Food Freedom Radio Podcast & More!

It's Ground Hog's Day, and it looks like we'll have six more weeks of winter.  That's okay, because there is so much happening around The Little French Bakery

If you're got a copy of the cookbook and would like it signed, I'll be at Bekah Kate's on February 6th from 6-8 p.m. during the Chocolate and Wine event.  It's such a fun night.  What could be better than chocolate and wine?  I'll be bringing my thermal pumper filled with Sipping Chocolate.  Stop by and say hi!

Wow!  Last week was incredible  It was an exciting week of firsts.  My first TV appearance and first radio interview.   What fun!    I'll hopefully be able to share a link to the NBC 15 interview with you. 

If you'd like to listen to my interview with Laura and Karen from AM 950 in Minneapolis, here's the link:

http://am950ktnf.podbean.com/e/food-freedom-radio-january-31st-2015/#.VM2R84BkKD0.facebook

What else is new?  The BRAVA Salon on February 19, 2015 at Nonn's Flooring in Middleton, Wisconsin.

It's going to be a great evening!  I'll be demoing and talking with Kate Bast, the Editor-in-Chief of BRAVA.  There will be French inspired food and drinks, and very cool pop-up shops.  I'm so looking forward to seeing you there!

Click here to purchase tickets!

Last by not least, I'm working away adding classes to the schedule.  I've just added a few more today.  More classes will be coming, stayed tuned!  Feel free to add a comment and tell me what classes you'd like to see on the schedule.

We're shoveling out from yesterday's snow.  Hope you're having a nice sunny day wherever you may be.

Be safe and be kind,

Susan

Summer Southern Biscuits

Happy Fourth of July weekend!  To celebrate, I've made all-American biscuits with Strawberry Jam. We don't eat a lot of biscuits here in the northern states, but we certainly enjoy them.  There are many not-so-good (think hockey puck) biscuits.   I think mine were pretty good.  They were light, fluffy and had a really nice flavor.

Early this Spring, Gary and I traveled to the South on a road trip.  One of our stops was Charleston, South Carolina.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner was at Poogin's Porch.  Upon arriving, we were presented with a basket of light, fluffy biscuits.  I became obsessed with biscuits and set off to find the secrets for making them, just right.

As luck would have it, our hotel had a Southern Living Magazine.  One of the articles was on making biscuits.  I've used those tips, with others, to make some pretty darn good biscuits.

Another one of our stops  was Chattanooga, Tennessee to see our friends, Jerry and Nancy.  I needed Martha White Flour, and my guess was I needed to pick it up before heading home if I wanted to find it.  Ta-da!  I quick trip to a market and I had just what I needed.  As an aside, downtown Chattanooga has some great new restaurants.

Back to business.  The biscuits are made with flour, cold shortening, sugar, baking powder and buttermilk.   To put the finishing touch on the biscuits, I'm topped them with homemade strawberry jam from my friend, Dana.  She picked the berries about 1/2 mile from my house.  It's SO pretty and delicious!

Dana's Strawberry Jam

Biscuit Ingredients

To make the flour as light and well-mixed as possible with the other dry ingredients, I used a tamis, or French sieve.  Any sifter will do.  I sifted three times.

tamis

Here the tips for making biscuits:

1.  Be sure all the ingredients are cold.

2. Handle the dough as little as possible.

3.  Make a claw shape with your fingers and use them to stir in the buttermilk.

4. Dip the biscuit cutter in flour, press straight down, and pull up.  Don't twist the cutter.

5.  Place the biscuits "shoulder to shoulder"on the baking sheet so they rise and don't spread out.

biscuit-dough

biscuits

Breakfast Tray

To print recipe click HERE

Recipe:  Southern Biscuits

5 cups self-rising flour (I used Martha White)

2 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/4 pound (113 grams) cold shortening

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Sift together the dry ingredients.   Add the shortening and crumble together with the flour mixture until the shortening is in pea to marble sized pieces.  Add the buttermilk in three additions, gently used your fingers to mix, until just combined.

Pat the dough on to a lightly floured surface.  Gently roll the dough to 1 inch thick.  Dip a 2 inch cutter into flour, then press into the dough to cut, pull straight up/out.  Repeat to cut the about 16 biscuits.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake 12-14 minutes until golden brown.  Brush with butter when just out of the over if desired.

I've got lots more to tell you about our trip.  Have a great holiday weekend. Be safe and be kind.

