Gluten free me

Last year about this time I was eating lots of cheese. The problem is and was ... I'm dreadfully allergic to it. I've been sure of my dairy allergy for at least six years. I saw a doctor but shrugged it off. After all it was cheese. Cheese is my life.

Those days all ended in China. Cheese is not easy to find and when you do pay the eight euros for it there is a huge meh factor. I gave it all up. Now that I've given up dairy I feel so much better. My skin is clearer. My eyes are brighter and I digest everything so much better. The dreaded mucus has gone too. All blessings.

Oh and I lost my paunch, or nearly ten kilos to be exact.

I also stopped eating wheat and any glutens and down I shrunk to the weight I was before having Little S.

My new way of eating is hard to describe. I'm slowly backing out of an old way of eating so I still have old habits. I still eat some meat, one of my few vices. I'd say about 5 percent of my diet is meat based. For some reason giving up meat is not easy. Mostly I eat fish though, steamed or canned.

Another 5 percent of my diet is gluten free grains. I eat corn flakes with no milk for breakfast covered in fresh fruit. I sprinkle it with cinnamon:

"In traditional Chinese medicine, Cassia cinnamon is used for colds, flatulence, nausea, diarrhea, and painful menstrual periods. It's also believed to improve energy, vitality, and circulation and be particularly useful for people who tend to feel hot in their upper body but have cold feet."

And I gave up coffee for green tea. I will still have espresso when visiting Italy though or when I find some great espresso brewing at a friends house. Coffee was a definite vice but being in China is like being in coffee prison so it was easy to give it up. It's much more fun shopping for tea.

For lunch I make raw salads. Raw foods make up about 85 percent of my diet. A typical salad is spinach leaves, courgette, tomato, carrot, ginger, hot peppers, tuna and maybe an egg. I would like to give up the egg but it's another vice. One day at a time. Dessert is always a piece of fruit.

Dinner is much the same. I eat salads. I love my salads so much I look forward to them. I actually think they're better than restaurant salads because they're so fresh.

I still have some lingering vices that don't fit my raw food, vegan goals. The meat of course is one, the eggs, peanuts, chocolate, sometimes even potato chips * gasp*. I am far from being a saint. I love salty snacks. I'd say my vices account for about 5 percent of my diet.

One thing which pleased me was that I found that I could cook Christmas dinner and still enjoy the things I made in moderation. It was even refreshing to not overeat for once. After the holiday I shelved my cookbooks and went back to raw. It was like going home again. It felt normal.

Lately I've taken up juicing. I'm intrigued by juice fasts and I'll be doing my first one here very soon, maybe at the end of the month. I'm really excited about it. To work up to it I'm juicing now at lunch and eating a much smaller salad afterwards. I have heard that juice fasts are easier when friends do it together. If you're interested in joining in I'd be happy to have some company via a facebook group. Even if you've never juiced before you might want to give it a try!

Christmas breakfast ideas

I'm already gathering ideas for our marathon Christmas brunch and here's one I forgot I'd had tucked away in a word file. My apologies to the original author for not giving credit to them.

This sounds really good and it's going to remind me of Mexico so I think it's perfect. Now I just have to try and find Kahlua in France. I don't think I've ever looked for it but I'm guessing it's not a commonly stocked item.

Kahlua and Baileys French Toast
(*or pancakes if you want to modify the recipe to suit)

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs
2 cups milk
3 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. Kahlúa coffee liqueur
1 tbsp. Baileys Irish cream
3 pinches salt
6 thick slices of cinnamon bread
1/4 cup confectioners sugar


PREPARATION

Beat together eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, Kahlúa, Baileys, and salt. Heat lightly oiled skillet or griddle over medium heat. Soak bread slices in egg mixture for 20 seconds on each side or until thoroughly coated. Cook bread until both sides are lightly browned and crisp. Sprinkle with confectioners´ sugar and serve hot.

Chocolate

I made really good chocolate muffins yesterday from this recipe. These are so delicious and they poof up really high! You have to try these for a birthday party or something because they are beautiful.

It's an American recipe but for French purposes I replaced the AP flour with Farine Gateaux (I often do this with my muffins even if the recipe doesn't call for rising powder) and of course I used creme fraiche instead of sour cream. I skipped the chocolate morsels because I was too lazy to chop up the chocolate and besides I have really good powdered chocolate so I figured they'd be chocolatey enough. Next time I think I'll add some nuts.

It makes about 12 big muffins so just be ready to make two batches or else cut the recipe in half.

