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larryf@happy-wanderers.com
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Our Travel Adventures
Welcome to the Adventures of Larry and Connie Farquhar.
Cuisine française tout en s'isolant
For those who don't speak French (neither do we), this is titled "French Cooking While Isolating".
Cooking With Connie
My thought was to challenge my cooking abilities every Sunday with a yummy dinner. I managed a few weeks worth since I last posted. I still haven't made the bagels yet. We're still working on eating the other bread goodies I made.
I had some leftover puff pastry from Easter in the freezer and I had a sirloin steak. I set my mind to Beef Wellington. After searching through Pinterest I soon realized that a proper Beef Wellington uses Beef Tenderloin and pâté. Oh well, who needs proper! Normally I like to link to a recipe I used, but I looked through several different ones.
Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington
One recipe had the steak wrapped in Proccuito, hmm... I have bacon. Another one had suggestions for steak seasoning, I have some new Penzeys seasoning a can try. Another showed how to wrap the puff pastry around everything and the baking time. After reading several comments, I knew I would have to be careful not to over cook the steak. In fact my sirloin was still slightly frozen when I seared it. I then put it back into the refrigerator until I was ready with the mushrooms. I assembled the bacon, mushrooms, and steak together in plastic wrap, and put it back into the fridge for about 10 minutes. Once I had the puff pastry ready, I placed the steak pack on the pastry, egg washed for the folds, flipped over, scored the top, egg wash and baked. Served with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. Not only was it beautiful, it tasted fantastic (if I do say so myself).
Mushroom Stuffing w/ Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning
Seared Steak w/ Penzey's Rocky Mountain Seasoning
Ready to Wrap the Pastry
Sealed and Ready to Bake
Turned Out Perfect!
Dinner is Served with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Chinese Dinner
Dinner Prep
Larry and I had been craving a good Chinese dinner, challenge accepted. I used one huge chicken breast and made Sweet & Sour Chicken, Chicken Stir-fry, Fried Rice, Miso Soup (packaged) and Egg Rolls (packaged). I've used this website several times, with good results for my stir-fries. I even broke out my tea set and served green tea. The only thing missing were the fortune cookies.
This meal took over 2½ hours to prepare and only 15 minutes to consume.
Coq au vin
Next up was another chicken dish, Coq au vin. Another recipe that requires some time with an overnight marinate. This was a very easy Chicken Stew, though leave it to me to make things more difficult. Trying to save some dish washing for me. I thought instead of me dirtying up a skillet to brown the meat in then to transfer it to a large baking dish, I thought my electric skillet would be good. Which it was, until it started overflowing. I stuck a couple of cookie sheets underneath it quickly, so I didn't have too much of a mess to clean up. The stew turned out fantastic. I had some multi-colored new potatoes that I threw in, which made this a perfect one pot meal. Served with my Sourdough Croissants, a salad, and the rest of the bottle of wine (Beaujolais-Villages Louis Jadot) that I had marinated the chicken in, it was an Ooo Laa Laa proper Rustic French cuisine meal.
Marinating in Wine
Ready to Plate
Ready to Cook
Ready to Serve
French Cuisine
Chinese Cuisine
I realize looking at my pictures how boring they look. I think I'll start working on my presentation table.
I still plan on making the bagels, I just bought the Everything Bagel spice today. I also want to try my hand at homemade Ravioli. I was wanting to make the Ravioli last Sunday but we had spaghetti last Thursday and a frozen Seafood Linguine one other night which is too much pasta in a week for me.
Hey guys I'm always up for suggestions from you too!
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Comments 12
Guest - Lupe
on Friday, 08 May 2020 07:39
Connie Farquhar
on Friday, 08 May 2020 08:17
Guest - Richard Voyles
on Saturday, 09 May 2020 06:11
Funny you should mention .....
Funny you should mention French food ....... I just did Coq Au Vin last night - didn't think to take pictures !! All out of an RV kitchen --- who said RV living was tough ?!?!? :-)
Next will be a good Thai Red Curry - maybe Lamb - w/ homemade curry paste and coconut milk ...... Yummmm !!!!
Connie Farquhar
on Wednesday, 13 May 2020 11:14
Guest - Roxanne LeBlanc
on Sunday, 10 May 2020 11:18
Connie Farquhar
on Wednesday, 13 May 2020 11:11
....
Roxanne, I don't do a lot of crock-pot cooking anymore since I have my electric pressure cooker. Cajun recipes sound really good, it would be great if you shared. I use Pinterest a lot for searches and to store my recipes. https://www.pinterest.com/cfar/boards/
Guest - Roxanne LeBlanc
on Thursday, 14 May 2020 08:33
Cajun Meatloaf
Cajun Meatloaf
Nearly all Cajun recipes call for the Trinity, usually in equal parts. Diced onion, celery and bell pepper.
Ingredients:
1 ½ pound ground beef and ½ pound ground pork
1 ½ fine bread crumbs
½ cup evaporated milk
½ cup catsup
2 slightly beaten eggs
Butter for sautéing
¾ cup diced onion
¾ cup diced celery
¾ cup diced bell pepper
¼ cup green onion tops only
1 Tbls minced garlic
1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp each cayenne, black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, salt to your preference (Mix in small bowl)
Sauté in butter the trinity, green onion tops, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and the spices. Add milk and catsup. Stir until well mixed. Set aside and let cool.
Mix beef and pork, eggs and bread crumbs. Add cooled vegetable mixture. Mix well.
In large pan form loaf about 12” long X 6” and 1 1/2 “ thick. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes
This makes a large meatloaf. I usually freeze ½ of it for a future meal.
Connie Farquhar
on Thursday, 14 May 2020 09:08
Guest - gretchen knapp
on Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:34
Connie Farquhar
on Monday, 25 May 2020 05:32
Guest - Beth Wallace
on Saturday, 03 April 2021 07:46
Chinese/Asian Recipes
I know this was an old post from you guys, but I JUST read it. I started following "The Woks of Life" last year, and I have cooked more Chinese/Asian dishes in the past year than I have my entire life. Their recipes are SOOOOO easy and fast in general. They are ALL delicious too. I just thought you might want to follow someone else's blog!
Connie Farquhar
on Saturday, 03 April 2021 09:11
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