Disasters in French Cooking

Tonight for dinner I made some rather unappetizing sandwiches. Now I am sure you are sitting there thinking it is pretty hard to make a bad sandwich.  Well, let me just tell you it can be done. Last week I went to see the movie It’s Complicated, which was great by the way and I totally recommend it if you have not seen it. In the movie Meryl Streep makes these yummy looking sandwiches for Steve Martin. They looked really cheesy and just yummy. My Mom and I actually commented on it during the movie. So a few days later I set out  on a Google quest to determine exactly what these sandwiches were. Google did not fail me and it was determined that the yummy looking sandwiches were actually Croque Monsieur, a fancy grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  Naturally when I found out that it was FRENCH and it looked EASY I thought I have to do it.  I am currently reading My Life in France by Julia Child (review of this book coming soon) and feeling very French inspired and literally invincible when it comes to cooking. Julia can have that effect. So Google yet again came to the rescue and I located a recipe that I felt I could accomplish

 

Croque Monsieur

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf

• 4 slices firm white sandwich bread
• 4 ounces thinly sliced Black Forest ham
• 4 ounces sliced Gruyère cheese
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

Preparation

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Add nutmeg and bay leaf. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until sauce thickens, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat broiler. Place 2 bread slices on work surface. Top each with half of ham and sliced Gruyère. Top with remaining bread. Heat heavy large skillet over low heat. Brush sandwiches with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Add to skillet and cook until deep golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to small baking sheet. Spoon sauce, then grated cheese over sandwiches. Broil until cheese begins to brown, about 2 minutes.

 

Now I think my first crucial mistake was made when I selected a recipe that called for odd cheese, Gruyere. I learned from some research that Gruyere cheese is hard to find and expensive. So I substituted with Swiss, and I also did not have any nutmeg for the sauce so I substituted with cinnamon. This was all okay, right?WRONG!

The actual making of the sandwiches went okay, with the exception of the sauce that was meant to go on top before they went under the broiler. The sauce got a little too clumpy and kinda congealed before I could put it on the sandwiches. It really looks like turkey gravy when you let it sit out too long. Not a pretty picture.

Then there was the taste. At first everything seemed to be okay, Nick gave it a thumbs up, but then a few minutes later there was an after taste. NOT GOOD! Pardon the description but I believe the after taste consisted of swiss and cinnamon. Yum!!!

I am not sure what to blame this huge embarrassing failure on. Hopefully, this has satisfied my need to do experimental French cooking. I’ll leave that to Julia Child!

 

Now I am off to find an alternate dinner. Till next time my blog friends!!!

The snow is gone & so is LANE KIFFIN!!!

Praise the LORD the snow is gone! We did get our little “mini” heat wave this week, which was FABULOUS and the snow melted! I can see my yard and driveway again!!!

This week we also got to say a big Good- Bye, good riddance  to UT Head Football Coach Lane Kiffin or as some have been affectionately calling him, Lame Kitten. Now I know that this story has been totally played out in the media and will be blogged about by EVERYONE! However, since my bloods runs orange and white I feel that I need to get my 2 cents in there, so here goes!

Well, the news broke for me via a Facebook status on Tuesday night. A good friend and fellow UT faithful posted that Kiffin had jumped ship to USC to replace Pete Carroll who is going to give the NFL a go in Seattle (in an effort to keep the blog from being censoredI will not give you the exact wording). Well, needless to say I felt mad, sad, and most of all BETRAYED all at once. I never was a huge Kiffin fan, he always seemed to be a bit full of himself, however since he was the Coach of my Vols I had tried my best to support and believe in him. In return he totally runs out on us before SIGNING DAY. VERY BAD!   I totally understood the riots (see video below) that happened at UT that night, they couldn’t hit Kiffin so they had to burn a mattress!

 

On a side note-1.  How did they ever have time to put this montage together? 2. If you burn your mattress do they give you another one?

So after the news broke there was the long wait for the Kiffin press conference where Bless His Heart, he thanked us all generically.

 

Before we leave the Kiffin incident totally behind us I would just like to clear up one statement that Kiffin made during his USC press conference

NO we are not upset because you did such a great job! We are upset because you left 3 weeks BEFORE SIGNING DAY!!! Pardon my rant I just had to clear that up.