Baking bread in France

I love baking and working with dough and I think baking bread is lots of fun. Seb laughs at my attempts and calls me crazy. He's probably right. It seems a bit silly to bake bread it in Europe because like most people I have a boulangerie two minutes from my house that sells wonderful breads. But yes I think it's fun to make it myself and besides it's always nice to have the smell of warm, baked goodness in your house. And isn't baking bread is a kind of power trip, in a hey you know....I made that kind of way. I'll admit I like that part too.

My No Knead Bread came out pretty good for a first attempt and it actually had a really good crust. It was definitely a fluke that the first round came out so well because bread baking is never easy to master. My second attempt today is looking grim since my dough failed to rise last night for no known reason. * I did the exact same thing but who knows what happened. Bread making is usually like that. Practice makes perfect! The next 10 attempts I'm just looking at as practice sessions. It's the best way to approach it.

*oops, oops, oops I suddenly remembered upon baking that I'd added olive oil at the last minute to my dough ball before I left it overnight....essentially making pizza dough! (it was still good and Seb ate it all!!) I also think I forgot to heat my water before dissolving my yeast, whch was a tip I got off of another person's blog but isn't in the recipe! (umm, the recipe is a little scant especially the video version on the NYT website). So my latest batch is rising nicely, whew.

Baking and cooking in France

apple cinnamon muffins of varying heights--Little S had a good time filling the tin-- that's his unofficial job --

Everyone here is still sick so we've all been stuck inside the cavern. There isn't much to do but clean and cook and then take temperatures...beep, beep, beep.

I don't post much about recipes and food because I get most of my recipes from foodie friends and their blogs and there isn't much sense in repeating what they already posted. I do love to cook and bake though and I spend hours in the little kitchen I posted pictures of.

Most nights we eat vegetables, about a 1 litre jar gets filled each afternoon with whatever I have in the fridge, --often tomatoes, a potato, courgettes, onions and carrots--always garlic! I can usually chop and fill it in 15 minutes or so (while listening to podcasts!) I buy three days worth of meat at a time or sometimes tofu and I make our dinners in a huge cast iron skillet with drizzled olive oil. It's my generic, predictable meal. Although it sounds boring it isn't really. The veggies change regularly, sometimes grilled or steamed and sometimes the whole thing gets cooked and made into a quiche or dished out on tortillas and smothered in lime. My friend Lucy is the one who taught me about making a "spice mix maison" and this is what I use, regularly changing it around about every two weeks to suit my whims. Right now it tends to have a lot of curry and pinches of cinnamon in it. It's my own mix and she's right I think it is important to make your own mix (although Lucy gives you a good start by posting what's in hers). I keep it stored in a baby food jar next to the stove and you can actually see it in the photo below or the post I did about my kitchen. It's a wonderful way to not fumble around for individual spices and have fun with flavors.


About twice a week I play in the kitchen making new things and experimenting with different recipes. I like learning so I usually try to find something challenging but sometimes I just get a hankering for something and I have to have it. This week it was meatloaf of all things and I found a great alternative to my mom's 1970 traditional recipe, Italian Meatloaf. This was fun to make but very hard to roll. I added olives and walnuts to the recipe and for some reason bought fresh parmesean instead of mozzarella which I ended up preferring. I also stir cooked my own mushrooms in some wine and used that juice. (I love that there is a recipe for "Baby's First Meatloaf" on that site and I have no idea why they put a tablespoon of formula into it. I guess that's what makes it suitable for babies. That's just so funny).

I am trying to learn to be a better baker, always trying and slowly improving. The whole time we were in Mexico my oven didn't work and it drove me mad trying to get my landlord over to fix it. Mexican landlords are very casual about things like that. When I got to Florida to visit my parents I went a little crazy baking every day. I just had to get it out of my system. It was a long year without an oven!

Baking in France is a little bit of a challenge for an American because of the difference in flours and rising powders. I often cheat and bring things back from the States. (If you're coming to visit France soon bring me some Clabber Girl baking powder please! ) Pastry chef David Lebowitz has lots of wonderful recipes and he gives great tips for American bakers living in France, hints for substitutions and lots of tips for where to find things. His blog is linked in my sidebar.

Right now I'm trying to make that No Knead Bread from the New York Times website, (rising nicely in my kitchen from yesterday but lots of people seem to have problems with it) and I'm on a muffin kick. I don't remember where I got my apple-cinannamon muffin recipe but it's similar to this one. These would be fun for Halloween decorated with caramel icing. I haven't gotten around to the icing yet so maybe my Halloween muffins will be chocolate chip because these are already gone!

