Recipes

[beach-mom]

@Enufstuff - Your apple crisp sounds yummy - actually right now! LOL!

My family always liked my Coq au Vin. Boeuf Bourguignon   - not so much. 

My favorite crepes are lemon and sugar. There is a small place at the beach. Two sisters started it. The original place was a shuttered spot near the ocean. When they wanted to go to the beach they just closed their shutters! I was 14 when they came, and I was starstruck. They were both beautiful! And they would have a sarong wrapped around their bikini bottoms. I never saw them in street clothes. I wanted to practice my French, so I always ordered in French, and they got a kick out of it. They always had Edith Piaf playing.

They sold to a young woman who barely spoke the language. She moved the business and has a few tables outside only. She also expanded the menu to include sandwiches and different desserts. I did meet her once, and she was nice, but you never see her. French students here for the summer run it and live above it and above the store across from the restaurant. All of these years later I still order in French! Can't break my record! I have taken great delight in embarrassing my children by doing it! 

I make them myself too. I received a fancy crepe maker as a gift, but I actually like my one trusty pan better. 

When DD was in middle school she "volunteered" me to make crepes for the French class end-of-year party. I was up all night making them for every student that took French. What was I thinking?! I would put them in the oven to keep them warn. What a mess! In the end I sent them in at room temperature with two big plastic bottles of Hershey's chocolate syrup. She said everyone loved them!  

I've never been brave enough to attempt Buche de Noel. I'll bet yours looked fantastic!  

[Enufstuff]

@SportyShorty07   Thank you so much. The salad is easy to prepare, it just takes time.

               I boiled the eggs, the day before and thawed the frozen shrimp overnight in the fridge.

                The potatoes and green beans were cooked early in the day.   If you make it, I hope that you enjoy it.

          In Recipes, I also posted a recipe for a Chicken, Raspberry and Orange salad. There is no picture of the salad.

[SportyShorty07]

@Enufstuff  You're welcome- it was a real treat to see your salad!  ! Your photo of your salad is so nice that It looks like it could be the cover of a cooking magazine! That is so smart to cook or defrost the ingredients ahead of time- that way, you can assemble the salad te day of without any hassle or stress.  I  also forgot to write that mosquitos love me! Anytime the weather is hot, I'll wake up with 7 or 8 mosquito bites. 

[Enufstuff]

@beach-mom   Lemon and sugar crepes sound wonderful. I love everything lemon.  That must have been fun, ordering in French at the restaurant. I've never had crepes at a restaurant. I got one of those crepe makers, back in the 70's. I only made dessert crepes, with a fruit filling.

                       I haven't thought of making them for a while.

I should get out that crepe maker and try it again.

  Did you study French in high school? I studied French and Latin in school. My friends and I used our limited French outside of school and that was fun. Both of my parents had French Canadian parents, so I heard a few phrases from them,

growing up.

              The Buche de Noel was a lovely dessert for Christmas. But it was very time consuming. I only made that once. I made the little mushrooms to decorate it, but I didn't make the spun sugar. That was too ambitious for me.

               Do you make dessert crepes or savory crepes? Do you make the lemon and sugar crepes? I would like to try making those.

                Making crepes for a whole class, was quite an undertaking. The kids must have loved them.

                When all my children were still at home, I made them for seven people. I didn't make them often. Now there are only three of us here, so it will be easier. I'll have to dig out that crepe maker.

[Enufstuff]

@SportyShorty07    We are just too sweet and attractive to those  mosquitoes. Fragrances do attract them.

                             Do you have type O blood? That is what I have and I wonder if that attracts them. Maybe not.

                             I would go crazy with 7-8 bites. Do you have a special remedy for them? I have  Bendryl gel and a Band-Aid gel for insect bites. A paste of baking soda and water is supposed to be good, but I've never tried it.

                       I mostly just try to stay inside after dark.

[SportyShorty07]

@Enufstuff  We're tasty! Those mosquitoes have great taste!   I should find out my blood type- I keep forgetting to ask whenever I do my annual physical blood test.  Good tip about the  Benadryl gel- I'll have to go out and get it some time. I just got one mosquito bite on my shoulder tonight, I bet I'll wake up with more- my shoulder is an appetizer and I know they're going to go for my legs and arms next . 

[Sooner]

Salad looks wonderful!  Just my kind of thing!  And it reminds me that I have a note from Julia in 5h3 1980's thanking me for writing to her about how much her book had ment to uw when we were newly married and trying to cook exotic things  in college! 

Now I have to find that note!  

[beach-mom]

@Enufstuff - I was a true Francophile! When I was in high school I couldn't wait to get to my class, and my French teacher was my favorite teacher of all time. I was president of the French club (and can still see the picture of us all on classmates.com,) 

 I majored in French and English in college. I spent one semester at the University of Grenoble. I spent some time in Paris and traveling around southern France too. 