As a friend of mine said “He was a jerk when he came and he was a jerk when left” and I would have to say that I agree. I would like to personally say a generic thank you to Lane Kiffin for all the NCAA troubles he left behind. Way to mess up and leave UT to clean it up!!! Good bye Kiffin and please DON’T EVER COME BACK!!!

 

Now with Kiffin behind us it is time to focus on the future and Mike Hamilton’s search for the next Head Coach. My Dad and I were in daily phone contact discussing rumors, possibles, and news  stories during the long 3 day wait till a new coach was announced. Names were flying everywhere, mostly of people turning it down. 1st Muschamp, the “Coach in Waiting” at Texas, turned it down, and then David Cutcliffe, former UT offensive Coordinator and now head coach at Duke, was apparently very close to a deal but then he withdrew his name. Things were looking pretty dark and we were getting closer and closer to the big recruiting weekend and then out of the darkness emerged . . . .

DEREK DOOLEY

And the Vol Nation said a collective “Who?” Okay, maybe I was the only one who said that, but seriously I had never heard of him. As it turns out he was the Head Coach at LA Tech, son of the famous Georgia Head Coach Vince Dooley and had coached and recruited under Nick Saban (for a complete bio please click here).

In the words of Phil Fulmer:

“The next coach should embrace Tennessee traditions, be mature and have integrity”

I am not sure if Derek Dooley has all these qualities but I could tell from his press conference that he is a man of some class.

 

Will Derek Dooley be successful at UT? That is hard to say at this point, but I do know that we all will have to give him time and a good chance. The first season out could be rough, especially given the recruiting set back. I do not want UT to become a University that plays musical coaches. So from one VOL to the rest lets all get behind Derek Dooley!!! Lets give him time (more than one season) to build a team and see where we can go.

In conclusion,

Welcome Derek Dooley!

&

GO VOLS!!!!!

We have not even kicked off yet and it has already been an exciting year.

I Wanna Go Where’s Its Warm . . . .

So the picture above pretty much shows you how our whole week has been . . . COLD AND SNOWY!!! Now I could be exaggerating here so feel free to call me out if I am, but I believe that today was one of the warmest we have had in a while, We had at least three days in a row where the low was like 7 degree, Very Bad!

I don’t know about the rest of you but I am over the snow! It can go anytime and not come back for a long while. It was nice the 1st couple of times but now it is just hanging around and it ceases to have any appeal to me. Instead I am dreaming of this . . .

Ohhh and this too .  . .

 

and one more . . .

To quote Jimmy Buffet-“ I WANNA GO WHERE ITS WARM!”

 

Praise the Lord for the 35 degree HEAT WAVE next week!

Until then stay WARM and think WARM!

2010 and some Good Muffins

So the “New Year” blog is a few days late. I have had a bit of blog writers block in regards to this particular blog. There were so many ways I could go with it- The Best of 2009, the ever popular New Year’s Resolution blog, or I could have done some kinda retrospective about the past decade. A note on the decade thing, I know that technically we do not move to the next decade till 2011 but a lot of people are jumping the gun on it so  I considered the possibility myself. In the end I decided that I could do none of these blogs totally effectively. I have made some resolutions for myself but writing a blog about them would be a bit cliché, and my whole blog is kind of a Best of 2009. So instead of giving you the normal New Year stuff I am going to share with you a recipe I got from a friend form work and I made this weekend:

 

Simple Pumpkin Muffins

1 can of Pumpkin

1 Cake Mix

Mix together Pumpkin and Cake Mix. Do not add the additional ingredients listed on the cake mix box, you only need the mix. The batter will be think. Spoon into muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

The final product

They do not make the most attractive muffins but they are SO EASY and SO TASTY!! I made mine using a spice cake mix  and added a little brown sugar on top. I have also been told that you can put cream cheese on top and that it is awesome!

Here is to hoping that the New Year is easy and FABULOUS! It’s 2010 people, lets all eat more muffins!

