Perfect Chocolate chip cookies

Today, I was at the grocery store rushing like a mad woman to get all the necessary ingredients for tonight's dinner - I feel like I'm always rushing - really need to learn to slow down once in a while . I  only had 30 minutes in there before rushing back home to meet a dear friend for coffee. While I was going a 100 miles an hour in the store, rushing through the aisles, getting all the necessary ingredients, standing in line to pay, only to realize that I forgot the main ingredient, leaving my spot in the long line, going to the meat department and picking up couple of chicken ... and then I stopped. In front of me stood this young mother, pushing her shopping cart with her 2 year daughter in it. I see mothers and young children on a daily basis - it really doesn't affect me. But for some reason, it felt different today. I had a flashback of when my daughter was 2 and I used to take her grocery shopping with me - actually, I used to take her everywhere with me!. Today, I felt a strange and puzzling emotion I had never felt before .... Was it a feeling of desperately wanting to hold a baby in my arms? a feeling of growing older? a feeling that life is going by too fast? I wonder .... Maybe, it's a combination of all those feelings and the fact that I miss those sweet years when my kids were home with me all the time. 

After this strange experience at the grocery store, I rushed back home, baked some chocolate chip cookies, enjoyed coffee with my dear friend before enthusiastically rushing to pick up my 8 and 11 year olds from school.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe from Cook's Illustrated

About 45 small cookies

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used salted butter)
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips


Adjust oven rack to middle position.
Heat oven to 375 degrees
In a medium bowl, whisk flour and baking soda
In a skillet, over medium high heat, melt 10 tablespoons of the butter (avoid using nonstick skillet)
Continue cooking the butter until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma - 1 to 3 minutes
Transfer butter to a heatproof bowl
Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter, stir until completely melted
Add brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla to melted butter
whisk until fully incorporated
Add egg and egg yolk.
Whisk until mixture is smooth, with no lumps remaining - 30 seconds
Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whisk for another 30 seconds.
Repeat the process of whisking and resting 2 more times.
Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture until combined - 1 minute.
Stir in Chocolate chips
Give the dough a final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
Using a 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop, place dough  1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown, still puffy - 9 to 10 minutes
Transfer cookies to a wire rack.
Let cookies cool to room temperature before enjoying!

Chocolate Layer Cake

I love chocolate ... Whenever I'm sad, I eat chocolate. Whenever I'm happy, I eat chocolate. Whenever I'm stressed, I eat chocolate. After dinner, I eat chocolate. Lately, I've been craving a good chocolate cake. This recipe caught my attention.It is truly one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had.... Moist, rich and so sinful!

Old-fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake

Adapted from Cook's All-Time Best Recipes 

Cake

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup Dutch- processed cocoa
1/2 cup hot water
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
12 tablespoons softened butter, cut into pieces

Frosting

1 pound semisweet chocolate
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream, cold

For the cake:
Turn oven to 350 degrees
Adjust rack to middle position
Grease and dust with flour a one 9 inch round cake pan.
In a dish, melt chocolate, cocoa and hot water in the microwave
Add 1/2 cup sugar to chocolate.
Stir with a rubber spatula until thick and glossy - about 2 minutes.
Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl - set aside.
Combine buttermilk and vanilla extract in a small bowl
Using a mixer, whip eggs and egg yolks on medium speed - about 10 seconds.
Add remaining 1 1/4 cup sugar.
Whip until light and fluffy - 2 to 3 minutes.
Replace whisk with paddle.
Add cooled chocolate mixture and mix further - 1 minute.
Add soft butter, a piece at a time until fully incorporated.
Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture in 2 additions.
Scrap down bowl as needed.
Mix a medium speed until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean - 45 - 50 minutes
When cooled, carefully remove cake from pan.
Carefully, slice the cake horizontally in half.
Let cake cool 2 hours before spreading the frosting.

For the frosting:
Melt chocolate in the microwave - careful not to burn it.
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar and corn syrup, vanilla and salt.
Stir with a rubber spatula until sugar is completely melted - 5 minutes.
In a larger bowl, stir chocolate, butter mixture and heavy cream.
Fill a larger bowl 1/2 way through with ice.
Place chocolate bowl in ice bath and stir with a rubber spatula until it thickens - 8 minutes.
In a mixer, beat frosting until light and fluffy.
Spread 1 cup of frosting on one cake layer.
Top with second cake layer. Gently press down.
Top with 1 1/2 cup frosting making sure to cover all sides of the cake with frosting as well.

Veal Milanese

Out Saturday night at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. I had made the reservation a week prior - as this restaurant is known to get completely booked on the weekends. I was really looking forward to trying a new restaurant. We started with a very nice bottle of Pinot Grigio. For appetizer, I ordered the Caprese salad and main course the Veal Milanese over soft polenta.... not bad you might say! Well, my salad was wonderful but the veal Milanese was not as wonderful. It was poorly cooked, soggy, seemed to be swimming in a strange broth, smelled bad and tasted strange! ..... a broth??? But there shouldn't be a broth in a Milanese! So, very politely, I asked the waiter if by some mistake they had brought me the wrong plate. He said "no Madame ... this is the Milanese you ordered". Anyway, I left it at that and never touched my dinner.
I was very disappointed but good thing the wine, bread and olive oil were all wonderful!
So for dinner Sunday night we had a "real" Veal Milanese and an endive salad!

For 4 people

4 slices of Veal Scaloppine
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 cup breadcrumb
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 lemons cut in half

Place a scaloppine in a ziplock bag.
Pound scaloppine - careful not to over pound.
Beat the eggs with salt and pepper - place on a plate
Place flour on a plate.
Mix bread crumbs with parmesan cheese - place on a plate.
Dip scaloppine on both sides in flour, then egg, then in bread crumb
Again, dip in egg and finally in bread crumb
Refrigerate for 15 minutes - this will ensure the bread crumbs adhere to the scaloppine.
Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet.
Cook scaloppine until browned on each side - about 3 minutes per side.
Serve hot.

