For subscribers of PopSugar Must Have, they received a little pouch from the Mason Jar Cookie Company filled with cookie goodness in their box (among other goodies).  All you need is a stick of butter, one egg and vanilla to whip up a batch of cookies in a flash.

They’re very simple to make.  You put the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in another bowl, combine, mix and then bake.

I have to say, the cookies were delicious!  Everyone at the office is enjoying them, too.  They’re not too sugary and very light.  Like 90 calories per cookie light.

What I like about this little bag of cookie ingredients is that it makes for the perfect gift.  You can either buy it in a pouch or in the jar from the Mason Jar Cookie Company.  They even have special pancake mixes, brownie mixes, and granola mixes as well.  You can even create your own special mix, which would make for a great wedding favor.

I’m sure some of you are probably thinking: But I can just make this myself and give it away as gifts.  Sure, you can, but this is for those of us who don’t have time (or the patience) to put this stuff together along with all of the added stuff you have to do like shopping for the jars, gathering all the ingredients, and making it look festive.  Mason Jar Cookie Company takes all the added stress and work out of it for you.

The only major downside to the convenience is the price.  I’m not sure how much the pouch is, but the jars run anywhere from $8.99 on up.  You can buy them online at the Mason Jar Cookie Company or at Amazon.com or HSN.com.  {NOTE: You can get a couple of good deals at HSN.}

Personally, I like the pouch option to have around the house when you’re craving something sweet.  The ingredients are already pre-mixed, you just have to add the wet ingredients.

The jars are great to give out as gifts, especially if you need to buy a gift less than $20 (like a secret santa gift).

So that’s what I cooked up this weekend.

I’m still working on the leftovers from last weekend, so it was nice to get in a little bit of a sweet surprise for the weekend.

Speaking of sweet surprises…it’s a boy!

Introducing Matthew. I adopted him last Friday.  Sweetest little man ever!  He’s a little handful right now, especially since the resident alpha (his big sister) is not happy about a new cat on the premises.  He’s the reason why I didn’t cook anything beyond cookies this weekend.

He got in the box and the lid came down.  When I looked over, I saw him like that and just burst out laughing.  Who knows how long he’d been hanging out in the box like that.

Just as long as he’s happy, that’s all that matters.

I personally liked the message on the PopSugar Must Have box.  Surprise. Love. Enjoy!  It was a surprise I found him still in the pet store two weeks after inquiring about him (he was adopted and then returned).  You can’t help but love that cute little guy (well, he’s bigger than his big sister) and enjoy his curiosity, playfulness and youth.  He’s such a sweetheart.

I’m very happy he’s joined our little family.

I was just going over with a friend what I made this weekend and she kept asking me, “Where did you get…” and I would look at her and say, “I got it for free” or “Someone sent it to me.”  Believe it or not, those ingredients are what I worked with to make something sweet this weekend.

There are a few things I bought at our local Jack’s 99 Cent stores like eggs, pita bread, rice, rice noodles and a few Asian ingredients.  Everything else just happened to already be in the pantry or the refrigerator.  Generally, I could spend over $120 for two weeks worth of groceries.  By focusing on using the stuff I already had, the price came to only $33 [but that also means I didn’t buy any meat…I went digging around in my freezer and came up with 2 chicken breasts, a kielbasa and a pork chop.]

So here is what this weekend netted me…

Saturday: I Still Can’t Make Thai Food

For some reason, I have a serious mental block when it comes to making Thai food.  I grew up with this stuff.  My mom tried to teach me how to make my favorite dishes to no avail.  To this day, I still can’t get it right.  But apparently I can make a bad recipe salvageable…as in, I saw the recipe was lacking the correct ingredients 3/4 of the way into it.

I had taken a recipe from a blogger (I’m not going to post it because I don’t want to call them out).  In that recipe, she listed the wrong vinegar.  She used rice vinegar.  My brother had even commented on a few of the pad thai recipes I had sent to him that they were using the wrong vinegar.  Then I saw she put peanut butter in the recipe.  Ummm…not for pad thai, honey.

So I put in the correct vinegar, added some cayenne pepper and called it a day.

It tasted good, even without the bean sprouts, but it wasn’t pad thai.

