Chocolat tart for Lauren

The day after Thanksgiving was leisurely to say the least.

But I haven't yet talked about Friday night's dinner. The fun thing about this week end is that I try to blend the French and American cultures. After all I am a
Frenchifed American. I enjoy giving an American touch to French things, such as my Thanksgiving Kir and a French touch to American things,
I make a delightful crème fraiche sauce with Calvados for my apple crumble.

For the Thanksgiving weekend, Friday evening I cooked a typical French game dinner. Sologne is the hunting heart of France. Besides
the Tarte Tartin, white aspergus, mushrooms, it is the game cooking that is internationally known.

The menu for the evening was:

Brie fondu with dried tomatoes and herbs
Faison Chasseur
Pheasant in a red wine mushroom sauce
Herbed noodles
Goat cheese (speciality from this region)
Tarte au chocolat

Now, as I have said, I mix the cultures. And, Lauren has asked especially for the tart recipe. Here it is. It is a typical French chocolat tart, rich beyond imagination but....I have put it on the closest thing to a graham cracker crust...specaloos!

Ingredients

Crust
240 grams speculoos
2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350°F, 175°C
Crumble the speculoos, add the melted butter, mix well. Put the mixture in a pie mold (22cm diamter) and press down firmly. Bake 5 minutes. let it cool

Filling
200 grams dark chocolat
20 cl cream (crème liquide)

Crumble the chocolat into a microwave proof dish, add the cream and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix until thoroughly blended. Pour into mold.

Let cool.

And, Lauren, that is it!

Thanksgiving Leftovers

We are not talking food, there wasn't much left over from either Thanksgiving. Just the last bit of photos and comments. Tomorrow will be another day and one without Thanksgiving!

One of Thursday night's guests was kind enough to send photos, and since I am in a couple of them...
Here I am trying to explain what Thanksgiving is all about. My Thursday night Thanksgiving for the French locals came about when I was organising my Thanksgiving week end for Americans living in France. Many of my French friends demanded to know what exactly was Thanksgiving. They all knew the word but not the feast. So I decided to do a Thanksgiving for them.
Here I am with Muriel.
The tables were lovely.

Saturday's Thanksgiving was just as nice and a bit more fun for me because I was able to sit and stuff myself. Again, I was lucky enough to have a guest send photos, and since I am in a couple of them...
Yapping again!

I remembered to dress not only the turkey but the platter as well.

And here we are, smiling before attacking!

Thanksgiving with Football!

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” Erma Bomback

This is one of the myriad reasons why I am so happy to be in France for Thanksgiving. It takes longer than twelve minutes to eat it. And we don't even turn on the TV!

One down, one to go!

It is over, at least the first Thanksgiving. The French said they loved it.








I wasn't sure if I could believe them, the French, being, above all, polite beyond the big white lie. They have been known to smile, nod their head and say, "c'est parfait" (it is perfect) when "ugh"! would be a more appropiate response.



Luckily Rosie was here.
That's Rosie in the dark shirt.
You need at least one another American to give the heads up on Tom. Rosie did. She said it was great. I had to give up on the sweet potatoes, though. What I really needed was those delightfully yellow yams. So I served a nice wild rice with grilled onions and cranberries instead.



And, who said you can't fit a 9.220kg turkey in a French oven?



I am new at this taking pictures for my blog and, so, the after picture of Tom is not as lovely as it should be. For Saturday's Thanksgiving I will make sure to dress up the platter!






I do believe the French had fun with the Thanksgiving Kir!

closed for the week end. Gone Cookin'!

See you Monday!

god, thanksgiving, and Martha Stewart

God, please give the courage, and, above all,
the smile of Martha Stewart as I carry forth with my Thanksiving.

And that will be hard, because here in France, well…Thanksgiving…well.

I only brought back two cans of Libby’s from the state for the pies and now I need six. Soooooo…that is doable I can make pumpkin pie from
a real pumpkin, just takes longer.

Wanted to finish the corn muffins, well… Simply, ED, and Intermarche just happen to be out of polenta (cornmeal). Ok, I will go to Auchan tomorrow. And, at the same time will see about the sweet potatoes which can be a hit or miss also.

Cranberries,
not a problem, they are readily available at this time of year even in my Coin Perdu.