Copper Boom- An Ode to the Gilmore Girls

So I know for most people the Gilmore Girls series ended in 2007 but for me it finally ended yesterday.  I did not follow Gilmore Girls by conventional means, I watched reruns on ABC Family and Soapnet, I also watched most of the series on DVD and that is how I saw the end. Ironically, it was Nicole, my sister-in law, that got me started on Gilmore Girls and helped me finish. Way back in 2004 when Nick and I were just dating Nicole and I were roomies on a church retreat and spent part of a day napping and watching tv in our room and it was there that Nicole introduced to the fabulousness that is Gilmore Girls. On a side note this one of my favorite Nicole and I memories.  ABCFamily was showing a marathon that conveniently started with the 1st episode of the series. I saw the 1st episode and was ABSOLUELY hooked! I loved the dialogue between Lorelei and Rory, the quirky towns folk in Stars Hollow, and all the plot lines. I continued to keep up with show on ABC Family and eventually got most of the season on DVD. When the show ended in its 7th year in 2007 I had not seen any of the finally 2 seasons. I tried to catch bits and pieces on Soapnet and then finally borrowed Nicole’s deluxe Gilmore Girls DVD set and finished. Thanks to Nicole!

Now since completing the series I have been trying to come up with all  the things I love about Gilmore Girls and there is quite a list. So here we go:

• STARS HOLLOW! I want to live there! I want to take dance classes at Ms. Patti’s, take part in all the quirky festivals, get mad at Taylor at a Town Meeting, drink coffee at Luke’s, stay at the Dragon Fly, walk through the square, visit Mrs.. Kim’s shop, and this list could go on FOREVER!!!
• THE CLOTHES! I love the stuff that Rory and Lorelei wear. They always seemed stylish but in a not to trendy. During season 6 Lorelei wears this Pink pea coat with brass button that is to DIE FOR! The dress that Rory wore when she jumped of the tower at the 1st Life & Death Brigade out, BEAUTIFUL! The looked good casual, they looked good dressed up, they even made me want the PJ’s they wore!
• THE CHARACTERS absolutely made the show. Rory and Lorelei were obviously the best but they were surrounded by so many other greats. Sookie & Jackson, Michel, Luke, Kirk, Lane & Zack and the whole band, Mrs.. Kim, Babette and Patti, Kirk, Taylor, Paris, Emily and Richard, and I am sure the list could go own. I would love to meet all these people! I know they are all fictional but so well played and perfect for the show.

I have also attempted to come up with some of my favorite episodes but it has been very difficult. I think I have managed to narrow it down to 3, but there are some many others. Here they are in no particular order:

• “They Shoot Gilmore’s Don’t They” , Season 3. This is the one where they have that crazy Dance Marathon and Lorelei loses to Kirk again.

• The Lorelais' First Day at Yale", Season 4 Rory starts Yale and Lorelei tries to find a place to hide a mattress.

 

• "The Lorelais' First Day at Chilton"- Season 1. Rory stars Chilton on Lorelei’s laundry day.

 

I have seen all the episodes now and I am left with so many questions. The last season was so random and rushed it, but the last episode was pretty good. I do feel they could have used a little flash forward so we could see how everything ended up. I need CLOSEURE people. Here are my questions, maybe you have the answers:

• Does Hip Alien ever get back together
• Does Mrs.. Kim have a 1st name and what happened to her husband?
• Did Sookie and Jackson have a boy or a girl?
• Did April ever come back to Star’s Hollow?
• Did Paris make it through medical school? (Okay we know she did.) But did she and Doyle get married? How’s her bed side manner?
• Did Rory become a big time reporter?
• Are Luke and Lorelei married?
• Did Michel get another dog?
• Did Kirk and Lulu get married? And does he still live with his mother?
• Did Lane and Zack have any more kids? Did Brian become there official manny?

I need answers! but sadly I don’t think we will ever know :(

Okay, all you Gilmore girl junkies I shared my favorites with you and now it is your turn. What’s your favorite quote, episode, character . . . etc.  You can even tell me you least favorite.  Tell me anything, we must keep the Gilmore Girls alive!

I leave you with

 

You know you are singing it out loud right now . . .

 

Next time The New Years Blog!