When I saw this recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, I knew I had to try it.

And they are everything I hoped they would be. I made the filling days ago, but ran out of chocolate so I just kept the balls in the freezer until I was able to finish the job tonight. By the way, the balls keep fine in the freezer, and if you're lazy they make a fine snack all on their own since they don't freeze solid you can eat them straight from the freezer. Don't ask me how I know this ;-).

The recipe (linked above) is straightforward and easy to make with pantry staples. If I made a large batch, I'd only keep them in the refrigerator for a week or so at most, but seriously, the original blogger is right in saying that you won't have to worry about it because no matter how many you have, they will all be consumed in a matter of days.

Which is why the next time I make these (and there WILL be a next time), I'll immediately put at least half of them directly in the freezer. There they'd probably stay fresh at least a month or more. And if I put them waaaay, waaay, down at the bottom of the chest freezer, there is a chance I will only take them out when I really, really, want some, rather than just eating one every time I walk past the refrigerator.

Actually, I've found an easier solution already. I just ate so many while I was making them that I gave myself a tummy ache. Now I really don't have an appetite for any more, and I think it will be a day or two before I'd want to gorge on them again. . .

Without further ado, here's a photo:

I watched another episode of America's Test Kitchen from my Tivo, and this time was inspired to make the French Onion and Bacon Tart. I knew it would take a long time, but the ingredients are mostly household staples so I could make it whenever I had the opportunity without needing to get special ingredients.

This morning T let me sleep in until around 9:30am (since I had been up with the baby overnight) and I was feeling energetic after that, so I decided I'd start cooking and have the tart for lunch. I'm so glad I have the master cookbook with ALL the recipes to-date, since I never have to bother memorizing it from the TV show.

I started preparing this dish around 10:30 am, and it was ready to eat around 12:30pm. It is a fair amount of time to spend on one meal, but I think this tart is dangerously good. Sometimes when I glance down at my waistline I wish I weren't such a good cook. If only it was my nature to make bad-tasting food, I wouldn't want to eat so much!

At first glance you might think this dish would be just like a quiche, but it's not. The dough is pressed into the pan instead of rolled, and it is buttery and r-i-c-h. And the filling is mostly onions with just a little bit of custard to hold it together-- which is the opposite of quiche which is primarily custard with a little bit of filling for flavor.

The ingredients are simple-- the crust uses a stick butter and some flour, the filling consists of 3 onions, a spring of thyme, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup half & half, and 4 slices of bacon, seasoned with salt & pepper. So theoretically, most people could probably make this with ingredients on hand at any time. But the technique is the rub.

It wasn't a full two hours of active cooking time, but it was close, because even when things were cooking slowly (the onions) or in the oven (first the crust by itself, then the whole tart), you had to turn them or check them or cover them and uncover them at varying stages so you had to be in the kitchen every ten minutes even if you didn't have to prep anything during that time.

Nevertheless, I was able to make the whole thing while simultaneously carrying my infant in a moby wrap and watching my 2-year-old play nearby. There's nothing delicate to worry about technique-wise, but there is a lot to do. I would say this is great for company, but only if you can get it done before guests arrive, because I don't see how you'd get the timing right if you were trying to carry on hostess duties while this was being prepared. I might try to figure out the best way to prep parts of this in advance so all I'd have to do when company arrives is the last step, which is assembling the thing then just 25 minutes in the oven.

I served it with a green salad, and it's perfect for brunch or lunch.

Well it happened again-- I watched another episode of Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home from my Tivo queue and had to try one of the recipes. I forget what this one is called, of course it's another one of Jacques' recipes, so it's labeled in French. It's basically hash browns, but it tastes very different than the typical American version. I find it very convenient to have the cookbook, since I don't have to memorize the recipes from the TV show-- I just look it up in the cookbook when I'm ready to make the dish that looked most delicious from each episode:

But for this dish, you don't even need a recipe, per se. Here's what to do:

First, bake some potatoes. I used small red potatoes, although the official recipe calls for baking potatoes. I doubt that it matters very much.

Next, peel the skins and roughly chop the potatoes. Jacques used a technique where he used a tin can cut open on both ends, the cookbook says you can use a 3" cookie cutter if you don't have an open-ended tin can handy. I just broke up the potatoes with the side of a fork. Whatever, the important part is that they should not be totally mashed, just broken up to 1/2"-3/4" bits.

Heat vegetable oil & butter in a non-stick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat while the oven preheats to 425F (or if you just baked the potatoes like I did, leave the oven hot while you prepare them to go back in the oven). Put the potatoes in the skillet & toss to coat. Also season them with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. The nutmeg is important, it's what gives the dish it's special French flavor. I didn't measure any of them, I just seasoned to taste. Continue tossing the potatoes to make sure all are evenly seasoned. Once they taste to your liking, turn the heat down to medium-low, and press the potatoes into an even layer in the skillet, and let them brown on the bottom. About 5-7 minutes (I suppose it depends on how long you spent tossing and seasoning them).