And did you know there is even a cranberry liquor here? I use it to make my Thanksgiving Kir. Just replace the cassis with the cranberry liquor. I actually make it a “royal” with, not champagne (that would be such a waste!) but with a sparkling wine. I then add dried cranberries. (I buy mine in the states but you can find them here.) It is lovely, they dance in the glass!

kristi anderson
saint jacques le coin perdu
15 place de l'église
45240 ligny le ribault
0683184231

Counting down until T Day

And, yes, I am stressing. I have 32 French coming for American Thanksgiving on Thursday followed up by 12 American, Irish, French and who knows what else for Thanksgiving Week end. Tom is ordered, I pick the first one up on Wednesday 9kg then the 2nd, 6kg on Friday.



Why do I stress? I only started cooking when I arrived here in France in 1988. Before, I lived in New York City and like millions of others, we didn't make dinner, we made restaurant reservations! When I was starting my book store in Paris someone said why don't I do a Tea Room at the same time. Tea & Tattered Pages was born and so was a cook, me. I was 35 at the time and took on learning French and Cooking at the same time. At least, according to others, the cooking was a success.



Back to T Day. Almost all my Thanksgiving recipes come from a November 1998 Bon Appetit. They give a choice of traditional and new and different recipes. I tend to mix the two. I like classic turkey

and stuffing but I do a chili cornbread and I put mustard and tyme in my cranberry sauce.



Today I made the chili cornbread muffins. I have a tendancy to change a recipe as I see fit. For example in this recipe I subsitute smoked paprika (yes I bring it back from the States) for the chili. Here is the Bon Appetit recipe.

Make 12 large or 24 small muffins.

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup canned corn kernels

4 tsp chili (this is where I subistute smoked paprika)

1 cup buttermilk (I use normal milk and add a tsp of lemon juice)

2 large eggs

1 cup cornmeal (I use polenta)

1 cup flour

3 tbs sugar

2 tsp baking powder (levure chimique)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven 400°F , 200° C or 8 gas mark. Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl. Melt butter in a saucepan, add corn and chili powder. Sauté 3 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl, add milk, and eggs, let cool. Add to sifted ingredients and mix just until blended. Divide among muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes for normal sized muffins, 15 minutes for small or until a tester comes out clean. Can be frozen up to 2 weeks before hand.

The French, at least those who come for Thanksgiving love them.



I have also started the decorations.



Tomorrow Isabelle and I will set up the tables.





And tonight I think I will treat myself to an extra glass of wine and let the stress.........

here'ssssssssss Tom!

thanksgiving is when you are giving thanks that you are not the turkey
“me” and I am sure plenty of others!




Free Thanksgiving Week end for those who can pick out Tom!

(just kidding)


Here he is up close and personal.


He currently weighs about 7 kilos (15.4323 lb). By Thanksgiving he’ll be closer to 8 kilos. Tom comes from a neighboring farm where I have been buying my turkeys and chapons (capons) for the last six years. I would like to take all the credit for these deliciously moist turkeys on the dinner table, but I have to give due to all the Toms I have had the luck to choose.

Don’t forget there is still place for our Thanksgiving week end



Thanksgiving in the French Countryside


November 27, 28, 29 2009
The sixth annual Thanksgiving at our Bed and Breakfast in Sologne. Just 90 minutes south of Paris, 15 minutes from Chambord, golf course and wineries.
Arrive Friday evening and enjoy a typical French game dinner. After breakfast Saturday feel free to explore our corner of the world or just curl up by the fire. But be back at 7pm for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
Breakfast Sunday is at your leisure as is your day. If the weather permits take our bikes and discover the forest that is at our doorstep or look for that treasure in one of the numerous flea markets
Prices start at 185euros for the weekend.
For further information : Kristi Anderson 06.83.18.42.31
. And, don’t forget to check out my blog for what is happening in Sologne Loire Valley.
http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/an_american_in_sologne



Kristi Anderson
Saint Jacques – Le Coin Perdu
15, place de l’église
45240 Ligny le Ribault
TheAmericanFrog@aol.com www.TheAmericanFrog.com
French blog : http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

Just four white chicks sitting around....

Yes, yes, yes I see, there are just three (if you want to see me please go to Dedeene’s blog www.soyezlabienvenuechezmoi.blogspot.com) and they are standing, but for the rest of this four hour lunch we sat around,


And talked, and chattered, and yelped

(at least Pasha did when she wasn’t napping with her friend).