I may stick to just purchasing the Thai food from the restaurant down the street.  They make it exactly the way mom used to make it.  But I have a feeling I may do a Thai month and I’ll finally figure out how to make Thai food the right way!

Saturday, Take Two: I Made Truffles for the First Time

The grand adventure this weekend was making truffles for the first time.  Talk about an absolutely gooey mess.  But rest assured, the chocolate nastiness dripping off my fingers and causing a huge mess paid off in the end.

The whole reason behind making truffles has a little something to do with Biscoff.  If you have ever tried the Biscoff spread or their cookies, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.  It’s probably the best peanut butter-ish spread I’ve ever had.  My friends and I are addicted to it.  Because I knew I needed to do something with the free Biscoff spread the grocery store gave to me for trying their pick up service, I started to take a look around at Biscoff.com.  I found this recipe for truffles and thought it looked simple enough, so I thought I’d try it since I need to re-learn how to create sweet recipes [I don’t eat sweets very often].

I sort of followed all of the directions…

Here’s what I did differently:

1. I didn’t have chocolate chips.  I had three bars of semi-sweet and dark organic chocolate that someone sent to me (i.e. free) that had been sitting in the freezer for god knows how long.  So I melted two bars down and used that as the chocolate.

2.  After adding in the Biscoff spread and the Biscoff cookies (which I picked up from Jacks for 99 cents per package…normally $2.49 at WalMart), I added some Kraft miniature marshmallows that someone sent to me (i.e. free).  After I mixed it all up, I put it in the refrigerator for more than 10 minutes (maybe 15 minutes).

3.  I decided to coat the chocolate with crushed almonds and Dang Toasted Coconut Chips (another free item, which I highly recommend.  I don’t like coconut, but this stuff was really good.  You can pick them up at Whole Foods).  After I coated the sloppy mess, I dumped it into the powdered sugar and tried to construct the ball.

NOTE: If you make this, I highly recommend using two forks to scoop up the gooey mess.  It makes it easier to manage.  Pick up the gooey mess with the forks and just drop it into the powdered sugar to create the ball.

4. After constructing all of the little balls of truffles, I put them into the refrigerator to harden.  [It’s summertime…I was afraid the chocolate would melt if I left it covered in the kitchen.]

All in all, the end result was sooo good.  I think what really makes the truffles so good are the almonds and the toasted coconut chips from Dang.  Use ONLY Dang toasted coconut chips if you are opting to go the coconut route.  The reason why I say this…you have to try Dang’s coconut chips to understand.  It’s not imitation coconut.  It’s toasted coconut.  Unless you can find an identical substitute (which I don’t think it exists), use Dang.  Just try it, you’ll understand why I’m saying this after you’ve tried it.

Sunday: String Beans and Chicken

One of my favorite Chinese dishes that I can’t seem to get anywhere is Szechuan Chicken and String Beans the way they make it down in a ghetto neighborhood in Washington, DC.  When I was interning for MPDC back in college, we (the cops and I) used to have this once a week.  It was sooo good.

Well, I finally found the friggin recipe!  Chinese Green Beans with Ground Turkey Over Rice

With the majority of Asian dishes out there, you can substitute the meat.  I used chicken, but I may try the ground turkey later this month, because I know that will be just as tasty.

The only thing I didn’t originally have for this recipe was hoisin sauce.  I picked a jar up from Jack’s and I am so glad I did.  It was the secret ingredient I’ve been missing from my pantry all these years!

It’s funny how I can make Chinese food with no problems…Thai?  Fogettaboutit.

 Sunday Casseroles: The Best Thing Ever 

One of the things I love about casseroles is that they are so easy to put together and so tasty when you pull it out of the oven.

When I was going through the meat bin in my freezer, I pulled out a kielbasa and practically leaped with joy.  I thought I had used all of them!  I decided I could make a pasta casserole out of it.

What you need:

1 kielbasa, diced (I had already used 1/4 of it, so I chopped up the remainder and threw it into the casserole)
1/2 box of pasta (use any kind, I used whole wheat penne)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can of milk and 1/2 can of water (use the can from the mushroom soup, add 1/2 can of milk of your choice – I used almond – and then fill the rest of the way with water)
1/2 bag of frozen peas
mushrooms (your choice, I used a handful of dried porcini)
1 small can of green chiles (optional)
1 bag of shredded cheese (your choice, I used a 4 cheese blend)

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Heat the cream of mushroom soup with the milk and water on the stove until it boils, whisking the mixture together.

