legacy of love and devotion to their families.

Apricots

From this...

...to this.

Twenty four pints to be exact.

I love apricot jam.

Tonight I had apricot syrup on vanilla ice cream.

Wahoo!!

Thanks Grandpa for sharing the delicious fruit and thanks Grandma Jeannine for letting me mooch a picture from your blog.

Bon Appetit!

A new movie is coming out... Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Why didn't I think of that? I do like Miss Streep. Judging from the clip I saw she'll do a fabulous job.

The following pictures show the Julia of my childhood. I loved watching her and then I'd do my utmost best to imitate her.

Maybe I liked Julia so much because she was even taller than me. Maybe it was her voice... kind of nasally and not too fancy. She was forever making a mess or dropping something, yet she would always recover nicely. She could laugh at herself.

This is the Julia from my teenage years. Dan Akroyd used to do a great Julia on Saturday Night Live. He had the voice down pat and then he'd accidentally lop off a digit or two and just keep going.

Here's hoping the movie will do Julia justice.

What a lady.

Traveling without leaving home.

One of our favorite summer pasttimes is reading. I usually read some books out loud to the girls which is so much fun because we can be scared stiff or laughing ourselves silly or teary eyed all together. We are literally on the same page. It makes for good discussions... "I'f I were him, I'd have done this" or "I think the Scarlet Hand is so and so" etc.

Our read out loud books so far have been:

The Sisters Grimm, book #7 The Everafter War

The Anybodies

The Nobodies (darling story)

Here's Sarah's list of books read since school got out:

The Moon and Sun Series, books 1 & 2
Pure Dead Series, books 1-6
The Key to Rondo
Holly Claus (she loved this one)
The Grail Quest, books 1, 2 & 3
Bella at Midnight
Dragon Lance, the New Adventures, books 1 & 2
The Wight Co. (Arthur Conan Doyle, a favorite of Sarah's)
The Encyclopedia of Music (thanks Grandpa)
King Arthur

Now Em's list of books read since summer began:

Geronimo Stilton Series, books 1-5
Avril Crump and Her Amazing Clones
Lady Grace Cavendish Series, books 3 & 4
Bella at Midnight
Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox
A Barrel of Laughs and a Vale of Tears
The Beatrice Letters
Nancy Drew Sign of the Twisted Candles
Nancy's Mysterious Letter
Sitting Ducks
Riding Freedom
The Perfect Pony


I found Em holed up rereading one of the Sisters Grimm books. That's a fun series.


We really do get out and play- but our library cards are seeing some action.

Fire Pit Fun

This is where we're having some good times this summer...

out on the patio stinking up the neighborhood with scrap lumber from the varied home improvements we've undertaken over the years. (I'm using we've loosely. It's been all Rich, all the way.)

Richard is the flame master.

We had Grandma and our cousins over for some smore action the other night. Glow sticks make any gathering more festive.

Hillary sporting a lovely glow stick headband.

"What do you make of this?"

"I can make a hat, a pterodactyl, a brooch, a mustache..."

Name that movie - Airplane

"I come in pieces"

Em was being an alien with her glowsticks & instead of the traditional greeting ensuring a peaceable visit, she went with a more fractured hello.

Maddie & Sarah also came in 'pieces'.

Maddie and Grandma sharing a giggle.

Look at the fun you can have for $49.99. S'more ingredients extra.

MMmmmmm!

Henry knows where to go for perfectly toasted marshmallows.

This is from another night. Emily favored us with a bit of performance art she entitled 'Dance of the indigenous people around the fire pit'. I don't know if the indigenous people had Jazz Hands that early.

We've quite enjoyed our little outdoor soiree's. The nice thing about a campfire at home is the luxury of your own shower to get rid of the lil' smoky scent. Fun fun fun!