Then put the skillet into the oven for about 15 minutes until the top is browned. When that is done, flip the pan over onto a platter so the potato cake (gateau) comes out, bottom-side down-- that side is brownest by now. This step is tricky since the skillet handle is very hot from being in the oven. It's easier if you have a something light you can hold right on top of the skillet and so flip them over together. On the TV show, Julia had some special tool she got in France specifically for that purpose. I've never seen one in stores here. My platter was too heavy to put over the hot skillet and flip both together (although I would have tried if the pan weren't so darn hot) so I just quickly flipped the potatoes out of the pan and hoped for the best.

They broke a little, and so I didn't have a perfect presentation, but most of the potato cake was intact (and once I smushed the broken bit together it wasn't that noticeable a break).

You could serve them as-is at this point, but to be fancy, cover the top of the potato cake with a layer of sour cream, and then a layer of shredded swiss cheese (of course Jacques used gruyere on the show, but Swiss is easier for me to find in our rural grocery store). Then stick the platter under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted. I think Jacques kept it under the broiler until the cheese actually started to brown a bit, but I had a hungry husband to feed so I didn't wait that long.

Cut into wedges to serve. And that's that. It was really delicious, and didn't use that many ingredients, and I didn't have to measure anything. My kind of recipe! In the future, I'll probably bake extra potatoes anytime I'm baking them, so I'll have some leftover so I can make this for lunch the next day. Serve some vegetables or a salad on the side, and it's enough for a light entree.

The last set of rib chops I chose to broil, but they ended up a little bit overcooked. This time, I had recently watched a cooking show where the chef demonstrated how to pan-sear a beef rib-eye steak then finish it in the oven. He served his with hollandaise, but I made a sauce with mushrooms and onions.

I really stuffed the pan as you can see from the photo above, but it didn't seem to affect the process. I did get the pan very hot before I put the meat in, and used a generous amount of olive oil so it would brown quickly. When it was browned on both sides, I drained the extra fat from the pan before putting it in the oven.

The oven had been preheating at 375F. Per the cooking-show example, I topped the meat with fresh herbs, pats of butter, and garlic cloves before sticking it in the oven. I totally guessed at the amount of time needed, and figured 10 minutes ought to do it-- I was right, the meat was cooked perfectly.

Here's the finished meal. It was delicious. I will use the pan-sear & oven-finish method for future rib chops-- it wound up being far easier for me to perfect than the broiling.

I got a free issue of Cook's Illustrated last week, and decided to try a recipe from there. I couldn't find an issue number or date or anything on it, I think it may be a strictly promotional issue that they send to people they are trying to get to subscribe and not available regularly.

I made the pissaladiere since the way they described making the dough completely in the food processor in less than a minute intrigued me-- for the pizza dough I usually make I mix it by hand and knead it. So I was curious how this would turn out.

I think the recipe was good, I'm pretty sure mine turned out as it was meant to. But I think I prefer my own pizza dough to the pissaladiere dough (it is not supposed to be exactly like pizza dough, so it's just a matter of personal preference which one any person prefers). It doesn't taste like pizza at all, since there is neither cheese nor tomato sauce, but rather olives, anchovies, and lots of caramelized onions. Terry and I really liked the combination of flavors (we put anchovies and olives on pizza all the time), and the caramelized onions really were a change of pace from what I usually cook when I don't use a recipe.

Of course the reason I don't use caramelized onions much is that they take nearly 30 minutes to cook, standing at the stove stirring most of the time, and I don't have great patience for that. But I'll probably go back to this recipe from time-to-time, even if it's not going to become one of my go-to recipes.

Here's the Wikipedia entry for pissaladiere:

Pissaladiere or Pissaladina (pissaladiera Occitan pronunciation: [pisalaˈdjerɔ] in Provençal, "piscialandrea" in Ligurian) is a pizza-like dish made in southern France, around the Nice, Marseilles, Toulon and the Var District, and in the Italian region of Liguria, especially in the Imperia district. Believed to have been introduced to the area by Roman cooks during the time of the Avignon Papacy, it can be considered a type of white pizza, as no tomatoes are used. The dough is usually a bread dough thicker than that of the classic Italian pizza (although a pâte brisée is sometimes used instead), and the traditional topping consist of sauteed (almost pureed) onions, olives, garlic and anchovies (either whole or in the form of pissalat, a type of anchovy paste). No cheese is used in France; however in the nearby Italian town of San Remo, mozzarella is added. Now served as an appetizer, it was traditionally cooked and sold early each morning.