Tarte aux thon.

Sylvie, I made your tarte aux thon (tuna quiche) last night. This is another favorite in our household.

I tend to forget to do this, but am trying to remember more and more because cleaning out the dish can be a pain in the tush. First, line the dish with pastry paper (or whatever it's called). Then lay out the pre-made pastry crust in the dish. I used the pur beurre crust this time. Cook in the oven for about 5 or so minutes. While the pastry's cooking, brown an chopped onion in a pan with olive oil. Add a can of crushed tomatoes. Add a can of saltless tuna. Cook this mixture in order to reduce the liquid.

After you pull out the pastry crust from the oven, coat the bottom of the crust with some mustard. Next, pour the tuna-onion-tomato mixture into the crust. Top that with little dollops of creme fraiche. Cover that with some shredded Gruyere cheese. And then you can add some sliced tomatoes on the top.

Cook until it's a nice color. I usually cook it for 15 - 20 minutes.

Chicken + creme fraiche + moutarde = yummy.

Sylvie, I can't remember if I've shared this recipe with you yet or maybe you've already made it before. One of the other volunteers gave it to me back in January. I've made it a few times and have loved it. It's pretty heavy for Darin and I so I don't make it often, but it's so easy and so delicious.

You need:
A breast of chicken for each person (turkey is okay too)
3 T French mustard
20 cl creme fraiche (your favorite!)

Cook the chicken (or turkey) in a pan with some oil and butter (not the healthiest meal here) and over a low heat. In a bowl, mix the mustard and creme fraiche. Add the wet mixture to the meat that's cooking in the pan. Cook it all together in the pan. Don't let it come to a boil. Let the meat take in all the flavor from the wet mixture. Serve over rice or grain of choice.

Quiche des legumes/Veggie quiche.

Sylvie, I made the vegetable quiche Friday night and we loved it. Thanks again for the recipe. I'm a huge fan of green beans (haricot verts) so I ran across the street and picked up a bunch to throw in the quiche.

I didn't use a pure butter ready-made quiche pastry crust, like you prefer. I think Monoprix might have been out of them when I was there. But, I stocked up on some yesterday while we were at Carrefour with the rest of the world.

While the ready-made quiche pastry crust was baking in the dish for several minutes in the oven, I started prepping my veggie of choice: the green beans.

I chopped the ends and then boiled them for 5 - 10 minutes to soften them up.

My stove needs some serious cleaning so I tried to not get it in the photo. :)

While the beans were boiling, I mixed 4 eggs (some had feathers still stuck to the shell!), a 25 cl container of crème fraîche (your favorite ingredient), and 25 cl of milk. Now, we only have vanilla-flavored soymilk in our house. This tends to be a problem when a recipe calls for milk. To cut out that sweetness, I salted and peppered the mixture like crazy. For those reading this, add pepper and salt to your liking.

The pastry crust was cooked just a bit and was cooling down while I was preparing the rest of the mixture. Before dumping the mixture and beans in the crust, I covered the bottom of the crust with shredded Gruyere cheese. Then I put the beans (of course, I drained them after the boiling process) on top of that and then I added the wet mixture. It cooked in our oven until nice and brown. Voila.

P.S. When D and I were living in the US, we used sour cream instead of crème fraîche. But, if one can find crème fraîche then all the better.

Ratatouille.

Sylvie, since you gave me this recipe, it's become a favorite in our household. I love how easy and healthy it is. I don't know what you serve it with, but I serve it with brown rice. Quinoa might be good too.

Here's the simple recipe you gave me months ago and that I've already shared with others:
1. Brown a chopped onion and a chopped eggplant in a lot of olive oil. 2. Add a chopped bell pepper, a chopped zucchini, 1 425 ml can of crushed tomatoes, a minced clove of garlic, some thyme, a bay leaf, and some salt. 3. Stir occasionally. 4. Serve when veggies are cooked.

I made this once for a friend who cannot eat salt and it was still delicious. I've also been known to add a carrot or two.

Porc à la Tomate

Here's another recipe for you Emily: I know you don't eat that much meat but you might be able to adapt it with tofu ? It's a slight adaptation of one of my mum's classic recipes. Except I added some carrots because as always.. the more veggies I can throw in a dish the happier I am.. ;-) Red peppers should really go well in this too ! I'll try next time.

You'll need:
one onion
one fat carrot
one can of diced tomato
pork meat (without bones)
some olive oil
Herbes de Provence (seasoning herbs)

Another quick and easy recipe: slice and brown the onions in a large frying pan with some olive oil, add the meat and carrots cut in dices (small one for carrot, large ones for meat). Let cook for 5-10 mn, then add the tomato can, some Herbes de Provence, and salt. Let simmer another 10-15 mn. Done !

I usually serve this with rice or grains...

Courge and Courgette Soup

Hey Emily, I know I gave you that recipe last Thursday but I thought I'd write it down on our brand new blog !!
My cousins made that soup last weekend and it was so yummy I had to cook another one this week. More than easy, you'd hardly need a recipe besides the ingredients !!
We've been eating soup more or less every night for a couple of weeks and this is such a nice change from the usual veggie soups..

Here's what I used:
a big fat chunk of Courge (pumpkin)
3 middle-size Courgettes (zucchinis)
1 Bouillon-cube volaille (chicken stock cube)
and the final touch : 4 "Vache-qui-rit" ( Laughing-cow cheese portions)

Basically you peel and prepare the Courge and Courgette, throw them in a large pot with some water and the chicken stock, let it cook.
Then drain most of the water (Courgettes will have enough water in them), add the cheese portions, mix it in a blender.
And that's it ! Bon appétit !

Sylvie and Emily

This summer I met Emily, an American expat living here in Annecy with her husband. We began knitting together, became friends...and started exchanging recipes.

I've wanted to share some easy recipes for awhile, to show what a pretty average French family would eat on a daily basis. However, don't expect anything fancy from me. Quick and easy is the mot d'ordre (motto). It also has to be yummy !! :-D