(Notes for the expat baker--I used French self rising flour and levure chimique in cakes. It's the only way I can get anything to rise. People often tell me they use yeast in place of levure chimique but I have never given this a try. If you are looking for baking soda in France look in the aisle where the salt is. It comes in a container that looks a bit like salt, and shockingly enough not sold in a bright yellow box with decapitated limbs--(how is this even possible?) It's called bicarbonate alimentaire.)

Eating better

Our house should have a giant red x painted on it. It's the house of the plague here. Both Seb and Little S are ill and laid up in bed. Since we share a room with Little S I had a fun time trying to sleep with the two of them moaning and groaning all night. It was so dramatic. I mean who on earth moans and groans with flu symptoms? Men that's who--or at least my men. I was just lying there thinking it's a good thing they don't have to ever give birth! Anyway they are both in bed resting and I'm playing nursemaid today to two really disagreeable patients.

I'm also looking for information on receiving an organic CSA farmer's basket and wondering if I should do that or just try to find the organic farmers at one of the local markets. This is all part of my switching back to eating more locally and avoiding the big grande surface evil empire. I got corrupted in Mexico because I didn't do the local market, --couldn't in fact. You have to be really careful about eating fruits and veggies from unreliable sources in Mexico. Small children die each year from this and I was scared for the baby and Little S.

Now that I'm back in France I'm still in supermarket mode and it kind of disgusts me. We're in the country but the biggest grocery store chain in France is a three minute drive from my house. I used to never like this store and I can't really believe I have to shop there again. But we don't have a local market in our village and you have to go to the neighboring village for market day where parking is really difficult. That market is also on Saturday morning and I really like the idea of a weekday market because I want to be with Seb on the weekends. I was really spoiled in Th*n*n with being able to walk to everything--a small grocery store, the Monday and Thursday morning market, all my doctor's appointments--everything. I kind of miss that and it really helped push me to cut out shopping at a mega supermarket.

So I'm sitting here going through my most recent mega market receipt trying to nail down alternatives for all my goods and scratching my head when I read the names of these towns for the places I've googled. It's so hard moving to a new place and learning your way around. I am determined to cut out this nasty habit though so I will find these places.

If you're interested in getting a weekly organic CSA basket or even just learning where the organic farmers are in your area, link to this site if you're in the U.S.:
Local Harvest.org

and here if you're in France:
mon panier bio

I'm sure other countries have similar programs like these if you do a little google search. I'll let you know how mine turns out if I end up doing it.

Guilty pleasures

There is comfort in a routine and for me that is my nightly bottle of Coronita, a 250ml smaller version, poured in a frosted glass with fresh lime. It's a simple pleasure, slightly guilty and it will no doubt change to some other guilty pleasure when we move back home. Perhaps a chocolate reunion?

What's your guilty pleasure?

30 days: day 17

It´s how I like to eat every day here. I make chicken tostadas three or four times a week. The cheese is chihuahua which is somewhat similar to the mild French Auvergne cheese, St. Nectaire, or I guess in American cheese talk close to montery jack. It´s my favorite so far.

And then of course I pile on lots of lime and guacamole or pico de gallo, for dressing everything up. On the side, in a frosted mug a Coronita --yes, you heard right...a baby Corona in Mexico is marketed as a Coronita. I squeeze a little lime juice in it, not too much but just enough to add some tang and there´s my little evening meal.

By the way did you know that in Mexico no one drinks Corona with a lime. It´s odd because limes are served with everything here but not beer. I am so used to drinking it this way that I have to ask for a lime when I get served one and they give me the funniest look.

Guacamole heaven

I love how in Mexico you can buy avacados by the kilo and not by the piece. In Europe one avacado costs about 1,20 (80 centimes on a good day). In Mexico it´s about three US dollars a kilo (that´s 2.2 pounds for the metric handicapped among you).

Needless to say we make guacamole every other day!

Poulet time

I got this great little chicken recipe book last week when I was picking up my usual cookbook magazines. I know it looks cheesy but it's actually got tons of great recipes, 66 to be exact. It's also laid out well and has some nice photos. Three cheers for a nicely laid out, non-confusing French recipe book!



I plan on making each and every recipe in succession. I've already made three of them and they were all pretty good.

You can pick this up in France or Belguim at your local newstand for 3 euros. I think it's available through December.