3. Meanwhile, add the kielbasa, pasta, peas, mushrooms, and can of green chiles to the casserole dish.

4.  When the soup is properly mixed and boiling, pour it over the mixture in the casserole dish.  Top the casserole with a layer of cheese (you will use the entire bag).

5.  Place the casserole into oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Check to make sure the cheese is turning brown.  Before completely removing the dish from the oven after 30 minutes, check to make sure the pasta is thoroughly cooked.  If not, let bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Generally, when the cheese has browned completely on top, the pasta is done.

6.  Remove from oven.  Let sit for 15 minutes to cool before serving.

The best thing about casseroles is that once you get the gist of making one, you can practically throw anything into the casserole dish, layer it with cheese, bake it and then it come out tasting like heaven.

It’s because of the simplicity of making a hearty casserole that I normally keep creamed soup in the cupboard, and my cheese drawer packed with a variety of different shredded cheeses.  Once you get the hang of making a casserole, it will also be your go to meal during the week when you have a handful of ingredients and have no idea what to do with them.

Sunday’s Sweet Tooth: I Made Ice Cream Using Only THREE Ingredients

So I saved the best for last.  While the casserole was baking, I put in a tray of bananas on the top shelf of the oven to roast.

I had been planning on making this dessert for a few weeks now, so when I polished off the Talenti gelato, I kept the container because I knew I’d be making my own ice cream.  [Great way to reuse/recycle…also helps because this recipe turns out to be a pint of ice cream exactly.]

Now, I hate to do this, but because I left the original blogger’s recipe at home and I didn’t tag it to come back to later, I’m just going to have to wing it (and give her credit later).

WHAT YOU NEED:

4 Bananas
2/3 cup of Coconut Milk (Almond Breeze puts this out – you’ll find this with the soy milk in your dairy aisle)
2 Tbsps of peanut butter (optional, I’ll get to this at the end of the post)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2.  On a baking sheet, put the bananas (in their peels) onto the sheet.  Put into the oven and bake until the peels turn black and juice starts to sputter out.  [Between 10-20 minutes]

3.  Remove from the oven.  Let cool for a couple of minutes before opening up the banana and removing the pulp.  It’s simpler to just put the bananas directly into the blender jar (make sure the blade is already in it if you have a removable blade).

NOTE: The easiest way to remove the pulp is to hold the end of the banana with the stem, and use a knife to cut open the skin.  Generally, the pulp will fall out of the skin with a little bit of prying.

4.  Cover the blender jar with its lid and place the jar into the freezer and let freeze for an hour.

5.  After an hour, take the blender jar out of the freezer and place it in the blender cradle, add the coconut milk and peanut butter* to the jar.

6.  Blend for one minute (or less if you use a powerful blender like the Ninja).  Pour the contents into a small freezer safe container.  Voila…you have ice cream!  If it’s too soft for your liking, just put it back in the freezer and let freeze for a few more hours before serving.

This makes 1 pint of ice cream.

* = You can use any ingredient besides peanut butter for your flavoring.  I’ve seen some recipes where they used strawberries, mango, and even a spiced rum, caramel & cardamom.

****

I definitely plan on making different versions of this kind of ice cream again.  A friend suggested a mango/peach mixture similar to this but without the bananas.  Something to play around with this month.

To round off this month, I wanted to add a pasta dish I’ve never tried before.  This one just happened to be one of those recipes where you let the sauce cook for TWO HOURS before you even start the next step.

Trust me…I wouldn’t have done this to myself if the end product wasn’t going to be fantastic!

Sunday Dinner: Tagliatelle all’Amatriciana

I found this great recipe with BACON in it from my new favorite recipe site SAVEUR.  The original recipe called for spaghetti, but I have a thing for tagliatelle noodles, so I went with tagliatelle.

I was introduced to tagliatelle noodles in Venice, Italy.  They served the noodles with a Bolognese sauce.  I absolutely fell in love with the noodles and searched high and low to find a couple of boxes before I left the country.