Food Styling and Photography in Ireland

Last week I had the great fortune of attending an Angela Ritchie Ace Camp, in East County Clare, Ireland.  Our instructor was Béatrice Peltre.  This was my first trip to Ireland.   It's a beautiful, beautiful country.  The landscapes, the people and feelings you get as you travel are like no other.   I don't want to bore you with 900 photos, but I'd love to share a sampling of my week. I flew into Shannon, and stayed one night to shake off my jet lag.  The Carrygerry guest house not too far from the airport.  As I stepped out of the cab, this was my view.  The answer to the question, is Ireland really green?

I noticed all the blue and yellow banner flying in front of businesses and homes.   It's to celebrate the upcoming Hurling Championship game in a few weeks.  Country Clare is in the match, and it's not to be missed.  The Irish are crazy about Hurling.

After a warm, hearty dinner and a good sleep I was off the next morning to meet my classmates at the Caher House near Feakle.  Yes, after asking several locals, it's pronounced just the way it looks.  But with a nice brogue.

This grand home was my home away from home for the class.  We walked, talked, and learned so much about food styling, the ins and outs of food photography and many other tidbits.  If fact, we created a Sharing List, to document all the movies and odd & ends that came up in conversation, but we knew we might forget.  Thirteen women have a lot of conversations!

Our first morning we walked to see the chickens and horses, and explore the property. We discovered wild blackberries which would come in handy for our food styling exercises later in the day.

Our first styling exercise was styling a cute little jar of yogurt.  Sounds simple?  Add the spoon and the lighting with a pretty cloth and I had my work cut out for me.  Here's my final result.  We made a few more trips to the grocery store to pick up more jars.  They'll come in handy for other photos.  The best part is they all made it home in once piece.

Bea (pronouced Bay-ah) presented demonstrations and ideas for styling desserts, cheeses, meats and cooked foods.   Always natural light, and getting the food positioned just so.  Not too much, just right.

It was great fun working in pairs to style our own versions of the foods.  Sometimes the food and sun cooperated, sometimes the sun went behind a cloud and changed our plans.   Here are some of my shots.

One afternoon just before dinner a few of us piled in a car and were taken by the grounds/animal keeper to the other side of the lake.  The views were stunning.  As were drove down the single land road, we came upon a herd of wild horses.  They were as interested in us as we in them.

Our field trips included a trip to an organic goat cheese factory complete with goats.  It's a very small facility producing great cheese.

Normally, the goats are out grazing but the day of our visit it was raining.  The goats preferred to be inside so they were treated to fresh cut lush green grass.

After my week ended, I traveled back to the Carrygerry House joining my cab driver, Finbar, for an afternoon trip around County Clare.  He grew up in the area and had many ideas for things I should see before I left.  My first order of business was a pair of Wellies for home.  We had found several guest pairs in the basement of the Caher house and wore them into the woods and out and about on rainy days.  With my country life, I thought they'd come in handy here in Wisconsin too.

Finbar stopped to ask a friend where he thought would be a good spot to find Wellies.  They concurred it would be Dan, Mac & Ernies.   Sounded like a good spot.  They told me it has lots of farming equipment and would surely have authentic Wellies.   We drove into Ennis, and pulled into the farm supply store.  Silly me.  It wasn't Dan, Mac & Ernies.  It was Dan McInerney's!   I kept my phonetic spelling to myself.

We quickly found the boot section.  All the styles were lined up in a row.   I tried on a few pair to find my size, finding the perfect pair.  I was now the proud owner of real Wellies.  No, I didn't wear them out of the store, but I did put them on in my room to test them out before I packed them for the trip home!

After some gorgeous views, touring an Abbey, and seeing many ancient sites on the area, it was time for  a bite.  To accompany my seafood chowder, I had a hard cider.   I'm including a shot of my first Guiness too.  Delicious!

I'm looking forward to my next post where I'll make Seafood Chowder and Cheddar Scones for you.  The recipes are on their way from the Carrygerry House Chef and his wife, Gillian who own the Inn.

Finbar drove me to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most beautiful places I've seen.  The Atlantic is all its spendor.  The area is now a National Park with safety rails and a Visitors Center.   Finbar showed me the spot near the edges of the cliffs where he had picnics as a child.

It's great to be home and putting my new skills to work.  A special thanks to Angela Ritchie of Ace Camps, Allison our talented chef, and Beatrice Peltre for her talent and great teaching skills!

Grilled Corn Salad

What an exciting weekend!  I'm back from  San Francisco.   I went for a class on food styling and tips on food photography.   It was really fun and very interesting.   Joy Wilson from Joy the Baker sand Tracy from Shutterbean were the teachers.   They were full of ideas and great information.  Now the trick is to put it to good use.   Tracy and Joy prepared two recipes, and we got to style and shoot using our new props and tips.  Here are some oat bars, and my best shot of the day.

