Overnight Oats

I've been meaning to try overnight oats for about a year now, and I finally did, last night. (What does this say about my follow through?)

In any case, it is pretty much the easiest thing in the entire world, and now that I've eaten it, I can also tell you that it's scrumptious as well.

I was inspired to try when I found a leftover, empty jam jar that Copain had apparently saved. While my first reaction was to recycle it (we need more space for the random Tefal tupperware he just bought!), instead I remembered overnight oats, and gave it a try.

Overnight Oats à la French Cannes Cannes:

- oats - avoine (a little under half of the jar)

- sliced banana

-cinnamon

-allspice

-crème de coco

-milk

-spoon of honey

I shook it up and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This is what it looked like in the morning:

It definitely wasn't as pretty as all of the examples you can find online (probably due to the shaking!), but the taste was great! I'm a convert.

Le Boucher

My fear of the fromagerie extends to the boucher as well.  Not only is it visually unappealing - ummm, chickens with their still heads attached anyone? - but I also have NO FREAKING IDEA how to order there.

um, one tongue s'il vous plait?

A slice of that...thing...merci.

I've been carefully observing My Very Parisian Friend when she orders from the boucher, but so far I've only learned this:

1. The boucher does not wash his hands between handling your money and handling the meat.

2. MVPF's husband eats 300 grams of steak haché (hamburger meat). 

3. Apparently, that is a lot for one person.

Copain and I have been discussing going to the boucher recently, mainly because he's not allowed to heat up lunch food at his fancy office in the 8th arrondissement. We thought that some cold roast beef or pork roast would be nice instead of your run of the mill sandwich and salad everyday.

On Saturday, we decided that we would attempt to purchase something - but what? I couldn't even count on my Frenchie to help me out with this one, he had no idea either! So, we went with a roti de porc (pork roast).  We figured we wouldn't have to give any additional indications except "enough for four people" s'il vous plait. For future reference, "enough for four people" is about 1 kilo according to our local butcher. Good to know, right?

Another fun fact - 1 kilo of roti de porc at our boucher costs 12 euros. Not bad either!

We hiked up the 5 flights of stairs to our apartment, beaming with pride. We had a roti de porc! From the boucher! As we opened the door, basking in our glory, an unexpected nasty smell wafted into my nostrils....

Copain, did you...?

No, I didn't! I swear! 

Yes you did! It stinks in here! Dude! 

I'm serious! It's not me! ....Could it be the meat? 

I looked down into our plastic bag and saw what could only be the outline of a small chicken wrapped in aluminum foil. It was still warm to the touch. Zut! Of course this would happen on our first attempt  to conquer the boucher. The ol' plastic bag switcharoo.

We hiked back down the stairs and over to the boucher. They had been expecting us and were happy to get their chicken back and give us our roti de porc instead. 

Then I had to figure out how the heck to cook this thing.

a big hunk of meat. (1 kilo, to be exact)

Thankfully, with a little help from Jamie Oliver and some random French website, I was able to mix and match recipes and deliver something edible in just over an hour. 

The beginning of my roti de porc mastery!

We were so excited by our roti, that I forgot to take a photo of the final product, but I can tell you that I got the Copain Approval on the first bite.  Ouf.

Also - very important addition to this blog post - I noticed that my boucher has a dedicated caissière, who only handles money and NEVER touches the meat. Glorious.

I heart my boucher.

Stay tuned for the roti de boeuf, which is next on our list...

Le Gigot d'Agneau

Yesterday I got a scary text from Copain:

Copain: I'll be your top chef tonight. I'll send you the menu later.

I responded: Haha ok (not to doubt his cooking skills, buuuuut, remember the calamari and spinach hot pocket?)

10 minutes later...

Copain: I'm going to get filets de Dorade and gigot d'agneau for tonight.

Worried that I was going to end up with a surf and turf disaster, I answered: Or maybe just one or the other?

Sure enough, Copain came home from Picard with Dorado filets, a bag of frozen broccoli and a gigantic gigot d'agneau.

Then, in true form, he cooked the fish and the broccoli for dinner (because cooking fish and broccoli isn't rocket science!) and declared me the cooker of the gigot d'agneau. 

Like I've ever cooked a gigot d'agneau.

ps - what the hell is a gigot d'agneau?

At lunch I told my colleagues that I would be cooking a gigantic gigot tonight - Copain's idea. One of them jokingly asked me if it would fit in my oven.  I laughed and told him of course it would, but what I didn't think about was the Pyrex dish:

This is one enormous gigot. I had to put the dish on a cookie sheet to catch any fat that may drip off the end. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing.

I decided to bust out the cookbook from Belle Mère to help me in my gigot feat. I had most of the ingredients, so I went with this option:

The gigantic gigot is now in the oven and Copain and I are noshing on olives while the darn thing cooks - for over an HOUR.  

This is so not a weekday dinner. 

Stay tuned - in an hour I'll put this thing out of the oven and cross my fingers that it's edible.

In Honor of Fall - Partie II

I just can't kick the cooking bug when the weather gets cool...

Since I'm still fighting La Crève and since Copain is probably going to be next, we decided to stay in on Saturday night and warm ourselves up with hot soup and cookies.

My strange soup creation - fèves (fava beans), carrots and onion with parmesan on top

Snickerdoodles with with a twist - apples inside! (A great way to use the apples I hate to eat!)

And of course, Sunday morning I thoroughly enjoyed my banana bread and coffee - le bonheur total :-)

Copain the Cook

This week was my birthday week and in honor of my impending 29 years Copain decided that he would make a special dinner for me each night of the week.  He even created some suspense and anticipation by sending me texts of his fine dining creations while I was still at work...

With this enlarged photo you may be asking yourself what the hell is that? - but truth be told, with my tiny Iphone screen, I didn't know to worry.

Copain rolled up the mysterious stuffing to create a French version of the Hot Pocket.

He was very proud of his knowledge to add an egg yolk to the outside of the Hot Pocket to create a golden brown exterior - unfortunately,  he didn't realize that it needed to cook for over 40 minutes to attain that quality. He may also have missed the memo about brushing on the yolk.

At any rate, when I got home I was very touched by his effort to cook me something unique and somewhat complicated - only when I dug in my fork (after we cooked it for another 20 minutes that is), this is what I found:

Yes mes amis, that is calamari (mini squid) from Picard (French frozen food store) on a bed of spinach from a can wrapped in a pre-made crust.  No spices, no sauce -  just calamari, spinach and crust.

Even Belle-Mère was appalled (she asked him where on earth he got the recipe) which made me feel less guilty when I started taking photos of the "creation" for my blog.  Copain got slightly irate at the thought of me making fun of his calamari Hot Pocket on French Cannes Cannes (some yelling and angry dish washing followed) but eventually realized that perhaps it wasn't the best combination.

It still kind of baffles that the very next day I came home to a bowl of frozen muscles on the counter and some broccoli cooking on the stove...

Bon appetit?