About three months after my visit to Italy, an Italian market opened up a block away from me.  They sold only authentic Italian ingredients direct from Italy.  Now, I can have tagliatelle whenever I want it.

For this recipe, I followed it to the very last instruction EXCEPT…

I added mushrooms to the sauce.

This, of course, I probably would not have done if I had read all of the instructions before I started, because I had to puree the sauce.  It actually didn’t turn into a disaster.  It actually turned out rather nicely, making the sauce a little thicker.

I also shaved off half an hour on the cooking time.  The sauce (which I was cooking in a cast iron skillet) was becoming too thick, losing a lot of its liquid.  I could add more water or just watch it burn, so I opted to say it was done because it had been cooking for an hour and a half already (not to mention the extra 15-20 minutes of cooking the bacon).  In other words…sometimes you just want to start eating after waiting so long for the food to cook.

You also need to make a judgment call based on what you see happening in front of you when you are cooking.  Sometimes two hours is okay on some stoves.  Other times, it’s not.  In this case, I think two hours would have produced burned sauce and trust me, that is the worst.

The most important part of this recipe is, of course, the BACON.  I think I probably would have liked to have more bacon in it, which I may try to do next time.  It would be nice to be able to sprinkle on a lot of bacon with the parmesan cheese at the end.  I mean…for those who love bacon…more bacon is usually better.

****

So that concludes this month’s recipes for Italian month.  Next month, I’m going to do things a little differently.  I need to clean out my pantry and the refrigerator, so along with my ONE YEAR TO AN ORGANIZED HOME challenge, I’m going to create and share a few recipes that I pull together in the kitchen by using what I have already.

For those of you reading, that means recipes that are not as complicated…or maybe they are, because risotto is on the list and if you’ve made risotto before, you know that’s not an easy thing to make and it takes a lot of attention.

I may also turn on the oven and actually make something sweet for once…producing actual FOOD PORN.  Or I can at least try to.  🙂

After eating Italian leftovers galore, I decided to do something a little different this weekend.  I took the Italian ingredients I had on hand and made something ASIAN.  How is that possible?

When my Thai aunt married an Italian, she became pretty masterful at cooking Italian food because it wasn’t that different from Thai food.  I never understood what she was talking about, but then after looking at this recipe, I realized it has a little something to do with substituting ingredients with Italian ingredients and coming out with the same result.

Weekend Meals (made plenty, ate it at every meal because it was so damn good): Spicy Sriracha Lo Mein

I’m not gonna lie. This was so damn good that I had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner until it was all gone.  I found this recipe on Pinterest from Baker By Nature for 20-Minute Spicy Sriracha Shrimp and Zucchini Lo Mein.  The good thing about this is that you don’t have to have rice noodles to make this.  I used regular linguine and tagliatelle noodles for the noodles.  It turned out just fine.

What’s also nice about this recipe is that you can a) substitute the meat (beef, chicken, pork) for the shrimp if you don’t have it, and b) use any kind of vegetable.

For this recipe I used chicken, kale (because God knows I never know what to do with kale), green peppers and mushrooms I had picked up at the farmer’s market the week before and needed to use.

The end result…I cannot stress how amazing this was.  This wasn’t very spicy and it really did taste like lo mein.  I’m so glad I found this recipe because now I can make lo mein at home and not order from the Chinese restaurant when I get a craving.  Using regular semolina noodles (linguine and tagliatelle) provided for a great substitute.  I was able to use the ingredients I had on hand without running to the grocery store to pick up anything.

More importantly…I found another use for kale.

The challenge for every foodie or individual that wants to be a master cook is to find a unique recipe that makes you savor the moment of ecstasy when you take that first bite.  The most amazing recipes I uncovered last weekend were a bit of a surprise to me.  As in, I wasn’t expecting much from it because of all of the food I was cooking up.  But it happened in that one moment as I went from one dish to the next, tasting each one…this was beyond amazing.

These recipes I am going to share today were all items that I never made or tried before.  I didn’t know what to expect when I made them.  All I can say was that I was pleasantly surprised.

Saturday Lunch: Tomato, Peach and Burrata Salad

Last week, I shared the Caprese salad.  This week, I’m sharing a new spin on the Caprese salad.  This one is definitely going to be my new summer staple.