Walnut Oat Bars

It's been awhile since I was in San Francisco.  What a gorgeous city!    The hotel's driver/maintenance man invited Gary and I to the roof top to see the view on our last morning there.   Amazing!

Here's my postcard to all of you!

Golden Gate Bridge

Upon arrving home, I found our CSA box brimming with lots of fresh vegetables.   I wanted to make something crunchy, tasty and cool.  My version of a grilled corn salad - minus the grill.

The best part about this recipe is that you can use anything you like and leave out the things you don't like.   I had little baby eggplants, zucchini, red onion, cherry tomatoes and fresh sweet corn.

Beautiful Produce!

To start, shuck the corn and carefully slice off the cob.  Then,heat a grill pan or skillet and place the corn in a single layer ith just a little olive oil.  I used about 2 1/2 cups of corn and about 2 tsp. oil.  Let the pan get hot, really hot.  The corn will sizzle and snap.  Get it quick stir and your should see searing on the corn.  Move to corn to a heat proof bowl.  Add eggplant (I didn't peel mine), and zucchini to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes, just to heat through.  Add these vegetables to the corn and toss.

grilled corn

Now for the fun part.   Add other chopped vegetables, feta, black bean, cilantro/parsley... anything you like.

My salad included parsley, red onion, cilantro and a small piece of feta I had left over from another meal.

To finish the salad, mix in 1 T lime juice or vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

You can eat the salad warm, or cover, chill and enjoylater.   This salad is great with any grilled meat, or by itself for a light supper.

To print this recipe, click HERE

Grilled Corn Salad

2 1/2 cups corn (kernels)

1/2 -1 cup chopped zucchini

1 cup chopped eggplant

1 small red onion or scallions, chopped finely

1 can black beans (optional) rinsed

1/4 cup chopped parsley, cilantro or both

1/4 cup feta cheese, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup cherry tomoates, or 1 large tomato, chopped

1 T olive oil

1 T red or white wine vinegar (or a squeeze of 1/2 lime)

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

salt/pepper to taste

Shuck corn and remove from the cob.  Heat a skillet or grill pan with 1-2 tsp olive oil.  Add corn in a single layer and sear until light brown marks appear on some of the kernels.  Remove from pan to bowl.   Add zucchin and egglant to pan and saute for 3-4 minutes.  Transfer vegetables to the bowl with the corn.  Add the chopped onion, and black beans.  Add remaining olive oi, vinegar and spices.  Toss in tomato, feta and mix gently.   Remember, you can add any other vegetables or spices to make it your own!

Happy Summer!

corn-salad

Time for Apple Pie

Welcome to The Little French Bakery Blog! It's such a great time of year. Perfect for starting new projects and trying new recipes.

As many of you know, Gary and I just returned from Italy. We attended an amazing cooking class on wood-fired cooking. It was so fun to get up every day and fire the oven with the residual heat from the day before. We roasted, baked, grilled and learned many great new recipes. One of the best days was learning to remove all the bones from a chicken and roast it under bricks in the oven. I did it! A few years ago, I was wearing gloved to remove the neck from a chicken if there was a little left. Now... ta da! It's hard to believe that a whole chicken can be roasted in just 12-18 minutes, and be so delicious.

Another of my favorites was an apple crostada. A simple tart crust filled with apples and set on on the oven floor to bake. The first half of the baking was on parchment paper, then 2nd half directly on the oven floor. Wood fired cooking adds such a great dimension to food. Not smoky, but just moist and flavorful.

We arrived back at home just in time for fall and the start of apple season here in Wisconsin. I love apple pie! I've picked up some Cortland and yellow Delicious and am ready to start baking. This time, I'm going to try a new recipe, and bake in the outdoor oven. I'll give it a try and post the recipe if it turns out!

As you bake your apple desserts this fall, try adding some creme fraiche as a topping. It goes so well with apples. Another tip for a new taste is to omit the cinnamon and "usual" spices. Just add vanilla. The French aren't crazy about cinnamon and only use it sparingly. Once you try an apple dessert without cinnamon, you might be hooked.

To make creme fraiche: 2 cups heavy cream 1 T buttermilk Stir together and allow to rest overnight (not refrigerated). In the morning, stir the thickened creme fraiche and refrigerate, covered. It will continue to thicken and sour over the next few days. It can be kept up to 10 days or so. It can be whipped slightly for topping, or added to warm dishes as you would cream/sour cream without separating. Enjoy!