French Toast - Pain Perdu

I never eat breakfast .... I'm just not a breakfast person. Beside, I'm never hungry in the morning .... couple of cups of coffee is all I need. Of course, I wasn't always like this. I have vivid memories of my mother's Pain Perdu. In our household, breakfast was always ready by the time I woke up. I remember waking up by the wonderful aroma that filled our apartment .... the wonderful smell of sugar, egg and cinnamon. It's funny to see my children now run downstairs and say "It smells so good mommy, what are you cooking?" or "What is this smell mommy??? It's horrible ... are you making fish?". They remind me of myself when I was a kid.
My mother instilled in me a love for cooking. She taught me not to be afraid of experimenting with different ingredients. "Wash your hands and season the chicken ... come on, don't be afraid of touching and feeling your ingredients" she would say.  She was a firm believer that every woman should know how to cook. She was a also firm believer that children need to be raised in a household filled with love and home-cooked meals. She would raise her eyebrows every time she'd hear of a mother who didn't cook!
"Do you know that she doesn't cook for her children! Not even a scrambled egg!!...  what do they eat then??? " she would say petrified.
Unfortunately, times are different now ... we have busy lives and less time to spend in the kitchen. It's very hard to balance a professional life and a family life. I do spend a lot time in the kitchen doing what I love and experimenting with different recipes - I stopped working when our daughter was born.
My mother taught me a great deal about food and life in general. I am thankful for all her unconditional love and wisdom. Even though she's no longer here, but I still can hear her say "you really need to add more salt in your dishes ... pass me the salt!" or "please wear gloves when you do the dishes .... you are going to ruin your hands!" or "New shoes? .... how many pairs of shoes do you really need?" Yes, another obsession of mine ... but more on that at some other time.

Pain Perdu
Adapted from Philippe Conticini
for 6 people

1 baguette, sliced 2 inches wide
4 tablespoons butter

L'Anglaise:
1 cup whole milk (the recipe calls for half and half)
 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar

In a bowl beat egg and sugar until white.
Add milk, beat further.

La Panure:
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup white sesame

In a bowl mix all above ingredients.

To cook:
Dip 3, 4 sliced baguette in L'Anglaise.
Wait 5 minutes then turn on the other side, wait 5 minutes longer.
Then dip slices in La Panure. Coating each side of the baguette slices.

Heat butter in a skillet, brown baguette slices on both sides.
So crunchy, so delicious and really simple!
Enjoy!

Scoop Me a Cookie

Amercian cookies have made their way all the to Paris.... Yes, Paris!
Laura Petit is the owner of this American style cookie shop in Paris named "Scoop me a Cookie".
Her cookies look absolutely delicious ..... Will have to try some next time in Paris.

She is being interviewed by Christophe Michalak - Master pastry chef at Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris.
His creations are divine, exquisite, and so delicious!

Authentic Bolognese Sauce

This morning, before my daughter left for school she asked if I would make her her favorite Bolognese for dinner tonight. She is so tired and hungry by the time she gets home at 4:30. Instead of eating junk food, I always make sure dinner is ready by the time my children get home from school. As soon as they walk in, they go straight upstairs and do their homework. By 6 pm they are ready to eat!
I have to say, dinner was délicieux ce soir!

Serves 6 people

Bolognese sauce:

4 tablespoons Olive oil
2 tablespoons Butter
1 lb ground Sirloin
1/2 lb ground Veal
1/2 lb ground Pork
(or 2lbs ground Sirloin if you don't like Veal or Pork)
Salt and pepper
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1 cup white wine
1 cup whole milk
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb of you favorite pasta (I used Linguine)

In a large heavy bottom pot, heat olive oil and butter.
Add onion, celery and carrot.
Cook over medium heat until translucent - about 10 minutes.
Add the meat, stir well to avoid big lumps. Cook until browned.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Add wine - cook until it's half way evaporated - about 8 minutes
Add milk - cook further more - 5 minutes.
Add tomato paste.
Add can of tomatoes and cook uncovered for at least 2 hours over slow heat.
If at anytime the sauce becomes dry, add 1/2 cup of water as needed.
Cook pasta according to package
Mix pasta with the bolognese sauce.
Sprinkle some parmesan ... and enjoy!

Strawberry and Blueberry Galette

This is a wonderful, easy and delicious recipe. It's also a lot of fun to make it with your children.
My daughter really likes to help me in the kitchen. She's only 11 but might have a future in the culinary world ... hopefully, in Paris! But for now, all I can do is to instill in her a love for cooking and baking.

So here's what we made together. Enjoy!  

Pâte Brisée (Recipe Michel Roux)

• 
  
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter - cut into small pieces and softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon cold milk
• Mound flour on your work surface and make a well in the center. Place butter, salt, sugar, and egg in center of well and mix together using your fingers. Slowly incorporate flour into butter mixture, using your fingers, until a slightly sandy dough forms
• Using your fingers, slowly incorporate milk until dough begins to come together
• Using the palm of your hand, knead dough until smooth, 4 to 5 times. Roll dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. 

 Berry Mixture:
1 box of strawberries - washed and cut in half
1 box of blueberries - washed
1 tablespoon butter - cut into small pieces
3 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon honey
Egg wash  - 1 egg mixed with one tablespoon milk

Set oven to 350 degrees

Mix the berries, sugar and honey in a bowl - set aside.

Roll out the dough. 

Place the berries in the middle of the dough. 

Place butter over the berries.

Fold the edges of the dough. 

Brush the dough with egg wash

Sprinkle with some sugar

Bake for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!