And ate a fabulous lunch! Here we are feeding our faces.
Well, three of us feeding our faces, I was, of course, taking the photo, non? Sorry, I was way too occupied eating it and didn’t give my camera even a first thought.

And this was not a four hour liquid lunch In which I was known to participate in from time to time while living in Manhattan.

We talked!!!!! About EVERYTHING! And yes, lambasted the French, but with lots of love…..

And, of course we talked about Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll but also everything under the sun.

But I’m not finished…almost. Leaving Rosie’s house to return, guess what I finally found? MUSHROOMS!




Lovely cêpes (ceps or porcini), pieds du mouton (hedgehog fungus),
And coprain (shaggy ink caps),


So I put them in a sautèuse (frying pan)…….
I let them grill until they lose their water then I add a bit of butter, and lots of parsley (garlic…it depends on my mood)

This time I served them on top of a twice-baked potatoes. Yummmmmmmms! You can also add the cooked mushrooms to a cheese fondue.

In anything, on anything they are great!

Oh, just one last thing,
here is the lovely sunset
I found on the way home.

Thank you lovely ladies for a lovely day.

Some days it isn’t even worth turning on my computer! It is a HP only three years old so I don’t think it is that. I have Ccleaner which I use faithfully each Monday, so I don’t think it is that. Now, one of my clients after using my Internet says I have the lowest high speed DSL, WHATEVER THAT MEANS…

This high tech stuff is driving me nuts. I have to admit I am not gifted for it nor, unfortunately, for the French language. « C’est le fléau de mon existence » (It is the bane of my existence.) that the two things that I desire most seem out of my reach.

I adore writing my blog, finding subjects to talk about, taking pictures, selecting amusing clip art images and putting them together into something coherent and interesting.

Why can’t it be easier? I seem to struggle with everything and I don’t now if it is me or the computer or the lowest high DSL that I have. For example, why does the quotation key makes quotation marks at the beginning of the quote and those French “entre parenthesis” at the end? But this happens only sporadically.

Or the fact that today all my images have a black background. No idea why. They white backgrounds when I chose them…. So I will spend a few hours pushing butttons, trying this and that and I will probably figure out a why. But I will publish this first.

So bear with me, I promise my writing will get better as well my computing. At least I will “caresse l’éspoir” (keep hoping).

Kristi anderson
Chambre d’hôtes
Saint jacques le coin perdu
15 place de l’église
45240 ligny le ribault
06.83.18.42.31
www.TheAmericanFrog.com
French Blog : http://TheAmericanFrog.typepad.fr/lecoinperdu

Beaugency

Beaugency... a lovely village situated on the banks of the Loire river just 15 minutes from us, dates from the Middle Ages when the Lords of Beaugency played an important part in French history.

It was here in the 12th century that a special Papal Council annuled the marriage between Eléanor de Aquitaine (one of my most preferred French personalities) and Louis VII. Among other interesting and unusual facets of her life; she accompanied her first husband Louis V11 on his Middle Age crusades. Something no other "lady" had done before. To shorten a long and very interesting story, Eleanor quickly tired of her boring French husband and fell in love with Henri Platagentet. It was here at Beaugency that the papal council took place to annule her marriage with Louis which would enable her to marry Henri.

During the 100 years war Beaugency was captured by the English numerous times. In 1429 the English gave up Beaugency to Joan of Arc who then latter battled the English in Orleans.
Beaugency was bombed twice during World War II and it was on the bridge that the German General Elster surrendered his troops to US General Macon on September 14, 1944.

Rising over 36 meters in height with a commanding view of the Loire river and its surroundings the Tower Cesar is the last vestige of a castle built in the XI century by the Lords of Beaugency and where Dunois (The same that accompanied Joan of Arc on her crusade against the English) chose to construct the present castle.

The first Abby dating from the 12th century was destroyed by a fire in the 16th. Rebuilt in the 17th century the Beaugency Abby was inhabit by the Chanoine for over 800 years or just into the first part of the 20th century when it was converted into a hotel de luxe.

Other sights to see:
Saint Firmin Bell Tower is the last Roman vestige dating from the XI century.
Saturdays there is the village market. And, as in many of the French villages, is a noisy, colorful and enriching visit. After the market be sure to lunch in one of the many Beaugency restaurants.

kristi anderson

saint jacques le coin perdu

bed & breakfast

15 place de l'église

45240 ligny le ribault

theamericanfrog@aol.com