The recipe follows almost exactly to the last detail of the Caprese salad, BUT you add peaches and you use Burrata cheese.

Burrata cheese can be found next to the fresh mozzarella in your grocer’s aisle.  It’s almost identical to mozzarella, but more unique.  The outside is like a mozzarella ball, but when you cut it open it oozes out like it was stuffed with ricotta cheese.

For presentation purposes, you may want to put the ball of Burrata on a plate with the salad mixture surrounding it, drizzling the balsamic reduction over it.

Or you can do like I did which was to mix all of the ingredients together.

After I took my first bite, I was surprised at how wonderful, light and refreshing this salad was on a hot summer day.  It’s very simple to make and only requires 5 ingredients.

You can find the recipe HERE.

Saturday’s Dinner: Spicy Linguine with Clams, Sweet and Sour Glazed Pork Chops (Maiale in Agrodolce), Mostarda di Frutta and Broccoli Strascinati

Saturday’s dinner was a bit of a crazy experience.  I usually cook one or two dishes and that’s it.  Try making four dishes simultaneously!

I didn’t want this weekend to be purely about pasta (I still have the pasta leftover from last week).  I wanted to make a few non-pasta dishes.  This weekend, I made only one pasta dish, and I’m glad I made this one.

{From Campania region}

I started off by making the Spicy Linguine with Clams.  I was pleasantly surprised that all of the clams opened up.  That’s usually very rare when I cook for all of the shells to open up!  The more clams to eat!

I was pleasantly surprised at how light the dish was and how good this was.  I wasn’t expecting much out of it, but this makes for a perfect summer pasta dish, especially since this is a great time of year to eat clams.

{I saved all of the shells and washed them out to use for a future DIY summer project.  Most likely a photo frame project.}

{From Rome}

Next up was the Sweet and Sour Glazed Pork Chops (Maiale in Agrodolce).  Before I had started the linguine, I had prepped the marinated chops and put them in the refrigerator.

While the recipe calls for grilling, I don’t have a grill, so I cooked them up in an iron skillet.

While I could say that these were really good on their own, what made them even better was the Mostarda di Frutta (Spicy Mustard and Fruit Preserves).  This little compote or relish was an amazing addition to these sweet and sour pork chops.  {From Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella}  

It’s not really a mustard, nor is it overly sweet.  With the dried cherries, apricots and apples, it’s a pleasant sweet and tart addition to the dish.  It amplifies the flavors when paired with the pork chops.

After having these two together, I can’t imagine this dish without it.

I threw in some greens by adding Broccoli Strascinati (simply, broccoli with garlic and hot peppers) as a side dish.  It was a great way to round off this amazing dinner.  {From Rome}

My favorite?  I can’t pick out any one thing because they were all so uniquely interesting, flavorful and good.  I highly recommend trying all of these dishes at least once.  You will be pleasantly surprised at how good they can be.

Sunday’s Project: Arancini Veneziani (Venetian Rice Fritters)

{From Venice}

I’m calling this a project because it took all afternoon to make this.  I’m going to let you in on a secret…it was well worth every single second.

Now, I’m not one of those that likes to buy chicken stock, especially after I learned how to make my own chicken stock.  I prefer to make my stock more ‘Asian-like’ so that if I want to make a brothlike soup later, all I have to do is add rice noodles and some vegetables.

I usually do my stock in a colander inside of a stock pot so that I can easily lift the chicken and its ingredients out of the stock pot and get straight to the broth afterward.  It’s a very efficient way to separate the ingredients from the broth.

For this stock, I added the chicken to the water, added salt, fish sauce, fresh cilantro, carrots, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves, star anise, garlic and onions.  I don’t really measure anything.  I just throw it in there.

The reason why I’m sharing this is so you know that you don’t have to stick to the basic chicken broth recipes.  I also think that the reason why the risotto turned out so amazingly tasty has a little something to do with the chicken stock itself.

I have never had rice balls or rice fritters before.  I had no idea how they would turn out or what they would taste like.  I used this version of Venetian Rice Fritters from Saveur.  This is the recipe that instantly made me realize that Saveur was just the magazine I needed to subscribe to.  Why?  Because they understand me and my taste buds, and frankly it’s the type of recipes I want to feature on this blog.

