Bon Appetit!

As part of our homeschooling, we are doing a year of geography, studying maps and "traveling" from one country to another. At the end of each country unit, we make a meal of that country's dishes.

We just finished traveling in several European countries and chose to make a French meal because the French are known for their "haute cuisine." (You homeschooling students reading this--go look that up, it's your vocabulary word for the day!)

French meals typically go in this order:

Hors D'oeuvres (appetizers)--translates into "out of works," the works being the main course.

Fish or Soup Course--followed by a small dish of lemon or lime sorbet to cleanse the palate and refresh the senses.

Main Course--elaborate meat or poultry dish often with vegetable garnish

Salad Course--simple greens tossed with vinaigrette to cleanse the palate and aid digestion.

Cheese Plate--the French eat more cheese than anyone else in the world. Often served on a wooden board with assorted cut fruit. This signals the end of a family-style meal.

Sweet Dessert Course--Special occasions call for a treat. French desserts are indulgent, rich, and so beautifully decorated. Usually served with coffee.

Here are some pictures of the foods we made as well as the recipes we used.

Hors D'oeuvres by Reed--saltines with a layer of strawberry jelly, then peanut butter piped on with a cake decorator, (Reed enjoyed that part!)then a dusting of powdered sugar. Pretty fancy--and yum. Go ahead--try it yourself!


After Hors D'oeuvres, we served Roasted Cauliflower Soup:
2 lbs cauliflower florets
1 c. chopped white onions
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 T. olive oil
1/4 t. ground black pepper
2 c. chicken stock
1 2/3 c. heavy cream
1/2 t. salt
Toss cauliflower, onions, garlic together in a roasting pan. Drizzle with oil, season with pepper, and toss lightly to coat. Roast uncovered for 25-35 min, stirring occasionally, until they turn golden brown.
Place all in large saucepan with the stock and bring to a simmer for 5 min. Add the cream and salt, and heat through. Puree the soup in batches in the blender. Serve hot.

(We liked it, however, next time, we won't make the soup--we'll just do the roasting part and eat the vegetables. We snitched after they were cooked and liked them better that way!)

The Main Course which was Andouille and Potato Crepes. Andouille is a type of sausage, but we just used Bob Evans. However, we did make the crepes. I am not going to post the recipe though, because we didn't follow it too closely. I needed to modify it to get the crepes to turn out. Here is the tasty filling:
2 c. cooked crumbled sausage
2 c. cubed baked potatoes
1 c. sauteed chopped onions




We made a simple green salad garnished with boiled egg and shredded cheddar.
Then we served sliced mozzarella cheese with a few sips of wine. Love those fancy wine glasses?!



This, of course, was a special occasion, so we served Gateau Truffe which is Truffle Cake. Mmmmm...we'll be making this again!
9 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
9 oz sugar
9 oz butter
6 eggs (separate whites and yolks)
Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler. Remove from heat and let cool.
Whisk egg yolks with sugar, and then gently stir in chocolate. Beat egg whites until firm and "snowy." Gently stir into the batter.
Pour 2/3 of batter into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 40 min. Put remaining batter in fridge--it's going to make the truffle cream (frosting)!!
Let cake cool off and then remove from pan. Very carefully, cut the cake into two disks (lengthwise).
Whisk the remaining batter to give it a little volume and air. Gently spread half of batter "cream" on one disk. Cover with other disk. Spread the rest of the batter on the top. Put in fridge for at least 3 hours. Voila! The best moistest chocolatey-est cake in the world!
(We didn't slice the cake in two disks. We flipped it out of the pan upside down and frosted the top and sides.)