Madame Linda's Birthday Dinner: Part One

For my mom's birthday in July, Greg and I decided to do something different. We invited my mom and stepdad, along with my sister and grandma (and her puppy) over for a French-themed dinner. My mother is a definite Francophile, and my stepdad has taken her to Paris several times. We wanted to do something special for her, and hopefully that's what we achieved. I took lots of pictures, so I think I'll have to do two posts for this birthday dinner party, one about our preparation and appetizers, and one about the dinner and dessert. My sister did a post with more pictures from this day, if you'd like to see them.

First, I created a menu. . .
(click to enlarge)

It was harder than I'd thought to put a beret on Nick's head, but I managed. By the way, neither Greg nor I are fluent in French, though we both had several years of high school French. I used an online translator.

Greg used his Williams Sonoma French cookbook to plan the main course and side dishes, while I planned the appetizers, baguettes, and dessert. We ended up picking some pretty complicated recipes, but we wanted a challenge. This menu was definitely a challenge, but it was kind of fun for Greg and I to work together to create something special.

The baguettes were easier than anticipated, although they took hours of rising before they were ready. I ended up making four baguettes, and all of them were gone within 24 hours, so I guess that means that they were good. I adore baguettes fresh from the oven, and I was surprised at how much mine tasted like the ones I had in Paris. I will be making them again, often.

Here is the appetizer course, which was: 1.) shrimp and tomatoes (from my garden!) sauteed in garlic butter, and 2.) slices of homemade toasted French baguette, with a layer of melted goat cheese, rosemary, and thyme (spices fresh from my garden). This was all that was left by the time I thought to take a picture of the appetizers. Nick devoured everything, and was even licking goat cheese from the bread, saying, "Mmm!" Can you see him sneaking more bread in the picture above? By the way, the birthday madame is seated in the center part of the couch, in the pink. My stepfather is sitting on her left, and my grandmother on her right. My sister is the one with the camera, laughing at Nick's antics.

















Greg planned the main course, which was Coq au Vin with french green beans and a potato casserole baked with Gruyere cheese. Our whole kitchen smelled divine while the chicken was cooking, and Greg worked very hard. We had all of the burners going, plus the oven, for much of the afternoon.

I thought the potatoes were cooked perfectly, and the Gruyere cheese added something unique to the dish. I told Greg we should double the amount of cheese next time--it was that good.

Just looking at this picture of the Coq au Vin cooking makes my mouth water. I want to try more wine sauces, now that we've tasted this one.

I told Greg that he can make this recipe for me, anytime. The sauce was so good that we defrosted some chicken breasts the next day and used the sauce on them. The chicken was tender and moist, probably because of the sauce.

Greg has been watching a ton of Food Network lately, and I think he's getting a lot of ideas. Hey, as hobbies go, my husband's isn't too shabby.  ;)

Tomorrow I'll talk about the actual dinner and, of course, the dessert.

Gardening Advice Needed, Please

We built it! Or, I should say, Greg built it, I directed, and Nick did everything he could to prevent us from getting it done.  He especially liked climbing into the beds, trying to grab Greg's screwdriver, and running away from us down the sidewalk.

 Greg and I decided that we'd like to do more in the yard this year, so the first project on our agenda was to build a raised bed system. A few weeks ago, we purchased a raised bed garden kit from Costco, and it's been sitting in our garage taunting us ever since. But Greg got all of the pieces together today, and I went over to Home Depot to get horse manure, mushroom compost, hummus, organic garden soil, and peat.

This is what the kit said our garden is supposed to look like, come summer. We shall see. We did chose a more curved setup, but we like the way it looks in the corner of our yard.

Here's how it looked with the cold weather panel and all of the soil filled in. I planted three rows of spinach seeds from the Seed Saver's Exchange, but everything else I bought says that it can't be planted until after the last risk of frost (end of May around here). My question is, since I have the cold frame, can (or should) I plant something in there now, one month early? What is safe to plant that would survive in a cold frame with a decent seal? (zucchini, beans, rosemary, cucumber) What would do well direct planted into a cold frame? Or can I transplant some of my indoor stuff that's been under the flourescent lights? Those are doing really well.

Oh, and I could also use some help identifying the plants I grew from seed. I have tomato, pepper, basil, thyme, broccoli, and I forget what else. You see, my mini-greenhouses came with these convenient little plastic things to write down what you're planting. So I used them. The first time I watered, however, all of the writing washed right off and now I'm only guessing as to what I have planted here. Any advice would be helpful. Otherwise I suppose the plants will tell me eventually. For example, if the plant makes a bell pepper, I'll have my answer. If it makes a tomato, it must be a tomato plant. Sigh. Can you tell I'm still a beginning gardener?