Their recipes are a little complex and multi-faceted, like this recipe.  But the reward at the end…oh, you will never regret a second of making their dishes.

This recipe starts off by making risotto.  For those who have made risotto before, you know that this is a very time consuming process.  Risotto requires 6 cups of chicken stock, poured in at 1/2 a cup increments until the liquid evaporates.  You are constantly stirring for 40 minutes.  This isn’t the type of rice you can just walk away from.

During the last few increments of adding stock, I started to put together the filling (cheese, parsley and prosciutto).  I wanted to make sure it was ready when the risotto was done.

After I added the risotto to the mixture, stirred it up and started to prepare for the next phase (crafting them into logs on a baking sheet), I licked some of the risotto off of my fingers and stopped.

OHMIGAWD!  It was so good.

I had never made risotto before.  I stood there wondering what had taken me so long to make this.  Let’s just say the risotto almost didn’t make it to phase 2.

But I was good.  I started making the little logs and placing them on a baking sheet to put in the refrigerator.  I also put a tray in the freezer (because I didn’t have enough room in the refrigerator).  If you do make this recipe, I highly recommend placing them in the freezer.  It holds together longer when you start the third phase which is adding it to the flour, egg and breadcrumbs.

After all was said and done, I have to say that even though this process had so many steps and took all afternoon to make…it was worth every single second of it.

I realized as I was biting into the risotto and the fritters that what made these little guys so delicious is the fact that I made my stock from scratch.  I really don’t think the quality of the flavor would have been as intense if I had used store bought stock.

While some of you may think making your own stock is tedious and a pain, it’s not really.  You just throw all the ingredients in the stock pot and let it cook until the chicken is done.  Separate the colander from the stockpot…stock in one pot, chicken dinner in the other pot.

I usually just shred up the chicken and use it for other recipes (like enchiladas, soups or salads), but most times, I just shred it up, put it in a little bowl and give it to the cat.  It keeps her from trying to eat my dinner.

Making your own stock is economical.  You know what is going into your stock.  You can determine how much sodium goes into it.  You can even design it where the stock turns into a great broth for soups (the way I make my stock, the broth turns out to be the equivalent of the Pho broth thanks to the star anise).

The most important thing…making your own stock makes your food taste better.  That was the key thing about my risotto.  The chicken stock from scratch was what made this dish the best thing I have eaten in a long time.

Oh, and because this was soooo good…I didn’t make dinner.  I didn’t need dinner after this.

For those that have read the book (or have seen the movie) Julie and Julia, you may be aware that there’s a nice little added benefit to cooking and eating French food all of the time…you gain a little weight.  I decided to keep the French food to a minimum during the week, leaving it for just a few meals a week rather than every other meal (you won’t believe how much Thai food I eat during the week because I’m craving it like crazy).

For this past weekend, I decided to do another pasta dish as well as something a little different for me…wine sausages.

Saturday’s Dinner: Pasta with Artichoke Cream and Chicken

This recipe I found on Food & Wine.  My end result was a little different than what was required in the actual recipe.  I used gluten-free penne and salsa for the tomatoes (although I think the cherry tomatoes would have been better).  I also used leftover shredded chicken I had prepared and frozen a couple of weeks ago and sprinkled a little red pepper on the outside for a little kick.

All in all, it was pretty good.  I used what I had on hand (the rainstorm on Friday night kept me from picking up fresher ingredients from the grocery store).  I think next time, I would add some peas and definitely have cherry tomatoes on hand.

My little French loving foodie feline loved it.  She knows when French food is being cooked up.  She has to have some.

Sunday’s Dinner: Wine Sausages

This recipe I found in French Food at Homeby Laura Calder.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 thin or 4 fat pork sausages
2 onions, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white white
A handful of chopped fresh parsley

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Prick the sausages with a fork to prevent them from bursting, and brown them on all sides. Remove. Add the onions and shallots to the pan and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over and stir for 1 minute to combine thoroughly. Whisk in the wine. Return the sausages to the pan, cover, and cook until they are done, about 15 minutes.

Remove the sausages and boil down the sauce if it’s too liquid, which is unlikely. Spoon the sauce over the sausages and sprinkle with parsley to serve.