I talk about cookbooks, or at least try to

I'm throwing my hat in the arena of video blogging. As you will see, toddlers and video making are a retched combo. I'm pretty sure mother's who are brain surgeons can conceivably bring their children to work and still conduct the surgery while the children run around at their feet "stop it Damien!"..."scalpel please"..."I don't want to have to say it again"..."suction" Women invented multitasking. We are so good at this. I surprise even myself sometimes.

Click on the YouTube icon to see it bigger.

Sagging under a heavy load

I can't even get to my cookbooks anymore without inviting a crushing avalanche. Maybe it's time to reorganize things.

Soup's on

The recipe from my mother-in-law for carrot and leek soup was probably not even necessary. Everyone in France for any length of time learns this one. It's a popular one. It's a simple one. It's good on a winter evening. So why did I even bother with getting the recipe? Because her version is perfect that's why.

Velvety smooth, a golden nutty tone, and full of subtle delicate flavors, I've been dining on this soup with my in-laws for the seven years that I've been in France and I've been trying to copy it for all of those seven years. I have never been able to do it. Mine always comes out different.

The recipe my mother in law finally handed me last year in her delicate, upright swirly, handwriting was not a gift with the secret for the soup. If you've ever asked a French person how to make a dish like this, first you'll get the "you have to be kidding me" look, then you'll get maybe a head scratch and then probably a Gallic sigh,* and finally a tentative "je peux essayer...je suppose" (I can try...I guess). It's not that they don't want to share, it's just that they make it all with such ease and afterthought that putting it into a recipe is as impossible to explain as trying to explain how we walk or talk or sleep. We just do.

Needless to say the recipe made my soup worse. It calls for 500 grams of carrots, 3-5 leeks and about a 900g of potatoes. Then it calls for a whopping 3 litres of water. The rest just says mix it all together. How? There is no explanation. Don't worry, I knew that part, but you see how horribly vague she was. You can see that we're drowning in water here. And it's clear to anyone that we have enough potato quantity to keep a small Irish farmer in business all winter long. She'd tried in vain to explain the unexplainable. I'd just have to give up. It wasn't going to happen.

No, no no. I would not give up! But, three attempts at the new soup recipe just made me look more and more incompetent. Seb just shook his head each time and said "no, it's not bad but..." I knew he wanted to say "but not like maman" but he is a wise, wise man and that's why I married him. He knew to keep his mouth shut about making comparisons. After a downright awful third attempt a few months back, I put away the recipe, but in the last few months it had been bugging me. I ignored the call until a recent trip to the market had me eyeing some lovely leeks. "Leeks, oh I love leek soup...and the carrots I'll just get a batch and..." And the vegetables sat forlornly in my fridge all week long.

This weekend I decided that the batch I'd bought for the damn soup had to be used or else tossed out so I decided to try again, why not, in the interest of not wasting food. Why not pull out the recipe. Why not suffer humiliation and defeat. Did I even have the energy? I pulled out the recipe. The quantities we're grossly off, yes. I studied it again. I looked at it ten times. And then I got frustrated and closed the book. I carefully cut up my two medium sized leaks and sautéed them in some butter with just a hint of garlic. To this I added trace spices; ginger, cumin, red pepper seeds and cinnamon, then the garni of thyme sprigs, bay leaf and salt and fresh ground pepper. None of the spices mother-in-law really would have ever used. Too racy and avant garde for her tastes. Then I added a very simple double heaped, handful of diced carrots and finally three very medium sized potatoes. I put in enough water to respectfully cover the vegetables and let the pot simmer for 35 minutes. The aroma of a wonderfully tasty mixture started wafting through the house almost immediately and Seb peeked around the corner from where his nose had been buried in his laptop and work papers, "mmm, smells really good."

And it was very good, nutty and golden with a hint of kick just like I like. It didn't come out lumpy and starchy like all the times before. It didn't come out watery and tasteless like the other times. It came out perfect and velvety, and slightly thick and a even a teensy bit robust. I'd made it my way. It wasn't her soup but it was good. And I could do it again and again, and maybe even better next time.

I'd broken the mold. It's important to break the mold. I mean sometimes you just have to follow your own recipe, right?


* A Gallic sigh is a full body sigh with a huge heave of the chest, a sort of twisted mouth turn and wide eyes, and of course it's always accompanied by the remark, "je ne sais pas..." You will find yourself doing this after even the briefest short stay in this country. It's highly effective, which is why most mother-in-laws and teenagers do it very well, ...oh and of course anyone giving you a time frame for the completion of any project in France.