The plants are doing really well under the fluorescent lights, although the neighbors must wonder what I'm growing up there--the lights are so bright they light up the neighborhood. Heck, I guess I couldn't tell them what I'm growing, either. I do know that I only planted vegetables and herbs--I'll have to wait and see what kind.  :)

Sprouting Seeds and Bad Lighting

Nope, it's not just Nick sprouting at our house this week. Although he is looking taller to me these days, and his face is starting to look less babyish and more kid-like every week. No, the reason for the sprouting is because I re-read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" a couple of weeks ago.  You see, I ordered a bunch of seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange, and they arrived on Saturday. I ordered the stuff that Greg and Nick and I like to eat, including: red pepper, sage, broccoli, yellow and red tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary, spinach, green beans, cucumber, and several kinds of squash. I got really ambitious on Sunday. . .

When I read the packages, many of the types of seeds said "start indoors 6-8 weeks before the expected date of last frost." Now, I am no gardening expert, (frankly, I'm just now learning how NOT to kill plants) but I know that I'm in zone 5 and that means May 25th is the earliest date to plant most crops. So I figured that I'd better get cracking. I looked up (on e-how, actually) how to build a seed-starting shelf, printed out the directions, and headed to the Home Depot. Now, I should tell you that putting things together is not my greatest skill. The last shelf I put together fell apart minutes after construction. But lately I've become more determined. I told myself, "Melissa, you have a master's degree. You can build a simple shelf that's listed as "moderately easy" in the directions!" And I did.

I'm rather proud of myself for managing to build this on my own. The shelf was simple enough, but I actually had to hook up the wires to add a plug for the lights. My neighbors must wonder about the lights 16 hours a day in the open window. I swear I'm only growing heirloom vegetables and herbs. Note the pointing baby in the photo; lately he keeps pointing out every window and yelling something that sounds like "outside." It was far too cold for me to take him to play outside today, though. But my seeds were sure warm.

Fluorescent lighting makes everybody's skin look weird, I guess, even a toddler. Nick was eating a tortilla chip when I took this picture. Check out my hyacinths--they've grown at least an inch since I bought them on Sunday. Those weren't from seed (obviously), but I love hyacinths and I figured I'd see how they did with the lights.

I believe I may have planted too much thyme in each slot. I think I might have to move some of it. But it sure sprouted well! I'm not terrific at math, so I am not sure if I planted too many seeds or not enough for a medium sized garden. I'm looking forward to spending more time outside digging.

A Delicious Summer Stew

Yesterday I made this wonderful stew that I first found out about from our teaching assistant at school. She brought it in one day and I absolutely had to make it. I've cooked it up a few times, now, and I think I finally have tweaked it the way I like it. I think it's originally from "Cooking Light" Magazine, but it has been altered quite a bit. Thanks to Lucy for the original recipe. It is healthy and yummy, and there are a ton of leftovers. It totally filled my biggest pot.

Chicken Garbanzo Bean Stew with Zucchini, Spinach, and Rosemary


About 12 servings, 1 cup each plus about 1T of parmesan cheese

-2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-1 large Vidalia Onion
-2 t. fresh rosemary, minced
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-4 cups zucchini, cut into small chunks
-1 t. black pepper
-1/2 t. sea salt
-1 lb. of ground chicken
-5 cups of low sodium chicken broth
-1/3 c. dry white wine
-5 T. tomato paste
-1 cup (or more) of spinach leaves, ripped into tiny pieces (no stems)
-1/2 t. red pepper (You can vary this depending on your need for heat.)
-3 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
-1 can of diced tomatoes, rinsed and drained
-1 can of diced tomatoes, not rinsed or drained
-parmesan cheese to taste

Use your biggest pot for this one. Saute the onion, rosemary, and garlic in heated olive oil for about 3 minutes. Add in the zucchini, pepper, salt, and the chicken. You'll need to break the chicken down into small pieces (I just used a spoon) and stir it around in the mixture. Cook until the chicken is browned. Then add everything except the parmesan cheese and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. Taste it after about 20 minutes. Depending on what it needs, you can add more wine (everything is better with more wine!), water (if it's too spicy for you), or chicken broth (depending on if you want more of a stew or a soup). I guess that's my best cooking advice. Taste everything frequently! Serve very hot and dump some parmesan cheese on top. I tried really hard to write down just what I put into the stew, but it won't be perfect because I'm not an exact measurer. I just keep dumping stuff in until it tastes right.

I served this soup with some butter and wheat bread that I made in my new breadmaker. I am loving having fresh bread every two or three days. It works great with this stew. I do believe I'm going to have it again for dinner, since Greg is working late.