Ok…so what did I do differently? Calder notes that you need to purchase ‘respectable sausages’ in order for the results to impress you.  I’m going to have to agree wholeheartedly with that.

I used chicken apple sausages from the grocer.  While it tasted fine…it could have been better with a better kind of sausage.  But what can I say?  I was trying to cut some calories and find a healthier version.

I paired the sausages with some brown rice and green beans (cooked in the microwave with olive oil, salt and pepper and shaved almonds).

It was tasty the first night, but the leftovers the next night were even better because the wine started to really soak into the sausages.

EXTRA

One ingredient that I seem to use in almost every recipe are shallots.  I had purchased the dried version in the spice aisle.  After week three of making French food on the weekends, I’m almost completely out.  Shallots are practically a staple in French food, so buy plenty of it if you plan to undertake a few French meals of your own.

I’ll be taking next weekend off from cooking since I’ll be heading on vacation.  Week four of French cooking will commence the final weekend in June.

On July 1, we’ll be switching over to Italy and all things Italian.

Show of hands…how many of you thought the French Dip was a French sandwich?

WRONG!

It is 100% an American sandwich.

It’s okay.  I didn’t know that either.

Lately, I’ve been reading up on the history of different foods.  Yesterday, I researched the origins of the potato knish.  You don’t get anymore New York than a potato knish with some dijon (or honey dijon) mustard.  While most people believe it is predominantly a Jewish snack food, brought to New York by the Jews when they immigrated here, it’s not completely true.

In the 1900s, the knish (the word is actually Russian) was brought to New York when Eastern European immigrants settled here.  It’s a dumpling that was found in Russia, Poland and various other Eastern European countries.  There is no direct connection that the Jews brought it with them when they came to America.

The only known connection to the knish being part of the Jewish culture is the fact that this group is responsible for the knish’s resurgence in the 2000s, especially in urban areas.

The knish appears as variations throughout many different cultures, even in India, where we know it as being a samosa.

How’s that for a food history lesson?

So for today’s non-French history lesson into the French Dip sandwich, we find its origins taking place somewhere during the early part of the 1900s in Los Angeles, California.  There is a battle between two restaurants in LA on who invented the sandwich first.  Was it Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet or Philippe The Original?

No one knows who is responsible for the original French Dip sandwich because both restaurants claim to have invented the original French Dip sandwich at around the same time.  Today, both restaurants are still open and dishing out this classic.  KCET recently did a poll on who had the better Dip sandwich.  You can find the results here.  Believe it or not, in LA, the French Dip sandwich went all the way to the final round of KCET’s poll to discover what was the most iconic dish in LA.  Sadly, it didn’t win.  The Strawberry Donut at Donut Man won out.

The Donut won. 

At any rate, when it comes to HOW the sandwich was invented, no one knows exactly how it came about or who created it first.

But the reason why it’s called the “French” Dip has more to do with the type of bread that was used in the sandwich, not because it came from France.

The story at Cole’s was that the Dip was invented because a customer had some dental work done and needed ‘soft’ food.  Because French bread is so hard, Henry Cole dipped the bread in juice and served up the sandwich that way.  Other customers thought it looked good and requested the same.  They fell in love with the sandwich and the French Dip was born at his restaurant.

As for Philippe The Original…the story is a little different.  Philippe Mathieu opened Philippe the Original in 1908.  In 1918, while making a sandwich for a policeman, Philippe accidentally dropped the bread into the roasting pan with the meat juices (thus the term ‘au jus’).  Instead of wasting the food, the officer said he’d take the sandwich anyway.  He enjoyed it so much, he came back the next day with friends, wanting more of the dipped sandwiches.

Thus the “French Dipped Sandwich” was created.  The restaurant today is not sure why that specific name was selected.  Was it because of Monsieur Mathieu’s French Heritage?  Because of the French roll?  Or was it because the policeman that loved the sandwich so much was named Officer French?  Maybe it was all of the above?

According to the restaurant, “The answer is lost to history.”

You can find Cole’s on your next visit to Los Angeles at 118 E. 6th Street.  Philippe’s is also located in LA at 1001 N. Alameda St.

{Special thanks to Chef Joe and his crew for dishing up this amazing French Dip sandwich (pictured) for today’s post.}