My American friends and I would splurge every weekend and have dinner in town at a Crepe restaurant. They had every kind of crepe imaginable! And that's all they served. My favorite was the beef stroganoff. 

My first year after college I got a job teaching for the Canadian embassy. I loved it! The children of the embassy officials were expected to be fluent when their parents returned to their home country.

After that I taught in Japan for three years. That was amazing too! I'm really blessed to have had those opportunities. Since I taught kindergarten through high school , I had an interpreter in the classroom with me for all but my high school classes. The staff called us "the twins" because we were born on the exact same day! She wanted to learn French. So I taught her French, and she taught me Japanese!

When I returned to the US I got a job teaching English at a community college. I never taught French again, although I did tutor and I still "help" students from time to time. 

You are lucky to have the French-Canadian connection! Have you been to Montreal?

I don't make savory crepes. I have a cookbook from a friend, but DH wasn't keen on it and the kids were less so!

DD liked hers with Nutella. The rest of us like the lemon and sugar. I make the crepes and baste them with melted butter. Then I squeeze half a lemon on top and sprinkle a little sugar on.

Let me know how you make your savory ones. I might just surprise DH one night for dinner - when we will be home together! (Our schedules are all over the place. I'm in my "second" career- LOL!)  

[Enufstuff]

@beach-mom   Wow!  You are a true Francophile! Do you have French ancestry? Like you, I enjoyed learning French in high school and also Latin.

     It must have been fun to have been in a French club in high school. At my small Catholic girls' high school, we didn't have French club. My French girl friend and I would have loved that. Both of her parents were French, but I never heard them speak it at her house. We enjoyed using our high school French, outside of school.

      We were both in Art club and I was in Biology club. Both have been lifelong loves of mine. My degree was in Food Science and Technology and I worked as a microbiologist, before working for the city school department.

     You must be very fluent in the language, having majored in French in college and even teaching for the Canadian Embassy.

     What a wonderful experience it must have been, teaching in Japan and learning Japanese. It's great that you still help students with French.

      Learning a new language is fun.  For two years, before we travelled to Italy, I studied Italian, at home with CD's and I took two semesters of Italian at a nearby State College.

      It was great to be able to communicate in Italian, in Rome and Florence, even though most people we encountered , spoke some English. The dialect in Venice was a little different and there, we encountered a few people who did not speak any English.

      At the school that I worked at, there was a teacher, a couple of parents and a student I could communicate with in Italian. I learned a little more by speaking with them, too. I would use Italian when going to an Italian restaurant. But, not using it for several years, some of the language is becoming lost to me.

     It must have been so exciting to go to Paris and to travel in

southern France. I have never been there. People I know, who have visited Paris have loved it.

     During the Summer before Covid, we took a Viking Danube River Cruise. We started in Budapest, then to Austria and Germany.

     I prepared for the trip by learning basic greetings and phrases in each language. I think that it is only polite to at least attempt to use a local language, when visiting another country.

People seem to appreciate it, even if I don't have the correct accent. I enjoy learning about other cultures and learning the 

basics of the languages. To me, one of the most important things to know is, how to ask "Where is the bathroom? ".

   To answer your question, no, I have never been to Montreal.

But as a child and a young teen, we would go to Quebec to visit a great-uncle. He didn't speak English. Quebec is where all our French ancestors lived, before coming to the U.S.  They had originally come from Rouen and a cousin told me that there are still some distant relatives in Rouen.

 My daughter and I would love to go to Quebec and visit the Huron settlement where our First Nations ancestors lived. My paternal great-grandmother and great-grandfather had both French ancestors and Canadian First Nations ancestors. We also had Huron ancestors from Ontario.

  After my great uncle passed away, my parents would vacation in Montreal.

 My daughter has travelled to Quebec and Montreal and she loves Canada. When my grandson was in high school, he went on a class trip to Quebec. He loved studying French and he won the highest award for French at his high school.

 My own children only learned Spanish in school. Sadly, many public schools in Massachusetts, have taken Latin and French out of their curriculum. ( The dumbing down of America, along with not teaching cursive writing and how to read a clock).

 Getting back to crepes, I have never made savory crepes, only

dessert crepes. I will have to try the lemon and sugar ones.

Did you make them for breakfast or for dessert?

  I have made Beef Strogonoff, but would never think of putting it in a crepe. I like the noodles.

  People get very inventive, creating foods that combine traditional dishes of different cultures.

  One of my daughters loves pineapple pizza, but I have no desire to try that. I guess that I am a purist and like traditional ethnic foods.

  My children grew up eating many different ethnic foods that I

made. Greek, Italian, Russian, French, Asian and Middle Eastern dinners and desserts were served to them.

  After we divorced, my ex-husband missed my cooking. Too bad! I had spoiled him. His second wife was not a cook.

[Enufstuff]

@Sooner   How wonderful that you actually have a personal note from Julia.  That is a real treasure.

              That would be lovely in a frame with a picture of Julia.

A great piece of kitchen decor!